My little brain was thinking about years back, it seemed the start of my acceptance, whether it be conscious or subconsciously was wanting to loose wieght. This seems to be a common thread with MTF's and women in general.

when I just considered my self a cd. It was roughly 7 years ago when I decided to loose some wieght, I wasn't over weight much but definitely could loose a few pounds. I look back at this time and remember thinking I would look so much better if I loosed weight. I manged to drop about 20 pounds with better eating and good exercise I got down to my high school weight, at this time I felt better about myself but it seemed my dysphoria became stronger.

Two years later I dropped another 20 pounds unintentionally from depression and anxiety caused from divorce, My dysphoria became even stronger.

Three years later I was on the path of acceptance my wieght became more of a concern to me maybe even compulsive, and I managed to drop some more wieght, becoming some what body dysphormic. I have since maintained my weight and am not as concerned as much about it. With all this being said, what is everyone's take on this.

Shelly 
I voted yes, but not intentionaly

When I lose weight I love myself more, when I gain weight I feel like crap.

I think it probably helps. I was very overweight as a child (irresponsible parents) and so much of my hatred of my body was weight-related. I was not the jolly fat person type, I felt absolutely horrible and afraid of judgment and looking bad everywhere I went.

I worked really hard and lost all the weight as a teen and once I was there, further dissatisfactions came out of the woodwork... I was happy with my weight but still not happy with my body because I knew I looked good, but not the "good" that I really wanted. I don't think it led to transition thoughts, so much as it had overshadowed them by being an even more unpleasant issue I had to focus on.

I was always "athletic" until I quit smoking and almost over night gained 90 pounds. it has been very slowly leaving but the combination of my tummy and love handles has caused me a great deal of grief when I look in the mirror.

I was skinny as a kid but began weight gain in intermediate school. In my early thirties I had reached at one time 247 pounds at 5 foot 11 and 99/100 inches (I will never claim to be six feet!) I then slowly started losing - dropping to 220 after maybe five years, then just as slowly going back to 230. I started again about five years ago dropping, getting to 212. Fourteen months ago I started hormones and that stopped the loss right there. They say hormones do that. About a month ago we went on a rather rigorous diet - the South Beach actually - and I have dropped to 199. It's much harder to lose if you are a woman, it's much hard to lose when you take female hormones (both of which are totally tied together) and it's harder as you age. Ouch! Three strikes! I do need to lose what I can prior to surgery on the 31st.

A lengthy personal diatribe, but I suspect many, many of us have body-image problems; for me, I didn't really care about how I looked as a male. What I did lose was mainly for health reasons. Now that I have a mirror image I have some respect for, I also care about how I look. Hence the sacrifice made to appearance rather then just health. So if I can get it off, maybe this time I can keep it off.


Susan Kay