Do you Gain Weight During Periods?

When you suddenly feel irritable with zits and acne showing up, along with back pain, headache, and unexplained mood swings also bothering you – it’s that time of the month probably. But what can boggle the minds of women who have stuck to their weight loss diet and workout routine consistently, is why their jeans suddenly feels a bit tight around the waist during this time? Please don’t press the panic button yet because health experts say that a woman can gain up to 2.5 kg on her periods. And there are a couple of factors that can push the scales a few notches higher. So, why do you gain weight during periods and is this a cause for concern? Let’s find out:

1. Hormonal fluctuation: At the end of every menstrual cycle, estrogen and progesterone levels drop, and this sudden drop will lead to water retention, thereby increasing water weight, and that increase shows up on the weighing scale as well.
2. Bloating: Don’t we all hate the feeling of walking around like a puffer fish? Bloating is quite common in women who go through their periods and it too can be blamed on the fluctuation of estrogen and progesterone hormones.
3. Increased Cravings For Sodium-Rich Foods and Chocolate: Most women do admit that they have strong cravings for salty foods like potato chips and for calorie-dense treats like chocolate. Cravings for salty food can indicate dehydration, even hormonal changes can do that. Chocolate, on the other, helps alleviate cramps and calm mood swings as well. But such foods also have a tendency to retain fluid.
4. Cravings for Carb-Rich Food: Often, we “overindulge” in carb-rich food and resort to comfort eating during menstruation to reduce symptoms. But here’s what you need to know – for every gram of carb that the body decides to store as energy (in the form of glycogen), it retains 3 to 4 gm of water as well. Once you deplete the glycogen store (burning it off), the weight would drop down.
5. Skipping Workout and Exercise Routine: Women also tend to skip gym and let go of exercise routine while they are on their periods. Experts say exercise stimulates blood circulation and reduces fluid buildup, also helping to burn the glycogen reserves in the liver and skeletal muscles (as we have mentioned above, each gram of glycogen has around 3 to 4 gm of water!)

So, these are some of the common reasons why women tend to put on extra weight during that time of the month, but the good news is that period weight gain is temporary and the weight will go down once the flow stops. Though the weight gain is temporary, you still need to watch what you are eating to avoid and if you want to oodles of weight, the Speed Slim program is the right kind of diet for you. Download the Rati Beauty app for more details.

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