Premenstrual cravings

[SingaporeSlinky]

Hi all, I’ve recently started calorie counting to try and shift about a stone in weight. I managed to do it about 3 years ago, both times with an upcoming holiday as motivation. I find the only thing that works for me is to cut out snacks completely, as I just can’t have a small amount without craving more.

The problem is a few days before my period starts, I get terrible cravings, usually for chocolate and end up giving in, and even though I tell myself I’ll just have one small thing, it spirals a little and then I feel guilty for ruining a good streak, and wasting time when I’m specifically aiming for a particular date (the holiday).

I wonder if anyone has any tips for this? Is it that my body actually needs some extra calories (quite possibly), or sugar or whatever. Or is it purely hormones surging and making me feel like I want some ‘comfort’ in food. And should I just give in and make peace with the fact it’s only a few days a month, or accept I need to try even harder on those days?

If this happens to anyone else, do you a) eat a bit extra, but as healthy as possible, b) eat the junk and enjoy it, or c) eat the junk and compensate by limiting calories the rest of the day so you still hit your calorie target?

Bumping for you OP - we want to know the answer to this too!

Thank you Esther!
Shameless bumping again from me…

One last bump. Does no one else find this?

You may find this a useful article. In summary it basically says, listen to your body when it tells you it needs more energy, but try to use healthier foods to meet that need. Chocolate is rich in all kinds of nutrients, especially the dark stuff, so in moderate amounts it’s not a bad choice:

www.healthline.com/health/period-cravings

I personally don’t find cutting calories to compensate for overeating to be a useful strategy. That just makes me feel like I’ve done something wrong that I need to make up for. As far as possible I try to keep thoughts and feelings like guilt, failure and not doing a good enough job out of my weightloss journey. If I go off plan, I ask myself why that might be happening and if I could do something differently to stop it from happening again. Then I accept it and move on. Every day is a new chance to try again

Thank you for that, I’ll take a look. I did a little Googling before posting, but got conflicting theories, so wondered from the posters in this group what they’ve found personally.

I agree with you about the guilt aspect, I shouldn’t feel like I’ve done something wrong if I feel a craving and respond to it. But I also don’t want to sabotage my weight loss if it can be avoided. It’s very disheartening to see the scales go back up, and feel like I could have tried harder, or to wonder if I’m so used to giving in to the cravings purely out of habit.

I’m exactly the same as you. Each month I get the need for what I call the C’s. Carbs. Cheese. Chocolate.

I’ve just learned to go with it, but try to make healthier choices. But my body is demanding something and I only get it those few days!

Thank you FlappyFish - do you find you’ve gained weight during that time, and if so, does it fall off again once your period is finished?

I think my problem is that I’ll have the cravings, have a chocolate bar, but then get the taste for it, and have another, then some crisps or something. So it’s not as simple as thinking I’ll just satisfy the craving with one square of dark chocolate.

I feel this way each month but I am determined to shift weight so eating fruit instead

I think that will have to be my aim as well.

It's horrible isn't it 😫 I will soon be going through it again in a few weeks....but I am kept busy which takes away the craving to a degree.

Good luck, you have my sympathies.

Take a look at Alisa Vitti. She has a book ‘In the Flo’ but I think there’s lots of information on her website. Her argument is women need more calories during our luteal and menstrual phases and that we should change what we eat depending on what phase we our in our cycle. Apparently we need more ‘warming’ foods before and during our period and slow burning carbs so that our blood sugars don’t spike.

I don’t know about her evidence or whether any of it works but it is interesting.

Thank you Hlglu56 I’ll take a look!