I have lived a life of using my body for labor and sport. Now I`m built like a stone mason. I have been trying to lose some lbs. and went from 210 to 180 in the last 6 months (lbs.). Importantant / I`m not started medicaly yet, so would that be a way to even out the remaining surfers build? If anything do you know of any links that would help . Thanks, Angie
This is a topic im talking about in another thread. Health and fitness. Loosing bulk and muscle i find quite difficult subject. Have a look at what has been said and ask what ever u like
Losing fat and muscle mass is difficult. I am in the group that has low body weight and low muscle mass even before starting HRT (5'8" 149 lbs). I have been like this my entire life.
Generally speaking if you are losing fat, there is going to be an increase in muscle mass from excersize.
I do suggest adopting a vegan diet, and replacing any meat with soy, and walking. Soy increases estrogen, and the vegan diet reshapes your body naturally. It is no gaurantee, but it is a way to do it, without starving yourself. It is a MAJOR committment. But it is a very healthy way to live if you do it right. Also it increases estrogen in your body naturally, so it decreases muscle mass and reduce fat.
Vegan diet, Walk or ride your bike.
It will not make you feminine, but it could lead to a more waifish frame before starting HRT. It is a healthy way to live as well, as long as you are an adult. Decrease your risks for a number of diseases.
I don't do it personally, but I personally avoid eating meat (I still do about once a week though).
Isn't soy a gond protien source and there for good for building muscle?
The answer,
Cut off protein intake A BIT (you need a minimum, so don't go bellow a certain value, you can find these values for you body weight on the internet). The body when protein levels are to low, goes into survival mode and keeps repairing/building the most used body systems including muscles and chucks the rest. If you cut all proteins, you start to "eat up" almost essential things first and then go for the essential like the heart; that's why many anorexic have big long term damages.
Cut carbs, carbs are "protein sparing" since the muscles can use them for food right away, but if you don't have a carb store and the body needs energy very quickly (say a lion is charging you :-), the body will have to go for muscles (next readily accessible) and then fats (fats take longer to come on line, so the can't respond to quick energy demands, and there is a maximum rate of conversion which makes them not suited for very big energy expenditure in short periods of times (that's what carbs are good for)). When someone HITS the WALLS in a marathon is when they're carb stores are depleted, past that point, if this happens too early in the marathon, you'll end up finishing much slower on your fat reserves, if its at the end, you can access muscles for a few miles and finish at a good pace.
You'll notice that marathoners are lanky and very lean, its because of the mechanism I talked here. The body has decreased their muscle mass enough so the carbs they take in pre-race is enough to carry them through the race without touching the muscles. Before, maybe they had more muscle mass and they hit the wall before the end; the body has adjusted their metabolism to function.
The muscle used by the body for fuel are the least used one. The body is trying to reduce its metabolism so it does not run out of carbs the next time, by decreasing its muscle mass. So, if you bicycle with a decent resistance and your body runs out of carbs, it would have a tendency to eat up the upper blody mass.
Going back to the marathonners, they always have a leaner (in muscle mass) upper body proportionallly than their lower body and core.
Increase polysaturated and monosatured fats intake, these are harder for the body to use as fuel and thus there's a bigger chance that it will have to tap into the muscle reserves for short term relief when it needs an energy burst.
Slightly diminish caloric input in general (through the rebalancing of food intake talked earlier) to slightly less than needed to sustain your current body mass (this can be calculated precisely if you know your lean mass and fat %).
I'd say mixed training, with high intensity, high reps with low weights used for the upper body and more weights/resistance but again high intensity, lots of reps for the lower body (bicycling at a good spped, against the wind, or on ondulating small hills is great for the lower body) is good. In between the high intensity stuff, do lower intensity cardio which will empty the carbs store even more so when you increase the intensity they will be quasi depleted and thus the body has to go for something else. This only works if you've got a caloric deficit in your diet, if you eat more of carbs and proteins and do exactly the same thing, you'd gain muscle mass instead of losing it.
Do weight training, with a decent amount of weight, to increase caloric outake even more, on body areas where you want to maintain muscle mass throughout your diet, or even gain some. Like the buttocks and the core.
