Weight loss and HRT, need advice

[Gertrude]

Yeah it was the love for the cheese that did it for me though and seems that I can achieve between 18-25g of carbs per day with mostly fiber in the carb list.

But it is a bit hard at first and still is but being over 250+ for over 15 years since my cancer battle is the motivation I need as I have tried everything pre hrt for dieting and gym, this diet has been the right ticket for me and I kinda got a bit too strict on it for myself. I have been coaching others to keep around 50g for them and they don't need to be as extreme as I am and it seems to be working for them also even with a pizza break or a cheat day.

Fat head pizza is most my favorite, but also I tend to have normal pizza with Marcos 1 per week and doesn't break the strong keto phase I am in and still managing to loose the weight.



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Cheese isn't a problem for me with keto. I don't eat cheese with carbs. What do avoid is: sugared pop, rice, pasta, potatoes, pizza, bread, milk, juices, any other root vegetables, candy, chips/crackers and cake/cookies. Nuts in small amounts are ok.


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[Deborah]

One habit I picked up doing low carb and intermittent fasting is eating a giant salad every day.  It's slightly high for keto but well within general low carb limits.  This is usually big enough that its heaped high on a serving platter instead of a salad bowl.  I include:

Lettuce, raw spinach, raw kale, tomato, onion, sweet or green peppers, avocado, olives, garlic, boiled eggs, sometimes some meat, shredded cheese, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, seasoning to taste, and about a quarter cup of oil based salad dressing.

The salad is usually somewhere in the range of 600 to 800 calories depending on my specific ingredients that day.  It comes in at around 30 to 40 grams carbs, 30 to 40 grams protein, and 40 to 50 grams of fat.

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place Nightwatch. We have many members who have lost weight on HRT though it is a little more difficult. The combination of sensible diet and exercise will allow you to lose weight just as a CIS woman would lose weight. Should you have diet questions, make sure you discuss the issue with your doctor as some of the medications used in HRT also have their own diet restrictions. Your doctor can also recommend the proper weight range and rate of loss.

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[TonyaW]

An additional option is intermittent fasting.  This is restricting your eating to a 8 or less hour window each day.  So every day you eat nothing for 16 or more hours.  This has the same benefits as keto plus:

So during this daily fast can I drink black coffee at least?  A reasonable 8 hour window for me to eat most days would be 11am to 7pm or so.  I'd never make it until then with out coffee.

This would be my best option.  I don't think I'm a picky eater per se  but I don't like fish and hate broccoli and mushrooms, which seems to leave out about half of the recipes I see for a keto diet. 

I lost 30 pounds fairly quickly last fall and am stuck now with another 25-30 or so to go to get to ideal.  HRT for 7 months now, weight holding steady since then without too much effort.

Actually I'd be happy if I could lose half of that and magiclly move the rest from my belly to where it ought to be.

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[Deborah]

So during this daily fast can I drink black coffee at least?  A reasonable 8 hour window for me to eat most days would be 11am to 7pm or so.  I'd never make it until then with out coffee.

During the fast you can drink coffee, tea, and water.  You should avoid sweeteners, even the zero calorie kind as they cause an insulin response due to their sweet taste.  I use plain lemon juice to flavor my water and I think that's ok.  I also drink a cup of bouillon broth occasionally for the sodium.  That's less than 5 cal.  I'm pretty sure that's ok too but if you try it make your own judgement by its effect on your hunger.  If you suddenly get really hungry soon after that's a sign that you triggered an insulin release and it crashed what glucose you had in your bloodstream. 

You want to avoid that insulin response during the fast because it makes you really hungry but more importantly because it halts fat metabolism until the insulin is cleared and that takes an hour or two.

What we are trying to do is hack the body's hormonal system. :-)

Fasting may be uncomfortable at first depending on the current state of your metabolism.  That discomfort will pass as your hormones come back into balance.  That could happen quickly or could take several weeks if you have been heavily dependent on frequent eating of sugar for energy.  Some changes need to occur at the cellular level to facilitate increased fat metabolism.


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[Deborah]

If anyone wants the medical science behind fasting then I recommend this book, The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss by Dr. Jason Fung.  He also has a website with all the information in a condensed blog format at https://intensivedietarymanagement.com/tag/fasting/


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[Roll]

Also, pays to read up on timing exercise with fasting. In general I believe it is avoid anything but low-aerobic cardio (walking for instance) while on an "empty stomach" or you wind up breaking down muscle more than fat, then wait until between meals to do real workouts. Here's a random article I found that seems to sum up what I remember reading from more scientific sources: http://dailyburn.com/life/health/intermittent-fasting-exercise-weight-loss/

[Deborah]

In my experience exercising fasted does not cause muscle loss.  I used to do all my marathon training fasted up to one run of 29 miles. 

Recently I have been doing all my strength training and running while fasted and over the past months have gained about six pounds of lean mass while losing about that same amount of fat.

Generally all my exercise now is after 14 to 16 hours without food.


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[brandyvgs]

Does bullet proof coffee count for the fasting moments?

[Deborah]

Does bullet proof coffee count for the fasting moments?

That is debatable and I have heard different answers from different people.  In my opinion though eating 120 or more cal of fat would break the fast.  While it shouldn't cause an insulin response it is adding fat to the bloodstream that will be burned before the body gets back to burning stored bodyfat.

[Roll]

In my experience exercising fasted does not cause muscle loss.  I used to do all my marathon training fasted up to one run of 29 miles. 

