I was wondering if taking testosterone acts to increase metabolism at all? I've had weight problems for a long time now and have tried multiple times to correct it but get absoloutely nowhere. Tried the whole diet and exercise thing. I expected to do well, prior to first attempt over 2 years ago I had never dieted or particuarly exercised (outside of PE class at school) in my life so it was a huge lifestyle change for me. I didnt give in either and kept it going for over a month. I know its normal to lose a few pound or so a week but after all that time I hadnt lost a thing, if anything i put ON weight everytime I try regardless of what I do. My latest attempts have focussed on trying to build muscle first then lose weight as just having muscle there can help to burn it easier but still going nowhere. I struggle with the diet side as theres little enough I can eat as it is. I am still pre everything right now in terms of this, hoping to start T by the end of the year but whether that is possible or not depends on how long I need to wait between appointments and everything else. Still to get my initial appointment at the clinic. In general it seems that women may have a slower metabolism than men. I can only assume my metabolism is crap and therefore the reason I fail everytime I try. Once Im on T might it help with this and also make losing weight in general easier? Obviously work still has to be put into it and once I have a better body I will gladly workout more. T will make building muscle so much easier, as well as cause a redistribution of body fat, so my weight lifting might actually pay off then. I should hopefully get the muscle then but has anyone found weight to come off easier too? Its been so pointless I've been considering surgery for it while Im getting all my surgery done anyway but if T alone can help me get the results I need it would save time doing that as well as the money. Pretty sure it does but I'd rather hear from people who have been through this themselves and their own experiences of how things changed. If I can get away with not having one surgery then I will definately put the work in to get there


Also from what I've seen people taking T seem to get it via injection at varying lengths of time. Is injection the best method in terms of effects? I would have thought the best method would be the implant as they last for a lot longer. I would have thought it could be quite annoying to have to keep going to the GP every few weeks for an injection. Of course its worth it but I just wondered why the longer formulation implant doesnt seem to be generally used

When you start to diet and exercise at the same time, it is rather normal you gain a little before you lose weight. Exercise makes you gain muscle while you burn fat, but muscle is more dense and thus heavier than fat. You'll need to give it longer than a month before you might actually start losing weight. Also, you probably did burn fat, it just didn't show up on the scale due to muscle growth.

I can't comment on the effects of T on metabolism because I haven't started T yet, but I'm sure others can answer that question for you.

I know muscle weighs more so may tip the scale in that sense but with how easily everyone else seems to lose weight so quickly it just seems like theres something wrong with me. Scales can be inaccurate to use though as a measure as it takes account of body water and everything else. I have used measurements of myself too to try see any change but nothing, if not worse again. The first time it was mainly diet as at that time I didnt have anything to use to exercise with just a mini exercise bike. I now have a full size exercise bike and rowing machine. Complete diet change still did nothing, if anything I was feeling worse on it too. I felt better at first but then I just felt awful. I tried to take vitamins and everything else too. With this body I cant see me getting anywhere and I really dont have the motivation to go for months on end to still see no results at all. Maybe just diet rather than combining with exercise would be better but diet is the main problem for me with how little I can eat to begin with

First time my motivation was fine, I could keep it going easily. What killed it completely was the scales, seeing I was a bit heavier than when I had started. I just cant keep the motivation anymore, especially since I have bad depression too its constantly thoughts like 'whats the point' etc. Sorting out the gender problem though should greatly get rid of that issue, hopefully completely once I have fully transitioned. For now though I cant see anything changing as much as I've tried. My only hope right now is T if it can help get this crap off easier. To actually see some results with it will be the motivation I need to keep going too. Im sure it can give me the muscles I want but I want rid of everything else too or I wont look right

I don't feel that T increases metabolism. T might make it a little easier to put on muscle with less effort over time but that's it.

@Mr X that's a common myth. It takes more time to build muscle than it does to lose fat (at least when you're starting).

Not so much of a myth as I experienced it first hand.
When I started jogging when I was 15, I was perplexed that I first gained weight. After a few months, I lost it again, and then some more.

But it does depend on the kind of exercise you are doing.

