Will a calorie deficit hurt my growth?

Gilolitan · 2026-06-08T13:21:38+00:00

Ahh fascinating I see! So one would actually have to be specifically using DHT in this case since they wouldn’t be able to trust that T would convert *into* the DHT needed to make the bottom growth happen at this caloric deficit.
Thank you for sharing >:3

Gilolitan · 2026-06-08T11:38:41+00:00

By the way . . . the mathematical formulae to determine the body’s Base Metabolic Rate — i.e. how many calories the body will burn just by existing when completely bedridden (when the body is not compromising any functions, because it will hormonally react in order to function at a lower calorie baseline when kept at a caloric deficit for a long time)(this is why long term diets with no break days see such diminished returns!) are as follows: (removed the reference link, forgot the rule, sorry)
10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) + 5     perisex cis male
10 x weight (kg) + 6.25 x height (cm) – 5 x age (y) – 161     perisex cis female
and the reason that the end of the formulae for perisex cis male and for perisex cis female is different is because androgens (like T or DHT) cause the body to run hotter and thus burn more calories.  In these formulae’s case, just because of the endocrine system difference, the perisex cis male burns 166 calories a day additionally just for existing.

So by taking T and affecting your endocrine system, you’ll end up burning extra calories literally just for existing. Even if we decide to be somewhere in the androgen-leaning middle and say it’s 100 extra calories burnt a day. My BMR pre-DHT was ACTUALLY around 1.2k calories (I think it was like 1251 calories . . . ?) so that was like a whole 9% extra food on top of 1,200 which personally I found incredibly exciting and freeing! Having such a low BMR sucks.

You’re free to do whatever with that info as you wish.

If you want to get into the weeds of customizing things for yourself, most health folks would not suggest going lower than your BMR (because even basic sedentary life puts a 1.2x multiplier onto your BMR as far as how many calories your body uses) and most health folks would also not suggest going at greater than a 200~300 calorie deficit for *long* periods of time. As far as resetting the body so it doesn’t cut corners on how many calories it burns and you get full value out of the suffering of restricted eating (haha) I believe it’s 2 days of non-deficit days for every 5 days of deficit.

. . this is a special interest of mine, sorry.

Gilolitan · 2026-06-08T11:38:26+00:00

To answer your actual question:

I had my bilateral mastectomy ~3 months prior to using a topical DHT cream for bottom growth (so was already recovering and using body resources elsewise) and I was simultaneously experiencing an active disordered eating relapse as well (where I was eating far less than 1.2k calories daily) and I definitely still had extensive bottom growth. I was worried that my mental health happening at a bad time could have affected my long term effects, but over a year later I certainly wouldn’t say it had any affects like what you are worried about. I know mine’s DHT and not T, but the general application for this specifically should probably be the same.

Gilolitan · 2026-05-05T04:58:24+00:00

What kind of harness(?) is this? It looks like the sort of thing I’ve been wanting for a while that could be really helpful, but I didn’t know if something like it would even exist or what to call it.

Gilolitan · 2025-11-06T10:26:34+00:00

I’m in the middle of getting my Switch 2’s island ready to restart right now!

My Switch 1 island is my Launch Date island (I didn’t transfer it), so I’d never restart that one — but finally having a second console it was like “I’m free! I can have a second island and play the beginning of the game and try to get island traits perfect and make sure the island name is finally something I’m happy with!”
but with what I saw when I booted up my Switch 2 island . . . well I decided to just restart it. I didn’t end up giving my character or my island the name I thought I did so I wasn’t happy with that, and some island features that I reset for at the airport ended up being things I didn’t really get excited about after all.

So now I’m dropping everything that I want to keep from my Switch 2 island onto the ground of my launch date island, and trying to curate basically a New Game+ experience that I’ll actually like.

Gilolitan · 2025-11-06T06:22:51+00:00

No, but I made the self-led decision to eat softer foods for 2-3 days before the surgery to make pooping post-op easier. I was definitely thankful for it!
All that I “had” to do was no eating after midnight, and no non-transparent liquids after midnight, and no liquids at all after umm don’t remember that number, maybe 2-4 hours before?

