Need weight loss and exercise tips

[Cyber Warrior]

I am becoming more and more confident that I definetly want to be a girl but regardless if I want to start transitioning one day or not I really need to lose weigh either way. I am biologically male and I weigh around 400 pounds. I am 6'3 and pretty masculine looking as well. I seriously want to drop my weight but I also dont know how to exercise properly or how to go about it. I dont want exercise that is going to give me muscles or otherwise increase my male attributes in some way. I want to get to a weight and shape that a normal girl of my height should weigh. Can anybody give me should good tips on what to do? Also diet info would be a big help too.

[FTMax]

Cardio (running, jogging, walking, biking, swimming, etc.) will enable you to lose weight and not gain muscle, at least initially. The key is going to be burning more calories than you're taking in, to a certain deficit each day in order to lose pounds.

The most important thing with eating and losing weight in the beginning is going to be keeping your caloric intake under a certain amount depending on how much activity you're doing during the day. Set goals for yourself to reach weekly/monthly and hold yourself accountable.

[AnonyMs]

I've had problems with my weight for a lot of my life and found losing weight to be a psychological issue more than anything. I found it very easy to achieve when I've been in the right frame of mind, and impossible otherwise. If you have this problem then wanting to transition could really help with motivation and weight loss.

It kind of stating the obvious, but being overweight is simply because of eating to many calories for the amount of exercise you get. I've lost lots of weight twice, both times by controlling my diet but once combined with serious exercise and the other time with zero exercise - literally siting in a office chair all day every day for months on end. The no exercise one was actually much faster, but only because I was eating almost nothing.

At your height/weight I'd think you should also consult a doctor, and I'd be careful how you exercise as I believe it can be quiet dangerous.

I'll pm you something as well.

[BioS]

There is a book you can look into, it worked great for a friend of mine. The Eat Clean Diet by Tosca Reno. She lost 5 pounds in a week from just eating clean. No exercising other than going to work and home. She and many other people say that eating 'clean' is the most beneficial thing for your health.

[carsandsarcasm]

Making a body bigger or smaller is 80-90% diet. My exercise routine doesn't change whether I'm building muscle and fat or retaining muscle and losing fat, what does change is my diet. Exercise helps, for sure, but your focus needs to be on what you are eating.

I highly recommend everyone try and learn about nutrition to some extent. I don't expect people to have my sort of knowledge but people should know at least something about a task as fundamental as what we eat. Just read up on things like BMR (Basal metabolic Rate), TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure), and basic macronutrients. Learn the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats and the difference between sugars from fruits and vegetable and refined high fructose corn syrup in just about everything else. Gaining a basic understanding of how nutrition works is so important.

It will all boil down to eating clean and eating in moderation. My philosophy is there are no healthy or unhealthy foods, only healthy and unhealthy amounts of food, i.e. apples are good but nothing but apples is bad, a burger now and then is reasonable but nothing but burgers is bad.
Another rule of thumb is to buy foods that don't have barcodes. Meat, fruit, and vegetables should be making up the majority of your diet. Things that come in jars, boxes, tins, etc. are things to keep to a minimum.

The real key with weight loss is to not have it as a diet. Diets are inherently temporary and their end will cause instant weight gain once returning to old patterns. What you want is lifestyle change. You want to get yourself into healthy patterns that you enjoy and that become a part of your life permanently. By doing this it means you won't have to worry about tracking things, the weight loss and maintenance will happen autonomously.

So diet is the key but exercise is highly recommended. The thing to keep in mind about exercise is it is not a case of more is better. Lifting every day and/or running for hours on end is counter-intuitive; it leads to huge muscle catabolism (read: skinny fat) and increased risk of injury. The saying is "gains are made on the rest days, not on the workout days" so be sure not to push too hard, take rest days, sleep well, and be patient. By doing things right you ensure yourself of long term, permanent results.