Over the 10 month period that I've been on T, it seems my stomach has gained a lot of fat in the front. Stretch marks have developed and i'm afraid it will get worse. Do any of you have any advice on how to lose and maintain my stomach? I plan on jogging 20 minutes a day, I just need to pick up some running shoes.

Losing weight is mostly about discipline. You have to make sure you are active enough (like your jogging) and you have to watch your diet.

Hunting calories might not be your thing, but officially it's something like, you have to burn enough calories each day compared to what you eat.

My boyfriend (ftm) is trying to lose weight now before he'll start T and he's really doing good now, and it's mostly based on diet. So not eating 'till you're full, you should be something like 80% full. Don't go straight for dessert but wait a bit because sometimes your body may take a while before it's satisfied with the food. Meaning you stuff a dessert in without you having room for it.

Cutting back on beer, very important.

Healthy snacks if you need to snack.

Stuff like that helps a lot.

Im also starting to become a chubber. I am NOT a dieter...can't do it. Tried and tried. I just love food too much. Now, I am focusing on making "better", not necessarily good choices. For instance, I love snacks. So...instead of eating chips or cake or whatever, I bought sugar-free jello and sugar-free pudding. Key word: sugar free. The jello is like eating nothing...so while it may not keep me full, it keeps me from eating other bad crap. The pudding has less than half the carbs of regular jello, less calories, less everything bad. I also found these low carb wraps (5 carbs per wrap) so I can still have my peanut butter and jelly (sugar free) sandwiches, but a healthier version. It has been my goal while shopping to only buy packaged things where the protein content is equal to or greater than the carb content. I know they don't really cancel each other out per say, but it helps. In addition, I found this tasteless (for the most part), carbless, very low calorie protein mix that I have been adding in to things as well to curb appetitie and get work out of my workouts (like sugar free ketchup + protein mix - who knew?).

I've been doing this for about 2.5 weeks now, and am down 7-8lbs. It may not sound like a lot, but it's sure a hell of a lot better than gaining anything more. It's also not bad because I don't feel like I have any restrictions, because I still am eating a handful of what I normally do, just in a different way.

You didn't really say if you struggle with diet, or excerise or both. If you start working out and cutting back some of the bad, you should see some type of results.

Dieting could still work, but you'd need someone to help you, and you won't like it haha.

My boyfriend isn't a dieter, tried multiple times, ended up slacking and falling into the old pattern. So I asked him if I should help him with that, now he isn't allowed to buy lot's of stuff and at home I have to keep my eye on him. Maybe once a week I hear him picking up a bag of candy or crisps, meaning I have to get up and tell him only to take a few, or if he's already had some bad food that day, that he isn't allowed to eat 'm.

It's fun to do at times, but most of the times I just feel mean. xD

I've also took away his scale, since he used to stand on it every day. It's hidden somewhere in the house now and he's allowed to stand on it at the start of January. And if we both agree that's he's making good progress, we're going out for a day as an extra reward.

Women carry their weight in their chest - hips - and thighs --- so my doctor said that the T will redistrubte the weight to the area that most guys carry their weight -- their waist

I'm just starting to notice the initial fat redistribution, and although I'm not keen on having a big gut, I think it totally beats having curvy hips/thighs. Mainly because the thought of being seen as having feminine curves made me BEYOND uncomfortable.

Couple of more cents from my running coach training, and my experience as a guy.

I'll second the observation that guys put on their fat around the gut and butt.  Mostly the gut.  I had a furnace-like metabolism until I turned 40.  Then the warrantee expired and I've gained weight over the years.  80-90% of it around the belly.

Calories in minus calories out is the way of it for weight gain or loss, with the obnoxious qualifier that your body can be very devious about changing how many calories out you get in a day.  If it thinks you're in a famine, it'll drop your basal metabolism like a rock.

One generality mentioned to us in the training is that guys do better at losing weight by increasing their calories out -- exercising more.  Not much progress to make by reducing calories in.  There is also a tendency shared by women that if you are exercising, your body is less inclined to think that it's in a famine and drop the basal metabolism. 

So the OP has a good idea in taking up some form of exercise.  Anything aerobic will do.  I'm partial to running, so would be happy to answer questions on that.  Walking is also good, biking, cross-country skiing, and on and on.  Swimming needs a little asterisk -- there's a tendency to lay in or maintain a layer of fat, more so than other aerobic activities.

A benefit for aerobic activity: among its many other good points, it is an antidepressant as effective as medications (for people with mild or moderate depression, who can maintain a fairly regular program).

Damian (and any others interested):
Running shoes should be comfortable from the first time you try walking and jogging around.  Wherever you go for the shoes, be sure that they let you jog some -- at least, say, 50 yards.  If they won't let you, they're not knowledgeable enough to match you up to a good shoe.  (they may not be even if they do let you jog, but it's near-certainty if they don't)

Also, each maker has a wide variety of kinds of shoes.  It is the type of shoe that matters more than the maker.  For my running form, I need a shoe for neutral to over-pronators.  I once got a shoe, from the same company, that was for under-pronators (supinators).  At the time, a 10 mile run was an easy thing for me.  After a single 10 mile run in those shoes, my knees were hurting.  End of trying supinator shoes.

