in today's video we are going to be talking about how to eat and exercise according to
your menstrual cycle throughout a woman's cycle hormones can increase and decrease
and this can lead to changes in energy levels exercise capacity metabolism and more and i am
sure that if you are a woman watching this you have experienced firsthand the results
of some of these hormonal changes cravings at different times of the month less energy
during workouts at certain times of the month there is a reason for this when we understand
how our body changes at different times during our cycle we can use this to our advantage we
can sync up our diet and exercise routine with our cycle and optimize our health so in today's
video i'm going to be talking about how to eat and exercise according to your menstrual cycle
and then i will also talk about if ketogenic diets can disrupt your hormones
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post
videos on a high fat nutrient dense way of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up
feel free to share and make sure to subscribe and make sure to follow me on instagram twitter
and facebook where i share new posts every single day throughout our lives there are variables that
can make us feel better or worse some of these variables we can control and others we cannot some
of the variables we can control include getting enough sleep eating less sugar and getting enough
sunlight an example of a variable we can't control is our menstrual cycle understanding the hormonal
changes that happen during your cycle and how these impact your body can be a powerful tool
you can understand why you are having cravings or why you feel weaker in the gym so in today's
video we are going to break it all down and talk about how you should eat and exercise depending
on where you are in your cycle and make sure you stick around until the end of the video because
i'm going to be talking about how a low-carb diet affects our cycle and whether this impact
is positive or negative follicular phase there are two main stages in a woman's cycle the first
is the follicular phase this phase starts on the first day of your period and lasts until about
the middle of your cycle around 14 days during this time estrogen is highest now what does this
mean for what we should be eating during this phase of our cycle we are more insulin sensitive
and our blood sugar is more stable this means our bodies are better able to handle carbohydrates
and utilize them properly now if you are a long time subscriber it will come as no surprise to
you that i am an advocate for low carb diets and just because your body is better able to process
carbohydrates during this time doesn't mean you have to or should eat high quantities it
just means that if you are wanting to incorporate some carbs into your diet maybe targeted around
a workout this would be the time to do that the irony here is that during this phase is
when women actually experience the least amount of cravings be that for sugar carbs or anything else
now i just want to make one more quick note on insulin sensitivity before we move on to exercise
unfortunately most of the population is currently insulin resistant even though most people who have
it do not know insulin resistance is basically the same as metabolic syndrome a lot of the symptoms
that characterize metabolic syndrome are actually caused by insulin resistance high blood pressure
visceral fat skin tags these are all caused by insulin resistance and the thing with insulin
resistance is it means that your cells are not responding to insulin and therefore you
do not process carbs well so while you may be more insulin sensitive during this part of your cycle
if you are already insulin resistant you will still be less sensitive than normal if that
makes sense if you think of it on a scale someone who is generally metabolically healthy and insulin
sensitive her sensitivity will move from very sensitive to less sensitive throughout her cycle
but someone who is metabolically unhealthy and insulin resistant will go from insulin resistant
to more insulin resistant throughout her cycle and when it comes to reversing insulin resistance
because insulin resistance can absolutely be reversed through diet and lifestyle carbs are not
your friend my point being is that i don't want you to take me saying that you are more insulin
sensitive as a past to eat unlimited amounts of carbohydrates during this phase of your cycle
okay and now let's talk about exercise during the follicular phase of your cycle is when you
will feel your strongest your energy will be highest and you will feel like you are killing
it at the gym your recovery is also quicker during this time and your muscles will repair
faster meaning you can work out more this phase of your cycle is the best time to focus on building
muscle resistance training and high intensity interval training are both great to incorporate
at this time and as i said earlier if your main goal is increasing strength and gaining muscle
then targeting some carbs around your workout might prove beneficial as a quick energy source
however i am not completely convinced that this is necessary i have experimented with
the targeted ketogenic diet and i did not see any real benefit in targeting carbs around my workouts
but i do know that this strategy works for some women so if that is you this phase of your cycle