IF you do high intensity exercise in the morning before eating, again the carb stores are empty and the body will use muscles for fuel.
Well, my answer is a bit jumped :-). but essentially corect .
Wow, Keira, you know your stuff! You mention light caloric intake and the impact that has on one's internal organs. I'm 5'6", 149 trying to get to 140ish. I've been on an 800 - 900 cal. diet for 2 months now. I'm working out just cardio for an hour a day. Do you think that's ok for like another 2 weeks? Do you know of any place I can go to online that would guide me to proper calorie intake for my weight/height, etc? You don't think 800 - 900 cal will have any damage on my organs for just 3 months do you? I'm all full of questions :) If you can give me insight Keira, I'd definitely appreciate it. Thanks, Meghan
IF you keep the protein intake at a decent level and also take multi-vitamin, you'll be OK if you stop soon, but I would slack off a bit; 500 calories less than maintenance is already a hard diet, what you are doing is way past that. You run a 12000 calorie deficit a week!! That's huge.
I'm certain that a lot of the weight loss your experiencing is lean mass since you are doing an extreme version of what I'm talking about. I'm surprised you haven't had problems with your hair and nails yet, that's the first sign of protein deficit (if you are not, maybe you are taking just enough
You do realize that lean mass is what keeps up metabolism higher and prevent future weight gains. Most women, when they diet lose too much lean mass (through the ways I spoke about in the previous post) and when they finish, the number of calories they used to eat is way too high to maintain their weight (unless they exercise). That's why their weight bounces back up (thus the yoyo diet syndrome).
If your objective is not to lose muscle mass, you cannot go on a crash diet, it assures muscle loss. Remember that later, on HRT, it will harder to regain this lost muscle mass.
I am 5.11 1/2 and 172 pounds, I look tall and lean and very feminine, at most I want to get to 160, mostly through lost muscles in the next 2 year because of lower testosterone. I run a very slight calory deficit by insuring that I never eat more than 300 calories over maintenance even on days I exercise more (those days, I'm slightly hungry).
Muscle mass takes less space than fat, thus you look thinner if you have more muscle mass even if your weight is the same as another person. That's why the BMI, for those in decent shape doesn't really work.
My opinion is that on a woman, lean muscles, slightly toned, with a 1/4-3/4 inch thick layer of fat on top (depending on the body area) is the ideal; on the buttocks obviously, you got more than that :-). That probably gives about 16% of fat (less than the average for women which I think is 22%). That way, you're not too fat, not too lean.
If you want to know what calories you need to eat to maintain weight google: base metabolism. There are several calculators online.
My problem appears to be worse:
--187 Lbs, solid.
--I love to work out and handle heavy weight. I had to transport 95 Lb aircraft batteries several times yesterday and it felt GREAT.
I simply cannot quit something which has always given me great pleasure, has been very useful in work and fighting and which has been virtually a lifetime activity.
--I've heard it said that it is necessary to greatly reduce the protein constituent in the diet, in order to accomplish just that: lose muscle.
I am finding it pretty much impossible to do that, myself.
--I have also heard it said that one should increase the fat constituent of one's diet, in order to facilitate accretion of body fat in a female pattern.
I simply cannot do that, myself.
These two may be helpful to you.
Thanks Keira! So I`ll try early morning swiming, surfing or paddling. I could also turn my meals more tward vegitarian, soy based diet.( I eat mostly vegies at this piont anyway.) I could also hold out on morning eating till about 11. Is this bad or good? I live a lot off the land too. Now the mangos are everywere. I eat local game fish I catch on my surfboard. and mostly what looks good at the farmers market. When it`s pizza night I eat an apple with cottage chees, when it`s pasta night I have spagetty squash.
Now I`m ready to start cutting out some protien. This is the hard part, I can`t go day by day felling like I`m missing something. So I need substituts. Is soy better for that? Should I eat more fish than pultry. ( Red meat is out for now)
Does smoking pakalolo afect matabalizm or just munchies. Pakalolo is all I have to help me sleep. I really have a hard time in my body and need something sometimes. I`m just glad it`s not H.
Don't stop eating in the morning, just eat after you exercise (it will be hard though because you'll be running on almost empty carb stores. But you will be burning fats and muscles (depending on intensity)l; if you want to get rid of both, do interval traiining, cardio + resistance + cardio, etc...
