Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I've been on hrt for almost 2 years now and I still feel that I look somewhat physically masculine.  I have some body fat in the right places but still have more lean muscle mass that I would want.  With a loose shirt and jeans, I don't look too bad but because I literally have no butt or hips, plus starting out as someone who was very athletic with lots of lean muscle mass, my body still looks too masculine for me.

Currently at 5'7 and 146lbs.  Which is exactly the same weight pre transition.  I pretty much stopped all work outs except running and some light cardio, don't really eat much meats or poultry, try to limit my protein and calories, and attempted fast a few times to see the difference.  (end up losing fat instead of muscle.)

Anyway, what was your starting point and if you're happy with your development, how long did it take?

Hmmmm body changes, I too still feel masculine even though my hips have blown up pretty nice, I'm 65Kgs at 5'11" so I don't think I'm heavy. But I still can't shake the feeling of looking masculine anyway :/ it's annoying.
It may also be in our heads, and maybe we worry to much about it, no one has ever said I look masculine, especially in the body area. But yet I still worry about it

Hm letsee I was 6'2 when I started at 21, and weighed at the time a whopping 145 pounds.  I was way too skinny and gaunt.  Now 20+ years later I'm 165-180 (at the moment 175), and I feel its a fairly healthy weight overall.  Now as far as a 'feminine body', it probably took a couple years?  Then again my body development was odd anyways, and definitely not overtly masculine.. just a kind of nerdy skinny androgenous look.  Now my body looks nice & lean, with fat in the right places.  The only thing I don't care for is my biceps still look a bit big for me.

On a personal odd note it appears my boobs just decided to start growing again, so I guess that's a good thing.  Your body (at least if its like mine) will go through growth spurts sometimes years or even decades in the making.

Often times though people expect the face itself to magically transform into a model... that's what ffs is for.  Bone structure won't alter with fat distribution.  If 'passing' facially is the concern, personally I think thats the best solution rather than hoping HRT to transform.  It can help, but its fairly minimal in the face I think.

I think that Doreen is pretty much spot on.  At two years the structure of my body was still pretty rapidly changing.  For me getting something like a butt took a couple more years.  I'm a bit of a dough girl right now BMI of 25, but the adipose tissue is more or less in the right places.  Hopefully a few thousand crunches will get my belly in shape for summer, but my body continues to feminize both is fat distribution and even muscle distribution.

I had GCS a couple of months ago, and that seems to be influencing body shape changes as well.  Even though my T levels have been essentially zero for years.  Crazy thing bodies.

Peace,

JB

Quote from: JB_Girl on May 10, 2017, 05:43:31 AM
Hopefully a few thousand crunches will get my belly in shape for summer, but my body continues to feminize both is fat distribution and even muscle distribution.

Be careful with that.  My Physical therapist told me that crunches an actually make the stomach look larger as it builds the muscle, and doesn't reduce the fat in the exercised location, but that it would build the muscle under the fat and push the fat out more.  He gave me several side exercises to do.  He said that would tighten those muscles and reduce the appearance of the belly size.  He also told me to do a lot of cardio, a that is the only true way to burn off the fat.

My body still looks somewhat masculine, but I started seeing noticeable changes at 12 months.

I have been on HRT for just over 2 years now and I am still changing to a more feminine shape, especially in my thighs and rear.

Several years for me.  I am a runner, so I think I offset much of the progress of fat redistribution, though.  Still, with no T and lots of girl hormones I have lost a lot of muscle, removed fat from typical male areas, and gained fat storage in female areas.  It is a slow process, though.

Still a work in progress but i have noticed that seesawing my weight up and down by about 5 pounds has increased the fat redistribution. My butt is considerably larger and my hips have more weight on them. Breasts developed quickly and i am content there. I'd like to get my shoulders leaner as i was athletic my entire life. Now that i have the sub-dermal fat that women develop, i'd also like more tone and muscle definition in my legs.

