Diet How To's

[RevMoonSerpent]

I know in the past we have talked about different things like what type of deodorant you use etc. considering what is made for our genetic body as to how we feel but, a group of us guys awhile back talked about diet and fitness and I was wondering for those who are looking into losing weight and those of us who are actually doing it what type of routine do you follow?

If you are an ftm do you follow the diet and fitness plan for a man or woman?
Same question can be asked of the mtf's.
I guess my curiosity just gets the better of me. I was starting to wonder in which direction I should go since, physically I'm female but want the body or as close as I can get to a mans.

[thatgirl]

3500 calories= 1 lbs

eat 1500 calories and excersies -250 calories = -1/2 lbs a day
eat 1700 calories and excerises -500 calories = -1 lbs a day

[ZenFrost]

3500 calories= 1 lbs

eat 1500 calories and excersies -250 calories = -1/2 lbs a day
eat 1700 calories and excerises -500 calories = -1 lbs a day

You're right about the number of calories in a pound (remember, a calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1 liter of water by 1 degree Celsius) but the daily weight loss ratios are a bit off. Healthy weight gain/loss is no more than 2 pounds a week so if you're losing more than that it isn't healthy at all (and it's probably not the weight you think your losing, it's possible to lose even 14 pounds in a day but that's water weight and isn't the kind of weight loss you should be going for.)

The average man uses about 2000 calories per day. The average woman uses about 1700 calories per day, at least those are the numbers for health requirements. To lose weight, reducing the caloric intake by approximately 500 calories per day will result in the loss of one pound in one week (3500 calories per pound, 500 times 7 is 3500, so reducing intake by 500 equals loss of one pound in a week).

Exercise burns calories, so if you exercise a lot (and I mean a lot) you might end up needing to increase your caloric intake. But if you exercise moderately and simply reduce your daily caloric intake, you'll lose weight.

As for differences between male and female, knowing that my body is technically female means that I shouldn't be consuming as many calories as I would if my body was male, because of the physiological differences that make men require a higher caloric intake. So if I was to stick to a "diet" I would follow the terms for females simply because my body works that way.

But a lot of these commercial diets really aren't good for you in a lot of ways. The best way to to lose weight healthily is to simply change your diet and lifestyle to be more healthy. Walk more, avoid saturated fats (like butter) and focus on polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (both are in olive oil), follow those things you were told as a kid... eat your veggies, drink lots of water. Foods with color are better than foods without (spinach is better than ice burg lettuce, etc.) Most animal fats are bad for you, but fatty fish are the opposite (they have omega-3 fatty acids which are actually quite healthy) and a lot of foods contain more nutrition when eaten raw. This applies to both men and women equally. So diet plans should basically be the same for men and women, except that women often need to consume fewer calories. I think that even if your gender is different than your body, you should stick with what your body physiologically needs. Transitioning is sort of a gray area, because what your body needs will probably change during the course of a transition so it can be tricky to work with then.

[durden]

Zen had a really great reply, so I'll just add a few quick thoughts of my own. I'm still trying my best to eat well. Eating healthy isn't the problem for me, it's just making sure that I eat enough daily. So I try & eat a few times each day instead of just going for the normal breakfast, lunch & dinner routine. Snacks in between [as long as they're healthy of course] are helpful. I take a few different vitamins daily. A multi-vitamin is a great standard & so is an Omega-3 fish oil capsule. If you're going to take a fish oil supplement make sure you buy a brand that at least has over 400 mg's of EPA & also one that has more than 250 mg's of DHA. I try & do a moderate amount of exercise every other day. More towards the morning after I've eaten a bowl of cereal or a banana or something. They say that it doesn't really hurt you if you can only exercise late at night. It's just that exercising in the late PM hours won't benefit you with the adrenaline boost that you'd have if you worked out before you began your day. On the flip side though, exercising before bed could help you rest more easily. This is a per person thing though. Some people are much wider awake after they get their heart revved up, so it might backfire & keep you awake longer. Guess you'd just have to try it & see which results you get smacked with. & this might sound absurd, but if you're familiar w/the Men's Health magazine, you can learn a lot about different exercises, diet plans, etc. You can always go to menshealth.com & check out their different articles on fitness, health, weight loss, nutrition, etc. Honestly, I've learned a lot from the magazine.

[Abraxas]

Yip, those guys are spot on.
Also, another couple of important things to remember: sugar makes you fat. So limiting your sugar intake along with your saturated fat intake, will help.