You don't need to know what supinator, over-pronator, etc. mean.  But the person selling you shoes had better.

If you don't have luck finding a store near you, look for an area running club; they'll have good ideas.  If you're in the US, see http://www.rrca.org/ for a listing of clubs.

thats fat redistribution for ya. also in addition to jogging which you should do for 30 minutes as aposed to 20, you should try to gain muscle. the more muscle you have the more calories your body burns at rest.

Yeah, because of the typical fat distribution of men, this would be a problem for anyone with a high concentration of male hormones in their body who doesn't watch what they eat and or (though preferably AND) work out. For me, working out isn't just jogging either. Mind you, it typically takes over thirty minutes of exercise a day to start burning fat, so you might want to work out longer if that's what you plan on doing, especially without making major changes to your diet. Doing some strength training also helps too, because you will start to put on more lean muscle:3
I do both, so I've actually started noticing more abs since starting testosterone, but I could imagine other people having a problem with the fat redistribution. I'm a really health conscious person and always have been. It's actually one the few things I'm not lazy about. Lmao.

But yeah. Good luck bro.

I've spent some time looking for a reliable source which said you had to run for 30 minutes before you started getting benefit from it, and never succeeded. The research I've seen all says that you get benefit starting with the first minute.  You get more benefit, if you don't get injured and stay consistent with your workouts, from doing more aerobic activity.  That means 5 days doing 20 minutes is better than 3 days with 30 (at the same intensity).

For the hard-core (meaning science-based, not that it's trying to turn you in to an Olympic athlete) recommendation on exercise for health, see the American Council on Sports Medicine's statement: http://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2011/07000/Quantity_and_Quality_of_Exercise_for_Developing.26.aspx  That's for adults, so the younger forum members need to check with their Dr. for how to modify.  And the older ones should check in with the Dr. before starting up a new program.  As some here have mentioned, doing strength work (resistence work is the ACSM's phrase) is a good idea as well.  They suggest 2-3 days/week.

'Fat burning' is something of a rant-flag for me.  There are two parts to that.  One is, your body is always burning fat for energy.  The less intense your activity, the higher the percentage of your energy you're getting from fat.  Right now, as I sit at my desk and have my breakfast bagel, it's near 100%.  It starts dropping as I get up and walk down to the coffee machine.  It drops farther if I go outside to jog.  And it'll be near 0% (but not all the way to zero) if I started a serious sprint.

The second part, and more important, is that in terms of your weight, it doesn't matter what you are burning during your exercise.  Your body has fat reserves (for energy supply/storage).  And it's got sugar (glycogen) reserves (likewise).  If you go out and burn off a lot of fat during the exercise, your body looks at this and responds by drawing down the glycogen reserve to make new fat stores.  If you go out and do high intensity work and deplete your glycogen reserve, your body responds by tapping the fat store to restock the glycogen.  What matters to weight is how many calories you burned off.

Very loose rule of thumb is that 1 mile (walked or run) = 100 Calories (kcal in the ACSM guidance).

For the full gory detail on the biochemistry of energy supply during aerobic exercise, see Tim Noakes' _The Lore of Running_ 4th edition.

Quote from: Damian on December 09, 2011, 03:41:50 AM
Over the 10 month period that I've been on T, it seems my stomach has gained a lot of fat in the front. Stretch marks have developed and i'm afraid it will get worse. Do any of you have any advice on how to lose and maintain my stomach? I plan on jogging 20 minutes a day, I just need to pick up some running shoes.

I think its pretty normal because your fat patterns changes from the hips to your stomach,
if you want it smaller then it the usunally diet thing.

that kinda put me off T :l....im quite skinny and would i still get some guts?

would sit ups help? as i do have a bad habbit and i dont do diet either. i love food and i have been eating when ever im in the mood for, and love chocolate!

Rex-

If you want to have a more "male body", it's worth it. Testosterone doesn't necessarily make you fat, but it redistributes your fat from places it was before. Basically, if you're not working out, you still mostly have fat in your hips, thighs, and breasts anyway.
Doing sit-ups would help yes, but so would watching what you eat. High protein and fiber diets are always good, but if you don't want to commit to something like that, it might be a little bit harder not to gain weight. This has very little to do with female or male hormones though, because if you don't watch your diet, once your metabolism starts slowing down from age (I'm assuming you are young), you might start putting on weight anyway.

thanks for the replay jason, well im over 20 now.....and i think i might try and cut down unheathy snacks and eat more heathly snacks insed, cos that what i do i eat snacks like all day so i might try and play about with my diet if i can, but yeah i sometimes i work out a bit, not that i need to as im quite skinny like i said. so i might start trying more effort before i start T or after xmas. As i love having my big xmas meal!

No problem.
And good luck.

My son is a skinny guy too -- he is in college -- doesn't eat well and doesn't exercise

So, far he hasn't developed a gut.  His hips have come in and he wears a size smaller in jeans.  He has found that he craves meat more and doesn't go after sweets as much as he use too.  He has been on T for over a year and a half and has lost weight not gained.