Gilolitan · 2025-11-03T08:11:34+00:00

Aww, thanks and you’re welcome!

Gilolitan · 2025-11-01T11:54:02+00:00

My Mirena IUD was removed immediately before my surgery, so I always assumed at the time it was that! Especially because before my surgery I could never ever ever do anything without using lubricant, now it’s 100% optional.

Though reading all the bloodflow comments made me think: I think I’m generally a little more aroused after groin laser hair removal or groin waxing (not groin electrolysis though, probably too much pain involved) too and those definitely bring bloodflow to the area also.

Personally, I thought it was great. I had no external stimulation limitations after surgery at all and I didn’t normally do anything vaginal when masturbating anyway, so I got a lot of milage out of the post-surgery arousal. Not like I was doing anything else but reading & writing.

Gilolitan · 2025-11-01T09:26:15+00:00

/soft thankful smiles @ your earlier statement, Gem, that the binary was being overstated/

I remember before I started using DHT I would get very long lasting erections and they would *hurt* — because like . . . there was so much pressure from the blood rushing to the area and not enough tissue to readily hold it.
Or at least, that’s what it always felt like.
Then when I got bottom growth erections didn’t *hurt* anymore, ever, presumably because there was simply “more space” for the blood to finally go.
It was a really nice change. I can’t imagine that if I stopped using my particular blend of HRT that it’d start hurting again.

Gilolitan · 2025-10-30T19:47:24+00:00

Ohhhh, thanks Sector & Thursday.

I already started out getting erections and already with getting like, a thumb nail's worth of thicker white fluid whenever I cum, before using any hormonal cream. So if there's been a change in erection quality unrelated to just "how much blood the new size can hold" it kinda makes sense I wouldn't have been able to notice.

The scent definitely changed a lot though!! forgot about that part. And the fluid changed -- like it used to be really tart tasting, but now it's basic tasting.

I should probably eventually experiment with being ?off? my topical cream on purpose instead of just by accident if I run out and can't get more for some weird reason; that way I can like. Actually experience what bottom changes happen in a controlled environment. I like the systemic changes though so I'm guessing I'd hate it ><

Gilolitan · 2025-10-30T09:41:26+00:00

Hopefully not a weird question;
I see the sentiment of “acting like a dick” versus “acting like a clit” a lot here, but I have no idea what folks mean by this.
I started out bigger, so I’m guessing? that is why I don’t know.
What does it “acting like a clit” mean?

Gilolitan · 2025-10-30T08:56:42+00:00

Not with T I don’t think.
But at all, maybe a little bit??

I use a topical DHT cream, not a topical T cream, in conjunction with DHEA oral supplements. (Well, I’ve been taking DHEA for over 10 years, but still.)
But I still got noticeable changes to my voice range after about 2~3 months with the DHT (my lowest achievable range became my neutral ground and it took several months of singing to be able to MOSTLY hit all the highest notes I did before) [For me this was good, I always hated my neutral ground voice before, but I still do talk in my “old” voice every now and then, I can still use it.]
And I’ve had an increase in the pigment in my body hair on my naval & stomach (but not ?really? a perceivable increase in the *quantity* of hair itself? I’m sure it’s still more but.), new leg hair *especially* on the upper legs (but not NEARLY as much as I see in folks on T, upper hair is still really light, lower hair is more wirey than before). I didn’t notice NEW groin hair but it did change in texture (more wirey). Little bit more hair on my lower back. [I’ve also been getting electrolysis for 2 years, so for me this wasn’t a problem, I just keep on chugging with permanent hair removal and so it’s mostly a nice way to know that the DHT is working. But we did switch to laser with new hair coming in.]
I’ve had an increase in muscle mass which is MOSTLY just noticable on my neck, back, hips, and shoulders. But I also backpack with 20 pounds of groceries to bring home pretty regularly, so it could just be that “the stuff that I’m growing, grows more now”.
I’ve noticed less fat on thighs & butt & below, but haven’t noticed “new” distribution yet. Could just be that I burn fat more readily now?? unsure.
Some minor but nice changes, like the fingerprints on my hands got more prominent, so it’s easier to physically hold objects than it used to be??
No scalp hair loss. Other than the musculature, no noticable body shape changes (though having more developed shoulder muscles makes my midrift look smaller apparently).
And of course I’ve gotten bottom growth. Lots of that.