Quote from: Nygeel on April 02, 2013, 10:37:11 AM
I don't feel that T increases metabolism. T might make it a little easier to put on muscle with less effort over time but that's it.

What Nygeel said.

I wouldn't count on it. A lot of it probably varies person to person, but many guys gain weight on T. I did. Not to be a wet blanket, but if you've been overweight for a long time, I'd say you probably have a predisposition to it and T isn't likely to change that. Habits and exercise aside, most people either put on weight easily or they don't. Same with losing it. It used to be super easy for me to lose weight. Now, it's not. Though there are other factors on that than just the T. Drinking too much for one. 

T can also drastically increase appetite (especially in the beginning) and even the experience of hunger. I used to be able to go a long time between meals and not even notice. Now I'm alerted to hunger by gnawing pain in my gut and can't focus on anything until I fix it. I even get headaches and lightheaded when hungry. Never had that before T.

One reason they say men lose weight easier is fat distribution. Fat in 'male places' like the gut is easier to lose than fat in more 'female places' like the ass and thighs. This is probably why I used to lose weight easy because I had the former. So, if most your fat is in your lower half, maybe that will make a difference. Or at least change the shape to something you're more comfortable with.
Building muscle on T may help burn more fat.

Overall though, unless your weight issues are caused by binging due to GID depression I wouldn't count on T to help much. It sounds like you've had a long struggle with weight and T may even make that harder. Seems just as many guys gain weight on T as lose it.


PS There are just as many fat men as fat women. If T increases metabolism at all, I'd say it's by a small margin and mostly overridden by personal genetics and other factors.

In my personal experience, yes. T absolutely gave me a metabolism. I hadn't had one since I was 12 (just before the damned female puberty). Literally, I would fast for two days (because I had a metabolic disorder without the T) and I'd gain five pounds overnight instead of losing anything. I don't feel sick anymore, either. I actually have energy and I'm actually able to eat and not feel physically just gross from it.

My problem, we don't know what exactly it was, but it involved my insulin. My blood had extremely high levels of it at any given time and it was really making me sick (I mean, so high I was actually able to SMELL IT and TASTE IT in my mouth and etc). And that had been going on from 12 up to 22. Half of my life. Gained fat like crazy even when I was dieting (I mean really healthy, balanced meals - WHEN I could stomach to force myself to eat them, it was really hard because even the healthy foods would spike my insulin levels) and now it's all better.

This problem had actually turned life-threatening towards the end of that phase of my life. Basically, the insulin spiked so very high and tanked my blood sugar so very low (despite having recognized it happening and having eaten some sugar to try and bring it back up initially) that I completely lost sensation over my entire body and then I hallucinated when my brain wasn't able to get enough glucose to itself anymore (an "absent" seizure, not the falling to the ground and shaking kind, just the sitting still and nobody behind the wheel kind of seizure).

But I was told that was "fine" by the urgent care, after I'd slept an entire day (just before my mom went to work and well through from after when she'd come home, about 20 hours) after that. Still felt really sick and just "fried", no better description I could use for it. Felt like all the nerves in my body were raw and burned up. Actually, kind of like a really, really, really bad hangover almost, but not because of drinking. Yeah, that's it.

Now this is where it gets interesting. After T? Nothing. Not a single symptom of whatever that was remains at all. These entire six and a quarter months have been the best of my entire life and not simply because of the fact I'm finally seeing myself as me in the mirror either. But because I'm HEALTHY!!! I don't feel, look or act sick anymore. It's truly been a miracle for me. I am completely asymptomatic if not cured altogether of whatever that was (or at least, as long as I'm on T that will be true, I'm sure if I got off of it that would come right back again). Honest. In fact, I knew before T that I wasn't feeling good at all... but after T? It made me realize just how truly, very sick I was feeling all the time prior. I'm amazed I didn't get fed up and just end it myself... I mean really,y it was THAT bad. But that's how it is which chronic illness... when it creeps in slow and steady before trying to flatten your ass out on the ground. You just don't notice it until it's gone, how bad it was... incredible experience though, to be sure.

