This one’s for my ladies out there…
I often get asked if and how a woman can adjust her macros around her cycle to help with her cravings. While you don’t have to adjust your macros with your cycle, if it makes it easier for you and helps manage your symptoms, I say go for it. Here’s how:
Always eat your protein, especially at breakfast. Protein is one of the key nutrients to balancing hormones, cravings, and hunger. It’s especially important to make sure to have a high-protein breakfast as this will help with sweet cravings and hunger later in the day.
Get enough sleep. Sleep is the other key to having balanced hormones, cravings, and hunger. During sufficient quality and quantity of sleep, our sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc) are balanced, which is exactly what fluctuates throughout your cycle. Our hunger and satiety hormones are also regulated while we sleep.
Adjust your macros but keep your calorie goal. Keep your current calorie goal, but to help give you a little more carbs or fat (depending on which one you’re craving more), adjust your macros slightly during the end of your cycle when the symptoms typically start, and perhaps the first day or two of menstruation. To do this, you can decrease your protein goal to 80% of your body weight in grams of protein to make more room for carbs or fat. Then you can adjust the carbs and fat so that you still stay within your calorie range but so you get more of the macro you’re craving.
Consider seed cycling. There isn’t a lot of peer-reviewed research to back this up yet, but it’s also not at all harmful to try, so you might as well give it a go if your PMS symptoms are rough! I’ve personally had experience helping clients improve cravings, cramps, and mood with seed cycling in women.
What the heck is seed cycling?
Days 1 – 14 of your cycle have 1-2 tbsp of ground flax seeds and/or 1-2 tbsp of ground pumpkin seeds.
Days 15 – 28 of your cycle have 1-2 5 tbsp of tahini (ground sesame) and 1-2 tbsp of ground sunflower seeds.
The hypothesis behind this is that the pumpkin and flax can help to balance estrogen, more present during the first half of your cycle and sesame and sunflower may help balance progesterone, more present during the second half. Is it placebo? Does it just make sense as a hypothesis? Is it just helpful for women with PCOS? Maybe, maybe not. More research needs to be conducted. But, there’s also no harm in trying it if your period is unpleasant (mood, cramping, etc) or comes with a lot of cravings.
I hope this helps you feel better each month (it might take a few months to notice a difference).