After you exercise, you can eat normally, you need some carbs or you'll be spaced out during the day :-). Its all about changing the dietery equlibrium. This is not a permanent thing; I don't think you want to lose muscle forever :-).
The funny thing about fish is that their high in good fats and low on carbs, but high on protein. So, they correspond to some of the dietery parameters I stated. Soy has proteins too, so your not cutting if your replace fish proteins by that (and soy is a phytoestrogen that may impact estrogen binding to receptors (you don't want that)). You don't need to cut much proteins in your case since if you eat a lot of fish you already have a fatty diet (good fats). Just cut it slightly and also cut the calories slightly, plus exercise in the manner I said. This slow approach will produce a slow but steady result; you'll also have less problems following such a diet than a tougher one.
Generally speaking fish is fine. Just be careful you do not eat to much. (This is for the toxins fish generally contain. You are throwing yourself at risk for cancer).
Beef=BAD Most dietitians think it should be consumed sparingly.
To much soy can be a problem as well. I eat it twice a week. I eat chickpeas, lentils, and a bunch of other vegetable based proteins. The thing is not to overdo anything.
I live in a city so I walk on average 3-4 miles a day. The less you drive the better.
I don't think about this much. I have to eat this way, I have a weak stomach, I have to eat lighter foods. Beef and anything too rich causes me problems. I can't eat too much. Lifestyle adjustments are tough though, because it goes beyond just diet. Metabolism plays into it as well.
Bike messengers, vegans, marathon runners, city folk, etc are all pretty slim.
Meghan I am a little worried about you. You should be consuming at least 1000 calories a day. What you are doing is considered unhealthy and a bit extreme.
Some fishes have are good to eat in big quantities, smaller fishes near the bottom of the food chain like Salmons are usually fine even every day. You get more contamination from breathing than eating the smaller fishes. Trout is also divine, but more expensive :-).
Don't eat tuna in big quantities though (2 times a week is ok); its a big long lived fish and it does accumulate lots of toxins. All the fishes at the top of the food chains in general should be eaten sparingly: swordfish is another example of these.
Quote from: Keira on May 31, 2007, 10:24:03 PM
Some fishes have are good to eat in big quantities, smaller fishes near the bottom of the food chain like Salmons are usually fine even every day. You get more contamination from breathing than eating the smaller fishes. Trout is also divine, but more expensive :-).
Don't eat tuna in big quantities though (2 times a week is ok); its a big long lived fish and it does accumulate lots of toxins. All the fishes at the top of the food chains in general should be eaten sparingly: swordfish is another example of these.
Actually Farm Raised Salmon is bad bad bad as far as toxins and not safe to eat everyday. Quite a bit of the stuff is riddled with toxins itself. Farm Raised Salmon is a significant risk compared too wild Salmon. You have to be careful with Salmon too, if you are eating the farm raised stuff, you need to be very careful about its origin. Generally speaking eating it too often puts you at risk.
People should eat farmed salmon no more than once a month to avoid risk from the cancer-causing toxins they contain. Source:
http://www.breastcancer.org/research_farm_raised_salmon.html
Quote from: Amy T. on May 31, 2007, 10:13:22 PM
Meghan I am a little worried about you. You should be consuming at least 1000 calories a day. What you are doing is considered unhealthy and a bit extreme.
Amy, don't worry, I'm working my way back up to 1,200 like Keira was talking about (having total calories = about 300 less than base met rate). I also had an appt with an endocrinologist yesterday to get screened for cholesterol and diabetes (I've never been checked for either of those or had my blood checked) and she said pretty much what Keira said about muscle burning and getting closer to 1500 at a minimum.
So, I'm adding an extra meal in my day of about 300 calories and adding more fruits to my daily diet to get there :)
Thanks for the advice too, it helped give me a little more direction.
Quote from: almost,angie on May 31, 2007, 09:12:20 PM
Does smoking pakalolo afect matabalizm or just munchies. Pakalolo is all I have to help me sleep. I really have a hard time in my body and need something sometimes. I`m just glad it`s not H.
Angie, what is pakalolo? Is that marijuana? I'm guessing you are in Hawaii but I've never heard of that.
