Susan's Place Transgender Resources

What a pig this is.  How have other transwomen managed to deal with being overweight in an unpleasantly male sense (belly and no arse)?  I am attempting to lose weight by forsaking sugar and smiling, but no progress so far.   I am reaching the end of my tether i am.  Any sagely advice to overcome this transitioning period of transitioning?  Much obliged.  :)

I know that its carbs that keep the weight on, and exercise is the only way to burn the calories.

I think women everywhere battle this, trans or not.
Probably loose fitting clothes will help.

So many in this society suffer from being overweight, myself included.
Very best of luck.

Whole foods plant based! I lost 50 lbs in a year(not on hrt) doing this. Check out "Starch Solution" or "Engine 2 Diet". It works! Have kept the weight away for over two years! If it's a plant eat it, if it came from a plant(factory) don't eat it.

I've never been anything other than the right weight, maybe a little under at times, so no idea how you can deal with it.
Do you want to lose the weight? If so, love you need to burn it off.
I've got a friend who eats so much junk food, is stick thin but only because she burns it off.
You need to run, start by walking, building up to running.
You might need a diet can get as well, there are so many weight goal apps these days that allow you to track what you're eating, give you plans and stuff.
Never worry about what people and what they might say while you're out trying to get fit.

Good luck withbit

I have yoyoed alot, I feel really fat right now, but looking at my pictures, I certainly weigh too much, but it could be alot worse.

For me, Calories conquer all, when I lose weight it is all from either burning more or eating less calories, it doesn't seem to matter what I eat. That being said, if I am eating 1600 calories a day that 400 calories for a single tiny double cheeseburger from mcdonalds doesn't look very attractive, where some unbreaded fish looks really attractive.

HRT has moved some fat around, it isn't all on my belly atm, but, I still think my belly fat is just out of control.

Yikes! Trans*fat... I was flab-bergasted to see how fast it collects these daysl.  I like when it sticks to the T and A, but I hate in on mah belly. Get off mah belly!

Ugh. Cardio...

Hi Zoe,

I'm the trans that has twice been refused SRS for being too fat. Yes HRT will make gaining weight easier but you can counter that I'm told by exercise. The facts are simple but actually doing the weight loss isn't. If you burn more calories than you take in then you'll lose weight.

Getting specific. Processed food is bad for you. Diet or low sugar foods are also not a good idea as they contain less flavour meaning you'll add other things to compensate. I've lost 22 kgs (48lb) in 9 months by eating more fresh veggies lots of rice and plenty of home made curries. I make my own pastes so that I control the items that go in. I've also started drinking loads more water and replaced snacks with either raw nuts or fruit. I would also advise that you don't eat after about 1800 each day and where possible eat your main meal t lunch time this way you give your body more time to digest and burn off what you eat. You can eat anything you want as long as you balance the diet. Alcohol is also not the best idea as it contains empty calories. Fruit juices are also calorie laden and you can get better benefits from an apple or similar fruit.

It's not easy to lose weight and slow and steady with lifestyle change is allot better than quick fix diets that may offer bigger and faster weight loss but then the weight will come back.

Hope that helped some, Feel free to ask more questions and good luck

Sorcha  :)

My job is physical so I do lots of moderate lifting (20-50lb stuff periodically through out the day) and end up walking between 3-10miles in the course of a shift (I mention this, as it's basically like doing light to moderate gym work out everyday.)  What I found that is working for me (down to 242 from 275ish a month + 1/2 ago as of this morning) is switching to lean proteins, low carb (but not forsaking them completely).  I eat chicken, turkey, tuna, black beans. and I carry a small baggie of raw almonds to snack on (I'll munch on 6-12 almonds then drink 4-8oz of water with it) when I feel mildly hungry, but not hungry-hungry.  When I get hungry-hungry I'll only eat about a fist size portion of food, drink plenty of water, then wait a bit to see if I'm still hungry (I'll be honest that getting in the habit of waiting to see if I'm still hungry took a bit to get set)  I also have forsaken sodas and most anything with sugar.  A key thing is to say "I don't want this." rather than "I can't have this", it's a matter of  choice vs. resisting. Resistance is limited and will fail with time, by making it a choice, you're asserting control and it in turns becomes easier to avoid (if I can remember where I put the links for the research on this I'll link articles when I get home from work)

Also, multi-vitamins, take only as recommended.

