A Q about muscle loss

[Danielle P]

Hello, it's been a while since I posted.

a few years before I started hrt I did a bit of weight lifting (oops). I only kept it up for a short period so I didn't gain a lot of muscle, but it was enough to be noticeable. I have now been on hrt for about 8.5 months and I have noticed my strength has dropped drastically; I can barely lift half of what I used to be able to. However my muscles are still the same size! 

I was wondering if losing strength as a prelude to losing mass is the expected course of muscle atrophy in mtfs and if anyone has experienced this. I'm mainly concerned with losing muscle in my arms, shoulders and back because my upper body is very masculine in shape atm and I'm hoping this will make me appear more slender. 

Thanks for your replies! 

[luna nyan]

Give it time, it takes a fair while for muscle mass to decrease.  To help things along some people advocate focusing on cardio exercise - in theory that should encourage atrophy of muscle sets that you aren't using as much.

[Erica b]

I hope it does because i lifted weights for a few years.

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[Deborah]

 My muscle mass has decreased a lot leaving all my upper body bones sticking out.  My spine sticks out like some kind of dinosaur ridge, LOL.  My strength decreased some, but not really all that much.  My lower body is still pretty big with muscle because I work to keep it that way.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

[Brooke]

My muscle mass has decreased a lot leaving all my upper body bones sticking out.  My spine sticks out like some kind of dinosaur ridge, LOL.  My strength decreased some, but not really all that much.  My lower body is still pretty big with muscle because I work to keep it that way.


Conform and be dull. —James Frank Dobie, The Voice of the Coyote

Yeah. Same here. Of course I think we both have lost a significant amount of weight as well, and some of that is also lean mass.

The thing I noticed most is that I can't just occasionally do some heavy lifting and expect my muscles to be the same, stick around like when I was running off of T.

One of my best friends won the world championship for bodybuilding in the early 2000s. I still can't imagine how much effort that must of took for her to build up those muscles while running on E. (no steroids, hormones etc). That woman was (and still is) ripped.


~Brooke~

[RobynD]

I have always been athletic and had a fairly developed upper body. I have lost a significant amount of mass also and that was proceeded and ran concurrent with a loss of strength.