Keeping a tab on your menstrual cycle is very crucial, as it is the best indicator of your overall health. While women consider that variations in their period cycle is normal, it is suggested that abnormality should never be ignored. Why? Because it indicates health trouble. When you are on a weight loss journey, it is all the more important to keep a check on your menstrual cycle. Missing periods during weight loss indicates that the process of shedding kilos might be taking a toll on your well-being. Nutritionist Bhakti Kapoor in her recent Instagram post explained what over-exercising does to the body.
Exercising too much can cause irregularities in periods. While women feel there is no harm in missing periods once or twice, the nutritionist said it’s a sign of a serious problem with one’s diet. Kapoor said that people often step up their workout by increasing the duration of exercises or the weight, and suddenly they skip their periods. The expert stated that during athletic training, many people think amenorrhea, or halting of the menstrual cycle is normal. However, according to her, “it’s not and it can actually indicate a serious problem with one’s diet.”
“It doesn’t necessarily depend on expending a high amount of calories. But when someone’s exercise expenditure causes them to tap into the energy they need to run their body’s day-to-day processes, it can cause a problem,” she wrote in the Instagram post.
Kapoor added that when the body doesn’t have enough energy to keep the system going, it stops the energy movement to the nonessential tasks like reproduction and growth, including building bone. The nutritionist revealed that it can cause hypothalamus — a region in the brain slows down or stops the release of the hormones that control ovulation.
Highlighting three reasons why your workout routine leads to missing periods, Kapoor also shared tips as to what can be done about it.
No real rest days: You can miss periods due to energy deficit, so even walking on rest days won’t help your problems.
Solution: Take out time to give proper rest to your body during the week, and give yourself the grace for not doing anything
Constant calorie deficit: Your body might need calories
Solution: Focus on nourishing meals
Being more worried about looks than actual health: Thinking this way can push you to exercise more and more. Well, it might not always yield positive results.
Solution: Missing periods is not healthy no matter what you look like.
