Hi there,

I'm kind of new to your community here, though I have been reading for some time I have never participated before. I'm kind of stuck on a question, and while I appreciate my doctor's advice, treating Transexuals isn't really her area of expertise, so I kind of have to go to her prepared.

Annyway, I tried to get her to write hormone prescriptions for me, and like most would, she refused without a referral letter. Hey, it was worth a try! Anyway, I went and found a therapist, started visiting, and now a few months later the she's ready to write the letter. I see her this Monday for it.

What I'm stuck on, is weight control and exercise. I'm still overweight, but I work on it daily. All in all I eat roughly 1.4k Calories a day, and am at the gym for an hour nearly every day. I could go six more months like this to hit my target weight. My doctor tells me that she would not recommend a heavily reduced calorie diet to a genetic pubescent girl, and has left the next step up to me.

So what do I do? I want to start the Estrogens. She gave me Spiro a while ago to see how I would tolerate it, and I have to say it takes some getting used to; however it has knocked off the first layer of male nastiness. However, upping the Spiro and adding these other meds will make my body start growing new parts and padding. Is it wise to try to start growing new parts while restricting caloric intake so strictly, especially fat-based parts? I'm really stuck between what I want to do and what I should do. I can wait, as long as there's an end in sight, but I would rather not... however I worry about stunting my long-term development by starting too soon. Any ideas?

Thanks for reading 
~becca

Quote from: Hannah on February 05, 2009, 04:40:30 PM

What I'm stuck on, is weight control and exercise. I'm still overweight, but I work on it daily. All in all I eat roughly 1.4k Calories a day, and am at the gym for an hour nearly every day. I could go six more months like this to hit my target weight. My doctor tells me that she would not recommend a heavily reduced calorie diet to a genetic pubescent girl, and has left the next step up to me.

So what do I do? I want to start the Estrogens. She gave me Spiro a while ago to see how I would tolerate it, and I have to say it takes some getting used to; however it has knocked off the first layer of male nastiness. However, upping the Spiro and adding these other meds will make my body start growing new parts and padding. Is it wise to try to start growing new parts while restricting caloric intake so strictly, especially fat-based parts? I'm really stuck between what I want to do and what I should do. I can wait, as long as there's an end in sight, but I would rather not... however I worry about stunting my long-term development by starting too soon. Any ideas?

Thanks for reading 
Hannah

Hi Hannah,

I'm certainly not going to offer medical advice, but I will tell you my experience.  While I was on HRT, I did a diet plan much like your present one in the sense of calorie restriction, about 1.4-1.6k calories daily, with 1-2 hours walking 3 times a week, and low-carbed it, and lost 45 lbs in 6 months to get to my target weight.   It didn't impact me in any way, that I noticed anyway, other then I felt amazingly great dropping that weight.  My blood tests always came back good.  And um, *cough*, the low carb diet lets you still eat healthy fats, which well, we know one of the areas fats go to, *giggles*.   I just made sure I was eating healthy protein like fish and chicken, and lots of veggies.   I ate more veggies on a low carb diet then I ever had previously in my life, despite what anti-low carbers will tell you. 

Welcome to HRT, it is life changing! 

*huggs*,
Melan

I stay around the 1600 calorie mark every day and run 6 miles 6 days a week.  I havn't noticed any negative side effects from it and every thing seems to be developing as it should be.  (maybe even a little better than most).

Thank you for the replies ladies, I've been reading some more and talked to a nutritionist, and overall I think it should be okay to go ahead.

woo hoo 

I would like to add that just because you're eating fat or carbs or protein, doesn't affect whether or not you gain fat.  It's extra calories that get stored as fat, not matter what form they enter your body.  Calories from fat are no more likely than calories from carbs or protein to get stored as fat cells in your body.  So a low carb diet allowing you to eat good fats isn't going to be any different from a low fat diet high in carbs if you're eating the same amount of calories.  At least not in that respect.  One or the other may be nutritionally better, but I'm not a nutritionist.

very true Kayden, but things that are high in fat, carbs and protein tend to be high in calories as well.

Quote from: Ashley315 on February 19, 2009, 07:55:14 AM
very true Kayden, but things that are high in fat, carbs and protein tend to be high in calories as well.

That's why I said this:

Quote from: Kayden on February 19, 2009, 04:26:33 AM
So a low carb diet allowing you to eat good fats isn't going to be any different from a low fat diet high in carbs if you're eating the same amount of calories.