Lean meat has more protein. Eat chicken and fish instead of beef. If you can get rabbit meat, go for it. Rabbit meat contains large amounts of protein and almost nothing else. Protein helps build muscle, which in turn, reduces fat.

If you feel like skipping a meal once in awhile, buy a tub of whey protein and make protein shakes. They taste good, fill you up quite a bit, and are good for you.

And never, ever take diet pills.

[Felix]

Good advice here I think. As for me I lost my initial 2 stone between September and November and then I have leveled out at roughly the same weight since then except at Christmas when I ate rubbish and drank a lot but I've lost my Christmas weight so back to normal. I didn't really follow a diet plan to loose the Christmas weight I just cut the rubbish out again no booze no rubbish just eating healthily. I'm having trouble now though getting to loose anymore. Probably cos I'm not exercising but thats due to lack of motivation and my emotional state at the moment. Hopefully when things pick up I will want to exercise again like I did before. I suppose I should be grateful that I'm staying at the same weight and not putting on :happy: xx Felix :hugs:

[Taylor105]

Yip, those guys are spot on.
Also, another couple of important things to remember: sugar makes you fat. So limiting your sugar intake along with your saturated fat intake, will help.

Lean meat has more protein. Eat chicken and fish instead of beef. If you can get rabbit meat, go for it. Rabbit meat contains large amounts of protein and almost nothing else. Protein helps build muscle, which in turn, reduces fat.

If you feel like skipping a meal once in awhile, buy a tub of whey protein and make protein shakes. They taste good, fill you up quite a bit, and are good for you.

And never, ever take diet pills.


That and carbs (breads, pasta) metabolize into sugar in your system...which is probably why people crave them too!! Here is something I just shared with another club I belong to just this morning. I get this newsletter and this was an article in it. I think it has some interesting tips. :)


Eat Right Without Thinking
The real secret to healthy eating? Good habits. Here are 20 you can start right now
Tamar Haspel

From the instructions for some diets, you'd think losing weight was more complicated than calibrating a sextant against Orion on a cloudy night. The food diaries you need to write; the nutrition labels you need to read — and pronounce and translate; the protein, fat, and carbohydrate grams you have to add up. It's time to try an easier way. No math, no more squinting at the fine print and trying to decipher those words with no vowels. Instead, just 20 everyday tactics that will get you started on your weight-loss plan and then help you stick to it. Soon enough, your diet will simply become the way you eat.

1. Always eat dessert. Yes, always. "A small amount can signal that the meal is over," says Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., author of The Volumetrics Eating Plan. She ends her meals with a piece of quality chocolate — and she's a doctor.

2. Get help from a paper napkin. You can use it to blot a teaspoon of fat off a pizza slice. That may not sound like a lot, but multiply it by a slice a week, and that's more than a whole cup of fat you won't eat — or wear — this year.

3. Take the beltway. When junk food beckons, tighten your belt a notch. Not so you can't breathe, but so you have a gentle reminder of the size you'd like to be. "The scale isn't the only measure of weight," says Roberta Anding, R.D., a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

4. Go public. Enlist the help of friends, family, and coworkers — and know they're watching. "The power of embarrassment is greater than willpower," says Stephen Gullo, Ph.D., author of The Thin Commandments.

5. Milk it for all it's worth. Consuming 1,800 milligrams of calcium a day could block the absorption of about 80 calories, according to a recent University of Tennessee study. Jump-start your calcium intake by filling your coffee mug with skim or 1 percent milk, drinking it down to the level you want in your coffee, then pouring in your caffeine fix. That's 300 mg down, 1,500 to go.

6. Scrape by. Always order your bagel or burger with a plastic knife. Use it to scrape off the excess cream cheese and mayo. You could shave off as many as half the calories.

7. Spice things up. Capsaicin, the substance that puts the hot in hot pepper, temporarily boosts your metabolism. Just make sure you're drinking a yogurt lassi with that searing-hot chicken vindaloo. Dairy blocks capsaicin's sweat-inducing signals better than water.

8. Case the organic section. That's where you're likely to find bread and cereal with fiber counts that put the conventional choices to shame. Thought you were doing well with your 3-grams-per-serving Cheerios? Nature's Path Slim blows it away with 10 g. (And it really doesn't taste like a shredded shoebox.)