Hope this helps

I'm actually using a weight loss program called Lose It, they do have a website and a phone app, and it's free.  You plug in starting weight and age, tell them where you want to be and then select how much weight you want to lose a week (it maxes at 2 pounds a week as that's what's actually safe) and they tell you how many calories you can eat in a day as well as breaking down what you're eating so you can kind of keep track on top of calories you've burned exercising. 

When I was really keeping track of it when I started a few years ago I'd lost over 70 pounds using it, but then I stopped due to my own fault and gained a chunk back so right now I'm fighting to lose what I gained back and then some cause I'm trying to hit a reasonable target weight.

Definitely feel your pain as far as the weight goes.  I'm grossly overweight and carry it on my belly and mid-section in a very male way unfortunately.  Best way I've found is to track what I'm eating with the program and try to stay under what I'm allotted for a day and getting in some exercise at least 3 or 4 days a week.  It does work, but I have a problem sticking with it that I'm trying to get around. 

I'm fat, and losing.  Found the secret, don't diet!  We are changing our entire life going from Male to Female, why not change our entire eating habits at the same time?

1) eat high protein, zero (not 1 or 2, but zero) g of sugar in anything.  Protein is nature's fat reducer and muncher. Read the labels!
2) don't eat anything you can't pronounce.  No artificial sweeteners, either.  Read the labels.
3) eat every 2-4 hours depending on your body's cycle.  Listen to it. 
4) you'll find you'll be eating very differently, and much much better.  I rarely eat salads, so many other options I never knew about that I LIKED.
5) Eat only what you like (withing guidelines 1-4).  Don't have a salad if you don't want it. 
6) drink water as the primary source.  I went from 4 diet drinks a day to 4 this past summer.  I don't miss it at all, surprisingly.

Repeat daily.  Give yourself one day break every week or two (parties, big burger craving, drinking at the pub/club, etc). 

You'll lose much weight within the first 3-4 weeks AND will know how to keep it off for the rest of your life.  You are now empowered.

A lifestyle change.  It's actually easy!  You will find new foods replace cravings for old unhealthy ones as time goes by.  Enjoy your newly found freedom to eat!

I'm working it down also, dropped 35 lbs in 4 months using a modified Paleo diet so far [many more lbs are available for eviction].
I added 2 pieces of fresh whole fruit each day and I have wheat/grains occasionally and have a small amount of dairy (I defend my right to have half & half (aka cream) in my morning mugs of Black Tea [stay back I have a spoon in hand  :icon_caffine:) .

I've recently hit a plateau at 305 lbs and have not progressed for about 4 weeks. Mostly due to not enough sleep and too much stress.
I added taking a 30 minute long walk each day, (often ends up with three 10 minute walks spread out across the day which is just as effective).

My experience (as a very large person) taught me that I get the best result when I change my behaviors such that I'm dropping an average of 2 lbs per week.
Basically: Eat healthy, choose the food you eat wisely, choose to have modest servings (without seconds),  drink plenty of water, get plenty of quality sleep, don't under-eat (consuming too few calories will trick your metabolism into the "you are starving" mode and hang on to every Fn ounce of FAT you have).

For myself, I bias towards protein in every meal, 3 meals a day, avoid all artificial sweeteners, avoid all product with corn syrup especially those with "high fructose corn syrup", avoid per-packaged meals, avoid processed foods and prepare meals from the real ingredients. I also take a general purpose multivitamin and a couple of specific supplements (e.g. extra Vitamin D primarily).

When I've pulled my software engineer hat down to geek-tight I actually weigh/measure/record everything [item weight, calories, grams of fat, grams of carbohydrates, grams of protein] that goes in my mouth in a spreadsheet and produce charts and graphs  :icon_wave-nerd:.  Most folks are not stubborn enough to do this for very long. I did this for more than 6 months (when I dropped more than 50 lbs back in 2005). I gained significant insight into making food trade-offs that work for me such that I would feel satisfied (and can have an occasion treat). At that time I was able to eat about 2300 calories per day and drop weight at about 2 lbs per week.

