Less menstrual flow after fitness

Menstruation reflects a person's physical condition. Too much or too little menstrual flow is not good for the body. In life, women often find that they have irregular menstruation. Irregular menstruation is closely related to their living habits and eating habits. In addition, their cold constitution and endocrine imbalance will affect the amount of menstruation. Some women find that their menstruation becomes less frequent or even has symptoms of amenorrhea after exercising. What is going on?

Losing weight scares away aunt,

What went wrong?

Ms. A asked a question:

I am overweight and determined to lose weight. Now I ride a bike to and from get off work every day, a total of 18 kilometers round trip. I insist on riding my bike every month except when it rains, snows or is windy, and except during my menstrual period.

but! After one month, the amount of menstrual flow decreased, and in the third month it was even less.

Am I malnourished? But I eat the same amount as before? The main change is to reduce the white rice by half and replace it with an equal amount of purple sweet potato.

Ms. B said to me:

I started running 5 months ago and run 5 kilometers every day. My best friend has been running and even participated in a marathon. She is very proud of it. Although I am not fat, I am a little flabby. I envied her firm body without any extra fat. So I set a small goal: in order to wear a beautiful wedding dress when I get married a year later, I gave up the sweets and snacks I craved every day and started running.

but! Five months have passed, and my period has been delayed continuously. It didn’t come this month... I still eat the same amounts for my three meals a day!

And Ms. C,

To lose 5 kg, I go to the gym five times a week. In addition to sports guidance, the coach also told her to eat less staple foods and fruits, and more chicken, fish, eggs and milk.

She followed the instructions and her weight continued to drop. but! She found that the rhythm of her period gradually became irregular, and finally stopped coming altogether. She was too embarrassed to ask her handsome coach about this, so she came to me for advice.

The common reason for the problems encountered by these women is that after increasing exercise, they did not increase their nutritional supply, and even significantly reduced their nutritional supply, causing the body to feel that the nutritional intake was not enough.

In order to save energy and nutrients, the body has to temporarily shut down its reproductive function.

Let’s look at these three cases.

▎Replacing rice with purple sweet potatoes may not give you enough protein

Ms. A chose to ride her bike for 18 kilometers every day. If she rides on a city road with traffic lights and bike lanes often occupied by roadside parking, it will take about an hour and a half. In addition to riding, she often has to walk a few steps. The increased energy she consumed was about 300-350 kcal.

Because I did less exercise before, cycling can increase muscle mass while reducing fat, and I also need to increase my protein supply.

Exercise also consumes B vitamins, which also require increased supply in food.

She ate half the rice for both meals a day and replaced it with an equal amount of purple sweet potatoes. Her total energy intake decreased because the starch content of one pound of cooked rice is roughly equivalent to that of 1.5 pounds of purple sweet potatoes.

At the same time, it should be taken into account that the digestibility of purple sweet potatoes is lower than that of white rice, and the protein content of purple sweet potatoes is also lower than that of white rice.

In this way, daily consumption increases and nutrient intake decreases, resulting in a negative balance of calories and protein every day.

Why does running to lose weight scare away your period?

Ms. B runs 5 kilometers every day. Although her speed is not fast, it takes about 50 minutes after all. Combined with warm-up and relaxation, it will consume about 300 kcal of calories.

At the same time, she gave up her daily sweets and snacks, including biscuits, nuts, dried fruits, etc., but did not eat extra meals, thus reducing her calorie intake by 200 to 300 kcal.

As a result, a negative calorie balance of 500 to 600 kcal is created inside and outside the body, and the protein and vitamins needed for exercise are not replenished.

Can your stomach handle eating too little staple food?

Ms. C followed her coach's instructions and ate a low-carb diet, which meant that she had to replace all carbohydrate staple foods with fish, meat, eggs, and soy products, without reducing calories.

However, her digestion and absorption ability is relatively weak, and high-protein foods and vegetable salads are both high-satiety foods. She simply cannot eat as many calories as she would in a normal meal, and her stomach is already full, so she cannot digest any more she eats. Therefore, she actually consumed much less calories than before.

Although it seems that there is a lot of fish, meat and eggs in every meal, in the absence of starchy staple foods, these foods are consumed as energy. And muscle training in the gym is also to build muscle, so the body is obviously in a state of insufficient available protein.

In short, their common characteristic is that they exercise more and eat significantly less.

I guess that in addition to what they told me, there must be other measures to reduce calories in daily life, such as giving priority to dishes with less oil, and the actual amount of staple food may be less.

If you just reduce your daily calorie intake by 200 kcal, it shouldn't cause menstrual disorders.

Eat less and move more, but also need to be "moderate"

Creating a negative calorie balance is necessary for weight loss, but the calorie gap cannot be too large.

For people who are not too fat, it is best to eat less and exercise more, and the negative energy balance should be within 500 kcal. Otherwise, the body will think that it is suddenly in a period of famine and its survival will be at risk at any moment.

At a time like this, when one can barely take care of oneself, how can the body consider having children?

Therefore, the body temporarily shuts down its reproductive function according to various "plans" passed down by our ancestors over millions of years.

On the one hand, it eliminates the "loss" of blood and body tissues discharged during menstruation.

On the other hand, it avoids the trouble caused by unwanted pregnancies during famine.

In fact, it is a good thing for women to increase exercise when losing weight. If done properly, it can not only increase muscle but also improve blood circulation, improve low blood pressure, dysmenorrhea, premenstrual breast sensitivity and many other minor problems.

But for girls with weaker physical foundation, they must pay attention to:

(1) Ensure adequate nutrition supply and do not eat too little suddenly.

(2) You can only reduce some cooking oil and some refined staple foods, but you cannot reduce the supply of any micronutrients such as protein, vitamins, and minerals.

(3) Exercise should also be done gradually to allow the body time to adapt.