Effects on Cycles
Excessive dieting & being too lean can make you lose your period! Mine was irregular on/off between shows & I know this is common for many of you (even non competitors!) so I wanted to share how I got my period back #postcompetition
We’re all different so I highly suggest seeing a functional medicine doctor if you have a major problem but here’s my experience.
There were 2 things that I think were the biggest contributors to helping me get my period back: gaining weight & reducing my energy output.
I went from working out 6x a week to 3x a week. This was actually unintentional but hindsight I can see that it was a blessing in disguise. Exercise is stress on your body & when your body is recovering from something so intense like comp prep (or in my case 3 shows back to back) we have to scale it back.
I switched from macro tracking to intuitive eating. I LET MYSELF gain weight. 2 reasons: I had to come to peace with not being lean anymore as I desperately needed a mental break/was placing too much value on my looks & I realllyyy wanted my period back (if you know me you know I want to have tons of kids in the future!)
By not being on a rigorous reverse diet & letting my body fat naturally increase to its set point (around 20-22%) I was able to restore my hormones back to normal (based on my blood work). Genetically I’m not lean, im a cross between mesomorph & endomorph 🙄 so my body was not happy at 12-16% body fat for 10months straight!
I HIGHLY reccomend the book Woman Code by Alisa Vitti so that you can educate yourself about how our endocrine system workouts and why having your period is so important! I try to follow the Woman Code protocol as best as I can now and really honor my body as it goes through it’s cycle monthly.