Jenny Girl, Thank for your posts & knowledge. I'm sure glad I changed to patches a while ago. And it good to read that HRT does not "make" your body gain weight. I'm 5' 9" & now a fat 190 pounds. I'm trying to maybe get back down to 170, maybe.

Thanks again to everyone.

Quote from: Jennygirl on November 13, 2013, 06:23:00 PM
The method of E administration can make a big difference on weight gain depending on the individual.

With any oral administration (where the majority of estradiol passes through the liver), there is a MUCH higher likelihood of weight gain due to estrone conversion by the liver. Estrone is horrible for you on so many levels, and is about 1/10th as effective for feminization compared to estradiol. It is what accounts for pretty much all of the negative side effects of oral HRT or birth control.

Bypassing the liver by any means is a good idea, so if you are worried about it I would get on injections, the patch, gels/creams, or pellets.

I had a sneaky suspicion that was the case, but I couldn't find anything concrete - everyone saying "well, estrogen is estrogen, but this *fill in the blank* worked best for me, or that *fill in the blank* worked best for me, lol

Thanks so much for this

Kelsie

Jenny, thanks for the info!

Kelsie, have you seen the documentary Forks Over Knives? They discuss food density and eating a plant based diet. 

You are all so welcome! I am very happy to help

Quote from: RavenMoon on November 13, 2013, 08:38:58 PM
Jenny, thanks for the info!

Kelsie, have you seen the documentary Forks Over Knives? They discuss food density and eating a plant based diet.

Haven't, no. Seemed a bit "new agey" at the time, snicker

I am celebrating my 8th month on HRT by eating chocolate but only a couple of bites.  My weight has been more volatile and up and down by 10 lbs.  Before self acceptance as TG and transition I really didn't care much about my looks.  Beer guts are fine for lots of guys and baggy jeans with sweatshirts was a common wardrobe choice for me.  Clothes shopping?  forget about it.

Now out fulltime, holy molly, the styles I like are much more clingy and revealing and now i do pay much closer attention to how I look.  My wife likes to tease me about not fitting into that new dress but i suspect she may want the last donut here.   Just kidding honey;)   It certainly feels like the more I weigh myself and try to stay trim the hungrier I get!  I like active outdoor stuff like hiking and cycling and find that also gets me hungry.

Dang I may have to go eat more chocolate right now.  Thanks a bunch!

Quote from: KelsieJ on November 13, 2013, 09:04:01 PM
Haven't, no. Seemed a bit "new agey" at the time, snicker

Oh no, it's very scientific. It was so convincing I finally stopped eating meat. I wasn't eating much, but the info in it is quite sobering!

QuoteThrough an examination of the careers of American physician Caldwell Esselstyn and professor of nutritional biochemistry T. Colin Campbell, Forks Over Knives suggests that "most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods." It also provides an overview of the 20-year China-Cornell-Oxford Project that led to Professor Campbell's findings, outlined in his book, The China Study (2005) in which he suggests that coronary disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer can be linked to the Western diet of processed and animal-based foods (including all dairy products).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forks_over_Knives

I'll watch it then (Netflix has it), thanks Raven

Processed food can't be good for you anyway, if you think about what they do to it. I don't understand why they add so many chemicals to food - doesn't it cost more for them to do that? I mean, let's look at a MuckBurger roll

Ingredients: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide), sorbic acid, calcium propionate and/or sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Anyone have a degree in chemistry here? Ok, I know what calcium carbonate and ascorbic acid are.......chalk and vitamin C, but what is azodicarbonamide or sodium stearoyl lactylate? And, what's it doing in bread?

Well I have lost close to 30 lbs in the last year. I should say I am 49 and I have done nothing to make it happen other than beginning HRT seven months ago. I am and was a very large person. Mostly in shape so it has mostly been muscle mass. I have dropped two inches in girth over my normal measure points in the last 4 months. Chest, upper arm, belly, and thigh.
I am using pills right now but want to move to injections.