Meghan
I knew that Amy, farmed salmons can be bad.
The canned one, that I usually eat, is not usually farmed
and toxin levels of all kind for those are low.
The irony is that the farmed ones are usually sold whole
and people think they''re getting a better quality fish.
Even with farmed salmon, origin makes a difference.
Canadian farmed salmon from the pacific has problems
because of some lax regulations of the industry.
Angie, what is pakalolo? Is that marijuana? I'm guessing you are in Hawaii but I've never heard of that.
Meghan
[/quote]
Yes, pot.
I started trying to lose weight on May 20th (2 1/2 weeks ago). I'm 5'9" and started at 185 lbs. I am down to about 177 now and here's all I have been doing. First of all, my appetite is not really very big. I pretty much eat a packet of oatmeal (170C) for breakfast, eat a piece of fruit (50-80C) mid morning (if I remember), eat a healthy choice TV dinner (~300C) for lunch, eat a yoplait light yogurt (100C) in the afternoon (again, if I remember), and then eat pretty much whatever I feel like eating for dinner, as long as I don't over eat (due to habit). I haven't been counting Calories and I was even eating some other stuff for lunch occasionally (like pad thai) as long as I made sure I didn't overeat. I really haven't been going out of my way to exercise and medication that I'm on has the side effect of reducing my appetite, so it has been quite easy to eat like this(hence forgetting snacks occasionally). Also, I drink as much water as possible and I don't let my stomach go hungry if I can help it, but just enough to keep it from growling. Oh, and I eat veggies whenever possible and I take fish oil tablets 3 times per day and multivitamins (dr's orders on both). I wasn't really unhappy with my previous weight, I just wanted to see what effect losing the weight would have on my body. So far it seems to have a definite positive effect on my face. :)
Also, because I'm keeping one meal where I don't limit myself, I don't feel deprived. Although I look relatively lean due to much of it being muscle, I do have belly fat from the fat redistribution and I'm hoping to get down to about 150, which puts me at an ideal weight for my height.
I lost weight with the hormones. Pre-hrt I was about 190, Then I started hormones Aug. 2006. I'm 153 now.
I try to eat well, but half of the time I don't. I try to exercise, but I don't really do it other than walking all over the place, to and from work. I think that it helps that I don't work in a grocery store all the time and see all the food I want to eat. Now I work in a liquor store.
I'm 5'8, btw.
Before I started dieting, I had been on hormones for over 15 months. I started out about 180 and during that time, I put on about 5 pounds. I really hadn't lost much strength during that time either and I was eating pretty healthy, but just in excess. As a result, I think that caused the muscle to maintain itself. I have noticed my quadraceps near my knees shrank a bit, calves shrank a bit, chest muscles shrank a bit and I lost a bit of strength in my hands, but they are still quite strong. Now that I have reduced my food intake to much more appropriate levels and I'm dropping weight like a rock in water, I am already starting to lose strength in my arms. I tried moving my air compressor last night and only a month ago I had no problems moving it, even by myself. But last night I was having to work extra hard just to assist Rashelle with moving it. So, I guess the secret is pretty much maintaining the right level of food. Also, eating spicy food can speed up your metabolism and move food through you much faster. It might actually be faster now than even before when I was living as male. My body is just one big mystery.
If your eating low enough calorie for losing muscles, its not maintenance level eating Melissa. But, as a temporary thing, its fine. I'm doing the same, but much slower than you. Went from 188 on jan 1 to just about 170 now.
I'm kind of metabolism guru since I trained in track and field at a national level for for about 7 years; I don't think any healthy individual in Canada had less fat than me at that time. They couldn't even pinch a thing on my belly, the skin thin and tight ;D. Since I need to lift my frame over a bar more than 7 foot above ground, every once counted.
Quote from: Keira on June 07, 2007, 03:13:52 PM
If your eating low enough calorie for losing muscles, its not maintenance level eating Melissa.
I'm not trying to maintain my weight, I'm trying to get smaller...and it's working. :) Oh, and I'm 176 today.
