Period Stopped When I Started Losing Weight

PugBug20

Hi, all. This is going to be a TMI post, so I apologize in advance. I'm not looking for a diagnosis, just advice.
Like the title says, I stopped getting my period around the time I started eating healthy and exercising. I am not underweight (my BMI is 20.7) nor am I super muscular. I had blood work taken a few weeks ago and all of the results were normal: I'm not pregnant, no vitamin deficiencies, no hormonal imbalances, nothing. I haven't been to the gynecologist yet (I have an appointment in 2 weeks), but I haven't had any cramping, pain, etc., so I don't think there's anything wrong with my reproductive system. Here's some more background information: I started eating healthy and working out 5 months ago and I've lost 30 pounds since. I've been doing it the healthy way: I haven't been starving myself, exercising excessively, taking diet pills, etc. I eat 1,200 calories a day (which is a healthy amount, according to my doctor), exercise 5 - 7 days a week (one hour of cardio and/or strength training, depending on the day), take vitamins, eat a nutrient-rich diet, etc. In fact, I'm the healthiest I've ever been. I have always had regular periods in the past and I have been getting my period for 8 years now. I'm so confused and have no idea what could be wrong with me. Has this happened to anyone else? Any ideas? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

ducati45

Do you eat back the calories when you exercise? How tall/heavy are you and is 1200 what mfp recommends? Are you getting enough fat in your diet? Are you having a really stressful time at the moment, related to weight loss or not? Those are all reasons that could stop your period.

Chrisparadise579

There could be many reasons for that but I have a feeling its because you arent eating enough. You need to slowly increase your calories. Id be glad to help

Francl27

Exercising 5-7 days a week and eating only 1200 calories is a recipe for disaster. That's your problem right there (and find a new doctor).

malibu927

30 pounds in five months when you weren't that heavy? You may have messed your hormones up. Definitely seek a second opinion.

GaleHawkins

Chrisparadise, Franc127, malibu927 posts share some thoughts that hit my mind when reading your post.

The lack of fat in ones diet can be a factor.

Look at how eating at a deficient can impact some of your 50 hormones in this research below. It is geared to jocks but the biology of the human body applies to all to some degree.

jissn.com/content/11/1/7

Best of luck in finding the right person to help you through your new health concerns.

ninerbuff

Your calorie deficit is more than likely too high. Not uncommon for this to happen to females when they aren't consuming enough calories.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

PugBug20

Thank you for all of the help. I'm petite (I'm 5'0 and weigh about 106, which is average for a woman my height), so 1,200 calories should be fine for someone my size. Also, I eat almonds, avocado, olives, and other healthy fats on a daily basis, so I don't think that's the problem, either. I'm just confused because I eat enough, don't exercise too much (I'm not training for a marathon or anything), and my weight is normal for my height. Also, the first month I missed my period, I had only lost 8 pounds since my last period (it sounds like a lot, but it averages out to 2 pounds a week) and I was still considered overweight, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Hopefully my doctor can give me some answers…I just want to know what's wrong with me.

ana3067

your caloric intake has little to do with your height and mostly to do with your weight and activity level. so 1200 is likely not enough if you've stopped menstruating as a result.

julzwild

Hi PugBug. The same thing happened to me when I lost weight the first time in my life. I was in my mid-twenties at the time. I still had 20 lbs to lose at the time that I stopped having a period. I understand that you're tripped up by the fact that your not underweight. You'll have to wait and see what your gynecologist tells you for sure, but I will tell you what mine told me back then. Basically your body knows that you aren't in a position to sustain a healthy pregnancy and has put on a brakes temporarily. If you up your calories, your period will return. It really is that simple.

Francl27

PugBug20 wrote: »

Thank you for all of the help. I'm petite (I'm 5'0 and weigh about 106, which is average for a woman my height), so 1,200 calories should be fine for someone my size. Also, I eat almonds, avocado, olives, and other healthy fats on a daily basis, so I don't think that's the problem, either. I'm just confused because I eat enough, don't exercise too much (I'm not training for a marathon or anything), and my weight is normal for my height. Also, the first month I missed my period, I had only lost 8 pounds since my last period (it sounds like a lot, but it averages out to 2 pounds a week) and I was still considered overweight, so I'm not sure what the problem is. Hopefully my doctor can give me some answers…I just want to know what's wrong with me.

What's wrong with you is that you're eating too little, as we've said. 1200 calories would be fine for you to lose weight if you were sedentary. But you're not. Entering your info in Scooby (http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/), with moderately active, your TDEE is 2000 calories. A 800 deficit when you have so little to lose is just too high, and that's what your body is trying to tell you.

Doctor don't know a thing about nutrition, by the way.

For what it's worth, I lost my period for a few months while I was losing too, but it came back as I (surprise) increased my calories again.

orchidee1987

Are you eating back at least some of your exercise calories ??

sugaraddict4321

+1 for not enough calories. You didn't say - are you eating back any exercise cals? My guess is not. If that's the case you're not doing yourself any favors long-term. I plugged your numbers in like Francl27 did and 1200 is about your BMR - the number of calories your body would need if you were in a coma. If you're eating only that but also exercising 5 days a week no wonder your period stopped. Now that you're at a good weight for your height, you need to start gradually adding more calories to your day so you hit maintenance. Also +1 for doctors don't know much about nutrition. Talk to a nutritionist. Let us know how the next appointment goes with the gyno.

rosebette

There's no way OP's BMR could be 1200 -- she's only 20. Mine is 1136, and I'm 56 years old; I plugged in her numbers, and with her level of activity, she could eat over 2000 calories a day and maintain. At around 1500, she'd lose a lb. a week; no wonder she was losing 2 lbs. a week at 1200. She was losing too much weight, too fast, for her height and size. If she continues eating 1200, she will eventually end up an unhealthy weight.

bioklutz

I am 40 years old, 5 feet tall, 105 lbs. I work out 5-7 days a week for 30 minutes. I eat 1600 calories. I am still trying to work out maintenance calories. It will probably be higher than 1600. You definitely are not eating enough.