Warning! the loss of muscle is body wide. I have begun to have more injuries especially to low back and joints now. I do physical work. (hoping to find less physical work someday) It is appropriate to discuss this with you medical person. Old injuries can come back with a vengeance. Be good to yourself.

I have found that I do injure more easily.......the past 6 weeks alone, broken wrist followed by plate and screws surgery.....teeth problems.......

I definitely bruise more easily - but wouldn't change it for the world!

Quote from: KelsieJ on November 13, 2013, 09:58:25 PM
I'll watch it then (Netflix has it), thanks Raven

Processed food can't be good for you anyway, if you think about what they do to it. I don't understand why they add so many chemicals to food - doesn't it cost more for them to do that? I mean, let's look at a MuckBurger roll

Ingredients: Enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, high fructose corn syrup and/or sugar, yeast, soybean oil and/or canola oil, contains 2% or less of the following: salt, wheat gluten, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate, ammonium sulfate, ammonium chloride, dough conditioners (may contain one or more of the following: sodium stearoyl lactylate, datem, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, mono- and diglycerides, ethoxylated monoglycerides, monocalcium phosphate, enzymes, guar gum, calcium peroxide), sorbic acid, calcium propionate and/or sodium propionate (preservatives), soy lecithin.

Anyone have a degree in chemistry here? Ok, I know what calcium carbonate and ascorbic acid are.......chalk and vitamin C, but what is azodicarbonamide or sodium stearoyl lactylate? And, what's it doing in bread?

I think it's because of the very large quantities they do. Big vats filled with whatever. And it takes so long to process, that they need to add anti caking ingredients, preservatives, things to stop discoloration, etc. I recently read that every McDonalds burger has the meat from 1,000 different cows in it. That's disturbing to me. But I don't eat meat anymore anyway. I lost weight and feel much better too!

I also don't eat a lot of bread, but it was bothering me that all the bread I look at has high fructose corn syrup in it! I didn't even realize they put sugar in bread. So I started buying bread from Whole Foods. But now Arnold's has bread with no high fructose corn syrup in it. And another thing is all the bread companies seemed to have changed the plastic bags they use, and now before I can finish a loaf of bread, it's wet and soggy because the bags seal in moisture more than they used to. I complained to one company (with the funny name, Bimbo Bakery) and what did they do, they sent me coupons!

Here's the thing that bugs me, did any of these companies ask anyone if they want this junk in their food?  It's all about them saving money. So we have no say in what we eat, unless we go out of our way to buy organic food, and the crazy part is it cost much more for having less junk in it!

But we are what we eat, so I try and not eat food with too many ingredients in it.

Okay, here's another documentary for people to watch:

"Fat Head"

This movie was basically made in response to the movie "Super Size Me," and it should be pretty enlightening in showing that you can indeed lose weight eating fast-food... provided that you control your carbohydrate intake. Also kind of works as a rebuttal to the whole low-fat anti-meat thing that "Forks Over Knives" is all about, showing that your bloodwork can actually get better even when you're dousing things in butter and eating a lot of red meat.

I haven't gained wait, I might have lost some.

I've seen more than one friend who lost weight, though. I wonder if it's because they are more happy with themselves and more willing to eat better. I know if I ever wanted to make the effort to diet it wouldn't be such a mental strain for me anymore.

Quote from: Carrie Liz on November 15, 2013, 12:09:00 PM
Also kind of works as a rebuttal to the whole low-fat anti-meat thing that "Forks Over Knives" is all about, showing that your bloodwork can actually get better even when you're dousing things in butter and eating a lot of red meat.

The problem with animal fat is it's been inked to cancer; breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and so on.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2057469

QuoteThe relationship between the per person supply of fat from dairy products and lard and cause-specific cancer mortality was examined using 1979-1981 FAO data from 36 countries. Significant correlations (P less than 0.01) were found between dairy and lard fat intake and total, breast, prostate, rectal, colon, and lung cancer. Significant relationships between site-specific cancer mortality and ischemic heart disease mortality could also be established. Hormone-dependent cancers significantly correlate with both hormone-dependent and non-hormone-dependent cancers of the opposite sex, pointing toward other than sex-linked factors as an explanation. The level of saturated fat intake provides the most plausible link for the relationship between the cancers considered and ischemic heart disease mortality. Our findings support the concept of the important role saturated fat plays in cancer promotion.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=7941764

http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/13/us/animal-fat-is-tied-to-colon-cancer.html

Then they had the examples in Forks Over Knives where high animal protein intake is directly correlated to cancer too. There was the one part where they induced cancer in rats, while feeding them meat, and then took them off the meat and they went into remission, and then they reintroduced meat into the diet and the cancer returned.