Don't worry, I trust you as being knowledgable since it correlates well to what I know about it. By the way, in 2004, I used to weight 210. I lost 20 pounds in about 2 months just on willpower and changing eating habits (I had just watched the movie, Supersize me). Then while maintaining 190 for a month or so, I was offered an opportunity for a 6 week program with free gym membership which included working side by side with a personal trainer the whole time and a highly optimized diet plan for weight loss. I applied and was accepted and at the end of that, I weighed 172. I still have a photo of me the day after. Over the next 9 months, I slowly went up to 180 due to reaquiring some bad eating habits, but I still maintained some good ones. That's about when I started hormones. So, weight loss has been something I have been doing in stages over the past 2 1/2 years. I would say it's been pretty successful since I have not ever gone up to the weight I started at.
Another great tip is to search for foods that are very healthy that you enjoy eating. Definitely include those and you will feel much better about eating choices. I love lemon juice and tabasco and both of them are 0 fat and 0 Calories and make excellent (and strong) food flavoring. For sweetner, I typically choose splenda if I must, but overall I try and avoid foods that would require sweetner such as coffee (which is a diuretic and should be avoided anyways). Over the past 2 1/2 weeks, I have not been really avoid all bad foods. For instance, I occasionally have an alcoholic beverage in the evening and I have a supply of saltwater taffy I got on memorial day (5/28) from which I munch on some pieces every night. I also had some cake on my son's birthday a couple of weeks ago. The point is, I'm not completely depriving myself of foods I like, yet I'm continuing to lose weight rapidly. It's amazing what some simple changes to eating habits will do.
Oh, I generally choose water for a drink. Especially while going out to eat (yeah, I do that too sometimes). Water is quite cheap and very good for losing weight. In fact, I've never seen a diet that does not recommend drinking lots of water.
I graduated high school at 5'-8" and 150 pounds. It seemed no matter what I did that didn't change. When I was building my house I spent the weekdays at work and evenings and weekends working on my house. I was going all the waking hours of the day because I was really excited about building the house. I only ate when hungry. By the time the house was done I had dropped to 128 pounds and I felt better than I ever had in my life. I was full of energy and I looked great in a skirt and heels!
I'm convinced being active all day and eating many small portions during the day was the formula that enabled me to lose weight and not gain muscle mass.
Julie
Okay, I've been trying to consume 1500 calories a day for a while now. It's been closer to 1600-1700 the last couple of weeks, as I don't want to let my body starve and my body's been wanting more calories. According to the base metabolism rate thing I found on google, 1700 and some change is where I should be so 1500-1700 is pretty healthy, especially as I've been dropping weight like a rock (well, as much of a rock as one can drop when you're already thin.)
I just started a new job that will have me moving a lot of stuff, some of it heavy. I'm concerned about adding muscle mass while doing this. It's probably a stupid concern, but who are we but always concerned with keeping our bodies the "right" way?
Am I correct that just maintaining my current diet will pretty much keep my body stable? I have very little fat and muscle over all.
You need extra calory to add muscle mass.
Usually that happens because when you exercise you appetite increases.
The body indicates to you that it needs more energy for the increased activity of current muscles and building the new muscles.
IF you don't respond at all to its invitation :) and don't up the calory intake, you'll do the opposite of gaining muscles, probably lose some more, and some fat too.
When you lift weight your expending energy, your base metabolism is increasing, so you need more calories to sustain your body.
It depends on how are big the weights are and how frequent the reps (like all exercises). You need substantial resistance to increase muscles. But, to sustain them you need less.
If you want to be sure not to increase muscle mass no matter what, eat the minimum proteins that is needed to sustain your current body. There are tables about that on internet. Proteins are needed to build muscles, that's why
My diet is unfortunately pretty high in protein. Probably too high, like most americans. Though I'm glad that the calorie intake i was feeling out on my own ended up being what's considered right for weight loss. It was certainly getting results without crisis.
I don't really want to lose what I've got muscle wise. I hardly have any as is. I don't think there will be considerable resistance in general, mostly just a largely increased amount of physical activity. So it sounds like I'll be burning through the remainder of my fat and wanting to eat more, but as long as I don't start eating cheeseburgers all the time my current diet should be relatively sufficient. Yay!