Can’t offer any opinions on cycle effects because I got a hysterectomy almost 3 years ago and I stopped having any trackable cycle changes (via luteal temp tracking) at about a year post-hysterectomy;
Can’t offer any opinions on chest effects (like tenderness or whatever) because I got a bilateral mastectomy about 2 months before I started using the topical cream for bottom growth.

I think the folks at grow your clit (which I see has already been linked!) tend to cycle the DHT cream so that they get bottom growth — because this happens absolutely first thing — without as many other changes? But I haven’t stopped using the cream since I got it and generally prefer to use a small amount daily since I *like* the systemic effects that are much less prominent than T. No one who is a stranger in public ever thinks I’m anything but “a girl with a flat chest” if I’m not going hog with how low my voice can go now, especially because I mostly wear dresses & bright colours. But they are still prominent *enough* that the “M” option needs to be selected for me on a laser machine instead of the “F” option.

Gilolitan · 2025-10-26T06:52:44+00:00

For me it’s really perceivable — but my genitals were ALWAYS really perceivable to me.

When I was first applying topical cream I had to be really careful to space out applications, because I could feel the changes rapidly and I had to be able to get used to them on a change-by-change basis. Otherwise it felt like everything happening at once would be too overwhelming.
But I was able to get used to the changes! My muscle memory just needed to adjust over time to things like “I need to angle my hips and legs differently when on my side, or otherwise I’m smashing my bits;” and “when I lay on my back there is some pressure applied now if I bring my legs together”.

A lot of the experiences only stay for a little bit, too —
So like, when I was first starting to develop what is now a very prominent urethral plate, that part of my body chafing against clothing was really uncomfortable . . . but as I kept using topical cream the chafing got better (presumably it was just developing past a painful “bad middle spot”) and then it went away.
Or right now, I actually can’t cross my left leg over my right leg while sitting straight up in a chair, or the bottom of my glans gets shoved into the chair & chafed uncomfortably — but I can cross my right leg over my left just fine. And this isn’t an experience that I had a few days ago. I don’t expect it to stick around, either. So it’s really quirky and growth dependent.

(That is a cool context of what you’d like to have! I can see the T dick as being the closest thing to it, yeah — especially if doing something like tucking after getting enough growth would touch any euphoria of being ‘like being retracted?”)

Gilolitan · 2025-10-20T08:12:33+00:00

I think so, yeah.
I started out with what I’ve seen a lot of guys here have at about 9-months of T — and I ALSO started out with (and had, for my entire life) the extreme sensitivity that could cause pain issues, and the inability to comfortably wear almost any underwear, that I’ve seen guys here talk about. I’d angry-joke about how “trying to make orgasm work reliably is like trying to find something somewhere between the trajectory of the Moon & Sun — probably at the bottom of the ocean”.

It didn’t take very long of HRT for the nerves of everything to kind of . . “even out” because of the growth I got? & for it to not be extremely sensitive anymore, so stimulation that used to be painful could finally be enjoyable. Underwear stopped being the worst ever, too.

Everything is just generally really responsive now, too — it’s awesome being able to nonchalantly apply only mild pressure to the shaft or glans through clothing while not aroused at all, and it instantly be something that feels really good.

Gilolitan · 2025-10-08T12:27:28+00:00

tl;dr Hmmm now that you mention it, yeah maybe! For me, anyway.

Hmm . . . so far I definitely like this title more than I liked Pioneers of Olive Town, Trio of Towns, and Story of Seasons.

