Any other ladies lose their period?
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liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »If you're a guy and uncomfortable then I'm sorry but I need some advice from other ladies.
I recently went to a gynecologist because I have not had a regular period for two years+ and I always shrugged it off as not important(no mood wings, cramps sounded grrat) but now I'm being told I should be more aware of it due to future health problems.
Problem is the gynecologist wasn't much help. All she advised me to do is to exercise less and gave me pills so it could come back
My background info: I'm a runner (always been a runner) and run 7-13+ miles each day, 5 times a week averaging about 45-55 miles. I'm 5'0 and pretty underweight and I know this is most likely the reason for no period but now I'm a bit stuck as to how much I should reduce my training and if I should gain back some weight?
The gyn wasn't helpful like I said so if any ladies out there could possibly give me advice/suggestions on what would be helpful or what you would do in my situation is appreciate it! Thank you
Amenorrhea is a sign that you are severely underweight, malnourished, over exercising, and generally putting too much stress on your body. Follow your doctors instructions to gain weight and cut back your exercise.
They werent much help. All they said was to "exercise less" with no specific details. I'm just asking for suggestions as to how much?
When was the last time you had a week off runnung?
A few months ago
Start there then. Add 100 cals a week for the next 3 weeks so you're in a slight surplus and enjoy the extra food. When your weight becomes stable, increase the cals again.
Half your mileage if you're not training for a specific race right now?
Sorry you confused me, do you mean take a week off running or just to half my mileage?
Take a week off running and then half your mileage when you start again.6 -
There aren’t medical guidelines to how much to cut down but you need to get your BMI up. Make sure you are having enough fats in your diet and I would start with halving your exercise. You are at risk of osteoporosis from low BMI and oestrogen so up your calcium intake and think about using the combined pill to give you some hormones until your BMI gets closer to 18.0
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amusedmonkey wrote: »It's very important you take this seriously and push beyond discomfort. You are putting your body under serious stress by undereating and overexercising. This can lead to serious complications if left untreated, including irreversible bone mass loss. I feel like you are looking for specific structured instructions.
Reduce your mileage at least by half for now. This will feel uncomfortable and you may feel antsy. Push through it because your health is important. Find other things you enjoy doing to distract yourself. Watch a movie, pick up a hobby, keep your mind busy...etc.
Enter your info into this app and set it to maintenance, look at how many calories it gives you, then change it to 100 calories higher than that number. For example: if it gives you 1600 calories, set it to 1700 calories. On days you run, add that as exercise and eat those calories back. The app will tell you how much more you need to eat when you run as soon as you log your run. After a week, increase your calories by another 100, and keep adding until you are up to about 2500 calories base before adding your runs. Make sure you are eating at least 30% of your calories from fat, if not more. It will be uncomfortable to eat that much. Push through it and drink your calories if that helps. Your health is important.
It may take a good while for you to regain cycle, up to years in severe cases, but even if it doesn't happen within a few months (it could), the changes you are making will benefit your health tremendously. So, be patient and keep working on this.
Thank you so so much for all this info! It really is helpful and I'll be upping my intake and reducing my running as suggested (although I love running so it is a bit hard). Quick question though, if my maintenance is 1500 and I increase to 1600 as a surplus will I have to eat more than 1600 on days I run? Mfp will for sure tell me the amount right?0 -
liftforjoy43 wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »It's very important you take this seriously and push beyond discomfort. You are putting your body under serious stress by undereating and overexercising. This can lead to serious complications if left untreated, including irreversible bone mass loss. I feel like you are looking for specific structured instructions.
Reduce your mileage at least by half for now. This will feel uncomfortable and you may feel antsy. Push through it because your health is important. Find other things you enjoy doing to distract yourself. Watch a movie, pick up a hobby, keep your mind busy...etc.
Enter your info into this app and set it to maintenance, look at how many calories it gives you, then change it to 100 calories higher than that number. For example: if it gives you 1600 calories, set it to 1700 calories. On days you run, add that as exercise and eat those calories back. The app will tell you how much more you need to eat when you run as soon as you log your run. After a week, increase your calories by another 100, and keep adding until you are up to about 2500 calories base before adding your runs. Make sure you are eating at least 30% of your calories from fat, if not more. It will be uncomfortable to eat that much. Push through it and drink your calories if that helps. Your health is important.
It may take a good while for you to regain cycle, up to years in severe cases, but even if it doesn't happen within a few months (it could), the changes you are making will benefit your health tremendously. So, be patient and keep working on this.
Thank you so so much for all this info! It really is helpful and I'll be upping my intake and reducing my running as suggested (although I love running so it is a bit hard). Quick question though, if my maintenance is 1500 and I increase to 1600 as a surplus will I have to eat more than 1600 on days I run? Mfp will for sure tell me the amount right?
This is correct. If your calories are set to 1600 and your run burns 300 calories, MFP will tell you to eat 1900 once you log your run into MFP or it gets logged automatically if you have a synched activity tracker.