Since I last posted on here, I discovered that reduced appetite and weight loss are actually very common side effects of taking a medication that I'm on. That being said, I just confirmed this weekend that much of the weight I lost was actually muscle. I had done some strength tests within the last couple of months and it took me by surprise that I had actually lost a lot of strength even in just the past few weeks. I also noticed certain muscles are visibly smaller such as my calves.
Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately depending on how you look at it), one of the effects of losing weight is that clothes no longer fit and so buying new ones becomes necessary. The downside is that this can be costly. I bought a bra a few weeks ago. I had a choice between a 38B or 36C (which have the same size cups, but different bands) with the 38B fitting me on it's tightest band setting or the 36C fitting me on it's loosest setting. Due to me knowing I was going to lose weight, I decided upon the 36C because I figured I could tighten it as I lost weight. Well, now I wear it at it's tightest setting and it's getting pretty loose on me, so it looks like after such a short time I may have to buy even more bras! Strangely enough, my breasts have NOT shrunk with the weightloss. :icon_joy: I figure it's most likely due to most of the weightloss being muscle and not fat.
So, one of the things I have been doing to save some money is I brought my girlfriend's sewing machine down to my house and I am going to take some of my clothes in. The safety pins are just not cutting it. At least I don't have to get rid of some of my favorite items this way. :)
Ah, the joys of losing weight. Oh, one of the unfortunate effects I have been feeling lately is I have felt a bit dizzy and nauseous in the mornings and my muscles have felt really weak. My girlfriend has also been saying I look pale. The thing is, I'm not really trying to lose weight that much, I just forget to eat a lot of times.
Melissa, I think you should slack off on the weight loss rythm; from what your describing, its too fast. Hope you've kept your proteins over the minimum for your body weight.
Its not good to lose weight fast, and especially lose that much muscles fast.
If you lose too much muscles, there is a bigger chance you will regain the weight later if your appetite comes back.
One or two pounds a week is a good rythm to lose weight, about 6-8 pounds a month (unless your very overweight, then you can lose more, but its not your case). On a slow diet, you lose a bit of muscle, but mostly fat. If you cut the calories too much, its the opposite, you can lose more pounds from muscles than fat (or the same).
Well, I'm trying to slow it down, but unless I pig out (which results in a stomach ache), I lose about a pound a day. The thing is, I hadn't loss any muscle mass during the previous 16 months on HRT, but I'm finally losing it. I'm not eating too little on purpose. Most of my weightloss occurs during the week while I'm at work. I just get wrapped up in what I'm doing and forget to eat. Then I try and eat and I'm too stuffed and get a stomach ache and the cycle repeats. It was cool at first how well it was going, but I can't seem to slow it down much. :-\ Anyways, what's wrong with finally losing my muscle mass?
Thank you Kiera for pointing that out to her. I just found this thread.
Hey sweety too much too fast and all you'll do is make yourself sick with the risk of gaining the weight back. Weakness and paleness are not good signs.
Rashelle
I don't have any food with me today. I guess I'll eat when I get home.
If your truly losing one pound a day and eating normally, then get yourself checked. If you don't have any appetite for any food. Same thing. Get yourself checked. Anyway you look at it, one pound a day is too much.
To lose a pound a day, you need a 3500 calorie deficit to burn one pound of fat; that's very improbable since your base metabolism is probably around 1800 and you are eating a bit. So your probably almost exclusively accessing muscles as fuel (they are heavier, but a much less efficient energy storage since that's not their purpose). The body does that to match the body's base metabolism to the food intake.
I wonder if your thyroid is not overactive? (that increases metabolism substantially).
Yeah, I truly have been losing about a pound a day, minus the days I pigged out. I figured most of what I have lost has been muscle as denoted by the decreased strength, smaller muscles, but about the same amount of fat. I really don't feel like eating and unless Rashelle is over, I tend to eat less and less. I know I should eat more, but I'm not sure what to do. I really don't want to gain the weight back that I have already lost, either in fat or muscle. I know that I will need to eat far less Calories than before to maintain this due to having less muscle, which burns less fat and to maintain the current amount of fat. I'm actually starting to look pretty good in terms of how my face looks. According to Dr's charts, I'm still technically over weight though. Even SRS surgeons have told me to lose weight. So now here I am miraculously dropping to where I want to be without much effort and even though I know it's not really healthy, I don't want it to go away. I know I am being REALLY bad today by not eating anything but 3 reduced fat ritz crackers, some iced tea and water. I just forgot to bring food with me and I don't really have money I want to spend. Plus, I know if I eat even a little, my stomach will demand more food and I won't be able to supply it and I really hate feeling hungry (ironic, isn't it).
