How Our Menstrual Cycle and Birth Control Impacts Our Gains - part 1

This past year has been a whole new level of learning when it comes to being a female. Who knew that after being a woman for 32 years that there was so little that I knew when it came to my body, hormones, and physiology.

What sparked this level of learning?

I have been toying with the idea of going off birth control for the last couple of years. For multiple reasons really. Such as the back-and-forth information that birth control can hinder your strength and muscle growth in the gym, how being on birth control can suppress your hormones, cause fertility issues and so on and so forth. It wasn’t until early this year that I decided it was time to dig a little bit deeper into these topics and decide for myself whether staying on birth control was right for me or not.

Be sure to check out part 2 of this episode, which will be posted in a few short weeks, where we will dive into these topics. But for today’s episode, we will be taking a step back and understanding our menstrual cycle, hormones, and how things work.

It’s shocking how many women (myself included at one point) don’t know how things work.

So, let’s go through the different phases that occur during the menstrual cycle and what is happening from a physiological standpoint.

Typically, any menstrual cycle can last from 25-32 days. And this can vary, where one month it’s 26 days and other months it’s 32 days. Seeing more consistency though typically occurs as women get older. Day 1 is considered the first day of menstruation, which is the first day of bleeding. This starts the follicular phase, which is the first 2 weeks of the cycle. This is where the follicle, which contains the egg developed, is released on day 14 at the ovulation phase, which is at the mid-point of the cycle. The next phase at this point is called the luteal phase, which is when the egg is released in preparation for pregnancy. Providing pregnancy doesn’t occur, we then enter our 4th ish week, at which point this is typically where PMS occurs and then the cycle starts over.

So, what is happening to our hormones during these different phases?

During the follicular phase, progesterone starts off very low, whereas estrogen starts to come up during this phase very gradually. Then estrogen peaks during ovulation and then crashes down afterwards. At ovulation, there’s a small spike in testosterone. Once we enter the luteal phase, this is when progesterone starts to increase and peaks typically during week 3 and then falls back down before the cycle starts over again. Estrogen will start to increase during the luteal phase and come back down as well, but not at the same degree as during the first 2 weeks.

What does all this mean? Why should we as females care about knowing this basic understanding of our hormones during our cycle?

Well, it can help us not only understand what is happening during these different phases of our menstrual cycle, but as well to make the appropriate adjustments to our food, training and even our mindset.

I am sure at one point or another you’ve seen some of the smack talk that estrogen has gotten and the hormone honestly gets an unnecessary bad rap in the fitness industry.

Most of the impacts from estrogen are actually positive. For instance, estrogen improves insulin sensitivity, which means that carbs are used more effectively. It is an anti-inflammatory, it also helps control appetite, and it remodels skeletal muscle. So overall, the effects from estrogen are quite positive.

In contrast, progesterone can cause some insulin resistance, it can also promote a small amount of muscle breakdown, and it can promote fat storage in the lower body. I know that sounds evil and horrible. But we must understand why this is happening. Progesterone increases during the second half of the cycle, where the first half of the cycle is where the egg is released and then if pregnancy does occur, our body wants to store extra calories and fat to promote a safe and healthy pregnancy. Our bodies are very smart when it comes to hormone regulation. This is another reason why during the luteal phase (weeks 3 and 4) we see an increase in our appetite and our cravings. This is your body trying to promote increased calorie consumption to support pregnancy.

But what if we aren’t trying to get pregnant? It’s not like our body has an on or off switch, where we can just tell our reproductive system to stop pumping out so much progesterone during the luteal phase.

That would be nice, hey?

So, what can we do then?

Firstly, I think it’s important to understand that each woman is extremely different. Some will notice a dip in their energy after week 2, other’s it won’t even phase them. Some women have a 25-day cycle and others have a 32-day cycle. Some women notice an insane increase in their appetite and cravings during week 3 and others don’t notice any changes in their hunger cues.

I think you know where I am going with this.

We are all extremely different. Therefore, the first thing we need to do is take note of our own experience. What do you consistently notice during week 1, week 2, week 3 and week 4. Write down and take note of everything you experience when it comes to energy, hunger, mood swings, cramping and craving changes.

Once you have an idea of what we can typically expect, then we can look at strategies and adjustments that are best suited for our own needs.

But in a generic context here, let’s take about some basic adjustments that are worth considering.

Starting with adjustments to our training, if we can expect a dip in our energy during the luteal phase, this may be a great time to implement a deload week. And then during the follicular phase, the focus can shift to maximizing our training intensity and energy output. There’s been studies that show that there is a significant strength response during the first 2 weeks of the cycle. That’s not to say you shouldn’t train the last 2 weeks of your cycle. But if you are going to prioritize your energy output, there’s evidence to show that increased intensity is better optimized during those first 2 weeks. Now in addition, week 3 or right at ovulation has been shown to be a decent week for some women as well and the speculation here is this is due to the increase in testosterone. So, there’s often an increase in strength and power output when this happens. This leaves week 4 as the ideal week to consider implementing a deload, as it’s been shown that performance, mood, and strength are negatively impacted during this time. In addition, it’s actually been shown that coordination issues increase during PMS. ACL injuries in women athlete’s are actually highest right after ovulation. So doing intense plyometric movements like box jumps during this time might not be the best idea.

