As my topic about weight and gender showed, I am trying to obtain a male physique after starting T a year ago.
One of my mistakes was to assume that fat redistribution was just that. Redistribution. Fat would move from the female places to the male ones and it would happen over time, like magic. But boy, was I wrong. After a year on T nothing had moved yet. And it disappointed me.
So onto the internet I went. There I learned that fat doesn't just move from one place to another. It has to be burned off. And when you get on T, if you want to lose it at the female spots, you have to burn it. Any new fat should be deposited in the male places. I also knew that females have a lot more fat right under their skin when compared to males. This is why, for example, veins are a lot more visible in males. So if I wanted to look male, I would have to lose that female fat no matter what. It seemed that dieting, even though I am not overweight, was the only way to obtain that.
Eating less and exercising more is quite straightforward. But I would like to know if any of you have any tips on how to get that male shape I want. Are there any tricks out there that could be used? Certain exercises that can be done to broaden the shoulders and shape the hips to a more male shape? Or perhaps certain foods that you know are very low in calories, but great to eat nonetheless? Or pointers as to how much I should eat compared to how much I should exercise? Anything ftm related would be welcome.
It is something that may happen over time through micro-deficiencies or through macro-deficiencies. If your not overweight right now you probably going to have to try to get to a very low fat percentage, which is challenging for many men. The other thing you could try but is more risky is to yo-yo your weight. However, the best thing is to increase muscle mass and properly loose weight by eating right and working out regularly.
Micro-deficiencies happen during the day and should work over time to move the fat, but YMMV. Your bone structure may also be at play here because I've lost weight from my hips, but my hips are still fairly large. I'm pretty sure awhile back rossiter posted his physique changes from pre-T to 5 years on T. I've also heard that post hysto. it is easier to loose fat from certain female fat areas.
Quote from: David27 on June 22, 2014, 04:17:58 PM
It is something that may happen over time through micro-deficiencies or through macro-deficiencies. If your not overweight right now you probably going to have to try to get to a very low fat percentage, which is challenging for many men. The other thing you could try but is more risky is to yo-yo your weight. However, the best thing is to increase muscle mass and properly loose weight by eating right and working out regularly.
Micro-deficiencies happen during the day and should work over time to move the fat, but YMMV. Your bone structure may also be at play here because I've lost weight from my hips, but my hips are still fairly large. I'm pretty sure awhile back rossiter posted his physique changes from pre-T to 5 years on T. I've also heard that post hysto. it is easier to loose fat from certain female fat areas.
This. I haven't really gained or lost much in the way of weight, and have had pretty bad habits - I'm a big guy - and the fat has absolutely shifted. My butt is like a 2x4 and my belly is popping lol. I don't think there's anything wrong with working out and trying to get in better shape if you want to, but I really wouldn't put your body under too much stress to achieve this. It might just be taking a bit longer for you than it does for some others (like how some guys grow facial hair quickly and others take several years).
I think that what you need to do will depend on your goals and the order you want to achieve them in. Do you want to cut the fat first and THEN start on broadening - or do you want to do both at once? The first is easier - generally, you need to find out what your caloric intake is. That will tell you how many calories per day you basically are eating in order to remain at the weight you are right now. Then, the idea is to eat calories to a deficit (500-a-day less than you normally eat) and do some running, jumping rope or sprinting twice a week.
If you want to bulk and cut at the same time, it's not easy. I'd suggest cutting the fat first and then focus on a good program that hits your shoulders, traps and lats.
Quote from: birkin on June 22, 2014, 04:22:58 PM
This. I haven't really gained or lost much in the way of weight, and have had pretty bad habits - I'm a big guy - and the fat has absolutely shifted. My butt is like a 2x4 and my belly is popping lol. I don't think there's anything wrong with working out and trying to get in better shape if you want to, but I really wouldn't put your body under too much stress to achieve this. It might just be taking a bit longer for you than it does for some others (like how some guys grow facial hair quickly and others take several years).
This has been my experience as well. I'll be a year on T on July 4th and have only noticed the redistribution in the last month or so. My weight has not changed at all, but my butt seems smaller and my gut seems bigger. All of my pants fit looser as well. So give it a bit more time, I would say.
