Is metabolic rate determined by genetics or hormones?

aestarel

So, I'm transgender - female bodied, taking testosterone to transition to male. My question is, is my metabolism determined by my genetics (female) or the type of hormones present in my body (male)? I know that males have higher metabolic rates, but I'm not sure if that's from genetic or chemical makeup. Anyone have ideas?

NotThePest

Males, because of the fact they are male, have greater muscle mass then females. The greater percentage of muscle to fat, the higher ones metabolic rate. The body has to feed the muscles. Once you build up your muscle mass, your metabolic rate with increase. Are you doing resistance/weight training exercises? Aerobics burn calories, but weight training, builds muscle. On the front end you resistance/strength training is an inefficient burner of calories; but on the back end, once you build up muscles they burn calories. Don't forget once you build up muscle mass, you still will need to maintain that mass by working out, you can't just stop because you will lose the mass and slowdown you burn.

You may want to do yourself a favor and research the benefits of resistance training.

MoreBean13

All of the above. Also, your "metabolic history" will be a contributing factor. The single largest contributor is muscle mass, which should be larger than a person who was born female due to genetics. I'm not familiar enough with the hormone replacement to know whether it will decrease muscle mass but I suspect that is something you could prevent through training if you want to. I would use a BMR calculator that specifically takes in to account body fat percentage, which therefore uses lean body mass, since your situation is kind of unique.