Currently I don't have the hat on, just using the wisdom gained from my experience.
The good news for us very large girls is that we burn more calories sleeping than some of the skinny girls do walking  :o   

-Cindi

PS: Remember that you are "evicting" or "giving away" the excess weight, you really don't want to "find" what you have "lost"    :eusa_whistle:

Dropping from dress size 32w (4 years ago) to a 30w to a 28w and now some of my 26w dresses are fitting fine is much more satisfying that looking at the numbers on the scale.

I also ask my spouse "does this dress make my butt look bigger" and hoping for a yes :icon_dance:

Hugs
-Cindi

Also doing long cardio sessions at low intensity (let's say around 65% of your maximum heart rate) would help a lot. Sessions over 2-3 hours, low intensity, no eating 2 hours before and 2 hours after, are great fat burners.

Balancing your diet properly, maybe 40% protein, 40% good carbs (no sugars, no refined food, just wholegrain cereals, fiber) and 20% fat. Also ketogenic diets can work (going the most protein and fat without carbs at all, but those can't be followed for a long time) or Paleo-based diets (not too restrictive on carbs). Online calculators and mobile apps like MyFitnessPal can help you a lot.

Sticking strictly to healthy food, exercising everyday (low intensity, for example, a 2 hours route cycling will do the trick fine), watching the calories (over 1200 but mantaining it hipocaloric) and you should be done.

Everyone is very helpful.  I guess i know how to lose weight, but it is difficult due to my love of cooking, and absence of self-discipline.  I am two months on estrogen and not full time yet, so i guess there is time to shape up.  Having the lovehandles and a protruding tummy make clothing choices rather difficult so i am sure you can all understand my despair.  Anyway i feel better now, merci pour votre aide. :-*

Both diet and exercise or some sort of physical activity daily are what works for me. I basically eat what I want 6 times per day paying close attention to portions. It's very important to not restrict your calories too much, or you'll trick your body into starvation mode and plateau. And speaking from experience, plateau's are the hardest thing to break. If you have a lot of weight to lose you eventually will plateau. There's a trick to breaking a plateau. You actually have to increase your calories for a day or two and actually cut your physical activity down a little so your body will no longer feel "times are tough/food is scarce" mode and start burning fat again, then, you increase your physical activity/exercise back up to where it was while simultaniously lowering your caloric intake a little and settle back in to dieting as before. The whole process takes about a week and is tricky also, you won't lose any weight during it but you shouldn't gain any either. This is the only way I've ever found to break a plateau. :icon_cool:

Best of luck to y'all with your weight loss programs, whichever they may be. :icon_bunch:

Ally :icon_flower:

Quote from: Zoe the Obscure on October 03, 2014, 10:55:54 AM
Everyone is very helpful.  I guess i know how to lose weight, but it is difficult due to my love of cooking, and absence of self-discipline.

Spending time exercising outdoors (or indoor if its not possible to stay out) is a very nice way to cope with anxiety caused by transition/overweight, also it will help to build discipline and put you a bit more close to your goals by losing some extra weight. That's the way I coped when I was overweight (class II obesity).

Seeing how my little steps were putting me a bit (even if this was only a very tiny bit) more close to the goal kept me motivated and happy. Never stopping the improvement, slow but safely. When I was tempted to fall on the old bad habits again, I just looked back and said to me "Dear, look at the big effort you made until now, is it worth to waste it because you're low or because you are craving chocolate? Is your work that cheap to waste it so easily?". That pretty much worked.

Problem is, what you have said, you know how. Now what you need is to move forward.

Those things are difficult, a lot indeed.

Michelle1 - Yes! to that diet. It has worked for me and based on the low carb intake it has been a figure saver for me. Couple it with exercise of any kind and it will make a definite difference in energy level. For the most part, all my cravings went out the door. I do indulge at times so I never feel I am missing anything as far as guilty pleasures. Highly recommend to anyone -- and its so simple.