To the point, in fact, that even if I weren't trans, I'd still be taking T for it. Wouldn't care. It would be better than putting up with all of those problems! But it worked out, because I am trans and I got my treatment for BOTH of these issues and just in time.


So yes, again, in my personal experience, T definitely can and does give you a better metabolism and the same ability as any other man (barring health problems or faulty genetics) to build muscle and lose fat.

I was 228lbs before T. I'm still 228lbs now, HOWEVER I've lost two pant sizes. My muscles are twice their size everywhere (I'm one of those "lucky sons'a'witches" that is naturally just muscled and keep it no matter what, sorry lol). Which can only mean, the fat and only the fat is going away. I'm getting complimented on it constantly, it's working.

But it will take some work on your part all the same. Sensible and balanced eating and exercise (I don't bother with cardio, lifting is cardio enough in and of itself as far as the heart is concerned. But then with the muscle building coming after it, during rest. It really is a "double-threat" to fat).

That said, I haven't been able to lift yet because things don't feel quite settled yet. I don't want to risk snapping or ripping anything. I'm being patient and will continue to wait until I feel my body is ready. Things just feel too short and tight in my extremities right now so... hope that hurries up so I can lift and get even more in shape! 

Thanks all. So mixed replies then.. suppose like alot of things it can come down to lovely genetics. Guess I'll just see what happens then. Some of this has been my fault from early secondary school days when they served all the fattening stuff in the canteen and I ate way too much of that. Even before then though I've felt bigger than I should have been. For my age group I had to get the biggest size jeans they had. I wasnt fat but maybe just build or down to genetics, no idea really. I've only gotten worse since and never been able to get any better despite trying. Only hoping that once I deal with my GD the depression will go and therefore all the problems associated with that itself. Maybe I do binge sometimes without even realising thats what Im doing but not that much if so. Whether its related to depression I dont know but if it is hopefully I can get rid of all this eventually. Just wondered in general if T can help but I suppose it varies from person to person. Just hope it doesnt make it worse, last thing I need.. Though as I said I will resort to surgery if thats what it takes. I just want to be happy with my body for the first time in my life


Magnus improving is a good sign though so there is hope. I've tried completely not eating too and again nothing works. Thats great its helped you so much. Of course you'd have ended up on T anyway for this but it helping turn you around in that way too is even better. Told you were fine? Im not a doctor (though in the medical science field) and that just sounds ridiculous. Never heard of anyone being able to smell or taste insulin before so that should have been a serious warning sign to them.. 'fine' my @$$. That was a long time to go through that too. Im glad you could get the help you needed and also that it was in the form of a double benefit. I didnt know T could be related to issues involving insulin so I think doctors should pay more attention to this as it could potentially save peoples lives who were in your situation. Your results sound good. I dont even mean weight to be a physical thing of what the scales say, I just mean look wise. You may be the same weight but in your case its obviously muscle weight over fat. Going down sizes prove that too. I've only gone up quite alot in the past few years. You have certainly been lucky then. I will certainly be continuing my weight lifting and hope that T will give me the muscles I've been trying to get now and in turn them helping sort the rest of me out. If it works for you it might for me. It could go the other way though from what others have said but guess I just need to wait and see what happens once I get on it


Thanks for all the input

Hey Leo,
I've always had a big build too, especially for a girl. Actually I hated being judged by 'girl standards' based on weight and height because of course I was big for a girl, I always was. But I was always pretty fit and worked out a lot. - just I always seemed 'over' for a girl based on build and fat distribution. Not to mention I always wore huge clothes due to dysphoria. Sometimes I purposely wore a tight shirt or something just to quell rumors I was 'overweight'.
I worked out constantly and watched what I ate but still, girl shirts were always too small and the pants never fit right being built for someone with hips. It can certainly give you a complex when doctors tell you you're overweight based on what a 'girl' your age should weigh without even looking at your body.