9. Increase your a-peel. Speaking of fiber, a lot of it's in the peel, whether it's potatoes, apples, or pears. Even oranges — don't eat the whole peel, but keep the pith, that white stringy stuff; it's packed with flavonoids. More nutrients, more fiber, less labor. It's a win-win-win.

10. Spend lavishly on precut vegetables at the supermarket. Sure, they cost more, but you're more likely to eat them. "Make low-energy snacks as easy as possible," Dr. Rolls says. "Keep vegetables as near to hand as you can. Make it so you have no excuse."

11. Upgrade your restaurant selection. Pick a place where you'll actually want to linger. "When the meals are not hurried, the presentation is beautiful and the portions are reasonable so you can regulate your attitude," Anding says. That means your body — not the empty plate — will tell you when to stop.

12. Eat a snack at 3 p.m., no matter what. "Have a 150-calorie snack [now], and it can save you 400 calories later," Anding says. An ounce of nuts or two sticks of string cheese weigh in at about 170 calories.

13. Drink with your dominant hand. If you're circulating at a party, Dr. Rolls suggests keeping your glass in the hand you eat with. If you're drinking with it, you can't eat with it, can you?

14. Plate it. Whatever it is, don't eat it out of the container and don't bring the container to the couch. "Part of satiety is visual," Anding says. "Your brain actually has to see the food on the plate, and when you reach into the jar, or the box, or the bag, you don't see it." If it's worth eating, put it on a plate. Eat what's there, then stop.

15. Send back the bread. All it takes is a wave of the hand, a smile, and a "No, thank you."

16. Start with salad. It's the holy grail of dieting — eat less by eating more. Dr. Rolls's research has found that eating a salad as a first course decreased total lunch calories by 12 percent. Avoid the croutons and creamy dressings, which have the opposite effect.

17. Go out for ice cream. Or an eclair. Or even guacamole and chips. Just go out. Don't keep your danger foods in the house. You can't eat half of a carton of ice cream that's not there in the first place.

18. Give yourself a hand. Find a way other than food to work off your nervous energy. "It's behavior modification," Anding says. "Instead of grabbing a bag of chips, you pick up your knitting. Art works, woodworking works — anything that occupies your hands."

19. Wait a minute. Well, 10 minutes. When your mind strays from your desk to the vending machine, it could be hunger — or it could be boredom or irritation with your boss. If you're still thinking about snacking 10 minutes later, then you're probably hungry. Think of it as a chance to have one of the nine servings of fruits and vegetables you need each day.

20. Go wild once in a while. Deprivation won't make you thin — or happy. Designate a meal or two a week when you can eat absolutely anything you want.

[RevMoonSerpent]

Thanks for all the tips guys. It's been very educational.

[Abraxas]

Taylor- that article is great!

And I didn't know that about the peppers. I love spicy food. :D

[DanielMacBride]

Great article, Taylor! I am going to add a couple of similar tips I used when I was bodybuilding and trying to burn fat...the chili thing is VERY useful (and I LOVE spicy food but you do have to watch it as a lot of spicy cuisine is also laden with fat - Indian food in particular is often very high in fat). I also used to have one day per week (mine was Sunday) as a "cheat day" where I could eat anything I liked - and it got to the point where my "cheat" meal was a doner kebab, double lamb but no bread (too many carbs), My favourite kebab place here used to just load the fillings into a foil container for Me so I could have the lean meat and the salad, all the taste but none of the carbs :)

I also used to have a rule when I was bodybuilding, no complex carbs after lunchtime (carbs are in just about everything, but its the COMPLEX ones in anything with a grain base - pasta, bread, rice etc that the body metabolises into sugars) because if you eat them after lunch, your body does not metabolise them properly. Vegetables are full of simple carbohydrates that are easily metabolised. So I used to load up on complex carbs at breakfast (usually a bowl of porridge, My favourite, and toast and stuff), have no carbs in My mid-morning snack (usually a tub of yogurt or some salad), and MAYBE some at lunch if I had a sandwich (I would make it on either wholegrain bread or in a tortilla wrap). After that, no bread or pasta or rice - I would have a bunch of salad or vegetables and some lean meat (and later when I became vegan, I would have tofu or just salad/vegetables).

Also eating smaller meals and more frequently - I used to eat six times a day (and still do, but not bodybuilding any more). It really is a matter of mainly making healthy food choices, it is SO easy to find a low fat and low carb substitute for many common snack or meal choices, but too many people wouldn't have the first clue how to do it!

