She Can’t Wait to Lose That Weight

Linda reaches back to a previous ‘career’ to find some advice to a friend looking to lose some weight.

“You girls will be pleased to know that I am taking your advice,” Marilyn wrote, “I’m getting active. I have signed up for Zumba classes and had my first one today. I didn’t do some of the more energetic moves for fear of damage a certain surgical area, but I did hang in there.”

“Way to go,” “You go girl!” was the general tone of the public responses, mine included, but I also added some private comments which I would like to expand and share with you this month.

Marilyn is a member of one of the several TG support discussion groups I monitor. I have met her in person and she is a nice but very quiet person. That is not surprising; she has had a very tough life, stripped of family support and encouragement and she sometimes seems lacking in a sense of personal accomplishment. But to me she has a strength many of us could use. She lives on very low income but makes do. She managed to pass the life tests that qualify her for gender reassignment surgery and when the surgeons said she had to lose some weight before they would perform the surgery she went about losing the weight. Her I.D. and her genitalia now mark Marilyn as female.

And bless her; she wants better. Still somewhat overweight she wants to lose the extra weight and to get on with her life.  Her problem is that because of her withdrawn earlier life she has no concept about exercise and diet and how they relate to her body’s appearance. That is where I could help. I am not a doctor trained in nutrition but I’ve spent a lifetime trying to keep fit and some part time teaching fitness to others.

I shared my amateur observations with Marilyn and I would like to offer them to you.

First I should point out that Marilyn is not alone in the TG crowd in carrying a few and perhaps more than a few extra pounds.

Next we should know there is no quick fix to the problem of being overweight. We gain extra weight over a period of time and in different ways. We have to lose our weight over time.

Then, why should we lose extra weight? Not everyone should lose extra weight. If that weight is a small extra amount it is not generally a problem but extra weight may be a sign of high cholesterol levels in our circulatory system which is a high risk factor for heart attacks and strokes caused by clogging of arteries in key areas. I could go on and on about diabetes and other risks of being overweight but this article is aimed at the TG crowd, both MTF and FTM. Let’s look at an issue important in that field. Whether it is transitioning from one gender identity to the other on a permanent basis or simply one day/evening at a time most of us want to look as convincing as we can in our chosen gender. It is called ‘passing’.

For many of us trying to pass means dealing with those things we can control — facial hair, body hair, using makeup and dressing appropriately for a situation and trying to minimize those personal features we cannot control — the larger height, head, feet and hands of the average male, for instance. Another thing we can control and it has a big, very big, effect on our pass-ability is our accumulation of body fat. Males and females just accumulate fat in different places on the body and in different orders of magnitude in certain parts of the body. It is funny but there is not much difference between the lean male body and the lean female body — at least not that anyone can see when each is clothed. However as fat accumulates almost universally we are first able to notice it on a female’s hips and thighs and around a male’s belly. Extra weight is a big give-away to our original gender and it is something that we all can do something about.

Finally being overweight and carrying that weight in the wrong places seriously cuts down on the styles of clothing we can wear. Gone are skirts with belts where we can tuck in the blouse, no pencil skirts, no miniskirts, sheath or shift dresses. That doesn’t mean we don’t wear them. We just don’t look good in them. Fortunately we still have empire waist dresses, muumuus and dresses without a waist at all. WalMart is full of fashions for the full figured woman.

But what if like Marilyn we want to lose that extra weight?

There is no big secret to successfully trimming our weight and thereby our waist size and our dress and skirt sizes.  It is a matter of addition and subtraction; adding appropriate exercise to our daily schedule and subtracting inappropriate types and amounts of food from our daily intake.

Well, it’s not quite as simple as that but almost. I have a good length of bookshelf space filled with 20 to 30 year old books on the subject but I think things have not changed much since the books were published. Basically when we eat we take in vitamins and minerals as well as nutrients in the form of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Proteins are used by the body for tissue growth and repair. Carbohydrates and fats provide energy for movement and other aspects of daily life. Here is the key point: whether taken in as a protein, carbohydrate or fat nutrient particles that are not used by the body in the short term will be stored in the body as fat. A low fat diet does you no good if you are taking in more protein and carbohydrate foods than your body can use in the short term and will be converted to fat for storage.

If you want to lose that fat, I told Marilyn, keep drinking water, replace all other fluids with water, take in a modest amount of protein rich foods and cut out fat and cut way down on carbohydrates. You can find out what is what by reading the labelling.

Then and this is a big need — do a lot of low impact, low level exercise — walk briskly, jog, ride a bike, swim, walk some more. Do anything that you notice is getting your heart rate up a bit but not too much. Consult your doctor for professional advice but 120-13-beats per minute is a good guide for many and for me. It is important to not work harder than the body can take in the oxygen it needs to burn with the nutrients. Zumba, pilates, spinning, and other high energy exercise regimes are good for some but because they are not the best for sustained weight loss as they tend to take the body in to a condition called oxygen debt.  Slow and steady wins this race.

What happens is that when the body uses up its recent supply of carbohydrates and other nutrients it starts going after the stored reserves of body fat to get the energy it needs for the muscles and organs to function.  She wants to have those muscles continuing to burn energy stores, not getting tired.

Have you ever seen the ads about Jared, the guy who lost a lot of weight just eating Subway sandwiches every day? That was his secret — cut out fats, cut down on carbohydrates and take in only a modest amount of protein and increase the level of physical activity and the inches and pounds will come off. That nasty protruding belly will recede and dresses will start to fit better. That formula was right for me. It will be right for Marilyn and it may be right for you, too. Maybe we can meet next year at a Size 12 rack in Macy’s?

Tags: crossdressing, featured, Transgender, weight loss

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender How To, Transgender Opinion