Personally, my deload weeks are structured around week 1 versus week 4. And this is simply because I find I don’t get PMS symptoms negatively impacting my performance. Instead, day 1-3 of menstruation are the worst that I feel during my cycle, where my energy, mood and cravings are at their worst. Therefore, structuring my deload during this week is essential. A lot of people will implement a deload week every 4 weeks, which doesn’t always align with their menstrual cycle if they don’t have a perfect 28 cycle. Therefore, the deload weeks may be every 4 weeks one month and then every 5 or 6 weeks the following months. Again, take note of your experience so you can determine when it’s going to be best for you to implement a deload week. If you aren’t deloading during a week you consistently feel it is needed for you, this may be an important adjustment to make.

The next adjustment would be to your mindset.

Know that your training is not something you need to suffer through. The mindset that you should be able to power through the workout is something that a lot of women have.

And I get it ladies, you want to show up, put in the work and not use your period as an excuse to take it easy or loosen the rains. And some women, they can still go hard during that 4th week, where a deload often seems unnecessary. But for those who know their bodies and know that getting out of the fettle position is a battle, allow yourself the flexibility to take it easy that week if it is needed. Because this is something that is physiologically outside of your control, where it is not the time to try and power through.

Another mindset adjustment to consider is managing expectations of your scale weight fluctuations. During these different phases, clearly our body is seeing huge swings from a hormonal standpoint. There are hormonal changes occurring weekly, where we can expect fluctuations in our water weight, inflammation, and level of bloating, which of course is going to reflect unexpected changes on the scale.

A lot of women really get discouraged when they step on the scale and see a number that they didn’t expect to see. And again, I totally understand and relate to this ladies. However, we must take a step back, try to be objective, and ask ourselves “why did the scale change the way that it did?” When we can objectively analyze these things and, in a way, look at ourselves as a science experiment, we can take the emotion out of that silly number and instead manage our expectations and get better in touch with our bodies.

Overall, body weight is going to vary during our menstrual cycle. This is known information and again, physiologically outside of our control. For most, it seems that our weight will go up right before ovulation and this is due to the increase in estrogen, which causes sodium retention, leading to more water retention. We tend to see a drop in week 3 and this is due to the increase in progesterone, which helps with water balance. And then in week 4, we see a drop in progesterone, which will again cause water retention, and therefore, we will likely see another upwards scale weight fluctuation. Again, having this level of understanding allows us to manage expectations when we are weighing ourselves versus getting upset over something outside of our control.

Now let’s talk about nutrition adjustment. Is there anything worth changing here?

Even though we want to focus on mentally accepting the scale weight fluctuations, there are things we can do to try to mitigate bloating and water weight fluctuations that often occur during week 4. During that time when you know you see unstable blood sugar, an increase in swelling and bloating, this may be a good time to consider increasing your potassium intake, while reducing your sodium intake, as this will help reduce water retention.

What about those nasty cravings that often appear during week 3 and/or 4. Should we be adjusting our calories for this? Or should we fight through these cravings?

And the famous answer here of course is… it depends. It depends on the person.

Research shows that our metabolic rate increases during this time, meaning we do have some wiggle room to increase our calories where the net difference of our energy balance during the first few weeks will roughly be the same. Therefore, if we get cravings or experience an increase in appetite, we have that flexibility to increase how much we are eating during this timeframe, where it won’t cause fat regain.

Another scenario is to take advantage of the temporary increased metabolic rate by fighting through the cravings and/or increased appetite and driving a larger calorie deficit during this timeframe. However, this is not always easy to do and honestly not something I recommend unless you are on a time crunch with your fat loss goals because you are trying to get ready for a photo shoot or a bodybuilding show or something.

Overall, these cravings and increase in your appetite that you are experiencing is completely normal from a physiological standpoint. There’s nothing wrong with you and if you need to take advantage of a calorie reserve during this timeframe, there’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it can be a very healthy and a strategic way to maintain adherence to your adjusted targets, enjoy a few treats and satisfy those cravings versus making them worse by restricting yourself to the point where you want those craved items even more.

Understanding what physiological and hormonal changes are occurring during our cycle is imperative. It allows us to make the necessary adjustments so we can still achieve our health and fitness related goals in an efficient matter. So, take the time to understand the changes your body is going through versus spinning your wheels thinking there is something wrong with you and your body when there isn’t. Stay tuned for part 2 of this blog, where we will be discussing birth control and how it related to our health and fitness related goals.

Hope this was helpful!

Coach Krys