I used to aim for a total of 30g of fat in My diet per day maximum (I know this is low, but I WAS trying to lose fat and gain muscle at the time LOL, and even though I am no longer doing that, I still only eat 30g max of fat per day). Being vegan helps - there is NO fat in vegetables and most fruits (except avocados which are one of My favourites) and I have a lot of choices for carbs - I eat a lot of lentils and legumes as well as rice, pasta and breads (and now that I am not bodybuilding I am a lot more relaxed about no carbs after lunch, I eat whatever I want whenever I want it LOL but still cook with no added fat or salt and limit My portion sizes to only eat what My body needs - I am a slow eater too so that helps, because My body has time to tell Me when it's full - and I like to ENJOY My food) :) I do however have a reasonably active lifestyle - I can't play sport or anything any more because of My back problems and My hip, but I do walk at least 3km every day (about 4.8 miles) and try to walk twice that, because I figure move it or lose it and I have no plans to end up in a wheelchair or requiring a hip replacement ;) Chasing an almost 4yo does wonders for fitness levels too :heehee:

It must have worked, because in 3 months of bodybuilding I went from 60kg/132lb and 28% body fat, to 72.5kg/160lb and 20% body fat (I was not competitively bodybuilding so I didn't want to get to competition levels of 15% or lower because it's very bad for the body).

Daniel

[Taylor105]

Yeah thanks Abs and Daniel....I still get e-mails from this website I belonged to when I was actively anorexic and looking for new angles to lose weight. I thought this one was good info though so I am glad I was able to share it.

[ZenFrost]

My last post, long as it was, was the briefest overview I could come up with. But I didn't really mention other important stuff like the molecular difference between complex and simple carbohydrates, the ratios of healthy nutrition, the amino acids contained in complete vs. incomplete proteins, and a brief intro to the glycemic index. Now all that sounds really sciencey and boring, but it's actually really important and I can put it in layman's terms so it makes sense.

So here's Nutrition 101, part two.

The approximate ratio of a healthy diet is 30-30-40. That's 30% fat, 30% protein, and 40% carbohydrates. The numbers aren't absolute, they can be higher/lower depending on your body and exercise level. But your fat intake shouldn't really exceed 30%. However, you body needs fat, so that's why so many 'low-fat' diets are bad. If you're eating too many bad fats (like saturated or trans fats) or just too much fat in general, a 'lower-fat' diet can be good though.

*A side note about calories is that fat contains 9 per gram, whereas protein and carbohydrates contain only 4 calories per gram. When you look at nutrition information on food, it says Calories ### Calories from Fat ###, the calories from fat number is a quick way to know about what percent of the food your eating is fat (to better keep track of the ratio).

A lot of people don't know the difference between complex and simple carbs. They're named because of their molecular properties. Complex carb molecules are basically bonded together in a chain, whereas simple carbs are much smaller. How does this translate to normal people talk? Basically, complex carbs require more effort for your body to digest and therefore tend to be healthier. A few example of complex carbs are in: multi-grain bread, pears, artichokes, oranges, carrots, soybeans... etc. Simple carbs are in things like cakes, cookies, crackers, candies, white flour, and store bought processed foods. This goes with what I said earlier about color, brown bread tends to be somewhat healthier than white bread.

Proteins also come in different forms. There's two basic kinds: complete and incomplete. A complete protein contains all the necessary amino acids required for human dietary needs. :blink: What? Basically, amino acids are these little building blocks and they're very important. But there's more than one kind. Some foods contain all of them and they're called complete proteins, while many foods only have some of the amino acids and so are called incomplete. Complete proteins are found in meat, eggs, dairy, soy, quinoa (pronounced keen-wah), etc. If a person is vegan and cannot eat soy, they need to combine certain foods with different amino acids to make sure they get the proper proteins each day (but that can be as easy as putting peanut butter on whole-grain bread).

Now, there's also this thing called the glycemic index, which is basically a categorization of the way certain carbs metabolize into glucose in the bloodstream. I think it's a bit complicated to go into detail here, but the short version is that eating things with a low glycemic index (GI) are better for you. However, some things like carrots have a really high GI but are really good for you so I don't really use it.

