Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I was curious about weight gain when on estrogen. Because women have more body fat than men I was wondering about metabolism's. Does estrogen affect how fast it is? Will it slow down with estrogen? I know i'll get weight in area's I haven't before, but does it cause you to gain weight easier in general? *currently no matter what I do I cant gain weight* I wonder because I want to gain weight.

Seems to vary, I actually lost a few pounds on hrt but still gained extra "fat" in all the right places  ;D
If you have trouble gaining weight now then you will be most likely the same on hrt, thats the way it is for me and a few others I know of.
Im 118 pounds now  :P

I was on hormones for a period of time. I noticed that the fat redistributed, and it became MUCH harder to keep the weight off of the gut. No matter how much I dieted, the gut still had a propensity to pick up weight first. You really do have to start eating like a female when you are on hormones.

I have been dieting for a couple of years now and slimming down little by little. I'm not sure hormones have an influence on the speed of weight loss though... But fat is redistributing, that's for sure !  ;D

Interesting. If this topic hadn't popped up I would have asked it myself soon...
I have the same difficulty as the OP. I can't gain any weight no matter what. I also can't seem to lose it (not that I've tried, but I've noticed); it's kind of a low-maintenance thing.

I'm pretty tall, even for a boy. Apparently my height-weight ratio is almost dangerously under, but since I don't have any difficulties nor any eating disorders, my doctor hasn't really bothered to give any advice about that.

I've heard that fat will gain in the proper places on estrogen (which I'm not on quite yet), but considering I have so little of it to begin with, I have trouble envisioning that. My metabolism is super-high (friends have called it 'bad fuel mileage' ^_^), and body fat % is some very, very small number. I don't know exactly.

I guess I'm just looking for a bit of reassurance that something will indeed happen...

Well I have a harder time loosing weight now and and easier time gaining.  But then again my mother and her mom were both  hum...big boned...... so it runs in the family.  I am starting to loose weight again... but it takes more time.

Beni

I eat a ton and I mean a ton of food daily

I went from 140 to 150 on HRT, but also, I was underweight to begin with as I'm 6'1 so ultimately I think the weight gain was a positive thing.  It's hard for me to break past 150 though and often find myself fluctuating between 145 to 150

I actually dropped a lot of weight on HRT.  I started out at at 165-ish and now I'm around 150.  Most of the weight I lost was fat so I don't know much about the estrogen-weight gain correlation. 

Ive dropped as well. Eat anything I like and no exercise and in the past 6 months have gone from 141 to 123 pounds. Put 5 pounds back on in the past 12 days as Ive stopped smoking

there are three body types and this applies to males as well as females ectomorphs mesomorph and endomorphs. What the heck does this mean??? ectomorphs have an extreamly hard time gaining weight no matter what they do they can eat to the point theyre sick and be thin as a rail. mesomorphs are the inbetweens they have to put forth an effort to gain or lose weight and endomorphs are unfortunate souls who look at food and gain 10 lbs. Most weight loss on estrogen occures do to muscle loss. muscle requires T in order to gain or maintain mass. All humans have testosterone in their system even females but in females its a veery small amount. insufficient to repair muscle in order to gain fit male level strength. as the muscle tissue breaks down and is replaced by body fat you will lose weight and women primarily store it in the hips stomach waist and thighs. with the worst and hardest to get rid of the little pocket of fat covering the pubic area.
Jessica

Well I was curious, I'm 5'6" and 120, I'm told that's skinny for my height. Reason I was wondering about gaining weight is because I'm a toothpick, I kind of want weight in the right places you know? I was just curious if I'd just burn that fat away too.

I dropped about 15-17 lbs during my transition. I definitely lost muscle mass, and would look silly in my old shirts or suits. I did put on a tiny bit of fat around my derriere but wish I had more on the hips!

Of course the weight loss could have also been the effects of a bad divorce, personal family losses and the stress of figuring out how to afford transitional surgeries.

I say eat healthy, add calories to your diet (if you want to gain weight) and get a moderate amount of exercise. All good things for you!

