Have you wondered what impact changing your diet would have on your menstrual cycle? Do you suffer from extremely painful cramping every month and look for natural ways to reduce it?
One of the most surprising things I’ve found over the years is how much changing my diet has impacted on my menstrual cycle.
When living a busy life in London with a reasonably “healthy” diet (in the popular culture sense of the phrase) with plenty of wholegrains and brown rice for fibre and the odd take away for a treat, I found that I always suffered from cramping on the first few days of my period. This cramping was debilitating and often left me unable to do much more than lie on the floor if I hadn’t done any serious exercise in the week leading up to it.
I explained in an article last Wednesday the different changes I’ve made to my diet. These are the changes I also noticed happening to my menstrual cycle at the same time.
As background it is worth noting that throughout the “trial period” of a couple of years I was on the contraceptive pill and at the start I had, for a few years been settled into a pattern of finishing my pack on Thursday morning and my period starting between 11am and 12pm on the following Sunday and going on until the Thursday.
Reduced carbohydrate intake
Removing grains at dinner and lunch, therefore reducing my carbohydrate intake, but keeping porridge at breakfast reduced the cramping pains a little and left me able to still move about on a Sunday afternoon, though they were definitely still there.
Other than that, there were no changes to my periods.
Anabolic diet – but with grains
The initial move to the anabolic diet, retaining grains in the diet in the form of oats and wholegrains, had the following impact on my menstrual cycle:
- Bleeding starting early afternoon on the Saturday, instead of Sunday.
- Period continuing to end on the Thursday, so effectively an extra day of bleeding.
- Noticeably lighter flow (so I wasn’t too bothered about the extra day).
- No further changes to the cramping pains.
Anabolic diet – fully paleolithic
Removing the grains and anything else non-paleo from the diet, so that the carbs on my bulking day were clean, had an immediate noticeable impact on my cycle:
- All cramping gone. I can now operate as normal at the weekend and don’t have to arrange my life around my period to the same extent.
- Flow even lighter.
- To balance out the reduced flow, I now go on until the end of Friday, so I’ve now got 6 days. It’s a small price to pay!
Summary
Diet can have a significant impact on the menstrual cycle. Most noticeable are the following points:
- Removing grains and other non-paleo foods reduces, or can even eliminate, cramping. This is a phenomenon also noted by Carrie Sisson in a women’s specific primal lifestyle Q&A post.
- A paleolithic diet may also assist in reducing flow.
- Carb cycling through the anabolic diet reduces flow and appears to make periods lighter.
- Anabolic diet could change the timing of your menstrual cycle.
Have you changed your diet and noticed similar impacts on your cycle?
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thank you SO much! I’m having a lighter/shorter than average period this month and I thought something was wrong with me but it turns out it’s just my diet change. I started a more paleo diet and cut out all grains and lentils and increased my omega-3 intake along with more fruits and vegetables and started taking a multivitamin along with zinc and vitamin D3. I also eat more lean protein. This menstrual change has been freaking me out but reading your article really calmed my mind and body. thanks!
Glad to help. Issues like this, when I got worried about things like my menstrual cycle but rarely found information about it, was one of the reasons I originally set up the blog.
Something else worth considering is whether you’ve also increased your activity levels or lost some body fat. Studies have shown a correlation between lower body fat and lighter periods and I’ve always noticed a correlation between how heavy my period is (or how much pain I get) with how active I’ve been in the couple of weeks leading up to it.
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Hello!
I’ve been doing Crossfit for about a year and half and I have been eating pretty clean, cutting out grains and most dairy and processed foods. Every January I do this 30-day Paleo challenge where I do a strict Paleo diet, kind of like a detox from all the holiday eating! I can’t quite remember the exact situation last year, but I do remember my menstrual cycle being shifted, even though I’m on birth control. This year, I’m only 10 days into the strict Paleo and I find that my period came a week early. I know diet definitely affects your cycles, but it concerns me that my cycle is off, especially since I’m on the pill. Do you suggest that I drop the ‘strict’ Paleo and just eat ‘clean’ as I have done the last year?
Also, if you have any other resources I can read, that would really help too! Thanks!
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I’m in no way an expert on this – I write from personal experience. However, I’m definitely surprised that your period has moved that much when you’re on birth control. I noticed a definite shift in my cycle with the paleo diet, but only by a day or two.
The biggest things I know of which significantly impact my cycle are when my calorie intake changes dramatically and suddenly (eg. I start a fat loss diet after a high calorie period) or if there is a significant change in my dietary fat levels (again, this most often happens when I go onto a fat loss diet, but I have played with low calorie and higher dietary fat intake and it has moved my cycle around slightly). Something I’ve noticed with a lot of people who do Paleo Challenges is that their interpretation of “strict Paleo” results in them consuming far fewer calories and cutting out quite a few of their dietary fat sources. My understanding of the Paleo challenge is that it’s about the types of foods you’re eating, not about fat loss dieting through cutting calories. It might be worth playing around with those things as a starting point – find some meats that aren’t as lean, like lamb, pork belly and chicken drumsticks or add in some oily fish.
