Alt Gender and Weight Loss in Biological Women
viaTess
Posts: 24 Member
I wanted to talk a little about the weight loss side of my journey in relation to my gender. I am biological female and I'm totally fine being a chick, but I definitely am mentally genderless where I don't swing one way or the other. I feel like I am both genders and neither at the same time, sort of.
Of course, being biologically female I've got a monthly cycle. This really messes with weight loss perception and the scale. Most of my journey is about muscle gain for those darn grocery bags! But I also find myself fascinated with the weight loss process even if my goals are very slow, at 2-3lbs loss per month.
Right before the cycle resets, I gain weight because of bloating. Then usually right after, I appear to lose a lot according to the scale, then a few days later come back up a little bit to a reasonable weight. This makes it very hard to track my weight loss on the calendar month's schedule and can be discouraging at the beginning of my cycle.
This is the first time I've ever thought about my biological monthly calendar in relation to my gender, it's all triggered by this weight loss cycle that looks kind of like a heart beat. When I was 11 I accepted what my body does and it hasn't bothered me until now.
Because my body is female, I have to deal with this cycle of weight loss and accept that the change will be clear in the long-term. I know I am not trans to male and have always known that, but why do I have to go through this? I know it would be very difficult and very hard on my body to stop this process, and that's all besides the ability to have children. I've mastered my health so that I have no problems for that week each month, but do I have to sacrifice caffeine and alcohol just to avoid the pain? I often feel out of touch with what other women think, so is this what women are talking about when they complain that biological men have it easy when losing weight?
I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories! This has been an interesting thought I really wanted to share here!
Of course, being biologically female I've got a monthly cycle. This really messes with weight loss perception and the scale. Most of my journey is about muscle gain for those darn grocery bags! But I also find myself fascinated with the weight loss process even if my goals are very slow, at 2-3lbs loss per month.
Right before the cycle resets, I gain weight because of bloating. Then usually right after, I appear to lose a lot according to the scale, then a few days later come back up a little bit to a reasonable weight. This makes it very hard to track my weight loss on the calendar month's schedule and can be discouraging at the beginning of my cycle.
This is the first time I've ever thought about my biological monthly calendar in relation to my gender, it's all triggered by this weight loss cycle that looks kind of like a heart beat. When I was 11 I accepted what my body does and it hasn't bothered me until now.
Because my body is female, I have to deal with this cycle of weight loss and accept that the change will be clear in the long-term. I know I am not trans to male and have always known that, but why do I have to go through this? I know it would be very difficult and very hard on my body to stop this process, and that's all besides the ability to have children. I've mastered my health so that I have no problems for that week each month, but do I have to sacrifice caffeine and alcohol just to avoid the pain? I often feel out of touch with what other women think, so is this what women are talking about when they complain that biological men have it easy when losing weight?
I'd love to hear your thoughts and stories! This has been an interesting thought I really wanted to share here!
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I am biologically female, mentally female, sexually female who dates females. If I eat less than I burn off I lose weight. period. (pun!)0
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Yep. This is what we complain about. Our bodies have a rhythm that we have to work with and at times seems to work against our goals.
I don't know if we'd complain about it if we had a matriarchal society that celebrated / applauded / aspired to the qualities we relate to being female, however we live in the culture that prevails.
On the level of accepting your cycle and the effects it has on your weightloss goals, how often do you track your weight? In the last 8 weeks, I've started tracking daily and using an online program called Trendweight that graphs out the general trends, smoothing out the peaks and troughs. It links to the Fitbit data, so I have to upload my weight to the Fitbit site and then Trendweight uses the numbers. I was resistant to weighing this regularly as would done my head in in the past, but I've found this has really helped to remove my emotions from what the scale says - I'm now seeing this whole process as a scientific experiment, and I'm trying to work out how many calories I can eat to (firstly) maintain where I am, and then I'll decrease the calories (by as little as possible) to decrease the weight.
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