ETA: do you know how to manually adjust your calories on MFP? You'll want to manually set it to 1600 (or whatever your maintenance + 100 is) to start and increase by 100 each week until you are up to at least 2500. So 1600 first week, 1700 second week, 1800 3rd week...etc.2 -
Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
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TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?1 -
liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?
it uses weight in the calculation3 -
TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?
it uses weight in the calculation
I know I put in my weight but it gives me a pretty big calorie burn for my runs that's why I feel like it's overestimating.1 -
liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?
it uses weight in the calculation
I know I put in my weight but it gives me a pretty big calorie burn for my runs that's why I feel like it's overestimating.
how much for what mileage?1 -
TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?
it uses weight in the calculation
I know I put in my weight but it gives me a pretty big calorie burn for my runs that's why I feel like it's overestimating.
how much for what mileage?
I just tested it out using the mileage I normally would do which is around 7-10 miles which I'm reducing currently but the calorie burn is between 300-400. Is that even possible??3 -
liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?
it uses weight in the calculation
I know I put in my weight but it gives me a pretty big calorie burn for my runs that's why I feel like it's overestimating.
how much for what mileage?
I just tested it out using the mileage I normally would do which is around 7-10 miles which I'm reducing currently but the calorie burn is between 300-400. Is that even possible??
why would you think that is a lot?
i presume from your comments you aren't currently eating back any exercise cals?
have you managed to eat any more or run any less since you started this thread?4 -
Check out the book "The Period Repair Manual". It was written by Dr. Lara Briden. She talks about how a healthy cycle works, different cycle problems, and how to fix them. You also need to add more calories/carbs.3
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waitladypetrushka_ wrote: »Check out the book "The Period Repair Manual". It was written by Dr. Lara Briden. She talks about how a healthy cycle works, different cycle problems, and how to fix them. You also need to add more calories/carbs.
Thank you for this suggestion. I have been struggling with my periods after going gluten free bc of autoimmune issues. I have plenty of body fat and my current only exercises are walking, yoga, and occasionally Jillian on my good days. I just downloaded this book to my kindle and after looking through it, it appears to be more helpful than my doctors. Can't wait to finish it.0 -
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In my early 20s I was severely underweight. I suggest seeing a nutritionist to get tips on adding calories and how much. It really helped me. My situation may have been different though; I was afraid of adding calories and gaining weight, and needed that extra coaching. It took a while, but I came away with a better relationship with food and exercise, not to mention really good recipes that I still use 20 years later.0
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I'm glad to hear you're not opposed to gaining weight, I've never lost my period, but if I did I would take it as a clear warning sign that something has to change too. It sounds like you've received some great advice here already, I'd also like to reinforce that 300-400 calories does not sound like an over-estimation for 7-10 miles. If you're worried about that though I'd recommend an activity tracker with a HR monitor, these things do use your weight as part of the calculation. FWIW I have to net about 1600 calories to maintain my weight, which means on heavy workout days I'm actually eating around 2,100 calories to account for calories burned, and I have a BMI of 19. So keep in mind that you may need far more calories than you think to gain.0
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waitladypetrushka_ wrote: »Check out the book "The Period Repair Manual". It was written by Dr. Lara Briden. She talks about how a healthy cycle works, different cycle problems, and how to fix them. You also need to add more calories/carbs.
Thank you for this suggestion. I have been struggling with my periods after going gluten free bc of autoimmune issues. I have plenty of body fat and my current only exercises are walking, yoga, and occasionally Jillian on my good days. I just downloaded this book to my kindle and after looking through it, it appears to be more helpful than my doctors. Can't wait to finish it.
if you lost your period and have body fat above what is considered too low, and you arent overexercising. Then you need to be tested and see why you are having these issues. going gluten free should have nothing to do with it. it probably is something else causing it.2 -
I havr had no period for a while but my body is under tremendous stress from chronic diseases. I'm not underweight atm but keeping myself well nourished is an issue.1
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TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »liftforjoy43 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »Running calories is easy to calculate accurately so you can eat them all back.
Bodyweight in lbs x 0.63 x distance in miles
Thank you I'll keep this in mind although I think this overestimates my calorie burn for my runs lol I don't think I burn much since I'm at a low weight currently?
it uses weight in the calculation
I know I put in my weight but it gives me a pretty big calorie burn for my runs that's why I feel like it's overestimating.
how much for what mileage?
I just tested it out using the mileage I normally would do which is around 7-10 miles which I'm reducing currently but the calorie burn is between 300-400. Is that even possible??
why would you think that is a lot?
i presume from your comments you aren't currently eating back any exercise cals?
have you managed to eat any more or run any less since you started this thread?
I guess I assume that because I've been told that the less you weigh= low calorie burn and that the more you weigh=more calories burn. Can you confirm this?
And yes since I've started this thread I've eaten back all of my calories increasing my intake by 200+ and the most I've ran is 1 hour but I think I may make the decision to stop because I qas told running causes stress to the body and I guess I'm just causing stress to my body preventing my period from coming back. You think this would be a good decision?3 -
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