I've been through different types of HRT meds. I started out with just estrogen to begin with a decade ago. I went off and just started recently restarted a year ago with Spiro thrown in and Medroxyprogesterone a month ago. In the past I've always been a high metabolism type. I could eat and eat and had a hard time gaining weight.

Now that I'm over thirty my metabolisms slowed down a bit. I have to watch what I eat (which any of us should do anyway)! I've taken an interest in things that I would classify as being physical. I weigh about 158 now and I'm 5'8 but...there is the stubborn stomach that won't go away for nothing! I swear I feel like I could be a skeleton and that pouch would still be there! I think that since our physical and chemical makeup is different all our results will vary.

Just try not to worry eat or anger eat!

HRT made me gain weight like crazy at first like 35 Lbs. had cravings for all kinds of things like cheese burger medium with extra pickles and a scoop of strawberry icecream.lol
but i did work hard to lose it all plus an extra 5lbs

Hi all
Men have more muscle and muscle needs to be nourished. As a result need more calories to maintain.
E reduces muscle mass so woman need less caloric intake. When  on E, if you eat the same as before you will gain weight. This applies to most people. I myself have had problems losing. Like everything we do it isn't easy. Good luck
Sarah   

Lol, thanks for the replies, it helps. yeah, I eat fruits and such a lot, *strawberries are the best IMO :P* but I could always eat better I suppose.

It's been almost a year of HRT, and I weigh a little less than I did before I started.  I think I'm an ectomorph, but that's hard to say.

During the last (almost) year I did drop down to about 130 pounds.  My diet had not changed (and still has not).  It was a month or so after my FFS, so I can't be sure if it was related to that or not.  Anyway, I am back up to about 142, and that's a little less than where I have been for about a decade (used to average at 145).

So does abdomen fat change at all? That's where I have trouble. I can eat like a bird and do a military style bootcamp twice a week but I can't seem to get that belly off!!! Can this change w/ estrogen?

Chrissi

Remember that muscle weighs more than fat...so those of you that lost pounds might have just seen muscle loss, but chances are your body fat percentage has increased. It's one of the things I'm looking forward to on T, being able to actually look solid instead of so soft and rounded all the time (and hopefully see an increase in metabolism).

Easy way to drop weight, drink loads of water frequently during the day...no calories in water while still filling the stomach (you won't be as hungry if you constantly drink). It's also healthier by loads...I have a couple relatives that have dropped a lot of weight just by cutting out all drinks but water, and were still able to eat fattening foods on occasion.

*runs out of the girls' room before he gets caught*

ice by eating like a bird you may have slowed your matabolism to the point where it will take an act of god to release the belly fat also on estrogen it will be even harder to lose belly fat as that is one of the areas woman store body fat as well as hips but and thighs belly fat being the last point of deposit. it may remove some of it inorder to store it else where but i think not likely. females should be taking in about 1600 to 1800 cals a day males tend to need 2000-2200 this is the basic requirement to keep your body alive and functioning if you routinely take in less then this and dont exercise your matabolism will slow down to acomidate the lowered amount. this is a biological function in order to survive. it will also begin to break down muscle tissue for fuel which will increase your body fat level as you will have less muscle further slowing the metabolism down. this is a survival mechanism and you have to short circuit it in order to lose weight. the body will not give up fat willingly you have to force it to.
jessica

I'm having a real problem getting down to target of 154 or less and I diet really well.  I have to think that estrogen rreally does cause us to add weight... I love my new hips but the layer of fat on my ribs and the slight roll over my skirt waistbands annoys me.

Well that makes sense about having more fat because of the loss of muscle, but I don't have muscle as it is so I don't think I'll a big difference in my strength *I cant even bench like 75 pounds* but that's one thing good about working with a bunch of macho guys lol, they usually lift stuff for me :P

Well as long as I get fats in the spots I want, hips, face, ect, then I wont mind. The women in my family are burn fat fast too, there's only 2 in my family that don't, my grandma and my mom, so I wonder if estrogen will make me more like them or like the other women in my family. The problem with that though is, the women in my family are kinda flat chested and don't have a lot of curves because they burn fat so fast :/

Oh goodness, so I have lots to look forward to...more fat!!

Chrissi