So, I feel ya there. But I did gain a lot of weight around the time I transitioned and T didn't help. I don't want you to get your hopes up. It's great that T helped Magnus' condition. But unless you have a similar insulin problem, it probably won't apply to your situation.
Not to be a downer, but I think you should be prepared: what if T doesn't help at all and what if in fact, you put on more weight on it?
If a lot of your body issues stem from weight, you need something other than or perhaps alongside T. Expect T to only help with some gender specific characteristics. Of which weight is not one.

Of course I don't think my results are typical, but I don't want to discourage anyone either. Just saying that sometimes, we get a lot more out of it than we bargained for. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. In my case, it was better than I could have ever even imagined or hoped for. Gave me my life back, doubly.

Then again, a hell of a lot of people out there have insulin resistance (although mine was quite severe, shoked my endo I was even conscious mine was so bad lol) and don't even know it until they wind up with full-blown diabetes from it. Mine just happened to not be from lifestyle factors (has to be genetic because my dad had an identical attack, right down to the hallucinatory state. My endo couldn't explain it, just said it was highly unusual but there you go). I'll never know exactly what caused my IR, all I know is the T is making it go away for me.

That all said, T *should* give everyone on it a bit more of an edge where weight loss and muscle bulking is concerned. If you keep at the weights and challenge your muscles, they will get bigger and as a result, you *should* see an improvement in your metabolism (muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body, so if you build more of it, you're going to get more calories burned off from them). If you notice yourself getting more hungry than you used too, that's what it means. That your metabolism is working better. That's why teenage boys can eat their parents out of house and home. Their metabolism is stoked to the max with all that T they're producing for the final stage of going from boy to man (also more muscles just from the T, see how that works?). And it's largely the same thing that happens to us when our T suddenly jumps from almost nothing up to a whole lot more than our bodies have ever had before. If that's not happening, you're probably on a fairly low-dose of T that isn't putting you enough into the male reference range, which is ultimately the goal of it.

But when that happens, when you get more hungry, that's where the balanced and sensible diet comes into play. If you're eating a bunch of... well, that brings be to the next points.

Now. Do you know you should aim to get more protein than most other food groups? Protein is an appetite suppressant because it keeps your stomach feeling full longer than anything else, and takes longer to be broken down (so as a result you don't feel hungry as quickly after eating, like you would if your meal is mostly simple carbohydrates). 2-4oz (2oz is about the size of a deck of cards) at a setting should do just fine. And you should limit your simple carbohydrates as much as possible because they are nothing but pure, junk sugars. Your body doesn't like nor does it want them. And I mean things like candy (corn syrups are the absolute WORST form of sugar there is - avoid if at all possible), but also anything made with bleached or white flour (also includes potatoes). Cut them out to at least only 10% of your entire carbohydrate intake. Swap everything else for whole grain/wheat. You can have as much vegetables as you want though, they're actually what your body wants the most of. Those are the CLEANEST complex carbohydrates you can get. Salads with a bunch of different kinds in it are a staple (put your protein in there to make them a meal, can of tuna or chicken etc). Use whatever dressing you want, it's fine. A little fat and oil isn't going to defeat the goal. In fact, EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) is very, very good for you. You should get at least 1-2 tablespoons of it a day. Or get some nuts to exchange for that, also very good for you.

Annnnnd, you want to try and eat every four to six hours. If you're eating only one large meal a day, or the typical three. Stop it. You need to spread it out to 5-6 meals and snacks (e.g. breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, optional snack) every day to keep your metabolism stoked and working optimally. If you go several hours between meals, your body is going into starvation mode. That's where most weight gains come from right there. Especially true if you're not breaking your overnight fast with breakfast (that is why it, really, is the most important meal). That will throw a huge wrench in your efforts right there.

A lot of people have been raised thinking that you need to be bursting at the seams to be 'full', but it shouldn't be like that. You should only eat until you start feeling that marginally and then stop. And again, the way you do that is by balancing the food groups. Protein and complex carbohydrates (even diary is fine, but with sticking to the portions).

But if you've already tried those things and kept at it consistently over a couple of months and it's not done anything, you likely do have a metabolic problem. You should talk to your doctor about it. It's not normal to be eating properly and getting exercise how often you should, and not to be able to maintain a healthy weight.

