Holly: yes! Cutting soda (which I have done simply because it hurts my stomach) does help. If you eat out a lot, that food is basically just fat. I don't eat fast food much and never have but once a month or two wont hurt much.

LearnedHand: I tend to avoid anything with soy since soy boosts estrogen levels (I battle with it since there is a ton of soy stuff here) does almond milk have a lot of soy products? I have only found it in one store but I do miss milk sometimes.

An important thing to remember for guys on t, t does change fat redistribution, so if guys in your family carry weight on the gut (mine does like crazy) sometimes you have to sacrifice things to get the gut to go away.

I have found that changing habits slowly helps. Once you get into a routine it isn't so hard to watch what you eat or to start working out.

Once I lost weight I threw out my "fat" clothes and I find that helps too. I'm wearing my husbands old 33 inch waist pants and when they feel a bit tight I tend to be more aggressive. Just a thought for when you drop sizes. If you are short on money, or a crazy saver like me, you can always get pants a few sizes smaller from recycle or second hand shops to help. All of my clothes are second hand since I am trying to loose more but it does help in keeping weight off.

The most dangerous thing I have found is getting comfortable in knowing that you keep loosing weight. Whenever I think that I gain some back

Quote from: LearnedHand on March 02, 2013, 08:44:13 AM
Ah! I just looked it up and remembered.... cutting too much carbs causes "ketosis"

Ketosis is good.  Ketosis means your body is burning fat for fuel, which is what people trying to lose fat are aiming for.  If your body is burning carbs for fuel instead of fat (and your body will always use carbs first), you're not losing much fat.

Buy or borrow this book from the library, It's called "The China Study" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Study_(book) It's not a diet book, but how to eat healthy and why and how to avoid diseases. Which I would think is essential for FTM's taking testosterone and being at risk for certain diseases. Changed me an my families life.

Quote from: Ayden on March 02, 2013, 09:55:45 AM
LearnedHand: I tend to avoid anything with soy since soy boosts estrogen levels (I battle with it since there is a ton of soy stuff here) does almond milk have a lot of soy products? I have only found it in one store but I do miss milk sometimes.

There's no soy in almond milk. Rice milk is also good, and soy free. I'd avoid hemp milk though, it taste awful!

Quote from: LearnedHand on March 02, 2013, 11:56:50 AM
There's no soy in almond milk. Rice milk is also good, and soy free. I'd avoid hemp milk though, it taste awful!

Oat milk is fantastic. A bit sweet though.

I've heard that soy raising estrogen levels is a myth. These guys think so too. Interesting body building conversation though. http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=690836&page=1

I'd drink rice or almond milk, but both make me sick for some reason.

As yet another measure to try and fix my hip, I went on a diet that supposedly cured a couple of kids of arthritis, which is good because my rheumatoid factor (aka SED rate) is creeping up every time we test it. In addition, my mom wants me to lower my cholesterol and I'm lactose intolerant, so this is my dietary restriction list:

-No gluten

-No nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers)

-No milk products

-Red meat, once a month

-Fish at least once a week

-Fruits, but limited on citrus (acid reflux)

-As close to no processed sugar as possible

-Eggs, once a month

-Lots of vegetables (eat those dark, leafy greens!)

Now, I've had issues trying to lose weight right up until now. Maybe it's stress, maybe it's lack of sleep and lack of 90 million hours to jog or spend time in the gym or get some time outside, but I hated it because I was almost in the overweight range for my height, which doesn't seem terrible but just worsened my dysphoria. Two weeks in, I dropped 11 pounds, and probably more since then. I need belts now because my pants won't stay up XD

But in addition, I climb stairs constantly (woo, wearing down my hip) in school. Stay moving and put the right stuff in, it helps.

