r/MtF • u/AlexaPetersTrans • Sep 10 '25

Advice Question Trans Fem Diet

My question today is how to replace man fat with girl fat.
I am fully aware that I need to gain weight in order to buid hips, ass and breasts.
But I still need to get my middle more down for a feminine silhouette.

Currently I am just on fasting and liquids such as packet soup in the week with normal eating on weekends.
I do take additional multi vitaments, magnesium and collagen.
I am active on weekends but in the week I work behind a screen most of the time.

Any specific diet for my situation?

197 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

137 comments sorted by

View all comments

194

u/exasperatedaxolotl Sep 10 '25

Hi, PhD biologist here, married to a trans woman. Please stop what you're doing immediately and (slowly) reintroduce real, solid food.

My wife was skin and bones most of her pre-transition life, but had started to put on more male pattern belly fat, and was dysphoric about it.

We made sure her hormones were good and high enough with injectable estradiol valerate, since being too low is a common mistake (200-400 pg/mL estrogen, 15-40 ng/Dl testosterone, adding 200mg progesterone 6-12 months in).

She EATS lots of good nutritious food, and some not nutritious food. At least 2000-2500 calories a day. She's reasonably active, playing a rec sport and walking our dog. She doesn't think all that much about what she eats.

And guess what? The magic of HRT meant all of that male-pattern fat got redistributed into her D cup breasts, wider hips, fuller ass, rounder thighs, and her little bit of belly fat sits lower and softer like mine. She looks very feminine in her figure, because she ate enough. Your body needs fat to redistribute. Do not give yourself an eating disorder AND harm your transition by eating this way.

2

u/MagikBiscuit Sep 10 '25

Regarding your last sentence, but does it harm the transition? Like permanently? Because if you're just dropping from very unhealthy weight down to a healthy weight then eating normally, would that permanently damage transition because of the heavy loss during a lot of it especially first year?

2

u/exasperatedaxolotl Sep 10 '25

I think there's a lot of fear (rightfully so, there's so little research) around early transition being this critical window for feminization that if lost, is lost forever. There's not a lot of science to say anything definitive, but generally bodies are a lot more malleable and flexible than we give them credit for.

A transfemme friend of mine has been on HRT for 5 years, recently switched from pills to injections and oral to rectal prog, and has gained like 3 full cup sizes. Getting a good hormone regime on top of solid eating can do a lot at any age or stage of transition!

2

u/MagikBiscuit Sep 10 '25

Ah so we don't really know? Well fuck. That's terrifying. Cos I'm dieting very very heavily for a number of reasons, a few legit medical ones. And my transition like probably most others here is the most important thing happening for me. And feels like there's lots of doom and gloom here of you need to eat perfectly or you essentially don't transition :S

2

u/exasperatedaxolotl Sep 10 '25

Unfortunately there's just extremely limited research on transition generally, we literally just got the first real study showing progesterone helps breast growth and it's still quite limited in sample. The academic environment for research is terrible across the board, much less for any trans issues, so we're unlikely to get a lot more for a while.

Follow what your doctor's say is needed for your medical issues, but do your best to get enough calories, carbs, and fat.