PugBug20

I don't eat back the calories I burn exercising, but I've always been told that you aren't supposed to?

Liftng4Lis

PugBug20 wrote: »

I don't eat back the calories I burn exercising, but I've always been told that you aren't supposed to?

you ARE supposed to. Most eat back half to accommodate miscalculations.

PugBug20

Also, according to multiple websites, I should be eating 1,200 calories a day to lose and 1,400 calories a day to maintain. Actually, some said even less. And these numbers are based on my gender, height, weight, and activity level (even though I work out almost every day, I don’t have an “active” lifestyle since I’m a student and I spend 90% of the day sitting). That's why I thought 1,200 calories a day was enough. Actually, I eat closer to 1,250 - 1,300 calories on most days, which is even more than these websites recommend.

ana3067

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

PugBug20 wrote: »

I don't eat back the calories I burn exercising, but I've always been told that you aren't supposed to?

you ARE supposed to. Most eat back half to accommodate miscalculations.

You're onlynot supposed to if you are doing TDEE method (calculates your intake needs with exercise included) or you are eating at maintenance and exercising to create a deficit (which is hard to do consistently).

Eat back at a minimum half the calories, but otherwise start off with 100% of them for now. I recommend this mostly because a) you've been undereating and will benefit from the extra food, and b) it's easier to lower the calories once you're noticing a pattern than to increase them if losing too much (psychological - don't want to eat more, experience bloat/gain from increased food that disrupts scale weight success, etc).

rosebette

If you exercise 5-7 days a week and you're eating only 1200 calories, your actual calorie "net" is much lower than that. So, if you burn 400 calories exercise, you are in effect netting only 800 calories. This is not sustainable; it's why you lost weight so quickly, and why you may be experiencing loss of your period. I don't know what websites you've been losing; even MFP calculates what to eat based on eating back exercise calories.

ana3067

PugBug20 wrote: »

Also, according to multiple websites, I should be eating 1,200 calories a day to lose and 1,400 calories a day to maintain. Actually, some said even less. And these numbers are based on my gender, height, weight, and activity level (even though I work out almost every day, I don’t have an “active” lifestyle since I’m a student and I spend 90% of the day sitting). That's why I thought 1,200 calories a day was enough. Actually, I eat closer to 1,250 - 1,300 calories on most days, which is even more than these websites recommend.

You calculated wrong. I'm also a student, by the way, and this does increase my energy needs due to walking around on campus and taking pubic transportation.

I calculated yours on three websites, including your exercise.
website 1: 1950 calories to maintain
website 2: 1870 calories
(those above are based on 1 hour of walking and standing, 50 minutes of exercise daily as an average which is based on assuming 60 mins 6x a week, and 8 hrs of sleep)
website 3: 2025 calories based on 5-6hrs of exercise a week.

Subtract 10% from that (little left to lose), and that's much more than you're eating now.

Take out the exercise from these:

website 1: 1786 maintenance
website 2: 1590 maintenance
website 3: 1400-1600 (I do not like drop-down "sedentary" choices as I find they estimate too low, so you'd likely be in between those two)

So eating 1200 in these scenarios would be fine if your maintenance while doing zero exercise was somewhere in the middle of these numbers, but you are exercising. Eat more.

shadow2soul

PugBug20 wrote: »

Also, according to multiple websites, I should be eating 1,200 calories a day to lose and 1,400 calories a day to maintain. Actually, some said even less. And these numbers are based on my gender, height, weight, and activity level (even though I work out almost every day, I don’t have an “active” lifestyle since I’m a student and I spend 90% of the day sitting). That's why I thought 1,200 calories a day was enough. Actually, I eat closer to 1,250 - 1,300 calories on most days, which is even more than these websites recommend.

Think about it this way.

To lose 2lbs per week, your daily deficit needs to be 1000 calories (roughly).

If you eat 1200 and lose 2lbs per week then your maintenance is around 2200 on average.

Looking at your results from intake and how much you lost is much more accurate than any online calculator will ever be.

if you really did maintain at 1400 calories, then your daily deficit would only be 200 calories which means that you would be looking at a loss of roughly 0.4lbs per week.

college_girl91

Be careful girl!! I used to lose my period during cross country and track season at around your BMI and calorie intake. You gotta eat more--talk to a dr. And nutritionist for advice. Lack of period absolutely destroys your bone health (doesn't take long to get to early stages of osteopenia). Please take care, I have seen what osteoporosis looks like and it ain't pretty!

rivka_m

ana3067 wrote: »

You calculated wrong. I'm also a student, by the way, and this does increase my energy needs due to walking around on campus and taking pubic transportation.

This. I doubt that a college student is sedentary. Walking to get to class, from building to building between classes, plus they probably have a more active social life - meaning, again, getting up and walking around to see friends, standing in clubs, dancing. Lightly active at least.

Me, I'm a cubicle monkey. I drive to work, sit in the same seat all day. I only get up to go to the bathroom and grab a coffee or my lunch from the fridge. I drive home and sit on the couch. That's sedentary.

(I'm working on being less sedentary, but just wanted to give you an idea )