It is normal for your hormonal levels to fluctuate throughout the menstrual cycle. These changes can cause fluid retention and/or adversely affect your appetite. And both these factors can lead to actual or perceived weight gain at around the time of your period.
Still wondering “Is it normal to gain weight during period?” Here, let’s discuss all about weight gain during periods, and treatments and preventive measures you can follow to keep it in check.
Is This Weight Gain Normal?
Gaining about 1.5 to 2 kg during the time of your periods is perfectly normal. The weight reduces within a few days and is a symptom of PMS or Premenstrual Syndrome. Apart from weight gain, you may also experience other emotional, physical, and behavioural symptoms that affect women a few days to 2 weeks before the start of their period. Yes, weight gain during ovulation can also happen.
7 Possible Causes Of Period Weight Gain
Does weight increase during periods? The answer is a “yes”. Here’s visiting the possible causes of gaining weight during your menstruation.
1. Hormonal Changes
Weight gain due to hormonal changes can occur around the time of your periods as a result of water retention. During the days adding up to your periods, oestrogen and progesterone levels fall rapidly, which is a signal for the body to start menstruating. These hormones determine how your body regulates fluid. The fluctuation of these hormones makes the body accumulate more water, leading to water retention, known as oedema. This may result in puffiness or swelling in your breasts or stomach, and causes the increase of weight and not fat.
2. Bloating
Period bloating may feel like you’ve put on a few kilos, but that’s so not true in reality. This happens because hormonal changes increase gas in your gastrointestinal tract, making you bloat. To add to that, water retention in your abdomen is another reason why you can feel and look bloated. Bloating can be described as swollen or feeling tight in your stomach or other body parts.
3. Stomach Cramps
Cramps occur as a result of chemicals known as prostaglandins, which are released by the uterus. This chemical makes the uterus contract and shed its lining, causing abdominal pain during your menstruation. It starts about 1 to 2 days before your period and may stay for a few days.
4. Binge Eating
Yet another fallout of hormonal changes during your period is overeating. The rising progesterone levels in the week before your period makes you eat more than what you usually do since the hormone stimulates appetite. Not just that, the activities of other hormones too play a part in you constantly craving for food during your periods. Oestrogen regulates serotonin that controls mood and your appetite. When oestrogen drops before period, so does serotonin and that results in you having a voracious appetite.
5. Gastrointestinal Problems
Hormonal fluctuations can cause gastrointestinal issues like constipation, diarrhoea, and menstrual cramps. This, in turn, leads to bloating, making it feel and look like you’ve gained weight.
6. Reduced Levels Of Magnesium
Magnesium levels decrease gradually when your period starts. This can instigate sugar cravings, leading to weight gain. Low levels of magnesium can lead to dehydration, which tends to mask itself as hunger. So, when you crave for sweet items during your periods, it might just be because you’re thirsty. Eating foods high in sugar is likely to contribute to weight gain.
7. Not Working Out
You are likely to tend to skip exercise during the time of your period. The cramps and bloating become unbearable for you to workout, increasing the chances of you to gain weight. What’s more, the levels of oestrogen and progesterone also increase a week before you start your periods, leading to you feeling fatigued all the time. This often makes working out a challenge during your periods and for a few days leading to it.
How Much Weight Do You Gain During Your Period?
Although there are no fixed days for which weight gain is experienced, most women experience it a few days before their period starts and extends to 3 to 5 days after the start of your period.
8 Treatments & Home Remedies For Period Weight Gain
1. Keep Yourself Hydrated
Despite the water retention during periods, keeping yourself hydrated is essential as it can lower water retention. This way, your body will conserve more fluids even when you’re dehydrated.
2. Eat Healthy Foods
Keep healthy foods handy, especially if you’re prone to craving for junk and sugar-laden food all the time. Replace unhealthy sugars with healthy alternatives like fruits, dates, and protein bars.
3. Skip Foods That Give You Gas
Avoid taking foods that cause gastrointestinal problems. And you should do this not just during your periods but throughout the month.
4. Take Magnesium Supplements
Low levels of magnesium trigger hunger pangs, especially of sugary foods. You may want to take a magnesium supplement because it will control emotional symptoms, water retention, and bloating, apart from sugar cravings. However, it is best to take these supplements on the advice of your doctor.
5. Control Salt Intake
Excessive quantities of sodium increases water retention. Limit or avoid processed foods to keep control over your intake of salt.
6. Avoid Caffeine & Sugar Intake
Your bloating is likely to worsen if you don’t restrict the intake of caffeinated drinks and sugar. Not just during your period, avoid them from 2 weeks prior to your expected date of menses, to avoid weight gain during ovulation.
7. Take Diuretics
Diuretics refers to pills that control water retention by raising the production of urine. Follow the advice of your doctor when it comes to taking these pills.
8. Exercise
Working out will reduce fluid buildup by making you sweat. So, include a light fitness routine even during your period days.
How to not gain water weight during ovulation remains the same as what you need to do to control your weight during your periods.
The article addresses – Does weight increase during periods? Weight gain is one of the natural symptoms of periods. While there are several reasons why this happens, about which we have already discussed earlier, there are several other ways to keep your weight in check. Follow the lifestyle changes and home remedies, as mentioned above, to keep weight gain in control as much as possible.
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