Ladies...
leann74016
Posts: 242 Member
Ladies do you struggle to eat healthy on your cycle? I'm have completely ruinedy progress this week. All I want is bad, unhealthy food. 
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Replies
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I don't think of food as bad or unhealthy. I try to fit in what I'm craving, find a lower calorie option that satisfies it, eat at maintenance, or drink diet soda and chew gum to ignore it.5
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Yes, I have a sweet tooth. I try to go for lower calorie sweet options or sugar free versions and if that fails I just eat to maintenance.2
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I struggle to stay within my calorie limit during my cycle because if I'm not asleep I'm eating lol. And during my cycle I get 4 hours of sleep max each night and turn into the beast of food lol. You know the typical " breakfast lunch dinner snack" category MFP has? I created a extra one called "middle of the night shame" and it always gets used when my cycle comes around.10
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I am aiming for maintenance during the really bad days. This week I ate truffles, pizza, McDonald's and baked a devil's food cake. I drank a tonne of water and tried to eat those things "reasonably" and didn't lose weight but also didn't gain, so I count it as a win lol.4
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I have a salt tooth at that time. Generally, I go for skinny pop popcorn, pop chips, vegetable straws, and veggie dogs. String cheese can be an option once the cramps aren't so bad, but I find I can't have dairy when they are. I also tend to eat more bread at that time. So far, I've been fitting it into my calorie limit okay. I should mention that I've found that when I was routinely doing ab-crunches and other abdominal exercises, my cramps and cravings were less. I should get back to that.1
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Either I have no appetite or I want to eat everything, so for me it kind of balances it out. But if you're having unhealthy cravings I'd just give in and try not to over eat. Or maybe switch to maintenance for the week ?1
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I'm really gutted. I came on today and also my weigh in day. I lost zip all! I don't even crave at TOM air eat more. Wanna cry. Makes h think what's the sodding point0
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I'm really gutted. I came on today and also my weigh in day. I lost zip all! I don't even crave at TOM air eat more. Wanna cry. Makes h think what's the sodding point
The sodding point is that if you give up, you'll only get heavier.
I'm afraid weight fluctuations happen to all of us. You need to focus on something other than the scale number - it will go up and down. The overall downward trend is what matters.
To the original question: I sometimes get more hungry/cravey on my period. It just goes with the territory, I think. Sometimes I eat more, other times I power through. You do whatever works. But don't use it as an excuse to give up and stop logging. Whatever you eat, log it and keep going.3 -
I have pretty much lost my period (yes, I know it might not be good and yes I'm working on it), but I still get the stupid pms symptoms. I think it's because I'm still ovulating? Anyway, I want to eat a piece of cake the size of my face right now. I settled on 5 Now and Laters from the bodega.1
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I'm really gutted. I came on today and also my weigh in day. I lost zip all! I don't even crave at TOM air eat more. Wanna cry. Makes h think what's the sodding point
Are you aware that women can temporarily gain a twack of weight at their TOM? Like @ 5 lbs worth? It's not from having gained fat - it's retained water - and will dissipate as the week progresses. So your actual weight loss may be temporarily masked by your water gain. Wait a few days and re-weigh yourself.
Weight loss is not linear. Especially for women.
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I do get the munchies really bad with my PMS, but I made myself a deal: I allow myself to have 1 giant hunk of chocolate one of the days leading up to my period. I might go over my calorie goal for that day, but it's one day. It curbs my food cravings and keeps me from murdering people (bonus!)0
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leann74016 wrote: »Ladies do you struggle to eat healthy on your cycle? I'm have completely ruinedy progress this week. All I want is bad, unhealthy food.
No food is good or bad, and unhealthy is the perception.
Negative self talk is bad, though--you didn't ruin your progress, you took a temporary shortcut.
Seriously, give yourself a break.
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Yep. The week before I usually crave salty fats. I eat more than normal, but then once TOM starts, I rarely feel like eating at all.
I agree that working out helps me with the cramps and keeps me on track, despite how unmotivated I am. I also see an additional 5 lbs on the scale that goes away after a few days. I try not to put too much weight (pun intended) on what the scale says, but rather on how my clothes feel.
I also tend to crave salty fats when I'm ovulating.0 -
My cravings are usually uncontrollable and I go way over calories for one day. I eat at a deficit other times to make up for it. For some reason, I didn't crave this month. I got horrible cramps and insomnia instead, which I never get. So no treats this month. I only splurge on treats if I have PMS. Since I can't moderate, I don't do treats other times.0
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My cravings are for salty, oily, deep fried carbs...you guessed it...POTATO SCALLOPS. And chips and gravy. I have to be REALLY careful and plan REALLY well during that week.0
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leann74016 wrote: »Ladies do you struggle to eat healthy on your cycle? I'm have completely ruinedy progress this week. All I want is bad, unhealthy food.