I work out several times a week doing cardio and strength and I've had oopho. I think oopho helped a lot with fat distribution as well as I have reacted very strongly to T despite being on gel.
Thanks for the replies, guys.
I do realize a year on T is not long enough to see all the changes properly, but I figured as long as I'm waiting for the redistribution, I might as well help it along as much as I can. The micro deficiencies might indeed cause the redistribution after a long while without help, but I guess I'm just quite impatient.
Kreuzfidel, you wrote down exactly what I was thinking. I will indeed focus on losing the girly fat first, then focus on bulking up. I tried to do both, but it is confusing. You do have to eat well in order to provide the building blocks for muscles. But when you try to eat less to lose weight, it sounds contradictory. You never know if the food will be used for muscles or fat. So, as you said, it's easier to focus on one at a time.
For now, I will focus on shedding a few more pounds and see what that will do do my shape. My surgeries are coming up this year, or at the start of next year, so I'm really curious to see if that will help.
Quote from: Mr.X on June 23, 2014, 08:12:01 AM
Thanks for the replies, guys.
I do realize a year on T is not long enough to see all the changes properly, but I figured as long as I'm waiting for the redistribution, I might as well help it along as much as I can. The micro deficiencies might indeed cause the redistribution after a long while without help, but I guess I'm just quite impatient.
Kreuzfidel, you wrote down exactly what I was thinking. I will indeed focus on losing the girly fat first, then focus on bulking up. I tried to do both, but it is confusing. You do have to eat well in order to provide the building blocks for muscles. But when you try to eat less to lose weight, it sounds contradictory. You never know if the food will be used for muscles or fat. So, as you said, it's easier to focus on one at a time.
For now, I will focus on shedding a few more pounds and see what that will do do my shape. My surgeries are coming up this year, or at the start of next year, so I'm really curious to see if that will help.
What kind of surgery? It's important to note that just a hystro is not necessarily going to change your hormonal balance much as much as oophorectomy will. A lot of guys confuse this A LOT, partially because hystro has become synonymous with complete hysterectomy + bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy. I've had oopho and I have to say that I think the effects I got from HRT really helped being off any kind of female hormones being naturally produced by my body more than T being aromatized into estrogen, anyway.
Also funnily, I feel so much better overall as I suffered a lot from dryness etc before down there prior of going on T. T has actually stabilized my hormones and such a lot and I feel so much healthier. I think there was something up with my cycle though, but I never investigated it.
I've been reading up on this and speaking to a lot of guys recently on things and a lot of them upped their protein intakes and started working out doing body specific training. There's a transguy fitness channel on youtube that I watch from time to time that might also be of some help. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tlON3v5-Jc3X4Ko_MLJ1Q
You might also benefit from researching good exercises for those certain body areas you want to slim down/muscle up on as well and start doing a daily work out to help along what you're trying to achieve. Also cutting calories is only so good. I actually was going at 1200 a day until I realized males needed to intake more than that so I upped to 1400 a day and started taking more protein and fiber enriched foods.
Of course finding your calorie balance per your body weight is important. One of the men on the channel suggested starting higher in calories then dropping and adjusting as you go along. This way (if you're not over weight as is) you have room to move around instead of starting pure bottom baseline.
Don't cut calories too drastically, it can slow down your metabolism. Use a calorie needs calculator like the one on exrx to get an idea of what you need to maintain your current weight and go from there.
Although it's technically possible to lose fat on any diet as long as caloric deficit is achieved, it is easier to maintain longterm, and overall healthier to eat a balanced, nutritious diet of things like whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit, unsweetened dairy products, fish, eggs, nuts, olives, etc. Basically complex carbs, protein, and healthy fats. A simple way to cut calories is to identify any junk food you eat regularly and make it an occasional treat instead. For example I used to drink soda and/or juice every day, but now drink various unsweetened teas, water, or milk.
That said, it's possible to eat a nutritious, appropriately portioned meal and still be ready to chew your arm off. Many vegetables are great to fill up on because they're mostly fiber and add negligible calories. Some people like shirataki/konjac noodles for this, or fiber supplements.