I run, hike, bike and lift weights every week, so i stay pretty active.

I was about a year in, when I noticed fat distribution to my bum/hip area. Suddenly I fitted nicely into female jeans and dresses were fitting me better. All the women in my family had rounder bums, so I inherited that.

But it depends on genetics and how you body reacts to the hormones. Remember you get masculine looking cis-women as well.

Started seeing significant changes within months (4-5). I wrote down and recorded measurements.

Quote from: KayXo on May 10, 2017, 04:52:44 PM
...I wrote down and recorded measurements.

Why am I not surprised?!   :eusa_dance:

On HRT for almost 9 months. My best asset so far are as my therapist called it . A nice rack.. I was trying to tell her they were more and more impossible to hide. I feel my butt rounding out as well. In heels my butt looks great. But wearing heels is not something I can pull off all the time being as tall as I am. My hair has gone from crew cut and thinning to lush and luxurious. But I still can use some improvement. I can finally put it in a pony tail. Most of all I have mental stability that has not been present most my life.

I've been really curious about this myself.  I have not even begun the process of getting on HRT yet, but have been researching it quite a bit.  I have a pretty manly body.  6' 1" and 170 pounds.  Have no hips at all and no butt.  I've always had more than normal breast tissue.  To where when I was 23 and had a physical, the doctor looked at my small penis and large breasts and says "You may have hormone issues".  But I never had my testosterone levels or anything checked.  So I have a tiny bit of a head start in that way, but my upper body bothers me.  I just want to be a cute, smaller, 5' 2" or so 100 pound girl.  But sadly, no HRT or surgery is ever going to give me that, and it sucks!

For those of you that have been on HRT for awhile.....has it always been a slow and consistent feminization directly related to your dosage or were there any spikes along the way (perhaps initially)?

Quote from: staciM on May 11, 2017, 04:34:54 PM
For those of you that have been on HRT for awhile.....has it always been a slow and consistent feminization directly related to your dosage or were there any spikes along the way (perhaps initially)?

ive had slow and consistent feminization despite being on a moderately high dosage of estradiol, but it fine with that.

Quote from: Justarandomname on May 10, 2017, 02:07:23 AM
I've been on hrt for almost 2 years now and I still feel that I look somewhat physically masculine.  I have some body fat in the right places but still have more lean muscle mass that I would want.  With a loose shirt and jeans, I don't look too bad but because I literally have no butt or hips, plus starting out as someone who was very athletic with lots of lean muscle mass, my body still looks too masculine for me.

Currently at 5'7 and 146lbs.  Which is exactly the same weight pre transition.  I pretty much stopped all work outs except running and some light cardio, don't really eat much meats or poultry, try to limit my protein and calories, and attempted fast a few times to see the difference.  (end up losing fat instead of muscle.)

Anyway, what was your starting point and if you're happy with your development, how long did it take?

I was 5 ft. 9, and generally around 170 lbs., pre-transition. My waist was 30 inches, and my shoulders were about 43.5 inches around.

However, that changed pretty dramatically after around three months of HRT. I remember the fat shifting, almost by the day. Very soon, people at work were telling me I was the skinniest guy they'd ever seen, because by then, my waist was around 28 inches in circumference.

So, really---it took my body about three months to become feminine, and it was noticeable enough that I started modeling, etc., at around 1 year of HRT. Now, my waist is around 25 inches in circumference, but I'm also way leaner than I'd like to be.

In my observation, the question of whether someone will develop a feminine body is sort of a hit or miss. I sort of knew that I would, though, despite being muscular, because I've always had a big butt and hip muscles. Conversely, if someone were like a complete twig, without any shape to them whatsoever, I'd strongly suspect that they'd develop a sort of androgynous physique.

As far as muscle mass goes, I totally empathize. Forty pounds of muscle didn't just "fall" off of me; I forced it off months and months ago. I hope you find a healthier way to manage your physique (which can be done, btw).

This is very much a YMMV thing.

