Weight loss support group

[TonyaJanelle]

I'm trying to reduce the salt and excess carbs!

Reduce salt? No spiro for you?

 

[Kenna]

No!
It's my understanding that Spiro is not widely prescribed for transgender women outside the US, and to a lesser extent, adjacent countries where the US influence is strong. From all the reports that I've read, it seems to be a hideous medication. Cyproterone acetate is approved in almost every country in the world, except the USA, and for most people it has no unwanted side effects at all. It's intended use is for men with prostate cancer, where they take several pills a day, but for my dose I have to use a pill cutter. Apparently at VERY high doses it can cause liver problems, but not at any prescribed doses, however the FDA still bans it. Because of this ban, US doctors have had to resort to spiro for transgender women. Fortunately I'm in Australia!
Cheers,
-Kenna

 

[Linde]

@ Kenna, you are right spiro is not meant to be a testosterone blocker, but for reducing blood pressure. The testosterone blocking is a side effect. I took it in a saml dose (way less than I read people are taking to block testosterone) for a very short time to reduce my ankle swelling. This stuff drove me almost crazy, and we went to another drug for my purpose. I don't know how many trans women can handle the high doses they are taking.
Fortunately I did not take anything for testosterone suppression. if nothing is there, nothing needs to be suppressed.

Most all other countries use some version of Cyproterone Acetate, which has none of the nasty side effects spiro has. Sometimes it might even be enough to take finasteride as a blocker in combination with the right amount of estrogen.


Hugs
Linde

 

[TonyaJanelle]

lucky. Don't know why cyproterone is not approved here. The one bad thing when I finally get to quit the spiro will be possibly having to watch my sodium. I will be able to chug Gatorade again though.

 

[Delilah]

Me too

 

[Katie]

I take 200 mg spiro daily and have suffered none of the side effects that others complain of. However my doctor's approach was to taper me up over time. She started me at a low dose and increased over time, claiming that by doing so we would avoid nasty side effects. Either I have a very high tolerance for spiro or her approach worked.

 

[TonyaJanelle]

I've had no problems with the spiro either. Potassium is high and sodium low but still in normal ranges.

If my estrogen level was higher I'd have tried tapering off or at least cutting the dose by now though.

 

[Linde]

I must be very sensitive to this stuff. I took the smallest dose only, because I used it as a diuretic, but could not stand it anymore after a few weeks.

Hugs
Linde

 

[Marie62]

I share the fate of most of you, being somewhat to short for my weight even at 193 cm and I suspect that most if not all of us could lose a few pounds, if only for comfort ... “Support group“ simply says it and I would be in as well.

I would also agree that photos should be an exception rather than the rule and should be “decent“, perhaps in a change- or pre-post fashion, but clad and that they should not be explicit or prone to inviting “spectators”

In another thread here at TR on obesity and operations I posted a tidbit on how I personally tackle weight control/loss at the technical level using the excellent and free app “MyFitnessPal” and “scaled” eating. No talk of excercise there, but of course I do, biking to/from work 25 kms every day, where “every” has been relative lately, hmmm ...

MFP has a social interaction component to it, which I never used, since I am not one to generally want to shout out about my weight problems, but if one could limit this to us here or perhaps even to TR weight loss friends, then this would also work for me.

Anyone else using apps or even MyFitnessPal?

 

[Linde]

I used an app of some sort when I lost 60 lbs a few years ago, but I prefer my own spreadsheet to record my personal details.

Linde

 

[Ann Sophie]

I've lost around 6kg (around 11 lb? ) over the past three month with changing my eating habits nearly completely. I only eat meat once a week, fish once or sometimes twice. I cut meat completely from my breakfast routine and focus on yoghurt with cereals and fruits. For lunch I usually eat what I'm up to and warm, but focussing on proteinrich stuff like beans, fish and so on, because splitting up the huge proteins also requires energy which your body takes from the fat reserves In the evening I try to eat without eating too much carbons, working with cheese and eggs e.g.

This change has been accompanied with sports minimum twice a week and much fluid (water, tee). When I'm in the mood for sweets I usually drink water with a bit of juice or make yoghurt with fruitsauce. When I was sad or moody in the past I fell into sweets way too easy... But now I'm able to walk through the sweets sections in the market without the urge to buy stuff

And yes, of course I do cheat from time to time, because when you deserve something sweet it's not always ok to say no (Chocolate ).

But usually I try to be strict to these changes. And it really helped, because the whole body feeling becomes better. When I have to choose what made the difference? Definitely the reduction of meat and sweets (not to 0%!) accompanied by more drinking water and tea. I had a moment last week when I ate a bar of chocolate. I usually tend to devour one... two... three... four... in the need of more until I'm satisfied... after this one bar I was happy and it was so delicious Could have eaten another one, but I was fine with it.

Maybe some of my experiences help, not forcing anything over you! I'm a biology teacher (not a nutritionist!) and I try to balance the nutritions and at this moment I'm pretty happy with the results, not pushing heavy weight loss on the cost of my health.

 

[Kenna]

In contrast to Sophie, I've put on about 3-4Kg over the last couple of months. I used to get fairly regular exercise going for an hour's brisk walk most lunchtimes but surgeries have stopped me doing that. First my hair transplant surgeon wanted me to stop exercise either side of his surgery, then I quickly followed with surgery to straighten my weird little toe and even now 4 weeks later, while most of the pain has gone, I still have to wear a stiff soled, open toed "slipper" that limits my walking to around the home. I hope that when I have a review at the end of next week I'll be able to get back to a normal shoe and begin seeing how far I can walk, but I expect it'll be a slow progression. In the meantime I've been trying to limit what I eat, but working from home because of the Covid-19 lockdown, I have a variety of food at hand all the time, so I've not been very successful.
-Kenna

 

[Linde]

Sophie, your diet sound pretty close to what we know here as the Mediterranean Diet, which is considered to be as healthy a diet as one can eat.
The rule of thumb for healthcare professionals is to lose 1 pound (1/2 kg) per week, losing more can become stressful for the endocrine system.
This diet in combination with cardio exercises and some bone strength training is as good as it comes.

Hus
Linde