Also, the BMI scale is hogwash. Your concern should be with LBM (lean body mass). We're all different. Some of us are large framed, some small, some in-between. Yes, it makes a difference. You could be overweight according to BMI, but just fine and in healthy weight according to LBM. LBM is not just measuring height against weight, which weight is many things so that is why BMI is wrong and shouldn't even be used anymore. It's LBM. There's tons of site out there about it and how to calculate yours. I recommend you go off of that to measure yourself against what the scale says from now on, to get a more accurate idea of what's going on.


Also, initially, I did put more weight on after T. I went up to about 240lbs after about two months but that evened itself out and is going down. However, my body type is a bit more complicated than the standard. I gain ALL of my weight in my trunk. My arms and legs are lean and chiseled and always have been. It's just that my fat is ALL on my stomach. But under that I've always been very muscled. So that's also why I say BMI is bull. According to BMI I'm obese (I've been been denied health coverage from it), but BMI doesn't take into consideration muscle weight. According to LBM, I'm only a bit overweight (which, I am, but because that's what the body does with too much insulin... the liver tells your body to lump it into fat and store it because it can't get rid of it any other way if it's not being used properly by the cells of the body).

Well anyway, I hope that helps you and others. It is a struggle, no matter why its happening, but it can be beat.

I agree with a lot of what Magnus said -- T definitely facilitates muscle development and increased LBM which in combination can lead to a higher basal metabolic rate (the amount of calories you burn at rest in a given day). The weight isn't just going to fly off, but if you put the work in, chances are you will see more noticeable results than you would've pre-T. I've gone from 250 lbs to 145 over the last 1 1/2 years and gained a lot of muscle, thanks to some pretty simple but consistent workouts and a clean diet. I haven't even had to go to a gym, just been doing a combination of kettlebells and calisthenics at home, running, and tennis. Like Magnus suggested: high protein, very limited refined carbs/sugars, healthy oils, and veggies/salads are all key. There's been a good bit of research showing that you need to consume fat to lose fat, but it's absolutely key that you're consuming the right fats -- mono/polyunsaturated fats = yes and saturated/trans fats = big no. It's not easy and your willpower will be challenged constantly but it's very do-able and T often does help with this process. Good luck!

The number 1 thing to remember is that diets NEVER work.  Don't even try them.  Chuck out the quick fixes cause they will not work and will only make it harder to lose the weight at the end of the day.

To lose weight, it's all about lifestyle change.

So set up weekly plans of what you're going to eat and stick to it.  This doesn't mean absolutely everything has to be super duper healthy, just try and be healthy and eat small portions more regularly and snack in-between meals with healthy snacks.  And never, EVER skip breakfast!  This is the one sure way to fail to lose weight as breakfast literally means breaking the fast.  You've slept all night and haven't eaten since your last meal the night before.  If you don't eat a healthy breakfast, your body becomes very hungry and that's when you start to crave high fat and sugary foods because your body needs energy and it needs it fast, so you are drawn to the bad foods.

If you go to a site like freedieting.com you can get a calculator for what your calorie intake should be based on age, weight, height and exercise levels.  That site also gives you some meal plans for different calorie intake ranges.  You'll also notice that they suggest you eat 5 times a day, try and stick to this.  Breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.  And try and eat every 3 or so hours.  Keep it to smaller portions more times a day and this will kick start your metabolism.  A typical day could be as simple as the following:

- Healthy cereal
- Cup of no/low fat yoghurt and an apple
- Chicken wrap
- Protein shake
- Fish and veg

But when you make that eating plan, absolutely do put in cheat days.  If you love a take out, put it in there as a once every 2 weeks or a once a month treat.  You're trying to make a lifestyle change so you absolutely cannot cut out things you love, just reduce them.  If you like chocolate, then put some chocolate in there, just in moderation.  And if possible, switch to dark chocolate as that's actually pretty darn good for you.

