Looking for FtM/transmasculine advice/people

Peacebone

I'm Seb, a 31 year old trans guy from the UK.

I'm hoping to start with the gender clinic in the next 2-4 months. I'm also living "real life experience" and would like to be on testosterone by the end of the year/early next year if they let me. It feels like a slow and horrible process, so I want to feel like I've started changing my body from now, by reducing body fat, which I hope will reduce my feelings to certain areas where it's distributed (I'm not a big guy really, but quite squishy and don't like where the squish is ).

Looking to connect with other guys as well, as I'd like advice on how to get a great shape (and trans people in general, all welcome for a chat) and reduce body fat. I've heard of big weight gain once T starts and I'd like to avoid that as well...

Hope you all havin' a good day,

Seb

governatorkp

Hello there,

I'm an 18-year-old FtM. I've been on T for 2 months and a week now.

I'm having the same goals like you do, reducing body fat and gaining lean muscle.
I used to do a lot of cardio-intensive (walking, running, dancing) exercise with additional weighttraining with dumbbells I have lying around.

I believed that doing a lot of exercise and slightly under-eating would help me get there.
And yeah, I did lose fat% but I was constantly tired and it simply wasn't fun, add to that that muscle wasn't coming in all that fast. (Even with the influence of T)

What I'm doing now, is focusing on power mostly since, as you know, the more muscle, the more energy burn even in rest.
I started doing Insanity™ -A HIIT workout, that focuses on Power, Balance, Flexibility and Cardio.
I'm in the third week now. I didn't want to follow their Elite Nutrition Guide at first.
Since I was scared for an increase of body fat rather than a decrease.

However, I've been following it now for a few days. With a BMR of around 1600, eating 2500kcal a day,
divided evenly in 5 meals. My metabolism is having a huge kick-start!
To keep your body fed like this (evenly distributed meals 5 times a day) keeps your body into the fat-burning zone constantly.

I feel great and have a lot of energy to put in my workouts.
Also, believe it or not, I'm quite certain abs are coming in.
Right now, according to bodyfat caliper, I'm at about 19.7% Body Fat.
(Coming from 21.5% in December)

I'm pretty sure T is helping a great deal, but ONLY if you also eat accordingly to keep that T-generated muscle.

Therefor my advice;
- As for food; keep yourself well-fed! Protein is very important.
- If you combine it with working out, make sure you also get enough carbs. This was a big mistake I made; to almost completely eliminate them. What happens is that your body has no energy reserve stored, and protein is the next energy source that's easy to break down. (So no, it won't attack your fat, but your muscle!
- If you can, eat 5 meals a day, with your caloric intake spread evenly.
- You can calculate your caloric needs with the Harris Benedict Equation.
- Perhaps you could try out Insanity™?

If I wasn't clear about something or you have any questions about whatever, I'll be happy to answer!

governatorkp

To add;

I've had a lot of problems with food in the past.
Mainly because I simply didn't feel good in my skin but didn't figure out yet why not (being transgender that is).

I've tried many diets, desperately trying to get rid of curves.
Probably all of the 'popular' diets and crash diets.

Paleo, Low carb/keto, fasting, juice diets, you name it.
It didn't end well, I took it to far and ended up in hospital seriously underfed, developping osteoporosis and failing heart, liver and kidneys.

Even after I recovered my weight and health, I've always sticked to low-carb, for some reason.
Most probably because that's simply how my mother eats (she's struggling with obesity).

However, as I said, this really is the best 'diet'- nutrition plan rather, that I've followed.
Undereating doesn't solve anything, you'll lose fat% but you'll also lose muscle, making your body look more feminine, which is opposite of what we want..

It seems so simple yet a lot of people (including myself) are to scared to try;
To eat what your body actually needs.

What happens is, with exercise, you gain muscle.
With the proper nutrition, you maintain and grow the muscle.
And if you eat consistently and enough, those muscles will become a fat-burning machine 24/7.

Also, since I've started to eat MORE, (I used to eat only my BMR; 1600kcal, now I eat 2500kcal)
my weight has been DROPPING, which is very curious.