As for an overactive thyroid, I doubt it. I did some web searches and it seems fairly common that people taking Adderall will have very little appetite and lose weight. That's why I updated that the weight loss was not caused by my "diet plan", but rather as a natural occurence of taking my meds. I have also heard that this effect may only last a certain number of weeks. I also just started taking prozac for my impusivity problems (symptoms like OCD) about a week and a half ago. I guess it can also help with depression, which I have a mild case of. It seems like an ideal combination to me for my particular symptoms. However, loss of appetite is another side effect of prozac. The effects of prozac shouldn't be apparent for something like 3-5 weeks after starting it though.
I guess I need to figure out how to slow my weight loss down without feeling sick and over/under eating. However, my problem has always been overeating. One of the effects of hormones was supposed to be loss of muscle mass, which I REALLY looked forward to. Unfortunately, I seemed to not have much loss and it seemed no loss of strength, so I was SO disappointed. I figured it was probably due to other factors of my body. So, I when started dropping weight knowing a bunch of it was muscle (hence posting in this thread), I was delighted and it just seemed like something so wonderful.
Anyways, I have another Dr. Appointment on Friday. I already emailed her, but I'm going to talk to her about getting a karyotype done. I seem to possess many (like 80-90%) of the symptoms for Klinefelter's syndrome (including ADD, impulsivity, high IQ, physical symptoms, etc.) and want to get tested. That's more to ease this in my own mind. I can talk to my doctor about the weight, but I REALLY don't want to be taken off the meds. I'm finally focusing so much better than before. I'll eat in a few hours I guess (when I get home). Of course it's not like I'll have much choice, since my sweetie is making sure I eat then.
You know, I think this is the first time I have gone this long with eating as little as I have in any recent memory. I think I have had maybe 50 Calories today. :o Yeah, I know, I am SO bad. :( *pout*
Im still 180 and I have changed my diet . low carbs low protien, eat in minamal amounts work out first then eat. I have to loose about 5 lbs. fat and 15 lbs. muscle. I`m thinking maybe do something unhealthy to loose it. then rebiuld from there.
Its much easier to lose muscle mass if you exercises at a level high enough that converting fats to energy is not sufficient, carbs are all used up and thus muscles get used (the intensity of the exercise must be high enough).
To do that, make sure you carb intake is low enough to run a deficit during the day. You know your carbs stores are low, when you get this spaced out feeling in your head (the brain also needs carb); obviously, during the work day you need to get enough carb so you can work efficiently.
So I have been eating low carb for about a year now. I used to weight 340 lbs and I am now down to 224. Losing weight has been a great experience but since I'm staring my transition (I'm taking anti-androgens now) I would like to lose some the bulk muscle. I know that once I am on estrogen I might lose some. I was reading through some of the posts on losing muscle but I didn't see anything specific on low carb diets and muscle loss. My diet is high protein, low carbohydrates. I don't really count the grams, but I mostly eat meats, eggs, cheeses, nuts, and certain low carb vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce). My question is this. Can I lose muscle on high protein, low carb diet?
Quote from: Melissa on June 11, 2007, 04:55:21 PMI guess I need to figure out how to slow my weight loss down without feeling sick and over/under eating.
Well, my weight has been holding for a couple weeks now. I think it's about time to start throwing in exercise. Also, I do need to get my fat % down. I got a body fat analyzer scale a couple weeks ago and it's a bit on the high side.
Yes you can lose muscvle on high protein, low carb, if you exercise with enough intensity that the body cannot access fats for food and has to burn muscles. But, in your case, since you've got still substantial amount of fats, its possible the body will burn visceral fats instead of muscle when you exercise (visceral fat is easier to use for energy than the outlying fats).
To use visceral fats and muscle, you need something varied like interval training, intense exercises (weights or resistance) with lower intensity, even cardio, in between.