menstrual cycle

mariaspooner

A week before my period I seem to want to eat everything insight, does anyone out there have any suggestions on how to curb cravings during menstrual cycle.

strong_curves

A lot of women here (including me) have this issue and still manage to lose weight and stay within their calorie deficit. If you have cravings for chocolate, you can still eat it as long as it fits into your calorie goal. The point I'm trying to make is you don't have to overeat during this time. If you feel like you want to have a small bowl of ice cream just check to see if it fits into your calorie goal.

beatyfamily1

You have to train yourself to curb the craving. I use to crave fatty foods. I would add something fatty to my meals like avocado. I never really had a sweet tooth. It takes time to train yourself and you will fall off the horse, but get back on and keep trying. Eventually the cravings go away. If you are craving something sweet try fruit.

tasaiar1

I eat that week (this last week) and just expect not to lose weight that week but i still log in everything i eat and i try not to over do it

kshama2001

When my appetite spikes up premenstrually, I eat regular foods at maintenance amount of calories.

When I do the following, I don't have cravings:

1. Get sufficient sleep
2. Exercise regularly - when I get the happy hormones from exercise, I'm not prone to seeking them from food.
3. Get sufficient protein in relationship to carbs. I'm not low carb, but reducing carbs and upping protein worked for cravings for me.
4. Take a magnesium supplement. This can be especially helpful premenstrually.

thiosulfate

To be honest... I allow myself to overeat 1-2 days per month and usually at least one of those days will be near my period. The only thing I keep in mind in that I try to not surpass maintenance for my current weight. One or two days at maintenance or surplus per month won't kill me. If it makes you feel better what you can do the following. Let's say your calorie limit is 1800.

Day 1: Eat 2800
Day 2: Eat 1800
Day 3: Eat 1600
Day 4: Eat 1600
Day 5: Eat 1600
Day 6: Eat 1600
Day 7: Eat 1600

Average: 1800

Eating 200 calories below your limit for 5 days doesn't usually seem so bad, at least for me.

mariaspooner

Thank you all for all the helpful advice. Had a really bad day yesterday but really one day out of one month isn't that bad and today went for a 5km snowshoeing hike. Finally reached one of my goals. Happy happy.

Francl27

beatyfamily1 wrote: »

You have to train yourself to curb the craving. I use to crave fatty foods. I would add something fatty to my meals like avocado. I never really had a sweet tooth. It takes time to train yourself and you will fall off the horse, but get back on and keep trying. Eventually the cravings go away. If you are craving something sweet try fruit.

Mine doesn't go away. I get the shakes and hot flashes and get dizzy if I don't eat. It sucks. It got way worse when I got close to my goal though, or I'm not sure I would ever have lost the weight, it's hard enough just to maintain as it is because of it...

OP, I haven't found a perfect solution. Just got to avoid sweets (it puts me in total binge mode at that time), eat complex carbs, eat enough fat and protein, but even then sometimes I'm still starving until I'm 2000 calories over (seriously wish I was kidding). I tried a higher fat diet and it didn't help either - my typical 'fills me up for 3-4 hours' breakfast fills me up for 1.

I guess my advice would be to eat small meals, and wait at least 30 minutes between each meal before eating more. Sometimes I get so ravenous that I eat a lot of calories at once then eventually it goes away, but if I ate less and waited, maybe it would have been enough (just really hard for me to stop eating when I'm in 'that state').

But yeah... got to follow your cravings too, at least I have to, or I end up eating whatever I ate to stop myself from eating what I crave AND what I was craving in the first place (I honestly don't crave sweets at that time thankfully, just sometimes end up eating them anyway hoping it will help with the hunger, but it doesn't).

One thing that *sometimes* helps me is to have some pure carbs (like pretzels, or an English muffin), but it has to be 3 hours after eating and with nothing else (something about making your body producing the hormones that makes you stop craving carbs, but if you have protein with it, it won't happen. But it doesn't always work, unfortunately. There are articles about it online though, it's pretty interesting.

Anyway.. you're not alone OP. I usually try to stay out of these threads now though because most people don't 'get it' and think you're just using PMS as an excuse... I know that I keep eating things I DON"T WANT TO EAT just hoping the hunger goes away... so yeah... no excuse here.

