“Why am I so hungry before my period?”
“Why do I eat so much a week before my period starts?”
“Is it normal to be super hungry during ovulation”?
“How to control my mood swings during my period?”
“Why am I crying all the time before my period?”
Many women ask these questions and look for answers to them. If you are one of them, you don’t need to search any longer. You’ll find the answers in this post.
Do you find yourself wanting to eat everything in sight for a few days before your period? Do you have specific cravings? Do your emotional or binge eating tendencies become much stronger?
Maybe you also become an emotional wreck. Commercials make you cry, everyone irritates you and you´re just overall anxious and sad. And when you finally get your period it’s such a relief because you realize that you’re not actually insane 😊 (This is me by the way before my period.)
Don’t worry. These are normal physiological reactions. The body goes through a lot of hormonal changes before your period, and increased appetite, cravings, and mood swings are natural consequences.
The two key appetite-affecting hormones that change the week before your period are estrogen and progesterone.
Estrogen and progesterone influence nearly every other hormone in your body, including those involved in the speed of your metabolism and your ability to regulate blood sugar.
Estrogen is an appetite reducer and a mood-booster hormone.
Estrogen increases insulin sensitivity, which means you can metabolize more carbs when your estrogen level is high. Estrogen is higher at the first half of our menstrual cycle after our period, which means excess calories are less likely to be stored as fat and you can tolerate more stress during this time.
Estrogen level is lower during the second half of our cycle, and it rapidly decreases prior to our period. That´s why our blood sugar is not that stable and we can tolerate less stress the week before our period.
Progesterone increases core body temperature, metabolism, and appetite.
It’s also a relaxing hormone that helps stabilize mood because it blocks the action of stress hormones like cortisol.
As progesterone level is high during the second half of the menstrual cycle, this time we want to eat more and do less.
Its level drastically decreases a few days before our period making us more sensitive to stress.
As you can see, estrogen and progesterone both affect our stress tolerance. The days before our period both hormone levels fall and we become stress reactive.
Even during this time period, progesterone remains the dominant hormone, that´s why we find ourselves particularly hungry in the days before both hormones plummet and our period arrives.
In addition to the above-discussed stress reactivity, decreasing estrogen levels result in decreased serotonin and dopamine levels, leading to a lack of motivation (dopamine) and feelings of insecurity, anxiety, or depression (serotonin).
At the same time, low progesterone levels lead to falling levels of GABA, the number one relaxing brain chemical in the body.
No wonder our mood is all-time low the week before our period.
Hunger, cravings, and mood swings, coupled with PMS symptoms like bloating, cramping, fatigue, and headaches make us seek comfort to feel better. If you tend to eat emotionally this is a time when the desire to comfort yourself with food becomes the strongest. Chocolate, pizza, cookies, ice cream, and bread are all you want to eat.
Now you see that all these uncomfortable symptoms the days before your period are caused by the hormonal changes your body goes through to have your period. It has nothing to do with you personally, you don´t have less willpower suddenly and you’re not becoming lazy and crazy 😊 These symptoms will go away in a few days naturally.
Similar symptoms may appear again during your ovulation because drastic hormonal changes occur that time too.
So what can you do to feel better?
If you track your cycle and you know when these days are expected to arrive you can be prepared. You’ll know that you’ll be hungrier and moodier for a few days and that it´s not some random thing happening to you. You’ll also know that it will last for a few days only and then everything goes back to normal. It’s much easier to deal with something if you’re aware of what you’re dealing with.
Now you know that a few days before your period you are more stress reactive so make sure you schedule some stress-reducing activities. It depends on your personal preferences but there are many things you can do to reduce stress: meditation, naps, sleep, long showers or hot baths with relaxing music and candlelight, relaxing stretching, walking in nature, listening to music, spending time with friends, cuddling a loved one or a pet, massage, sauna, Tai Chi, and a lot more.
Sleep is the number one best stress reducer you can engage in. The irony is, you may find it harder to sleep now due to the PMS symptoms and being too hot at night due to increased body temperature.
Research shows that even a 10- to 30-minute nap can undo many of the hormonal problems caused by sleep loss.
Meditation has also been shown to have a similar effect on the body and brain.