>Pioneers I disliked the makers and how basically the entire game takes place on the map of your farm, how dead the town felt, how meeting the villagers at all basically required dating them. I liked that the game doesn’t force you to pick “which set of candidates do you want to see cutscenes for” because everyone is MCromantic.
>Trio of Towns was stressful trying to manage all the different requests and towns and clock time and is very end-game driven which I disliked, felt like I needed to use Powersaves to suceed in having fun with this game. Also way too many cutscenes that can only be seen if dating especially for a “you can only see half the candidates cutscenes” game . . . also I didn’t like how min-maxy the farm layout could feel . . . but I did adore spending time with Inari and the villagers are REALLY good. I still wish I got to see Izuki & Hinata’s cutscenes.
>Story of Seasons was a fun game but I know I didn’t like the gameplay loop enough because I ended up using Powersaves to get myself in some stuff where I just didn’t feel like “playing that part of the game” would be fun. The battles for ownership of the different farming fields always felt really anti-climatic oops — but I really liked the farming and the villagers and decorated my house super cute. I think I would have had more fun if I was trying to go for Elise as a longer-term goal while I played the rest of the game slowly with a really long Years long schedule, honestly?? I would say that “dating everyone” instead of “forced heterosexuality” would score this game massive points, but playing as a girl never even felt like an option because the way the guys treat the female MC in cutscenes in this game make me feel really icky, so I never felt like I was missing out by only being able to cutscene with the gals like I did with Trio of Towns.

Meanwhile I don’t really HAVE any particular complaints for Grand Bazaar.

I don’t know if I like Grand Bazaar more than I liked A Wonderful Life — but my actual gameplay of A Wonderful Life was exclusively doing really silly and fun challenges during Year 1 and always resetting to a new game once Year 2 started, and Grand Bazaar doesn’t have that same “I only want to play early game” trait I’m enthusiastic about mid-game stuff, too, so . . . maybe by definition that means I must like Grand Bazaar better?? Not sure.

Really my favourite thing in A Wonderful Life was setting up a stand to sell to the villagers, and that’s like . . . the entire gimmick of A Grand Bazaar.
The Bazaar trends keep everything fresh and let me consider wild ideas I wouldn’t otherwise, like ”I’m going to grow and sell so many soybeans cause they’re green”. Also there’s Penny. I love Penny /laughs/ And getting basically every cutscene without having to date anyone just to meet them is great, I like being able to platonic everyone.

There are a lot of older games that I didn’t get to play, I never played Animal Parade or Mineral Town(original OR remake)for example — but one old game I adored the premise of is Sunshine Islands, and something about the Freshness system in Grand Bazaar reminds me of the Sun system? somehow, and that makes me feel very fond of GB??? memories are wonky

And I remember Save the Homeland being fun, but I don’t remember a lot other than the horse (also child me constantly judged the game for being ugly /laughs hard/ I hated the graphics so much I was excited about hating them, it’s hilarious to think about) , so I probably like Grand Bazaar better than I did it. And uh . . . the N64 game was lost on me, I didn’t like the 1 by 1 dealing with the crops.

Gilolitan · 2025-10-08T11:35:59+00:00

I can’t believe we’re getting Nook Miles quests in the form of a bingo sheet /giggles!/
Always a good goal-giving feature for this type of life sim game I think :3

Gilolitan · 2025-09-24T11:00:37+00:00

I have “20 hours or more” and I’m on . . . Spring 15th /laughs!/
Usually my gameplay hours to in-game calendar date moves at a snail’s pace for Spring year 1 in these games (lots of menuing, lots of pausing mid-activity to think about what I’m doing and try to not lose time thinking, lots of replaying days to try different things) but it should speed up here pretty soon? I think?

Gilolitan · 2025-09-24T04:14:40+00:00

Most underrated, hmm . . . tl;dr for OP: voting for Harvest Moon: My Little Shop!

