Ladies - TOM question

mskimee
mskimee Posts: 228 Member
edited 9:44AM in Health and Weight Loss
So here's the thing...I'm late. Like LATE late. Almost a whole week which for me is a bit iffy. I'm not pregnant (Not possible but I did a test anyway and it was negative) and I'm getting a bit worried now. Has anyone else had a delayed period because of diet/exercise? I don't diet excessively (1,200 cals a day for 5ft tall female, aged 30 and 120lb trying to lose a half a lb a week). I weight lift 3-6 days a week, but still working up to heavier weights. I'm currently only deadlifting 35kg. I have been doing this for well over a year and never had this problem before. The only thing I can think is I took December "off" and didn't exercise much and ate pretty much all the things. Can anyone weigh in on this? Has anyone else took a diet/exercise break and had it mess with your cycle when you resumed your routine?
Also I have had a minor stressful few weeks but I wouldn't say it has been THAT stressful (applying for a mortgage and getting paperwork etc, but not like sleepless nights stressful). Not like mental hormones stressful!!
I have an appointment with a doctor to check everything is ok, but it's not until late next week, so some reassurance would be great!!

Replies

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited January 2018
    I don't have any experience of late TOM but by the sounds of it you are getting stressed about it and that wont help. Stress really throws our system out of whack. You've ruled out pregnancy and you have an appointment to see your doctor next week so don't worry about it, occasionally cycles can get thrown off but for you its early days and a one off so far. Its usually only when we lose too much weight that our periods can halt but our weight is healthy. I cannot see how your lifting would be impacting TOM but maybe there will be others out there who will be able to shed some light on this and set your mind at ease.
  • passenger79
    passenger79 Posts: 257 Member

    Also I have had a minor stressful few weeks but I wouldn't say it has been THAT stressful (applying for a mortgage and getting paperwork etc, but not like sleepless nights stressful). Not like mental hormones stressful!!
    I have an appointment with a doctor to check everything is ok, but it's not until late next week, so some reassurance would be great!![/quote]

    I am not a doctor but my guess ( from my personal experience only ) would be stresful events as I have found when very stressed my period comes at different time.
    Mine are very irregular and horrible but I can't pinpoint exactly why.

    Hormonal imbalances happen alot and sometimes for no obvious reason. I wouldn't panic , wait till you see a doctor and by the time you see it may sort itself out.

    Hope it all goes well for you .

  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
    Yep, stress has done it to me before. I've skipped a month and also had 2 periods in a month due to major stress going on. I was concerned and talked to my gyn and she verified that was not necessarily perfectly normal but a normal response to stress. And buying a house is SERIOUSLY stressful! So don't be surprised if you get other weird TOM issues but keep exercising since it is such a major stress relief that it will help you through it.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I lost my period when I got to my lowest (still barely the middle of the healthy BMI) for a couple months. Doctors told me that it happens when you exercise a lot and don't eat enough (I had a 400ish calorie deficit, but I guess for my size it was too much). It came back once I increased my calories again (with way more PMS symptoms unfortunately).

    Oh my GYN told me that it's perfectly normal for women to only get 10 cycles a year and that totally confused me too.
  • missevil
    missevil Posts: 113 Member
    Sometimes it just shifts. 2 months back, I experienced the opposite. Ovulation directly on the last day of my previous period, so 14 days later the next one. And I'm usually pretty constant with 28 days. Our bodies aren't machines and things like diet and stress and whatever will mess it up every now and then.
    As long as a pregnancy is out of the equation, I, personally, wouldn't stress about it and wait. It's annoying because you can't properly prepare for it, but it's not really a reason to freak out.
    I had shifts of 7-14 days before and a few times I did freak because they happened when I was already worrying that something with my contraception went wrong. Felt like my body was mocking me and making it harder for me, but I had probably so much mental stress that it had an effect on the cycle.
  • squeeeyk
    squeeeyk Posts: 165 Member
    Usually if the late timing is due to stress it would have happened early on in the month during your follicular phase (i.e. before you release the egg). Stress can impact the timing of the release of the egg. Stress following the release, in the luteal phase, is unlikely to impact timing.
  • pinuplove
    pinuplove Posts: 12,871 Member
    I've had it go both ways, sometimes missing one completely, sometimes showing up way too early for no apparent reason. I usually miss one whenever I start eating at a deficit, then things seem to go back to normal once my body figures out that no, I'm not really starving :tongue:
  • whitpauly
    whitpauly Posts: 1,483 Member
    My TOM's allover the place all the time,,as long as your doc says everything is ok just don't sweat it
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    Stress and energy availability. If you're eating a total of 1200 calories, depending on your lean mass, it's possible and very likely that you're not taking in enough calories for your body to feel it's "safe" to ovulate and menstruate.

    The EA recommendation is a minimum of 30 calories per kg of LBM (some sources say 45, but for the sake of a "but I eat enough!" argument, let's go with 30 here). Let's presume that you're at 25 percent body fat, and that you're *maybe* burning 250 calories for each exercise session, and I'll average that to 178 calories a day (you say 3-6, so I'll call it 5, and without you providing actual numbers about burns, I have to just go on a ballpark). So that gives you an EA of 25 calories per kg. Way below what you need.

    Want a period? Eat more.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    edited January 2018
    Losing weight definitely can mess with your period.

    Hormones are stored in fat, so you're throwing your hormones out of whack when you lose fat. Losing weight is also stressful to your body, so that throws a wrench into things as well.

    My period is usually like clockwork, but as soon as I start losing weight at a good pace, it goes crazy. Lots of spotting and late/early periods.
  • lightenup2016
    lightenup2016 Posts: 1,055 Member
    edited January 2018
    toxikon wrote: »
    Losing weight definitely can mess with your period.

    Hormones are stored in fat, so you're throwing your hormones out of whack when you lose fat. Losing weight is also stressful to your body, so that throws a wrench into things as well.

    My period is usually like clockwork, but as soon as I start losing weight at a good pace, it goes crazy. Lots of spotting and late/early periods.

    I've found this to be true for me as well! I also seem to get night sweats, which is either from losing weight, exercise, or both. When it happened last weight-loss go-around, I thought it was perimenopause, but it stopped when I began eating more and gaining weight back (over about a 7-month period). Now I'm back to losing again, and my cycle this month is a bit off, and I've had night sweats again.

    ETA: I'm eating 1650 net calories, so not a crazy big deficit or anything.
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