Quote from: Ayden on March 02, 2013, 09:55:45 AM
The most dangerous thing I have found is getting comfortable in knowing that you keep loosing weight. Whenever I think that I gain some back

This definitely happens. I went and bought new jeans, and I was go happy with dropping a few sizes that I lost a good week to eating terribly.  You get happy with yourself, tell yourself you deserve a 'treat' and it spirals from there.  I have a bad habit of thinking that if I cheat once, I might as well just cheat for the rest of the day.  Doesn't work that way though, gotta keep at it no matter what, one mistake is just that - I am telling myself this as much as saying this to anyone reading.

One concrete goal helps. I have a weight I want to reach before top surgery. I'm still saving money, but I really don't want to hit the money goal before the weight goal and have to wait even longer, so keeping up with one versus the other is motivating.

Quote from: holly_ on March 02, 2013, 09:11:56 AM
I am naturally skinny except I started to develop this "beer gut" thing and it looked very nasty to me.  I now have it basically gone by just cutting out a few things.  First and foremost I stopped drinking beer LOL.  If I want some alcohol I will drink some wine.  I also used to eat fast food constantly...I stopped doing that.  I used to drink soda constantly too so I cut that out completely.  So what do I eat then?  I drink water constantly and eat soup, salads, veggies, fruits.  Even though I do cut things out of my diet I will occasionally splurge and eat some pizza or even go to McDonald's.  This isn't a bad thing if you only do it ONCE in a while.  I would probably go insane if I couldn't eat chocolate or some fast food sometimes.  I also don't eat a lot of food anyway so proportions are not a big deal for me.  I don't really exercise at all but I plan on biking when it gets warmer outside.

i'm driven by temptation with where i work. i currently work in fast food. i need to start packing my own lunch. something healthy. does anyone have any good ideas for a healthy lunch? i'm not a huge salad fan. i've been trying to make myself one. is there any way to make it not so unpleasant?

Quote from: lawliver on March 02, 2013, 07:00:10 PM
i'm driven by temptation with where i work. i currently work in fast food. i need to start packing my own lunch. something healthy. does anyone have any good ideas for a healthy lunch? i'm not a huge salad fan. i've been trying to make myself one. is there any way to make it not so unpleasant?

Leftover dinner is usually the easiest lunch.  When you make dinner just make extra and bring it for lunch the next day.  Or, if you get a good discount at work, find some healthy things on the menu you enjoy and get from there.  Most fast food places have a few decent options that aren't necessarily salads.

Quote from: Devin87 on March 02, 2013, 07:14:19 PM
Leftover dinner is usually the easiest lunch.  When you make dinner just make extra and bring it for lunch the next day.  Or, if you get a good discount at work, find some healthy things on the menu you enjoy and get from there.  Most fast food places have a few decent options that aren't necessarily salads.

I agree with Devin, but it's also good to just keep something that's healthy and won't go bad with you for those days where you don't have leftovers (or if you're like me you accidently forget it on the train). I keep a box of muesli (which I love love love muesli ) and a bowl in my locker at school so the only thing I need to buy is some juice to go over it; at work we keep a bunch of healthy stuff in the refrigerator for everyone to pick at too.

I'm not on any kind of structured thing at all, but I think I should be since I am on T (at last!).
Anyway, I know some guy at work on the 17 day diet. It sounds like a faddish thing but it is not at all. It just has steps (or stages) and these steps are 17 days long. It is basically a good carb/good fat/ high protein (at least initially). The exercise starts out as 17 min., which makes it all 17ish, but that's the only thing gimmicky about it.

People actually lose fast and they lose bellyfat which is very hard to lose. I actually am not the slightest bit fat but have weight in the belly which is the worst place to have fat.

The guy I have talked to is on step 1. He has lunches with a huge salad, yogurt, some kind of fruit, and a lot of chicken. Which is a healthy lunch in my book.

Actually it's a life eating plan, where you would ideally stay at the last stage all the time which allows for eating out and also cheating now and again.


--Jay

My aunt has been on the 17 day diet for.... 2 years now. It works as long as you don't go back to what you ate before. The huge downside is that she hates eating now but is stuck with it since she is afraid to go off it. Those fad diets are terrible like that.