As a thick and big gal. I had to cut out so much processed foods ( crackers, ramen noodles, and diet sodas). Eating more fresh veggies and fruits. Watching the labels now when I shop looking for the hidden sugars, fat and salt. Making more home cook meals. After getting used to this I once tried to grab a fast food chicken sandwich and became ill at the look of it.  :P It is hard to rethink your diet but you can make it. ;D Oh yea walking and running helps always.  Best wishes.  :-*

Whether the food is processed or not is nowhere near as important as how much you eat. My best friend lost 100 pounds over a period of 8 months doing the craziest diet I've ever encountered. Two six inch subs and a bag of chips with each per day. That was all. Nothing else. Absolutely insane, but it worked because of the reduction in calories. I do not recommend this at all. It's good to have variety and losing weight that quickly is not healthy. The main takeaway here is to pick a calorie target and DO NOT EXCEED IT, PERIOD. The other important thing is that after you lose all that weight you'll increase your intake just enough to break even, but you will NEVER be able to pig out like you might want to without then having to spend nearly a week eating a restricted calorie diet to make up what you gained again.

As a former trans-fatty I feel your pain. It sucks. Add in being teased and tormented most of your life over it, plus really standing out at 6ft tall, it sucks. Loosing 100 lbs, it gets better, but still sucks.

Everything you buy in a box or a bottle is essentially poison. High fructose corn syrup is THE WORSE. See that list of unpronounceable chemicals? Poison. And it is all so pervasive. HFCS can be found in almost everything in a grocery store sort of laundry detergent.

Most of my weight was lost between portion control and cutting out as much of that crap as I could. Oh... plenty of empty calories in booze. It is a long slow process. Just as the speed of your eating should be. If you can't savor it, you'll just want more and more to get that rush.

I did not deny myself. Perhaps a trait learned from being trans and never having purged. If you feel like a pizza. A slice is nice. Ice Cream? Sure. A small bowl, not the entire pint.

Quote from: herekitten on October 03, 2014, 12:40:33 PM
Michelle1 - Yes! to that diet. It has worked for me and based on the low carb intake it has been a figure saver for me. Couple it with exercise of any kind and it will make a definite difference in energy level. For the most part, all my cravings went out the door. I do indulge at times so I never feel I am missing anything as far as guilty pleasures. Highly recommend to anyone -- and its so simple.

I forgot to mention the most important point—I have never worked on on this method.  Ever.  It just works! :)

From personal experience the closer your food is to its original state the better for you it is.  The more 'processed' it is the less satisfying it is and there fore it is designed to make you crave more of it. http://www.epyk.com/192/7-most-unhealthy-processed-foods-you-need-to-avoid/ (http://www.epyk.com/192/7-most-unhealthy-processed-foods-you-need-to-avoid/)

Ask a scientist how to make a fat mouse, they will all give you the same answer, "Feed it MSG MonoSodium Glutomate http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/02/aspartame-and-msg-on-diabetes.aspx (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/07/02/aspartame-and-msg-on-diabetes.aspx)

Try to avoid refined sugars where you can too. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/9987825/Sweet-poison-why-sugar-is-ruining-our-health.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/healthyeating/9987825/Sweet-poison-why-sugar-is-ruining-our-health.html)

Alice
xx

p.s. Stay away from Aspertame too it creates carb cravings! http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/04/saccharin-aspartame-dangers.aspx (http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/04/saccharin-aspartame-dangers.aspx)

Quote from: Cindi Lane on October 03, 2014, 08:48:31 AM

I've recently hit a plateau at 305 lbs and have not progressed for about 4 weeks. Mostly due to not enough sleep and too much stress.
I added taking a 30 minute long walk each day, (often ends up with three 10 minute walks spread out across the day which is just as effective).

When we lose weight plateau's happen, I'm currently on reduced loss of maybe 1/2 a kilo ( 1lb ) a week as my body is saying hey where's my cream cakes? I am saying in the fridge where they are staying so in sulk mode the body is trying to stop me losing  :o We never got big overnight so we cannot expect to suddenly shrink overnight. We have a goal and we have to remind ourselves each day what that is. When we stress our bodies will look for food and when it can it will store up supplies in areas where it can easily access it in times of need. This is why the more relaxed you are the less the body will store.