Anyway, I just wanted to help dispel the myth that fat directly gets stored as fat, and the idea that calories from another sort are different.  The fat in our bodies is not exactly the same as what we get from food.  All the calories we eat have to be processed and digested by our bodies.  However, it is true that fat has the most calories:

fat = 9 cal
protein = 4 cal
carb = 4 cal

But that doesn't matter if we are restricting to a certain amount of calories.  We'd just eat less in quantity.

I became more concerned about my diet a few years back and read a lot of books on it from all different angles. The one thing that stuck with me that I have put into practice is this, the body is a system and it requires certain nutrients and nothing more. So what does the body actually need?
Well I sat down and researched and designed a 'diet' that works with the system of my body.
glucose-90%
amino acids-4-5%
minerals-3-4%
fatty acids-1+%
vitamins-under1%

The body runs on cycles:-
1. elimination 4am-12pm (of body waste)
2. appropriation 12pm-8pm (eating&digestion)
3. assimilation 8pm-4am (absorption and use)

during the morning (elimination) I only eat fruit (apples&oranges and other when in season) which takes 30mins to digest and aids in cleansing my system. I also drink approx. 2 litres of water (water therapy) which is helpful being on diuretics! then at least another litre through out the day. Deep breathing and yoga help with circulation and keeping your body functioning at 100%
food combinations are important
both concentrated foods:-
1.proteins - (meat, eggs, dairy, nuts)
2.starches (carbs) - (potatoes - a veg but when cooked a starch, rice)
...should not be eaten in the same meal. they can be but your stomach will not process them or break them dowm as thoroughly before they enter your intestines, so you won't absorb as much as the nutrients that they can.
mixing vegetables with either meat or starches is best.
3.vegetables (and fruit) is the third.
As far as I'm aware most foods fall under one of these three.

Reabsorption is something to consider aswell, eating a well combined natural cereal (fibre) helps (in conjuntion with drinking lots of water) to keep stoles soft and flowing through you quickly. A lot of fat and cholestrol is reaborped.. a good thing to consider when trying to lose weight.
The cereal I eat is a combination of: oat flakes, nass bran, paw paw, shredded coconut, saltanas, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, wheatgerm, amaranth and psyllium. From the health food store it only works out about 15-20% more expensive than processed cereal which is nothing. I only use a small amount of oat milk in my cereals. I usaully have this between 11am-1pm as a light pre lunch or as lunch.
Timing of eating is important because it takes time for the stomach to do it's thing. if you add food on food, meal on meal then it overloads the stomach and it doesn't break down properly. The stomach is quite simple in it's function but very fussy. Most foods take about 2-4hrs to pass out of the stomach, heavier foods like meat can take 8-12hrs so they should be the last meal of the day. Carbs early give you energy for the day and proteins (amino-acids) at night are used during sleep. It's most important to not eat after 8pm, be strong!
I don't eat a great deal of dairy or red meat and try to get more protein from avocado as a part of my avocado, spinach and tomato wholemeal sandwiches.
The top three (in my eyes) foods.
Avocado doesn't contain as much protein as meat but the amino acids that it provides are better for the human body, unlike animal protein it doesn't need to be broken down and rebuilt. The fat that avocados contain are good fats and don't contribute to weight gain. Like all fruit they are a gift from god!
I usually let loose with dinner and have something yummy as a reward for starting the day well. Experimenting with cooking etc but not breaking too many rules.

This a rough outline of my diet which I don't stick to strictly speaking but more or less it revolves around these principals.
I had trouble with a bloating stomach amongst other issues before changing my diet, they soon disappeared.
oh yeah exercise is just as important!!! although skipping for me is harder now with sensitive breasts aawww.
S.x

p.s. eating well also puts less stress on your liver which helps with HRT.

I remember posting that, lol. My mother had been refusing to tell me what she had planned to name me had I been born undamaged, until I started using the name Hannah, which she hated. I started hrt a few days later, and a couple months later started low carbing and haven't looked back on either front, both of which are going extremely well thank you 

I think people tend to make it harder than it needs to be, I know I was. While low carb is interesting as far as the science of nutrition and how energy is derived from foods, it still pretty much boils down to using more than one consumes.

i read around the net (as im a bit of a health freak) that 30 mins of exorcise 5 days aweek is really good