I'm just starting out and my initial plan is to work with my counselor (who works exclusively with TG patients), work on removing my beard, work on my voice (I'm slacking here), and primarily work on my health/weight.  My plan was to wait at least a year before starting HRT.  Overall things have gone well over the past 6 weeks and have even lost about 25 lbs.  I'm also taking better care of my skin and hair.

When I started reading about Spiro, I was pleased to learn it was a diuretic, used for hormonal acne management, and may assist in beard removal.  I'm was already on Lasix for high blood pressure, so I figured it would be a good idea to switch them out.  I've also have some acne on my back/neck and doing electrolysis.  So overall Spiro seemed like a good fit for me.

I had a hard time convincing my GP to switch to Spiro.  After struggling with him after a couple weeks, I was pleased to find out he gave me a referral to an endocrinologist, who happens to specialize in TG HRT.  I had my visit yesterday and he turned to be incredibly supportive and helpful.  I left his office with a prescription, good for a year, to take a fairly large dose twice a day.  He said he'll work with my on a plan for Estrogen, but appreciated my desire to work on my health first.  Fortunately my health issues are now just limited to my weight, 34% BMI, and my blood pressure.

I can't wait to experience some of the minor feminization effects of being on Spiro, but I realize it will likely be months before I see anything noticeable.

While I am very happy to be on Spiro, I am concerned about how it will affect my ability to exercise and lose weight.  Unfortunately muscle is my friend for burning fat.  I'd like to burn off the fat before I lose a lot of muscle mass.  Then again, I'd like to lose about 30 lbs. of muscle mass too.  I don't know how it will all work out, but I'll just have to roll the dice and see what happens.

Freya

Your journey will take time.  I was on spiro, as a diuretic, for some time after bypass surgery.  It should not effect your exercise and weight plans one iota.

What burns fat isn't "muscle building" exercise. It shouldn't cause you any issues.

I went from a BMI of 32 to one of 26 in fifteen months just by cutting out ALL confectioneries. No effort required on my part. I now have 7lbs to lose to reach my target BMI of 25 but I already have a figure that is much slimmer than many women of my age.

Right now my BMI target is 16, which I understand is fairly low for GGs, but that would put my weight at 240, unless I start losing muscle mass as well.  My lean body weight is about 200lbs, so at some point I'll need to get that down.  The only advantage of a high lean body weight is that my resting calorie burn is 2740/day.

I figure the best thing I can do is continue eating better and doing a lot of cardio, nearly 10,000 calories burned/week, until I have significantly reduced my BMI, and hope the Spiro reduces my muscle mass during that time too.  I am pretty certain I will have my BMI down before the end of this year.  After that I am guessing I will transition to a low protein/vegetarian diet with maintenance exercise.

One ray of hope I have is that my teenage daughter, who is only 2 inches shorter than me weighs about 185lbs and looks fantastic.  She's a water polo player and in phenomenal shape.  So if I can get to a point where I am 10-15lbs heavier than her, I would be really pleased.

Freya