Humans eat much differently now than we did in the past, and diet related diseases have increased along with it.

Quote from: Carrie Liz on November 15, 2013, 12:09:00 PM
Okay, here's another documentary for people to watch:

"Fat Head"

This movie was basically made in response to the movie "Super Size Me," and it should be pretty enlightening in showing that you can indeed lose weight eating fast-food... provided that you control your carbohydrate intake. Also kind of works as a rebuttal to the whole low-fat anti-meat thing that "Forks Over Knives" is all about, showing that your bloodwork can actually get better even when you're dousing things in butter and eating a lot of red meat.

This probably isn't in the same vein, but I often go to Wendy's or McDonald's for lunch... Wendy's salads are wonderful (Especially that apples and chicken w/ crumbled blue cheese one).... McDonald's salads are OK.

I don't see any problem with eating meat myself. I can respect the decision not to, but remember that everything should be in moderation. Nobody can avoid all carcinogens.

My salad based diet brought my total cholesterol from 205 down to 146... in TWO WEEKS (assuming it wasn't already lower from my normal schedule of poor diet and no exercise). I was not on cholesterol meds and my doctor said he can't get people's cholesterol down that low with them. My sugar also dropped - my A1c went from 7.5 to 6.9... my next test is next week... so we'll see how 3+ months is different than 2 weeks for that, too!

Health is not absolute. If it works for you, do it. I'm no food saint.

I stopped eating meat for two reasons, one being the health implications, but the other is I'm an animal lover. In the US, 4,000 cows are killed an hour (100,000 a day). 23 million chickens every day. Some of those chickens get boiled alive! And 112 million pigs a year. None of these animals are treated well in factory farms. I would imagine that makes them even less healthy to eat.

I'm happy to say I no longer eat any of them. 

I used to be 220, in great shape as a swam 100 and 200 butterfly races all the time like this.


But like this morning. I am at 191 pounds. I weigh myself everyday and I have noticed that my weight fluctuates a lot. seem like right after a an estradiol shot, my weight goes up, and slowly comes down until the next one.But each time before the shot, i am a little lighter than on the previous cycle.

Quote from: Ксениа on November 16, 2013, 09:18:17 AM
I used to be 220, in great shape as a swam 100 and 200 butterfly races all the time like this.


But like this morning. I am at 191 pounds. I weigh myself everyday and I have noticed that my weight fluctuates a lot. seem like right after a an estradiol shot, my weight goes up, and slowly comes down until the next one.But each time before the shot, i am a little lighter than on the previous cycle.

I was 180 and preferred the 500 free I was slow and steady... and if nobody wants to swim a race I get the points

Quote from: kabit on November 16, 2013, 09:39:46 AM
I was 180 and preferred the 500 free I was slow and steady... and if nobody wants to swim a race I get the points

I used to swim the 500 in HS, I was slow too, but then I didnt know how to swim butterfly. When I got into butterfly, my coaches realized I was a natural. Are you still 180?

Quote from: Ксениа on November 16, 2013, 09:43:42 AM
I used to swim the 500 in HS, I was slow too, but then I didnt know how to swim butterfly. When I got into butterfly, my coaches realized I was a natural. Are you still 180?

I'm well on my way to getting back to 180!!
After HS I self medicated with food (carbs + obesity = sedated + halved testosterone). I maxed at 260... recently went from 235 (Aug 5 - my coming out day) to 190 (This past Thursday...)

I wasn't very strong and had no interest in lifting. Butterfly was tough for me. Back and Free were my best.