Honestly, you're not going to ruin all your progress in one week. That's not possible, especially for someone who's been on MFP for 6 years. "Wanting" foods not on your plan is not failure. Chin up!0 -
leann74016 wrote: »Ladies do you struggle to eat healthy on your cycle? I'm have completely ruinedy progress this week. All I want is bad, unhealthy food.
Only thing to remember is why you started mfp in the beginning....forget the wrong choices and build up the good ones...regards0 -
I usually only have 2-3 days where I am ravenous right before my period. And I tend to have a eating pattern that cycles calories anyway. So I'll just eat a ton those few days and then not eat much of anything a few days over the next week. Which works out since I am generally feeling bad and not super hungry during my period. It all balances out.0
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I have no cycle currently (breastfeeding a 3 month old) but I always found that if I followed my meal planning, I would gain some at that TOM but if I looked at an overall graph of my weight, I continued to lose at a steady pace overall. The water weight 'gain' masked the loss I continually had. Follow your plan and it will work.0
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YES!!!! I've barely given in to cravings even when they're extreme. My husband will literally take whatever it is out of my hand and not let me cave... which is helpful but also very frustrating.
Even more frustrating though... despite the will power police, I still managed to gain 5lbs back, overnight. I am not even exagerating. I wish I was. I went from 198 yesterday morning to 203 this morning. Just because of my stupid period.
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I get a super sweet and salt tooth and it is overwhelming at times. I don't give in to sugar (I am fighting an addiction to that good stuff) but will just let myself have a small bag of chips or go a little overboard on salting my food. A huge thing for me used to be soda but I started drinking sparkling water and can now just get by with a diet coke once a month.0
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I just eat whatever I want within my calories. If I need to eat more then I will raise my daily limit to maintenance until.0
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When I was losing, I ate maintenance level 2 or 3 days a month. Now that I'm maintaining I let myself eat a couple hundred calories over on those days. No big deal. I eat whatever I want normally, so if I crave chocolate or chips or ice cream I have some. What's important for weight loss (and for health) is what you do most of the time, no need to be perfect.
It's also perfectly normal to retain water around your TOM. Again it's no big deal, it will fall off after a few days. If you can't handle your bodies normal weight fluctuations, just don't weigh yourself that week. :drinker:1 -
This week I've been struggling too. For me it has been chocolate and salty foods I've been craving and I ate out a few times. I need to get back on track because I am so bloated and gained 4 pounds. Feeling horrible because I was doing so well before pms and now I really need to get back on track! I'm still learning how to manage the cravings and hunger but it's really hard.1
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NoAnalHere wrote: »I struggle to stay within my calorie limit during my cycle because if I'm not asleep I'm eating lol. And during my cycle I get 4 hours of sleep max each night and turn into the beast of food lol. You know the typical " breakfast lunch dinner snack" category MFP has? I created a extra one called "middle of the night shame" and it always gets used when my cycle comes around.
I love it. "Middle of the night shame". Mine is titled random reason to nom 10pm-4am haha
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I ate 4,500 calories today, so yeah PMS. Sometimes a big up day or two throws me out of a plateau and it's good for me and a reset and I lose more after. Admittedly I could use the higher calories for more nutrient dense foods and not sugar and crap but hey it's what I crave. I always give in during PMS but then I call it off once aunt flo arrives. She is my signal to reign it back in and back to the grind. Becaus once I start I lose my appetite and have low days so it all usually balances out pretty well.
I gain 8-12lbs of water before my cycle starts. It's ridiculous but I've learned to accept that. It comes off as my period progresses.0 -
Increased food cravings - that's my primary symptom.
The advice to eat at maintenance calories worked well for me when I was at a deficit. Now that I'm in maintenance, I just let myself go a little bit (not crazy) for a few days and it all seems to work itself out. If I start snacking too much, I just add in more exercise to counteract some of it. (I'm one of those lucky ones that has little to no physical discomfort during my cycle, so exercising and other normal activities are no problem for me.) Also, sometimes we mistake thirst for hunger. Try drinking a full glass of water or tea. If you are still hungry after that, maybe you legitimately need a snack. It's better to have a little something before you get ravenous, than to wait too long and end up bingeing!0 -
CattOfTheGarage wrote: »
They're also called potato cakes. Basically flattened potatoes battered and deep fried and covered in salt. DELICIOUS LITTLE CALORIE BOMBS.0
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