Is Too Much Fasting Bad for Women Who Are Menstruating?

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Is too much fasting bad for women who are menstruating? This is JJ Virgin four time New York Times bestselling author, celebrity nutrition expert, and Fitness hall of Famer. I've been on a lifelong quest for answers to the toughest health questions and and now I'm sharing what I found with you. Welcome to Ask the Health Expert Maria from one of my masterclass asks, I heard that too much fasting is not good for women who have their cycle because of hormones. How is it though, if in our evolution, we constantly fasted each day? Hey, it's jj and I've got the perfect expert to answer this question and meet nurse practitioner, nutrition and intermittent fasting expert Cynthia Thurlow. Her TEDx talk on intermittent fasting has been viewed over 5 million times. She's a former varsity field hockey player who's been known to read four to five books at a time. We'll be right back with the answer.

Hey, it's J.J. here.

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Great question about fasting and women and whether or not it can impact our menstrual cycle. So the irony is that I'm in the midst of doing a lot of research in this area and it goes back to bio individuality. There are many people that are able to intermittent fast who are still menstruating and getting their menstrual cycle without too much interruptions. But here are a couple of areas that I think in particular can be a sign that you may struggle a bit more with intermittent fasting. And it can can impact your schedule your menstrual cycle adversely. Number one, if you're already really lean, and by really lean I mean if your BMI is less than 20, you're already really lean, you don't have as much reserve with which to tap into fat stores. Number two, if you're trying to get pregnant, you're just been, you know, just delivered a baby or you're breastfeeding, that can definitely mess up your cycle. And I would not recommend that your using intermittent fasting as a strategy. If you're someone that is has an existing issue with thyroid disease that maybe perhaps is not well managed, or you are in the midst of changing doses of thyroid medication or you've been told you have an autoimmune issue may require a bit more delicate balancing to determine whether or not this is the right strategy. And it may not even be that you can't do intermittent fasting ever. It may be just at that point in time until they get your medication straightened out may be problematic. But I like to use the menstrual cycle. Quite honestly, I like to use that as a barometer for whether or not fasting is working for you. So we always look at sleep, like I've already mentioned, we always are looking at the menstrual cycle. It may get a little wonky for a cycle or two. And by that I mean maybe it comes a couple days later, maybe it starts a little earlier, but as long as that is working itself out and you otherwise feel good, then I think that's completely reasonable. Now, when women are heading perimenopause and menopause the five to seven years preceding menopause, which is perimenopause, all bets are off. Because our periods and our cycles can be so regular. They can either be really scant or they can be very heavy. We may be dealing with sleep issues. We may be, you know, dealing with weight gain and all sorts of issues that can be very frustrating as women to experience. So again, goes back to the bio individuality piece. It's really about how. How are you dealing with stress? How is your sleep? How are you managing the food piece? If you are eating a highly processed diet with a lot of crap and garbage, you are not going to get the same results as someone else. And certainly there's some data to suggest that perhaps women that once they are closer to menopause and in menopause, they may be better and more amenable. Their bodies may not be as sensitive to the fluctuations in hormones. And so I think that there needs to be more research done. Most of the research that's been done has been done on lab animals, and last time I checked we were not rats or it's been done on men or the sample sizes have been really small. So I think there's no way to make it a broad overreaching over generalization. But I would just encourage you to work with someone who is well familiar with the strategy that can help guide you and provide recommendations. And if you do decide to start intermittent fasting and your cycles continue as they normally have and you're sleeping well and you have lots of energy, it can absolutely be a strategy that works for premenopausal women and postmenopausal women. Just really depends on who we are as an individual.

This is JJ with Ask the Health Expert. I do this five times a week, so make sure you never miss a show by going to subscribetojay.com.

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