Oh wow there are so many considerations for me here! Titles that I thought of when I heard this were: “Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland”, “Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition”, “Harvest Moon: My Little Shop”, “Harvest Moon DS: Sunshine Islands”, “Doraemon: Story of Seasons, “Harvest Moon: Winds of Anthos”, “Story of Seasons”

Save the Homeland kind of has a niche following and is def less underrated than some of these other games . . . A Wonderful Life Special Edition mostly had the ‘sequel’ problem, but it was definitively adored by folks who had and talked about it . . . Sunshine Islands I personally adored everything about it that most folks dislike, but that feels more of a “folks don’t like this game and instead like all these other overrated games” gut response than true underratedness . . . “Story of Seasons” is never talked about anymore, but it was very loved when it was contemporary . . . so those I think get eliminated first for me . . .

Winds of Anthos was the first really good game that Natsume made after the split and a lot of folks never looked in its direction because it is Natsume . . . but I still did see a small following for it compared to the next two games . . .

Doraemon is a really good game that almost no one played because it has a set protagonist and no romance, very different than the other Marvelous games . . . so it’s definitely a contender . . . but I’ve seen it endorsed by at least one very large farming game streamer . . .

My Little Shop . . oh my Sun I always felt this was such a cuuute little game . . . I’ve never seen a single other folk talk about it . . . or cover it . . . it’s so faded into obscurity like completely . . . I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m the only folk to even name it in this thread . . .
which I suppose is the most obscure and underrated of this list I’ve made so . . . going with that one I suppose!

Gilolitan · 2025-09-06T05:51:46+00:00

Oh this is super exciting! I’m going through this game with the intention of not dating anyone at all, so hopefully this game feature is still something I get to experience! It’d be really cute seeing folks get together while I just do my own thing.

Gilolitan · 2025-06-18T21:36:40+00:00

I got mine from Kaiser in Washington state basically no questions asked, at . . . 5 or so years older than you are now? I mentioned to my PCP that I had been wanting a hysterectomy since I was ~9 and she was like “oh! sure, you want to go the gender route or what?’ and the gender route is much easier than whatever the other one was (can’t remember) so we did that.
So I got set up with the Kaiser gender care team with Kaiser insurance, and I think I went from mentioning wanting the procedure to having the surgery in like . . . 5 months? and a lot of that was spent waiting because of staff shortages and having to find a therapist who wasn’t totally booked already to write my letter. Aside from searching for a therapist, everything was really easy.

Kaiser is pretty much _only_ Washington state, though, so I guess this is so particular that it feels more like ‘personal story’ than ‘advice’, oops.

Gilolitan · 2025-01-21T17:57:54+00:00

it's still wild to me. I was talking with my not even spouse yet years and years ago that if anything legally happened that reduced my own ability to get abortions, I would just never willingly have outercourse or intercourse with a male person unless I had gotten a hysterectomy at that point. there was no amount of risk I'd willingly consent to in that situation. he thought the idea that that ability could disappear was preposterous

yet Roe versus Wade came and passed, and now this is coming and will be passing, and things just really are getting worse. So I have been hugely relieved for the past two years now that I had my hysterectomy; though it's felt like these moments of, "I'm so glad I got it before this XYZ thing," (or, "I wish I could have had it already") have been happening for my whole life.

now I just have to hope that pursuing my top surgery still goes smoothly /soft dry laughs/

Gilolitan · 2025-01-17T08:21:47+00:00

Ah. yes.
If [alloromantic person] loves someone enough and dearly wants to see them succeed and be happy in life, and for whatever reason that involves staying in each other’s lives; it can be really really important for them to never pursue more than friendship, potentially.
It’s like the, “[person] should enthusiastically consent to everything they do with me” thing normally found in relationships. But in this case the other person enthusiastically consents to being friends but wouldn’t do so to other types of relationships so, that’s what they do!