Frelise

I feel your pain. The past two months I just stopped logging the week prior to my cycle and halfway through it. Usually the weight I gain during that time drops back off near the end... I do feel terribly guilty, but my body does what it wants at that point, lol. If you can, just try to keep exercising and if possible, try to fill up on healthy food choices. I've been buying bulk cans of vegetables. =P

ElizabethOakes2

It takes some willpower, but I think it's important to always ask yourself WHY you're craving what you're craving.
My body wants salt and fat on day 1. I can usually convince it to live with some popcorn instead of french fries, but once in a while, I'll save up some calories from a few days before hand and let it have those fries. If it's craving a steak, well, in that case, I know it wants protein and iron, and just give it a regular serving of steak, If i go over, I go over. If I'm dying for some chocolate, I know my body is looking for the endorphins it gets and go for some dark chocolate, or, if I have the calories, a mocha. Just consider it a splurge, up your activity after your cycle to compensate, and try to keep to small servings.

insearchofcheese

As I've gotten within 20lbs of my goal weight I've ended up eating at maintainance for those few days prior to my period where all I can think about is food. Once my period starts my appetite takes a nosedive and I don't often make my minimum calories for a few days. It all ends up evening out in the end.

Heartisalonelyhunter

If you must eat then eat more, it will even out in the end. Although all women have periods and have to deal with them so I really don't get why some people on here use them as an excuse to pig out. It's part of life and is going to happen every month until you reach menopause or you get pregnant. There is always the option of Mirena and similar birth control which stops your period altogether if your period is really unbearable.
The things that help me deal with mine better are EPO tablets and B-complex vitamins (as well as a multi-vitamin) taken every day. It takes a month or two of taking them for it to take effect, but a lot of women don't have enough good fats or B6/B12 in their diets, which affects the menstrual cycle.

Francl27

Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »

If you must eat then eat more, it will even out in the end. Although all women have periods and have to deal with them so I really don't get why some people on here use them as an excuse to pig out. It's part of life and is going to happen every month until you reach menopause or you get pregnant. There is always the option of Mirena and similar birth control which stops your period altogether if your period is really unbearable.
The things that help me deal with mine better are EPO tablets and B-complex vitamins (as well as a multi-vitamin) taken every day. It takes a month or two of taking them for it to take effect, but a lot of women don't have enough good fats or B6/B12 in their diets, which affects the menstrual cycle.

And here we go again! I guess you're one of the people who believe that if people are different than you, and don't experience things the same way, they must be lying. I suggest you open up your mind a little bit to the fact that maybe people are not the same and don't react to hormonal changes the same way.

The second part of your post is helpful though. The first one? Not so much.

Anyway.. you're not alone OP. I usually try to stay out of these threads now though because most people don't 'get it' and think you're just using PMS as an excuse... I know that I keep eating things I DON"T WANT TO EAT just hoping the hunger goes away... so yeah... no excuse here.

This is what I meant up there, pretty much. Just know that you're not alone OP, even if there are some really not nice people on MFP.

Heartisalonelyhunter

Francl27 wrote: »

Heartisalonelyhunter wrote: »

If you must eat then eat more, it will even out in the end. Although all women have periods and have to deal with them so I really don't get why some people on here use them as an excuse to pig out. It's part of life and is going to happen every month until you reach menopause or you get pregnant. There is always the option of Mirena and similar birth control which stops your period altogether if your period is really unbearable.
The things that help me deal with mine better are EPO tablets and B-complex vitamins (as well as a multi-vitamin) taken every day. It takes a month or two of taking them for it to take effect, but a lot of women don't have enough good fats or B6/B12 in their diets, which affects the menstrual cycle.

And here we go again! I guess you're one of the people who believe that if people are different than you, and don't experience things the same way, they must be lying. I suggest you open up your mind a little bit to the fact that maybe people are not the same and don't react to hormonal changes the same way.

The second part of your post is helpful though. The first one? Not so much.

Anyway.. you're not alone OP. I usually try to stay out of these threads now though because most people don't 'get it' and think you're just using PMS as an excuse... I know that I keep eating things I DON"T WANT TO EAT just hoping the hunger goes away... so yeah... no excuse here.

This is what I meant up there, pretty much. Just know that you're not alone OP, even if there are some really not nice people on MFP.

I was addressing the OP, not you. . I work in an fertility clinic and this is the number one reason women who are told to lose weight (so they can have IVF) give for not losing enough weight. They tell endocrinologists that they can't because of hormones (not seeming to realize the irony of telling a specialist in hormones that their hormones are different than everyone else's)
This is the sacred cow of MFP, to be honest. Men aren't allowed to comment at all and if a woman points out that all women have periods and deal with it then we're 'not nice' and don't understand. We all get a bit hungrier before our period, but that doesn't mean we all binge eat. And as I pointed out to OP and will to you too, there are methods of birth control that will stop your period altogether if you really think you have it harder than all other women. Although in my experience people who complain of this unnamed, unproven overeating syndrome also refuse to take birth control (perhaps because that would prove the symptoms were psychological?)