I started HRT in Jan 1996.. It never really happened for me.... HRT did not move much fat to the right places and I have a big male type frame. I did lose some muscle and i would say HRT shifted me more towards neutral overall rather to overtly physically feminine.

So I did what I could (had BA with a SRS and after that FFS) and i do OK.

- Karen

Quote from: Artesia on May 10, 2017, 07:31:20 AM
Be careful with that.  My Physical therapist told me that crunches an actually make the stomach look larger as it builds the muscle, and doesn't reduce the fat in the exercised location, but that it would build the muscle under the fat and push the fat out more.  He gave me several side exercises to do.  He said that would tighten those muscles and reduce the appearance of the belly size.  He also told me to do a lot of cardio, a that is the only true way to burn off the fat.

Yes but you are big to begin with, so that advice is helpfully tailored to you, and kudos to your doctor for taking that into account.

For some people that doesn't apply and the sit ups to gain a tighter figure can be started without worry.

I always debate whether or not I should comment on these body threads. There are so many pretty and thin girls here. I am definitely not thin. 5' 10", 210 lbs, shoulders at their widest 47" around, chest under my breasts 43", waist at my bellybutton 39", hips 46", butt at the biggest around 48". So not exactly a pretty shape either. :) A poster child for success I am not. Apparently I pass though. Probably because no one really notices a chunky middle-aged woman. I am always amazed, because I think everyone can tell I am trans, that no one sees anything but a woman.

I've been on hrt for 2 1/2 years. The body shape has only started to change in it last 6 months. And it is happening rapidly. Even though I've lost 5 lbs in the last two months my butt and hips have gotten larger. I have been fairly muscular my whole life. Grew up on a farm and even though I left the mountains and farm 30 years ago the muscle never shrank a bit. Now I can feel myself getting weaker. The twice a month trip to the grocery store gets harder every time.

I had thought to starve myself to lose the muscle and fat. My boyfriend wants nothing to do with that and knows the only button I have to push. Guilt. He knows that if he brings home take out that I will not let it go to waste, and if he does it long enough that I will start cooking for two again. Eating out costs so much money. Now I am not sure it is necessary, if I just steadily lose the weight the muscle and fat will take care of itself.

I have to repeat what has already been said on this site so many times, everyone is different. One of my closest friends started transitioning in 2003 and she still tends to collect fat in her belly and not her butt like she wants. She is beautiful and very passable but she still wishes that her fat distribution would change. There is no way to tell how this will turn out for any of us. My breasts shot to a decent b cup in under a year and haven't grown a bit since. You will change the way you change and besides keeping proper hormone levels I am not sure there is anything to be done about it.

Maintain your hopes, the ride is not over yet. :)

Laying in bed thinking about it. My waist is really strange. I have always had big hips and a tiny waist even when I weighed 150 lbs. Not pretty though. My legs are not so long and my hips are. Square really and there is no gradual taper to small waist, square hips end and just cuts in to my body right after. Even now within an inch up from my bellybutton I shrink to 34 inches. I am fat all over to be honest but I kinda go in at the middle. Then all of my belly and muffin top start at the bellybutton level. It's unsightly.

I think that I am a reincarnated weeble wobble.  :'(

I do hope it takes a while to get going, I'm so ready to start HRT, but definitely not ready to be out at work, but I want it enough that I'll deal with that if it's the reality I get.

Two years in and it's been slow and consistent, mostly slow. My face has gained a little fat which has soften it a bit. Hips are slow, slow, slow. I've gained weight twice and it keeps going to my belly >:( although in the last 2 months I have gained 1" on my hips. Now I'm on a calorie counting diet to try and drop 10 lbs. and then gain back 5 and hope it goes where I want it.
Started progesterone 10 weeks ago and breasts are filling out nicely so I'm hopping that helps with the hips.

Slow and consistent with some loss post-op (had to increase my dose) and some loss several years later due to error from compounding pharmacy. Since injections, slightly faster (except for breasts).