I’d suggest using something like Fitday to chart an average day’s meals both on and off the challenge to see how they compare for total dietary fat and calories. See what has most clearly changed and see if there is a Paleo-friendly way to get your macronutrient and calorie levels back to where they were. You could change your meat and fish sources (as I mentioned earlier) and quantities or if you find you’ve accidentally reduced your calorie and/or fat intake by a big amount then drinking down a can (or half can) of coconut milk or cream each day or eating an avocado can go a long way towards being “easy” fixes. It may be that you’ve slashed your carb levels in which case it might be worth getting some extra carrots, fruit and sweet potatoes in there and then, if you want to try reducing carbs, cutting them back down a bit more slowly. I definitely noticed that moving to a low carb diet also impacted my menstrual cycle and your period coming a week earlier may be where you decide to let it ultimately settle.
If you’re still worried then it may be worth speaking to a doctor if you are happy with the other health benefits of the paleo challenge but want to be sure there’s not something else causing the change in cycle dates.
Jenn…I have the EXACT same issue going on! We started a paleo challenge at our crossfit gym and my menstral cycle started a week early (only 3 days into the challenge) while eating very strict paleo and taking the pill. Did your entire cycle shift, or did it just last longer?
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I went paleo about 4 weeks ago, eating less than 70g carbs/day. I’m 5’6″, 153lbs (was 162lbs when I started). Despite knowing I was due for my period soon, it kind of surprised me when I started bleeding today because I wasn’t moody and had NO sugar cravings this past week–which are usually very strong, and I had only a very light cramp today. Other than a bit of blood, I wouldn’t think I was having a period. Btw, I have a Paragard copper IUD for over 2 years and my total cycle is 29-30 days, 5-6 days moderate bleeding, and moderate cramps the first day.
Yes yes yes. I have gone primal/paleo and although I am not fully preservative free I am carb zilch right now. I don’t have a scale in my home so i would say I have lost about 8 pounds in two weeks. I know. I feel great however but I thought that I might have been pregnant because I have no cramps, and my period is just spotting. i have a heavy first 2-days, then light on about the 4th day and spotting up until the 7th. I am concerned. Is it OK.
Congratulations on the weight loss! That’s a fantastic achievement.
If you’ve cut your carbs right down (note, you won’t be zero carb unless you aren’t eating any vegetables either, but some veg are incredibly low carb) then you will find that you aren’t retaining water (in the not-quite-accurate summary, carbs increase glycogen stored in the muscles and glycogen retains water so carb depletion causes the body to hold less water and results in lower body weight). That can account for 2-3lbs water at the start of a low-carb diet, depending on how much muscle you are carrying, so don’t have any worries if people tell you you’ve lost “too much” weight too rapidly at the start! As you say – you feel great which is the important bit!
Several women have written to me and there seems to be a consistent pattern with lighter periods, no cramps or pain and often a much earlier bleed when they have been rigid with their paleo/primal diet so I would see it as your body settling down into a “new” pattern rather than something bad. However, I’m not a medical expert so if you are worried about anything then it is always worth getting it checked out – especially doing an over-the-counter pregnancy test if you’re worried you might be pregnant.
Best of luck with the continued progress and success!
I was 75% paleo (meaning I had cut most sugars, starch and salts out of my daily diet and complex carbs out of 2 meals) i noticed my cycle started 1-2 days early and light flow but lasted a day or so longer..
Now doing a 100% paleo, my last 2 cycles were very light (spotting even) for about 6-7 days and started a week early! I am also on the pill…. just waiting to see when I start again and how this next one is…
Thanks for sharing that. I’m definitely noticing a pattern with all the women who move to a paleo diet. They all see to be showing the same pattern as you, especially those who are using a contraceptive pill (or other hormone-based contraceptive).
After going Paleo, I skipped two months and then after that nothing. I’m still trying to get it back, so I can hopefully have children. All my bloodwork is great, so I have no choice but to think it was the Paleo diet that caused this. I wish there was an answer that didn’t involve me putting grains back into my system. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Given that Robb Wolf tends to see better than usual levels of fertility among clients/trainers who move to a Paleo diet I don’t think the Paleo diet is causing infertility – I wouldn’t start by putting grains back into your diet. However there are various things that are believed to put the body into a temporary state of infertility (characterised by missing periods). Those include low body fat percentages (typically about 8-10% or lower, I think, though I don’t have the statistics to hand) and low dietary fat intake. On an evolutionary basis you could imagine that these situations would be caused by years of scarce food and our bodies have perhaps evolved to prevent us having children and therefore stretching food supplies or putting our bodies through unsustainable stress of pregnancy in those “lean” years.
I would consider starting by using a programme like Fitday.com to assess your total calorie intake each day and the macronutrient breakdown – perhaps increase your dietary fat intake a little using avocados, coconut, butter, or something similar and if you see no change in a few months play around with carb levels instead (more vegetables to increase your carb levels maybe?). Perhaps also assess your body fat percentage – is it particularly low now?
If you don’t see any improvements with that it may also be worth getting your doctor to check you out for another cause and also submitting a question to Robb Wolf for his Paleo Solution podcast. As I say, his clients/trainers seem to get pregnant with ease so I don’t think Paleo it the problem, perhaps moving to Paleo has just caused something else due to a change in dietary macronutrient ratios or total calorie intake (unless you assess your total food intake carefully any significant “diet” change, such as going low-carb or moving to some sort of special diet programme, can have a noticeable difference to your macronutrient ratios and calorie total too).
I hope this helps. I’d love to hear from you again with how it goes.