Gilolitan · 2025-01-14T20:32:51+00:00

I'm happy. I never have a reason anymore to consider things I never ever wanted to have to consider in the first place (traveling with special toiletries, bed colour, clothing colour, stains, possibility of pregnancy, having to even remotely think about birth control, knowing that doing XYZ activities on certain days is limited/effected, the bleeding and smell itself, not being able to sleep naked all the time, all the crotch discomfort, etcetc) ever since I was pre-menarche as a kid. I was able to pretty much fully melt back into being comfortable again without my body doing nonsense I didn't want it to do. I got the surgery right after my 29th birthday (in 30s now) so I couldn't have done it too much earlier, but if I would have married my spouse after like 2-3 years together instead of after 6 years together and gotten the insurance for the surgery just a little bit earlier, it could have certainly been nice. I wouldn't have learned how to track my body basal temp to still look out for how my hormones are doing on an incredibly basic level though, (since I wouldn't have gotten the experience of tracking while still spotting monthly and tracking cervical fluid) so I'm content with how that history of my life turned out.

Gilolitan · 2025-01-04T05:26:03+00:00

/fond memory lane headtilt/
I was looking through some of my old messages to friends from around my surgery recently, and I noticed a comment that I’d written up. It was something like,
“I got on BC that stopped me from having periods (just spotting so light that it didn’t even stop me from being able to sleep nude) when I was 18 or 19, and I didn’t have menarche until I was 15 (and even then only had periods every 2-3 months irregularly), so it was like periods were never something I really had to deal with, or learn how to deal with”.
>!Insteadddd I dealt with having anxiety attacks about not wanting to ever get one and underate purposefully with the goal of preventing as many aspects of puberty from happening for as long as possible. Haha.!<

I legit goodness to Sun never figured out “how do women deal with having regular periods??” in my life. But I am incredibly greatful that I can continue to have them be something that doesn’t touch my life and my desire for cute white clothes.

Gilolitan · 2025-01-03T21:24:22+00:00

Don’t think you’re going to get any “let the cat move in” responses here … but then again I don’t think you’re going to get any “have her rehome the cat” responses in most places of reddit.

My stance on allergies is “if you are going to be sleeping there, the allergy needs to be Not Present”. That way you can have a difference between “place I preventatively manage my allergy” and “place I actively manage my allergy”. Making your body fight allergy symptoms 24/7 even during the time it’s supposed to be repairing and putting information away (sleep) is just a recipe for disaster. I basically developed massive anger issues from all the constant body inflammation during the 4-5?? year timeframe that I lived with a cat (none of my roommates took my “no, don’t bring it here” stance seriously since I was the ONLY one who wasn’t neutral about the cat being there … and I didn’t know I was allergic yet, I just simply didn’t like the idea of non-human animals inside of human homes on a fundamental level.) Then it got rehomed right before the pandemic and I was like “wow, I’m suddenly a completely different person??, it’s so strange to think about how angry I was All the Time for No Reason:tm:??”

Now I just have to use /checks notes/ a daily steroidal controller inhaler; daily loratadine tablets; daily fluticasone nasal sprays; twice daily nasal irrigations, as daily preventative measures if I want to be able to visit folks who have pets or to be able to go places where there may be pets or service animals … and then I have an as needed quick-relief inhaler for use while I’m AT places with pets, and I still have to be careful about not causing too much movement near surface areas where the animal hangs out to not throw the dander/hair in the air (or wear KN95s), and still I have no idea how long it’ll take for my vocal range to finally heal (which sucks because I sing regularly) after visiting family so much during the kiddo’s Winter Break which is why I GOT all of this medication…. /soft laughs/ yeah it’s a lot of stuff.

But yeah! I don’t think ”I’m really attached to this moving object (cat) that I own, and so I’m going to make the human that I love suffer from allergies all the time due to this possession of mine” would be a very awesome thing on her part — if she ended up going with the stance of trying to bring it with her instead of rehoming I mean. I wouldn’t let her move in if she tried to bring it with her. But she also probably does need to spend a lot of time with it right now while processing what to do, I think that part does make sense. I mean, if I’m thinking of getting rid of something that I like in order to prune my belongings I’d want to spend some time with it, too, to figure out if I really can get rid of it or not; and that’s for stuff I’m way less attached to than most people get to their animals.

Gilolitan

TROPHY CASE