Nutrition: How have you guys felt on different diets?

[asiandudexxx]

Obviously nutrition is paramount for health overall, not just for those on HRT. But since we are a different population, I wanted to see everyone's subjective experiences with different eating habits and how they interact with our different therapies.

My story is, for the last few years I was trying to drop bf and gain mass, started counting macros, taking fish oil, eating better, lifting heavy, etc. This didn't change until starting HRT. The depression, stress, and hormonal fallout of it all made me crack and I started caring less and less about my diet. I've noticed that the "worse" my diet gets, the better I feel. Back pain I've had for the past few years goes away. I have more energy. I feel better, happier, confident, etc. Now obviously I've gained a little fat and don't look as lean as I used to, but damn do I feel good.

What about you guys? What effects do different eating habits have on your mental and physical health?

[bullshark99]

Well if I'm reading ur post correct sounds like ur referring to "comfort" eating? Think we all like to endulge in burger fries, or whatever but from my experience it catches up not just from weight gain but from feeling lethargic and sluggish, not to mention poor sleep. Attempting to answer ur question if I understand it, feels good initially but always a price to pay later. In a perfect world food would have no taste and diet would be easy and people would prob live an avg of 20 yrs longer. Unfort most people ( myself included) live to eat rather than eat to live, not to mention beverage! LOL

[RetSurfer]

12 months ago I did what’s called an “elimination diet”, Google it. My aim was to find out what MY BODY needed to work right. Since then I’ve lost 30 lbs. of BF and gained 10 lbs. of lean. It sucked at first but I found I needed a mixture of high fat, high protein and low carb.

Everyone is different!

Now food to me isn’t important. I get my kicks from my GF and my work. Once every week or two I go out and eat anything and don’t worry about it anymore. At home we have NO processed foods at all, NO sugar, NO preservatives. I really don’t watch how much I eat; I just eat till I’m full and stop.

Don’t know if this is what you’re after but it worked for me.

Mark

[GeriatricOne]

I would bet you feel better for all the sugar. In addition to added sugar, corn syrup, cane or beet juice, etc... alll the highly processed foods consists of wheat, corn, rice, and or soy as the base. AIl the highly processed ingredients quickly break down in the body to sugar. When you eat whole natural foods (meats vegetables) the carbohydrates break down much slower. Less insulin relase into the blood. The body has to adjust. Takes a few months. On the other side of the carbohydrate "addiction" you will feel better and your performance will increase
.
As for diet, I prefer the Paleo or Weston A. Price approach. The later allowing for some grains, legumes, and dairy

[HRTstudent]

What about you guys? What effects do different eating habits have on your mental and physical health?

I believe that for me, addressing nutritional deficits has been the best thing I've done. I was tackling the issue slowly from multiple angles, so it's hard to say - or impossible - for certain what made the most change.

But I can say for certain that having high-normal testosterone was not the answer for me.

There is a reason I stress things such as ferritin and iron, B vitamins, D, etc, and other aspects of nutrition. I believe, as do many others from experience, that it is the real key to improvement. And it goes far beyond "not drinking soda."

[asiandudexxx]

Unfort most people ( myself included) live to eat rather than eat to live, not to mention beverage! LOL

Ain't that the truth!

Everyone is different!

Now food to me isn’t important. I get my kicks from my GF and my work. Once every week or two I go out and eat anything and don’t worry about it anymore. At home we have NO processed foods at all, NO sugar, NO preservatives. I really don’t watch how much I eat; I just eat till I’m full and stop.

Don’t know if this is what you’re after but it worked for me.

Definitely everyone is different and some people flounder on diets that many others succeed at and vice versa. Getting other people's POVs is enlightening because you see some variation but a lot of commonality.

For psychological health, it's the best when food is an afterthought and you eat till your satisfied. When I was cutting, I always had to stop myself because I had hit my macros already. Leptin kicked my ass and when I had refeeds, it was like sugary-heroine.

When you eat whole natural foods (meats vegetables) the carbohydrates break down much slower. Less insulin relase into the blood. The body has to adjust. Takes a few months. On the other side of the carbohydrate "addiction" you will feel better and your performance will increase
.
As for diet, I prefer the Paleo or Weston A. Price approach. The later allowing for some grains, legumes, and dairy

Some guys enjoy IIFYM as it relates purely to body composition, but I am after performance and health as well, so I am with you on that. I aim to follow a lower fat butchered paleo (i.e. some beans and dairy).

I believe that for me, addressing nutritional deficits has been the best thing I've done. I was tackling the issue slowly from multiple angles, so it's hard to say - or impossible - for certain what made the most change.

But I can say for certain that having high-normal testosterone was not the answer for me.

There is a reason I stress things such as ferritin and iron, B vitamins, D, etc, and other aspects of nutrition. I believe, as do many others from experience, that it is the real key to improvement. And it goes far beyond "not drinking soda."

Amen. I'm on the same journey (my doc is into optimizing micronutrient intake). What sucks is HRT protocols are another confounding factor. I'm not sure if it's what I'm consuming/not consuming, lifestyle changes, the changing aspects of my HRT/effects of my medication kicking in, etc.

[bringndaheat]

Food is now my fuel and my body needs Super Unleaded to run at its optimum level. I have tried many approaches to nutrition but the one thing I have found is you can't half ass it. You must be all in. Sooner or later the bad habits will take their toll and the body will pay. But don't get me wrong i love good food!

-Heat

[HRTstudent]

I agree, there is always a price to pay for poor nutrition. And you always have to pay.

[RetSurfer]

Amen. I'm on the same journey (my doc is into optimizing micronutrient intake). What sucks is HRT protocols are another confounding factor. I'm not sure if it's what I'm consuming/not consuming, lifestyle changes, the changing aspects of my HRT/effects of my medication kicking in, etc.

I started my diet/lifestyle change 4 months before HRT. I think I would have a lot more problems dialing in to HRT if I didn't find my correct food intake first.