The other thing to remember is there's loads of ways to make things you love healthier.  I love burgers and still eat them, but when I do, I make them myself from scratch using quality beef mince, and not some crappy parts, frozen burger from the supermarket.  And turkey/chicken burgers from turkey/chicken mince is both delicious and healthy.  I love pizza so I make mini pizzas using English muffins, pizza sauce, mozzarella and a little bit of salami or chicken.  I don't even see my own burgers or pizzas as being only half way there or crappy healthy options, I much prefer one of my burgers over a McDonalds mushy thing.  It tastes MILES better and knowing it's not all that bad for me just makes it taste even better! 

Also, a big and easy one that will make a big difference: if you drink pop/soda, stop!  Just stop.  I don't even recommend gradually weaning yourself off them, just stop.  They're just no good for you at all and they were my worst addiction.  I had a point where all I wanted to drink was soda and nothing but.  But now, unless I'm out with friends at a bar (I don't drink alcohol) I never touch the stuff!  Water all the way!  If you live somewhere where water is clean, just drink water.  Anything you add to water is just empty calories and water is all your body needs, except post STRENUOUS exercise - we're talking athlete level - where electrolytes are needed to bring restoration.  I don't even miss pop, I drink nothing but water at least 29 days of the month!  Also, when drinking pop/soda, when you get to the point where you're only drinking it as a treat, drink full soda, not diet.  Diet is actually really, really bad for you!  It's only really advised if you're trying to lose weight and can't get over a soda addiction.  But I cannot stress enough, if you're not addicted to soda, leave diet sodas alone!

Now exercise: it's important but it's 80% diet, 20% exercise.  So the focus is on diet, not exercise and that's a problem LOTS of people make.  I work out really hard.  I train 6 times a week and double up on the weekends.  I work out to athlete levels and I can tell you from experience that during a recovery week I can lose or maintain weight, I never gain.  But if I eat badly for a week, even with strenuous workouts, I tend to gain. 

And in saying that too, exercise doesn't need to be a lot.  Going for a 30min walk on top of regular activities will do you a lot of good.  People get put off losing weight because workouts can be too hard and there's that one day they don't bother working out and then the next day they wonder if they should even bother because they already missed a day...and so the viscous cycle goes.  That's what happens with diets too which is why I stress the idea of lifestyle change with cheat days worked in so there's less likelihood to fail.  Having a takeout isn't a failure, it's a cheat day.  If you struggle to commit to hard workouts, don't do them!  Just go out for long walks, or jump on your bike and cycle a few blocks.  Or go for a swim at your local pool.  Losing weight doesn't mean doing things as crazy as those folk on 'Biggest Loser' because that's the worst diet you can do!  The best way to lose weight is to aim to only lose about 1-2 lbs a week.  That way you are keeping it a gradual but consistent weight loss and losing fat in the best possible way that keeps it off.  Remember, no one gets fat overnight, it takes time to gradually build up.  So why aim to lose it all in an instant.  It didn't get there quickly so it won't disappear quickly.

Building muscle first to lose weight is totally backwards though.  Again: exercise is only 20% of losing weight, it's 80% diet! 

But even light exercise will work muscles.  I can't swim because I have ear problems and I'm jealous of anyone who can get in a pool because that is a fantastic workout, especially for people who are overweight as it works a LOT of muscles while the water takes away weight bearing strain on the body.  If you can start working muscle, while combining it with a good diet where you're eating smaller amounts more regularly, it's that that's going to boost your metabolism.  Muscles are the key for metabolism and eating often will stop your body going into starvation mode where it starts to panic at not having food and holds onto fat, not allowing it to go for fear it won't get the food and nutrition it needs.  Your body then starts getting used to having food input more regularly and those starvation modes are held at bay and your metabolism speeds up to cope with having food more often, even if it is less.

As for genetics, genetics don't really make it harder to lose weight unless you have 2 specific and rare mutations.  Genetics only give you a predisposition to put on weight.  Not everyone who has this is overweight and not everyone who doesn't have it is skinny.  So my advice to any "It's in the genetics" individual is to just throw that idea out your head now because it's just one more excuse you don't need to stop you trying when the going gets tough, and trust me, enough of those excuses will present themselves!  Maybe genetics got you to where you are, but it's not stopping you from being physically able to lose weight.