Now, just for a basic dieting tip that doesn't deal with science... take things slow. Making sweeping changes to your diet may sound like a good thing, but it wont work. You need to do things very gradually, so here's some tips:

1. If you drink a lot of soda, start to cut down. No more than one 12 ox can per day. And you can start mixing seltzer water with fruit juice to get a healthier alternative to soda pop.

2. If you like to put butter on things, don't just switch to margarine because it's not really better for you. Just start using less and less butter until your hardly eating any anymore. Olive oil in cooking (and bread dipping) is a really healthy alternative.

3. Milk is good, but not the high fat kind. So ween yourself from whole milk to 2%, then 1.5%, then 1%, then skim. Same goes for putting half and half in coffee. Work on getting to a point where you have skim milk in your coffee.

4. Chocolate is good for you. Mars bars? Not so much. White chocolate has no nutritional value, milk chocolate is okay, but good dark chocolate has antioxidants and isn't loaded with milk fat.

5. Fast food is an absolute no-no. Of all the different places you can go (if you have to) Subway and Wendy's ranks higher than McDonald's and Burger King, but you have to be careful what you order.

6. Don't cut all that unhealthy stuff out of your diet, just cut down. A piece of pie a week wont kill you. A bowl of ice cream isn't the end of the world. Just don't do it all the time. Trying to completely cut yourself off from what you like will doom your diet to fail.

7. Don't try to make all the above changes in a day, work on it gradually over a period of months.

:huh: Wow, I can't believe I just wrote all that. I'd apologize for the long posts but I'm always telling everyone not to apologize so I wont. :tongue: Now, the reason I went on so much about all that is because anyone who's dieting, man or woman, FtM or MtF, needs to know the basics of nutrition because getting swept up in all the commercial diets these days can be really, really bad for you so I think just knowing the facts is what's important. And I seem to be one of the weirdos who knows all that stuff off the top of my head. :rolleyesp:

[Jennaie]

Dieting is very simple, calories in, calories out. Consume less calories than you expend and your losing weight.

If you don't want to lose muscle, don't lose more than 1.5 pounds per week.

Exercise: This is the key to putting the weight where you want it and not putting it where you don't want it. If I were a ftm, I would not be doing push ups, squats, bench presses, or any other exercise that is going to build my chest, thighs or butt. I would walk or run daily, pullups, curls, crunches, shoulder exercises and forearm strengthening.

Walk every day, workout 3 times a week, keep track of your caloric intake and yes, I get on the scales every morning.

Good luck,

[ZenFrost]

If I were a ftm, I would not be doing push ups, squats, bench presses, or any other exercise that is going to build my chest, thighs or butt.

Actually, to help prepare for upper surgery chest exercises are very important. Building up chest muscles will help create better surgical results.

And for those on T, hormone therapy changes fat and muscle distribution so exercises that do build up those areas are equally important to any other exercises for other areas.

For those not transitioning, muscle building exercise in general is just a good idea regardless of the area.

And as for the frequency of weigh-ins, not more often than weekly is appropriate. For female bodied people, weight can change more than three pounds in a single day so checking your weight daily can help lead to eating disorders. Checking your weight once a week or every other week will give you a good idea of your progress without you getting worried if you weigh more one day than you did the previous day. And you'll probably be less concerned if you're losing weight fast enough than if you were weighing yourself all the time and not seeing constant changes.

[Taylor105]

Actually, to help prepare for upper surgery chest exercises are very important. Building up chest muscles will help create better surgical results.

And for those on T, hormone therapy changes fat and muscle distribution so exercises that do build up those areas are equally important to any other exercises for other areas.

For those not transitioning, muscle building exercise in general is just a good idea regardless of the area.

And as for the frequency of weigh-ins, not more often than weekly is appropriate. For female bodied people, weight can change more than three pounds in a single day so checking your weight daily can help lead to eating disorders. Checking your weight once a week or every other week will give you a good idea of your progress without you getting worried if you weigh more one day than you did the previous day. And you'll probably be less concerned if you're losing weight fast enough than if you were weighing yourself all the time and not seeing constant changes.

I'm TOTALLY with Zen on this one. DO NOT weigh everyday people!! You will become obsessed and you will get sick. I am living proof of someone who almost died several times from anorexia because the scale was my daily best friend and worst enemy. And yes, the genetically female body fluctuates daily with water weight. But once you get trapped into the eating disorder you don't think logically anymore and your brain becomes focused totally on the weight and how to lose it. Just take our advice and weigh only once a week!!