is the time to do it luteal phase around the middle of our cycle is when we ovulate and the
time period from that until we menstruate again is known as the luteal phase and this phase is
not as fun as the follicular phase progesterone increases during this phase but what does this
mean for our bodies while for starters insulin sensitivity goes down so we are not as efficient
at dealing with carbs our blood sugar levels are also less stable meaning our energy levels can be
all over the place our metabolism also increases during this phase with some studies showing an
increase of up to 500 excess calories burned per day and this increase in metabolism might sound
like a good thing especially if you're trying to lose weight but the catch is this can lead to a
lot of cravings and this might be the reason why your stomach feels like a bottomless pit
the week before your period so to recap hunger goes up cravings go up but insulin sensitivity
goes down and your blood sugar is less stable if that doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster
i don't know what does and to top it off we will also retain more water at the end of the luteal
phase and i think we have all experienced this the week before our periods we are often hungry
bloated and tired but unfortunately this is the time when we have the most cravings
so what should we be eating during this time this is the time to limit carbs for sure as i
said before your insulin sensitivity is down meaning that when we eat carbs they can cause
our insulin and blood sugar to raise more than they normally would but at the same time you
are burning more energy because your metabolism increases so it is really important to make sure
you are eating adequate protein and adequate fat some examples of high fat low carb meals
you might want to eat at this time include bunless burgers bacon and eggs or salmon with vegetables
if you focus on eating enough food at your meals maybe a little bit more than you normally would
you will be better able to keep your cravings under control but what about exercise during
this time well as you might have guessed it's basically the opposite of the follicular phase
we have less energy we don't feel as strong and to top it all off our muscles recover slower
but with that being said this is not a free pass to lie around for these two weeks yes it
is important to honor your body and get adequate recovery but movement is still important focus
on low intensity cardio during this time walking jogging swimming or cycling if you do hit the gym
give yourself an extra day in between workouts and don't feel bad if you are not able to lift as much
as you usually do ketogenic diets and our cycle there is this idea that low-carb ketogenics can
disrupt a woman's menstrual cycle and the carbs are necessary at least at certain times in order
for a woman's body to function properly now i can tell you i've dug through the research and there
doesn't seem to be much evidence to back up this claim i think that most cases of this happening
are anecdotal and there are other factors that are at play the number one reason that women will lose
their periods is because their body fat is too low when our body fat is too low our bodies realize we
are not in a good position to grow a baby and so we do not ovulate so if you are eating a keto diet
and have lost your period the first thing i would ask yourself is are you at a healthy body weight
the next reason you might lose your period on a keto diet is if you are not eating enough fat a
lot of people come to the keto diet still in the mindset that fat is bad and needs to be limited
fat is especially important on a keto diet because you are already limiting carbs and
fat is the alternate energy source but beyond that our bodies need fat and cholesterol to make sex
hormones if you do not consume enough once again you will not ovulate and the third reason
is that you simply might not be eating enough we see this a lot with intermittent fasting as well
some people claim that keto and intermittent fasting isn't good for women it can disrupt the
menstrual cycle but the truth is is that the issue isn't the diet it isn't the fasting it is simply
not eating enough overall to illustrate this one study looked at women who fasted for 72 hours
during the follicular phase of their cycle these women saw no changes to the reproductive hormones
during or after the fast and other studies have mimicked these findings when you are fasting
you are in the same metabolic state as when you are eating a low-carb ketogenic diet that state
is ketosis so therefore ketogenic diets should not negatively impact a woman's menstrual cycle
anyways guys that is all i have for you today let me know in the comment section down below if you
eat or exercise differently depending on the time of the month your comments and likes on my videos
really help to support my channel and help it to reach more people so thank you if you take the
time to leave one or the other or both i really appreciate it if you did enjoy this video you
might also enjoy my video on signs and symptoms of pcos you can check it out here if you want to
catch up on my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet and
carnivore diet coaching programs you can find them here thanks again guys i'll see you next time bye