Work on your sleep hygiene by keeping your bedroom dark and cool, starting to wind down one hour before you want to fall asleep, participating in quiet and calm activities before bed, such as reading, listening to guided meditations, or writing in your journal, and not drinking alcohol or caffeine, and not eating too much just before bedtime.
If you have trouble falling asleep, I highly recommend trying the Sleep Salon audios. These audios help your brain waves dip down from wide awake Beta to deep sleep Delta waves. This is a scientifically proven method to synchronize your brain waves to the frequency that you’re listening to. It’s perfectly safe to use and very effective.
The Superiour Sleep Hypnosis Bundle from Hypnosis Live can be also very beneficial for those who has sleep issues.
If you’re feeling extra hungry the week before your period – eat more. As your metabolism and body temperature is higher, you need a bit more food during this time. When you feel hungry, that’s your body communicating that it needs fuel. Listen to what your body is telling you and eat when you’re hungry.
You probably crave simple carbohydrates, such as chocolate, candy, cookies, pizza, and bread before your period, because eating carbohydrates release serotonin and fight fatigue. These foods are also comforting when you feel low.
However, complex carbohydrates (beans, lentils, vegetables, whole grains (oats, brown rice), sweet potatoes, potatoes, and fruits), have the same effects. These also last much longer and don’t cause sudden crashes in energy and mood.
Eating a bit of the comfort food you crave is also beneficial. Denying the cravings completely causes them to persist and you may end up binging on them later.
Protein (lean meat, fish, eggs, tofu, tempeh, beans, and pulses) makes you feel more satiated, so you feel full longer. As an added bonus these protein sources are also rich in vitamin B6, which supports mood-boosting serotonin production.
Magnesium regulates stress hormones, enhances the calming effect of progesterone, and helps with menstrual cramps. This nutrient can be found in leafy greens, nuts & seeds, avocado, cacao, dark chocolate, whole grains, beans, and bananas.
Cocoa or cacao powder can be your best friend during this time. Cocoa is different than chocolate. Chocolate is cocoa powder combined with fat and sugar. Although there is nothing wrong with eating some chocolate either, I’m talking about cacao or cocoa powder here. It contains serotonin and dopamine mimickers along with 58 other compounds that relax and focus the mind. Make a hot chocolate using about 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder, hot water, stevia, and a bit of almond milk if needed. Drink this every day, even multiple times a day, to avoid cravings and stabilize your mood.
Have you heard of non-exercise associated thermogenesis (NEAT.) This constitutes all the movement you do in a day. Walking to the mailbox, taking the stairs, parking further away, doing the dishes, playing with your kids, fidgeting, gardening, and everything else. Research shows that this walking/general movement impacts your metabolism 10% more than exercise does!
Daily movement balances estrogen and progesterone deficiency by helping the body reduce stress—walking lowers cortisol—and be less reactive to high-calorie foods since it makes you more insulin-sensitive. Daily movement is one of the healthiest things you can do. You can try to add walking, gentle stretching or yoga, or Thai Chi to your general daily movements.
To feel less drawn to food to comfort you try other mood-boosting activities too. You know yourself the best so you probably have an idea about what activities can lift your mood. If you need some ideas, check out this blog post where I listed 10 mood-boosting activities to curb your emotional eating.
Your body is smart. It knows what it’s doing and when it needs slightly more or less fuel to do its job. If you give the right kind of fuel to your body it will request the right amount of food to have enough energy and to function properly. You can trust it and give it a bit more fuel and a bit more fun foods around your period without judgment and criticism for wanting more.
Love and trust your body. Give your body the foods that make it feel good, let it rest when it’s tired, and be gentle with it.
I hope I managed to answer your questions about why you are so hungry and emotional before your period and how to feel better. If you liked this post please share it with others. Thank you 🙂
If your emotional eating persists after your period too you might need help to find out what you are really hungry for. The How to stop eating your feelings workbook will be perfect for you to discover how to break free from emotional eating. You can also download a free chapter here to see if you like it.
If you need further support don’t hesitate to reach out to me
– You can send me an email at hello@ritamayblog.com.
– You can book a free call here.
– We can have a 90-minute 1 on 1 consultation to help you find your triggers and develop a strategy to break free from emotional and binge eating.
If you want to lose weight pleasurably without restrictive dieting and excessive exercising check out my free ebook:
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