Women - menstrual cycle, weight, and fitness matters

mathiseasy wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

HanamiDango wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I'm curious if any ladies have super regular periods.. Mine come every 25 days between the hours of 9:30-10:30am, without fail every month.

If I'm in maintenance or a surplus, yeah. 28 days. I can feel ovulation around the standard 14 day mark. If I'm in a deficit and I'm relatively lean...who knows. I completely skipped last month. The month before I bled for 10 days.

I don't even know what regular periods versus irregular means. Like I have been dealing with so many medical issues and yet I keep being told I am mostly normal. But neither here nor there, my cycle in the last two years has ranged from as little 25 days to as many as 44 days in between, which never help me figure out what phase I am in, and I have never been lean. It would make it better to figure out what has to do with my cycle and what doesn't if it where clockwork like that.
Still an awesome thread!

Yeah it would be hard to tell if yours are that irregular. Do you have PCOS or anything? The next time your period starts mark that as day 1 of your cycle. Start paying attention around day 13/14/15/16 to see if you can feel ovulation. I get a pain but obviously not everyone does. You can also look for a discharge and gauge your temper/mood (some people can get hormonal/cranky--I get batchit crazy). If you have a longer cycle you might not ovulate until much later.

You can also get a basal body thermometer and track your cycles that way. I believe it is the most accurate at-home way of pinpointing ovulation and cycle tracking.

Ah true. I've never needed to go that far to know but that would definitely be more accurate.

I use that same tracker but didn't log for a few months and now it tells me I have 114 days until my next period.

LOl @ it being Nov......but thank you @arditarose and @Christine_72 for the advice. I have used the same app for about a year, and even track in another, because I am silly and like the cute factor of the other period app tracker.

I am not sure about PCOS, or another menstrual issue, I asked the OBGYN about thyroid issues and completely forgot about PCOS or another menstrual issue >.< Agh, but one of my factors is horrible bloating, that worsens at night, plus sometime I do feel ovulation, sometimes, twice in a longer cycle. I may have to do the fertility approach when I get back into weights and more intense work outs, but for now, I am on easy going work outs till we figure out what is wrong, so I can wait till having to be that meticulous.

I will ask at my next appt with my doctor, but it is interesting to see how many days for each woman and what factors into their normal.

Excellent thread! I have been beginning to notice how my weight changes throughout my cycle and it makes it a lot easier to cope with the stalls when you know there's a whoosh coming up soon!

To those who were asking about apps for tracking your cycle, I use Clue https://www.helloclue.com
It has a beautiful interface and allows you to track anything and everything you need. There's even a section for inputting your weight.

jemhh wrote: »

Machka9 wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

HanamiDango wrote: »

arditarose wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I'm curious if any ladies have super regular periods.. Mine come every 25 days between the hours of 9:30-10:30am, without fail every month.

If I'm in maintenance or a surplus, yeah. 28 days. I can feel ovulation around the standard 14 day mark. If I'm in a deficit and I'm relatively lean...who knows. I completely skipped last month. The month before I bled for 10 days.

I don't even know what regular periods versus irregular means. Like I have been dealing with so many medical issues and yet I keep being told I am mostly normal. But neither here nor there, my cycle in the last two years has ranged from as little 25 days to as many as 44 days in between, which never help me figure out what phase I am in, and I have never been lean. It would make it better to figure out what has to do with my cycle and what doesn't if it where clockwork like that.
Still an awesome thread!

Yeah it would be hard to tell if yours are that irregular. Do you have PCOS or anything? The next time your period starts mark that as day 1 of your cycle. Start paying attention around day 13/14/15/16 to see if you can feel ovulation. I get a pain but obviously not everyone does. You can also look for a discharge and gauge your temper/mood (some people can get hormonal/cranky--I get batchit crazy). If you have a longer cycle you might not ovulate until much later.

I downloaded a period tracker app, which also tells you when you should be ovulating. Maybe pointless if she's irregular?

Can you post a link to the tracker?

I use one on my Android phone called Period Tracker. It's little icon is a pink flowers on a white background.

I have used that for years it's great!! Even if you aren't regular if you track it helps to see patterns. I try to track moods as much as possible too.

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

just have to share: For the first time ever during my period my weight did not fluctuate up the usual 2lbs....weird...but nice!

I'm a few days out from bleeding and despite a lot of sodium yesterday, I'm at my lowest weight.

It's funny how things work out sometimes.

hannydeee wrote: »

Excellent thread! I have been beginning to notice how my weight changes throughout my cycle and it makes it a lot easier to cope with the stalls when you know there's a whoosh coming up soon!

To those who were asking about apps for tracking your cycle, I use Clue https://www.helloclue.com
It has a beautiful interface and allows you to track anything and everything you need. There's even a section for inputting your weight.

I'll make a note of that one too. Maybe see which I like better.

Excellent post.
I don't know if it's been addressed in later posts, but many women also see a scale increase of 2-4Lbs around ovulation. This is primarily water weight, of course.

Sabine_Stroehm wrote: »

Excellent post.
I don't know if it's been addressed in later posts, but many women also see a scale increase of 2-4Lbs around ovulation. This is primarily water weight, of course.

I have water weight for around three weeks - from just before my period to just after ovulation The scale just doesn't shift at all for those weeks (although it did increase on just one occasion). When I was heavier, water weight wasn't a problem at all - I had weight loss every week - and my periods were all over the place. Now I've lost a considerable amount, my periods are bang on every 28 days and water weight really messes me about. So frustrating but you just have to believe in CICO and keep going with it.

missh1967 wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

jdhcm2006 wrote: »

Christine_72 wrote: »

I'm curious if any ladies have super regular periods.. Mine come every 25 days between the hours of 9:30-10:30am, without fail every month.

Yep. I can't count it to the hour, but I know it will likely pop up. Mine come about every 32 days.

I've noticed many women have them between 28 and 30 days. Am I the outlier with a 25 day cycle?

I used to have mine every 21 days like clockwork. So annoying. But they were never extremely heavy and usually only lasted 4 days max.

Fast forward to perimenopause and endometriosis. Horrid.

lol so much more to look forward to

Great post, thank you!

My period is like clock work. Yesterday I was crabby and became a crazy chocolate monster. Checked my period tracker and turns out I'm mid-cycle and not pre-menstrual! Haha just a crazy lady without the hormones then.

This could use a bump since it didn't make into the stickies with the latest sticky update.

ekat120 wrote: »

After 20 years or so of irregularity and often going months between periods thanks to PCOS, my cycle settled in at about 35 days. Last month was 28 days though (surprise!). I've found a lot of utility in tracking them.

I've also found that exercise, and probably weight loss, have had positive effects. Even though the gyno told me there was nothing I could do to improve it because it was genetic and I wasn't overweight I was bumping up against an overweight BMI at the time and am in the middle of the normal weight range now, but more active and with more muscle mass.

I found this as well -- weight loss, activity, and increased muscle mass all made a difference as far as cramps. And as a bonus, I am slightly more regular now, to the point where I can tell within a day or two when it will start. Not so many surprises! (I use the free "My Days" app to track.)

Not for nothing, but it wouldn't hurt MFP to include that kind of tracking in this app. We account for at least half their users!

kathrynjean_ wrote: »

Here is a podcast that features Lyle MacDonald talking more in depth about his research on this topic: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/icecream4prs-podcast/id905054765?mt=2&i=365683438

(For all you auditory learners out there, or those with a long commute like me )

Thanks for posting this! Which podcast number is it, @kathrynjean_ ? I can't see the full name of the interviewee on their podcast list.