FEMALES ONLY: That time of the month

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,913 Member
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    almostanxious wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    almostanxious wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    almostanxious wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    almostanxious wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    almostanxious wrote: »
    Any advice on making myself eat during my cycle? I'm NEVER hungry, but I know my metabolism will suffer if I don't eat something

    Not really. Unless you are starving - like concentration camp starving - you can't affect your metabolism much.

    Are you tracking your calories, using a food scale and logging everything? How much are you eating during your cycle? How much are you eating the other three weeks?

    I usually eat 1,399 calories a day the rest of the three weeks, but during my cycle I have caught myself eating as few as 400 calories a day for two days in a row. I never want to eat anything

    I hate to belabor a point, but do you use a food scale to weigh and log everything?

    Normally or specifically during this week?

    Both.

    Normally yes, I sometimes slip on packaged foods and per measured servings, but when I cook at home I almost always break out my scale. During my cycle, not so much. I tend to eat so little and so sporadically I hardly ever think about it. For this cycle, I have meal planned and intent to follow through with cooking and trying to eat as I would normally, but we'll see how that works out.

    Are we talking 3-5 days where your appetite is so low that you can only eat about 400 calories a day?

    Assuming you have discussed this with your doctor and they're not concerned, if my only issue was lack of appetite for 3-5 days a month, I think I would just increase my calories either immediately before or after my period so that I was averaging (for the rolling week) my calorie goal.

    (Note: This is based on the assumption that logging is generally accurate)

    I have discussed it with my doctor and we both concur that my cramps are generally so bad that I feel nauseated and avoid foods, similar to having a stomach flu. She has advised me to try eat light food like celery and cucumbers and things that are easy on the stomach, but that will keep me hydrated. The only thing is, most of these are very low calorie and don't provide a high running total of calories per day. She doesn't seem to be too worried about it overall as my cycles tend to be short, but I am often left feeling extremely exhausted for a few days after.

    If your cycles are short but light, the fatigue is probably from undereating.

    If they are heavy, you could be deficient in iron, which can lead to fatigue - have you had your iron levels tested?

    Mine are so heavy I've been prescribed tranexamic acid, which cut the bleeding in half and fatigue by about 75%.

    (It had gotten so bad that iron supplements alone stopped helping with fatigue.)

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