You don't need to be trans to want to lose weight, I doubt there's a woman alive that hasn't at some point considered herself overweight or a bit flabby. I hope everyone gets to a weight they can be happy with and that the advice we've all offered acts as an inspiration to others to keep at it.

Hugs

Sorcha  ;D

Worth remembering that muscle weighs more than fat, try to concentrate on your feeling of well being and general shape, the scales can be deceptive and discouraging sometimes!

Alice
xx

Since many people have been mentioning the quality of food, i stumbled across a documentary that deals with this issue.  Most of the added sugars are a result of US agricultural subsidies (a bane i do not experience in New Zealand), however it is astonishing what foods have sugars, corn starches, and other nasty ->-bleeped-<- added to them.  I am just going to have to go sugar free for a while, which rules out almost everything on a grocery shelf, even meat and dairy sometimes.  Anyway, enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCUbvOwwfWM

There is a lot of unwarranted demonizing of high fructose corn syrup going on here. Rather, it's bad for you just like too much table sugar is bad for you.

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/high-fructose-corn-syrup/

My own little worthless personal anecdote for you:
My daily diet essentially consists of fried food and processed meat. I don't believe this is particularly healthy. I'd be better off eating more vegetables here and there. As far as weight though? I have a very hard time eating enough to get above 108-110lbs despite eating such calorie dense foods. In any given sitting I get full very quickly. That is the key, amount. Hehe, of course my cholesterol is a bit high though it isn't crazy.

The people who are especially afraid of MSG are missing some important details.

First, what exactly is MSG? This is the point that makes many scientists laugh, because MSG is simply the sodium salt of glutamic acid, an amino acid which is the building block of proteins. You get glutamic acid from almost every food you eat from grains to meat. Some grain proteins have over 30% by weight glutamic acid. Since glutamic acid doesn't exist except in the presence of water, it precipitates with sodium or other cations (potassium, lithium, and others).  Hence, the "monosodium" part of MSG.

Here's the actual science behind glutamates (you can ignore this paragraph, if chemistry makes your eyes glaze over). When glutamic acid or one of its salts is dissolved in aqueous solutions, a pH-dependent instantaneous chemical equilibrium of the amino acid's ionized forms, including zwitterionic forms, will result. These forms are called glutamates. Salts exist only in a dry and crystallized form. The form ultimately responsible for the taste is the glutamate ion, and the form of glutamic acid at the time of the addition is not important. However, crystalline glutamic acid salts such as monosodium glutamate dissolve much better and faster than crystalline glutamic acid, a property important for use as a flavor enhancer.

Glutamic acid, one of the amino acids upon which every single protein is built in the human body, is chemically indistinguishable from the acid salt, MSG. Once you ingest MSG, it dissociates into sodium and the glutamate, which will be absorbed and utilized by the body. Glutamic acid does not suddenly change properties when in salt form. Once it's consumed, the glutamate separates from the sodium, and binds with hydrogen to become an acid again. The sodium is either utilized by the body or excreted through the kidneys.  It's a simple physiological process, no mystery at all.

The body produces glutamate (or glutamic acid more properly) during various cellular processes, including the citric acid cycle, or Kreb's cycle, which is a complex metabolic system fundamental to how the cell builds proteins and provides energy. Glutamate is also a key compound in eliminating and controlling the waste nitrogen in the body (which is created by cells in the form of urea). It is also a neurotransmitter, used by nerve cells to transmit certain types of information, and is a critical substance in cognitive functions in memory and learning.  In other words, glutamate is very important to your life.  Without it, you will probably die. Or at least not be able to think.

So if you eat a lot of glutamate in your food, and your body synthesizes glutamate in substantial quantities, what is bad about MSG. Well, there's a couple of issues that might happen. MSG does have a sodium, but it's actually less by weight than an equivalent amount of table salt. Interestingly, in a 1984 Journal of Food Science article, MSG may actually be useful in reducing sodium consumption while not compromising taste (salt is critical to taste of many savory foods). 

But is there any evidence that MSG is dangerous to humans?  In a word, no.