Long-term, lifestyle changes like NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, basically moving more in general), including hot peppers as a regular part of your diet (capsaicin burns fat), and exposure to safe levels of cold (encourages brown fat to burn white fat to keep the body warm - think cold showers, ditching the coat/sweater when it's cold but not dangerously so, not cranking up the heat at home in winter) can add up too. Finding a kind of cardio you enjoy enough to do 20-30 minutes every day makes things easier than trying to consistently do something you can barely stand.
And, I see upper body weight lifting moves talked about a lot, but not obliques. Building up the obliques contributes to a "straight up and down" look, IMO. Dumbbell side bends are good for this.
Ephemeral, the first surgery i'm getting is the mastectomy, which has got nothing to do with weightloss. But it will be the start of me going in and out of hospital with 3 to 6 months intervals to get all female organs removed (I want it all gone because it serves no purpose other than a higher cancer risk by just being there) and in the end the phallo.
Hex, thanks for that link. I'll deffo check it out. I'm currently eating around 1300 calories for 5 days a week. I know this is undereating too much, so I up my calories to about 1600 on a wednesday, and a free pass day in the weekend of about 2500 calories. This spikes my intake and fools my metabolism in not lowering because there is no continuous famine. This averages my calories around the 1500 range, which seems to work for me. I lost 3kg in 5 weeks. I make sure I eat the good kinds of foods such as fruits and vegetables and yes, legumes. Legumes are the slow carbs that make sure I'll be energized longer.
I already do cardio 5 times a week for about an hour. And I train my upper body 4 to 5 times a week for about half an hour. So I think I got it covered exercise wise.
I'll definitely check out the pepper thing and the program out. It's always nice to see new things to check.
Forgot to mention earlier, hot peppers aren't the only food that might help lose fat. Wakame, ginger, and garlic, according to the study results I've been reading (I have a bunch of links if anyone's interested), all have compounds in them that contribute to fat control. Come to think of it, all those things are great in a soup.
Quote from: Mr.X on June 23, 2014, 09:04:05 AM
Ephemeral, the first surgery i'm getting is the mastectomy, which has got nothing to do with weightloss. But it will be the start of me going in and out of hospital with 3 to 6 months intervals to get all female organs removed (I want it all gone because it serves no purpose other than a higher cancer risk by just being there) and in the end the phallo.
Right. Yeah, people have differing opinions and needs on surgery obviously, so just wanted to point that one out that if it's hystro that you want, which most people seem to opt for first for reasons that are beyond me, it may not necessarily have that much of an effect when it comes to body shape. Hystro CAN affect hormones, but usually if ovaries are left intact they will just operate like they always do and even if you are on T, it's not like your ovaries stop producing hormones entirely. Hence guys who take HRT for a long time eventually get symptoms similar to PCOS which is one reason why you want to remove them.
right now my body fat percentage is roughly 22%-25% it fluctuates. but i've found that drinking alot more water helps the definition come out as well as flush fat. avoid sugars like the plague, if your worried about ur blood sugar fruit is the optimal choice, but sugars from things like candy are what make the weight stick to your frame and make sheding pounds harder. also as far as exercises, get into weight lifting. it doesn't take a lot to see a difference. and you don't need equipment either. strength exercises can be done just with your own body weight, and are worth looking into.
as far as maybe getting stronger and shedding weight and building the physique you want, I would say focus on upper body workouts, and a lot of core work. it'll thicken the muscle in your torso to help get rid of the hourglass look and more a rectangle. maybe try plyometrics, it's jump training and very good for building leg muscle and cardio. and just generally cardio is what will get rid of fat. if you aren't very heavy you could even use your weight to help fuel some muscle growth, it's hard to gain muscle when your stick thin, eating well and weight training would be optimal.
as far as weight redistributing i've been on T for 4.5 months now but not a lot has happened to my legs. HOWEVER it has been very easy to get it on my gut XD where as before i'd carry exclusively in my ass. since it's been moving up onto my trunk my boobs i think might have gotten a little bigger (could also be from chest exercises too) but i dont' look girly as far as my torso, it's too thick XD