Weight loss and so on (possible triggers)

[Rina]

Hi,

I am, provided nothing goes awry, starting Spiro this month and then E when I have reached full dosage of Spiro. I am currently on Finasteride only.

My current weight is around or just above 70 kg (154 lb), and my height 170cm (5'7"). This is as far as I can see within normal weight, but I feel too heavy, and tight-fitting tops are becoming unflattering. I kind of enjoy tight-fitting tops, so I would not want to stay this way.

When it comes to physical activity, I train martial arts three times a week (when possible - I sometimes reduce to two, and very rarely one, depending on my workload at university). This is sometimes low intensity, and sometimes high enough to make me worry I'll faint. I have considered adding cardio, but I doubt I will manage to find time for it to happen regularly.

Should I go on a crazy diet (possibly a bad idea given personal history with food, but then I did start eating again overnight after finally giving up fighting the dysphoria and deciding on transitioning around a year ago; my anorexia was not really or at least not primarily caused by wanting to lose weight, but muscle. However I also preferred no/little body fat over having it in all the wrong places) to lose belly fat before I start HRT for real, or am I okay? I've seen people claim to lose weight on HRT, while others say it's more difficult or that they even gained weight. I've seen people claim that having some fat to work with before starting makes HRT more efficient since there is then fat to reallocate, while others say the old fat will just stay where it is, while new fat is "reallocated". Is this just another case of varying mileage, with no universal answer?

[Ruth Ruthless]

I've been vegan two years before starting hormone treatment. I'm 1.80 meters and I was 65-70kg. Didn't exercise. Drank lots of coca cola and ate vegan junk food.

Started HRT, stayed same weight but lost muscle and got a big belly.

Started running. Didn't help.

Changed to eating whole fruits (apples, grapes, dates, oranges, bananas), vegetables (mostly cucumbers, boiled sweet potatos, boiled potatoes), legumes (chickpeas and split peas) and grains (mostly whole rice) with no oil and only select processed foods (organic tomato paste, soy chocolate milk, almond milk). I also eat a bit of freshly ground flax seeds for omega 3. I start the day with the fresh fruit and eat them throughout the day and end up with a cooked dinner where I slice sweet potato and potato cubes and put them in a pot with brown rice, split peas, chickpeas and appropriate amount of water. I eat the cooked dish with the tomato paste on the side as a kind of low sodium ketchup. This gives me all the vitamins and minerals I need when eaten in the correct minimum amounts, and I did not limit my intake of raw fruits and vegetables, only the cooked and processed parts.

So basically this way, I ate as many calories as I wanted and ended up stabilizing at a weight of 60kg, which seems a pretty low BMI but it fixed my digestion which was shot to hell my entire life and eating so much fruit got me off the coca cola addiction and my belly came back down to its size pre-HRT. I like this method and how it works for me because I don't have to limit calories, I eat 2000-3000 a day, often more... and if I want to gain weight, I can just supplement some junk food every now and then. This is what worked for me and I have pretty much mastery of my total weight in this method. It's my own special form of what's called 80/10/10 raw till 4.

The idea is basically if you focus on eating whole foods designed by biological evolution and not by the industry, your body will know how to handle it better.

Anyway, I know there are lots of people who will say no it doesn't work, so much sugar blah blah blah... from my experience, as long as I keep my fat intake low and my carb sources from natural whole foods, my body will burn those carbs like nobody's business. Works for me.

[Rina]

Thank you for your input Ruth,

I had a long period of mostly eating Japanese food - while not vegan or even vegetarian, it was a lot more healthy than what I'm eating now, which is basically cafeteria dinners on campus. My current problem is that I'm simply unable to follow any sort of strict diet, since I'm generally on campus until late in the evening, except when I'm training, in which case I'm also out late. So there's no time for me to make dinner. It is of course always a matter of priorities; right now finishing my education ranks above making my own food. I really miss making all of my food myself though, since I truly hate the cafeteria food. But with my life the way it is now (being often fatigued, high workload at university, and so on), adding a strict diet would be too much

In any case I'm getting the impression that people's experiences with weight and fat distribution (and everything else) on HRT vary, so I'll probably not know until I start anyways. At least I'm not overweight, and perhaps I'll try to lose a few kilograms before starting E. We'll see

[Ruth Ruthless]

Hey Rina, my nutrition consists of 3 parts:

Part 1 - a bit of freshly ground flax seeds, 2 cups of soy milk, half a cup of almond milk... I can grind the spoon of flax seeds in my coffee grinder and eat them as soon as I wake up, then drink the soy and almond milk portions before I go out.

Part 2 - raw fresh whole fruits and vegetables... I just pack a backpack full of these and take them wherever I need to go throughout the day. As many as I need to take to feel satiated throughout the day. This can be around 2-3 kg of fruit. Apples, bananas, dates, grapes, oranges, whatever fruits I want as long as they are fresh, raw and whole. If 3 kg of fruit aren't enough to keep you satiated, just bring more and eat more. From my experience, I just can't get fat on fruit no matter how many I eat and how many calories they add as long as my nutrition is low fat.

Part 3 - when I get back home I make my cooked meal, I stick 80 grams whole rice, 80 grams split peas, 125 grams chickpeas... optionally I cut 50 grams of potato squares and 50 grams of sweet potato squares that I peel then or left over from earlier. (peel them and leave them in the fridge to slowly finish them every day) I add spices and salt and 500 grams of water. The whole process of putting stuff in the pot takes about 5 minutes tops... I mix it, let it reach boiling temperature for a couple of minutes and then minimize the fire and 30-45 minutes later it is ready. As I said before, I eat this with tomato paste on the side as a sort of ketchup. i.e. I take a bit of tomato paste with every bite.

So as you see, I have a very quick "breakfast" that allows me to storm out of the house.

I have tons of fruit which is portable and I don't need to cook so that I don't have to eat anything available outside.

And then when I come home I spend 5 minutes making my cooked meal and 30-45 minutes later I'm already digging into it.

Maybe this could work for you as well. I admit my food routine is a bit monotanous except that I could vary the fruits I eat, but it would be nice to also vary which cooked food I eat but I haven't found yet another dish that fills all the nutritional needs for things like iron and folate as well as this one does.

And I wouldn't call it diet, because often that makes people think it's something temporary. Eatling lots of raw fresh whole fruits and vegetables is a lifestyle, a nutrition, it's how we should live for ideal physical health... not a diet.

[Monkeymel]

There is a very good acronym to remember
Carbonated Refined Additatives Preservatives  (crap).
Avoid these if you can - it already makes a more wholesome diet. And will help maintain a healthy weight.

It is quite possible once you start HRT that you will find yourself more fatigued. That is also fairly normal - listen to your body.

You could also look at some of the more Paleo / healthy diets where people eat 4-6 smaller meals a day - it is easier on the digestion. But it does require good food planning and meal preparation. Not easy as a busy student!

In my case I'm trying to manage IBS symptoms using the low FODMAP diets. It seems to help and my weight is around 60kg at 174cm so a bit "light". I also (used) to work out 3-5 times a week plus running. Used to = post op recovery (11 weeks). Then the dilation schedule will definitely impact lifestyle!

[Ruth Ruthless]

Regarding processed carbohydrates, I was addicted to Coca Cola and couldn't shake the addiction no matter how much I tried until I started eating lots of fruits every day... and then without even trying, I didn't feel the urge to drink coke.

I also found that eating fried food very much brought out the urge to drink coke, so avoiding these was also part of what made me lose my craving for coke without even trying.