I say get back into it and really really focus on the diet before worrying about exercise.  You CAN lose weight without exercise, it's a myth that you need exercise to lose weight.  But, it's advisable to do exercise to improve metabolism and speed up weight loss as well as actually make you fit and healthy.  Diet can't make you physically fit so it leaves you open to cardiovascular problems.

As for exercise, the ultimate combination would be cardio and potentially endurance training with some strength training (weight lifting).  When it comes to weight lifting, if you're going for cardio, you do lower weight, high reps.  If you're going for pure muscle building, go for higher weight, less reps.  I also recommend some Yoga or at least good stretching in-between to keep everything nice and stretched out.  The warm up and cool down are absolutely vital aspects of training and should never be missed out.  But again, focus on the diet for now and just build up the exercising for now.  It would be far better to stick with a lifestyle change and only do a little extra walking than go into it and find workouts too much hard work, especially on top of preparing all the meals a day you need to organise now .

Forgot this part:

I believe T will help somewhat but the other problem with T is that you tend to get more hungry.  So you have to get all this sorted out first and then when you get T, THEN it'll work in your favour.  If you don't sort out the whole process now, even with the benefits of T, if you then didn't build the muscle that's easier to develop on T and ate more because of T (even if that is caused by increasing the metabolic rate) you could actually end up finding yourself just continuing to gain on T, or worse, gain faster!

it all depends on your body, when i started T i definitely noticed my metabolism increased. its different for every guy, now my weight fluctuates because ill either gain muscle then lose fat or some version of that. My advice would just be a lot of cardio if you're focusing on losing fat/weight. Count your caloric intake and make sure you're taking in less calories. there are websites that can tell you how many calories you have to take in to lose x lbs per week. Just try to eat healthy and do lots of cardio! It worked/works for me personally.

there are three types of diets i've seen work in other people. fasting followed by a healthy diet, low carb diet, and calorie counting. but none of those eat-close-to-nothing plans work. low carb diet is an interesting thing, i only tried it for a couple weeks, but after one week i noticed that carrots started tasting unbearably sweet, and chocolate was close to inedible. only lasted until i didn't have time to cook my lunch and started eating sandwiches again...

quite a few health problems in women can be caused by estrogen dominance. if that is the cause for problems losing weight, t might actually help a little.

burn more calories than you consume = weightloss

muscle does not "Weigh more" than fat - a pound of bricks and a pound of feathers weigh the same too.

If you are not losing weight, but you are working out you are most likely underestimating your caloric intake. If you cant tell me off the top of your head about how many cals you get a day, then you have no idea. (I take in between 4-5k and im trying to gain weight)

Testosterone DOES help you gain muscle. That;s why it is the most highly abused steroid in the bodybuilding world. You still have to work though.

Quotemuscle does not "Weigh more" than fat - a pound of bricks and a pound of feathers weigh the same too.

Just to clarify. Yes, this is of course too. But it is all about density. Should you remove a certain volume of fat from your body, and replace that with the same volume of muscles, you would be heavier. Fat just takes up more space, so to say, which is why muscles, even when looking at sheer weight, makes you more slim looking because it is more dense. Sorry if this caused some misunderstandings.

Yeah the density is why it's commonly said that "muscle weighs more than fat".  If you took two arms of equal size but one was due to muscle and the other was due to fat and weighed them, the muscular one would weigh more and that's where the saying comes from.  You're 100% right in that in terms of weight, they obviously weigh the same, it's just that muscle is around 1.06g/ml and fat is 0.9g/ml (I may be slightly off here, but not by much; it's been a long time since I studied this in med school).  So if you had 100 mls of muscle and 100 mls of fat, the muscle would weigh 106g while the fat would weight 90g. 

This is why things like BMI are not conclusive measurements.  Because someone can actually be quite lean and muscular and according to BMI measurements, they're overweight.  One of my friends would be considered overweight according to the way they calculate BMI and the dude is ripped!  Hardly any fat on him (and yeah, I'm jealous!)  Lol.