I'm a vegetarian so a low carb diet would be pretty difficult for me to actually maintain. I should get some exercise but I never do, the gym is both expensive and there's that lovely locker room problem. Most of my weight gain is from the hormone blockers I've been given. I lost weight last summer when I was traveling around Europe, walking a lot, eating little and carrying a heavy backpack. Yesterday I visited this really cool hippie food store, and they had all kinds of healthy and weird food, such as quinoa flakes, lots of different kinds of beans, loads of vegetarian meat-substitutes, things like that. It really inspired me to try and eat more healthy.

Quote from: PixieBoy on March 03, 2013, 06:50:58 AM
I'm a vegetarian so a low carb diet would be pretty difficult for me to actually maintain. I should get some exercise but I never do, the gym is both expensive and there's that lovely locker room problem. Most of my weight gain is from the hormone blockers I've been given. I lost weight last summer when I was traveling around Europe, walking a lot, eating little and carrying a heavy backpack. Yesterday I visited this really cool hippie food store, and they had all kinds of healthy and weird food, such as quinoa flakes, lots of different kinds of beans, loads of vegetarian meat-substitutes, things like that. It really inspired me to try and eat more healthy.

Due to religious beliefs, I was raised vegetarian and although I am not anymore I eat like a vegetarian often (except now I've been making myself eat chicken at least 4 days a week), and I don't even see how a low-carb diet could be possible while vegetarian, at least in a realistic sense. Maybe if you do just raw foods. We  used to go to a food store run by some people in the same religion so it was always cool to go and get some furkey and all that other stuff. I've never see quinoa flakes though, I am going to have to check it out, I love quinoa. Do you know what you do with it?

I like making my own granola bars too, they're probably healthier than some of the ones you get at the store. If anyone has any good granola bar recipes they'd like to share, PM me, I lost my good one 

I have no idea, didn't buy it due to having to be a bit careful with my spending this month. I guess you could use it in porridge similar to how oatmeal is made from oat flakes? Or maybe use it in baked goods? Or use it in your own granola/müsli?

Just as a bit of anecdotal advice, quinoa spaghetti, while fairly expensive and hard to find around here, is delicious and healthy.

It's possible to do something like South Beach or the 17 day diet on even a vegan diet (I know for the 17 day but not so sure on SB. It's harder on a vegan diet as the 17 day diet requires a pretty high intake of yogurt, but what they are looking for is probiotics so you can do kimchi and stuff like that. I don't know that much about it, but the "new" grains (quinoa, amaranth, bulgar, millet, teff, Indian rice grass, etc.) are really loaded with nutrients and in some cases protein. Some of the above are gluten free.

BTW, I did South Beach sort of modified. I basically ate a lot of good stuff and avoided the not good stuff and lost weight without trying too hard. No fried foods; more fish, chicken, turkey, and there are a few really low fat other meats; lots of veggies; stayed away from fruit like bananas; whole grains; lowered sugar intake a lot.

I'm not ready for it as I want to wait a bit with the T, but I wonder if we could do some kind of "club" to encourage each other on exercise and eating healthy. Eating healthy is so important on T. They could "sticky" it so we could add to it??

--Jay

Body for Life, esp if you are going to the gym.  Workout smarter, not harder.  Really works, very motivational book.  You can probably get it from your library.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060193395/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1/178-0343460-0778129?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_r=0HVPJS3WJ2NMTSEBGAV2&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_i=0061467693

Quote from: Ayden on March 03, 2013, 05:04:46 AM
My aunt has been on the 17 day diet for.... 2 years now. It works as long as you don't go back to what you ate before. The huge downside is that she hates eating now but is stuck with it since she is afraid to go off it. Those fad diets are terrible like that.

I don't agree it's a fad diet, it's the way we are supposed to eat. Very much veggies, whole grains and fruit (in the later steps), and lean meat and fish. The thing is that that is NOT how most of us learn to eat and we see ads all day of things we should not eat. The reason it only works while you are on it is that that is how you are supposed to eat. If you go back to junk food, fried foods, simple carbs, some people's bodies figure that out immediately. I suppose others don't.

--Jay