Recently I have been doing all my strength training and running while fasted and over the past months have gained about six pounds of lean mass while losing about that same amount of fat.

Generally all my exercise now is after 14 to 16 hours without food.

Honestly, I haven't noticed any difference either exercising on an empty stomach/fasted as I mostly do things when I first wake up or before lunch, but as it's so hard to say what is genetics, happenstance of food choice (high protein later making up for any loss), and so forth that I always feel like it's worth a mention just for awareness of the general (at least semi-)scientific consensus. Just one of those ymmv things to be conscious of.

[Deborah]

Honestly, I haven't noticed any difference either exercising on an empty stomach/fasted as I mostly do things when I first wake up or before lunch, but as it's so hard to say what is genetics, happenstance of food choice (high protein later making up for any loss), and so forth that I always feel like it's worth a mention just for awareness of the general (at least semi-)scientific consensus. Just one of those ymmv things to be conscious of.

I agree with that.  To a degree, each of us is an experiment of one and so should monitor our reactions to different dietary and exercise methods and modify them as necessary to get the best results.  Things like the health and composition of our gut bacteria have a big part to play in how our body reacts.  But that discussion would fill another thread!

[Gertrude]

In my experience exercising fasted does not cause muscle loss.  I used to do all my marathon training fasted up to one run of 29 miles. 

Recently I have been doing all my strength training and running while fasted and over the past months have gained about six pounds of lean mass while losing about that same amount of fat.

Generally all my exercise now is after 14 to 16 hours without food.


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You'd gain more if you did protein following exercise, especially anaerobic exercise. It aids in recovery.


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[CoriM]

We use the app FatSecret primarily counting grams/calories. This morning I'm down to 230.5 from 260 since the beginning of summer, and my wife is down over 100 pounds in the past 14 months. Calories in - calories out is the secret, if you can adhere to it.

The hardest part is actually following a diet. We eat what we want, just in smaller amounts. I had a burger with trimmings and home fries a couple of days ago, and could barely finish it. Higher on the fat and protein, lower on the carbs, cheat according to plan, remember that more vegetables often means more carbs, and fruit is carbs! Yay, apples! I mean, dang, no apples. Well, not so many.

And exercise to increase your body's potential for burning calories. Exercise alone is not the answer, nor is diet alone sufficient. We are gracile hominids, grew up on the plains and our bodies adapted to the benefits it provided. Except for the fact this troglodyte got used to a computer screen and the chair, our recent forays into the wild have given my body new hope. Yikes.

[OU812]

I've been deeply involved in nutrition for the past few years and have some thoughts on this:

1. If anything, Estrogen and Progesterone are both known to slow down digestion. Estrogen does it more through gastric secretions, while Progesterone does it through smooth-muscle relaxation. This is why women get cravings prior to a period, but also experience more bloating and digestive upsets. Let this principle work to your advantage.

2. Beyond caloric intake, look at the macronutrients. You want more fats, fiber, and protein. All three will fill you up. Fat is the stomach's trigger that says "I'm full." Fiber (veggies, whole grain bread) will fill you up while adding significantly fewer calories. Protein simply takes much longer to digest so you can go longer between meals. My father can really gorge on carbs, but I know for a FACT that a fiber + protein meal will fill him up surprisingly quickly.

3. Make sure your micro-nutrients are taken care of. Get enough iron, zinc, calcium, vitamins, etc. A deficiency in this area can make your body respond weirdly, possibly resulting in cravings.

4. Ayurvedic food combining, of which there are many modern spin-offs. It's about optimizing what foods you eat with what other foods, so that your body makes good use of them all. I've practiced this technique for several years now and highly recommend it.

I could add many more tips, but in a practical sense most will struggle with so much as half of the above (if they don't just shirk them altogether out of it being 'too hard' and instead opt for the latest lose-weight-fast diet pill fad; or worse, surrendering to the idea that they'll always be obese) so I won't add any more tips for now. Good luck and take care of yourself.

[Gertrude]

Well, today's weigh in, 54lbs over 14 weeks. Lots to go, but I'm at a point where I feel like I have more energy and need to be more active.


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[Deborah]

Well, today's weigh in, 54lbs over 14 weeks. Lots to go, but I'm at a point where I feel like I have more energy and need to be more active.


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You are making steady and consistent progress; the best kind for permanent change.  The increase in energy and motivation for activity is a sign that your body is refashioning itself in a very healthy way.   Just don't get carried away at first and dive into an injury.  :-)


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[Gertrude]

You are making steady and consistent progress; the best kind for permanent change.  The increase in energy and motivation for activity is a sign that your body is refashioning itself in a very healthy way.   Just don't get carried away at first and dive into an injury.  :-)


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I've been real careful with my knees. That's what used to bother me when I'd do stairs. Not so much any more. The one thing that hasn't improved much is my sciatica. I still get it when I walk after one half to one mile. I hope it gets better with less weight.

[KayXo]

A great book to read is also "The art and science of low carbohydrate" by Jeff Volek. Also Gary Taubes which dispels the idea that calories in=calories out, it's more complex than that, hormones are key.

[rmaddy]

From what I understand, it's better to lose weight before starting HRT.

Absolutely.  It becomes very difficult afterwards.  Most people will gain some weight post HRT (increased % body fat is part of feminization), and the weight that they do lose is usually lean muscle mass, which is critical to further weight loss.

Lose whatever you can now, under some professional guidance.

Good luck on starting HRT and welcome to Susan's.