It’s a phenomenon so prevalent it’s practically a punchline: Women get hangry when Aunt Flo comes to town. To be more specific, they stereotypically “tend to crave sugar and chocolate before their period starts,” Melissa Groves Azzaro, RDN (a.k.a. the Hormone Dietitian), a practitioner who specializes in women’s health, tells SELF.
While this trope can take on a sexist tinge, considering many men use it to mock, criticize, or dismiss legitimate female frustration (or even pain), there is definitely some truth to the idea that women can experience changes in appetite in the days leading up to that time of the month. Everybody (and every body) is different, of course, but these appetite changes “affect most women who are having normally controlled cycles,” Azzaro says, referring to those who aren’t on hormonal contraception.
Below, we’ll explore why this shift happens, when you can expect to feel a difference, and what you can do to feel a little bit better—because while the process may be natural, that doesn’t mean it’s fun.
Why you might feel hungrier before your period
You can thank the hormonal fluctuations occurring during the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle, which roughly spans the 12 to 14 days between ovulation (which occurs around day 14 of a typical 28-day cycle) and the start of your next period (which marks the start of a new cycle). “Your body wants to make sure that you have enough energy on board,” as it’s technically using this window to prepare for a potential pregnancy, Azzaro says. Your metabolism revs up, and your caloric needs increase slightly.
During the luteal phase, levels of one particular sex hormone, progesterone, start rising, and levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin start falling, Vincci Tsui, RD, a certified intuitive eating counselor based in Canada, tells SELF—a development that can cause an increase in appetite and food cravings, especially for high-carb foods, as carbs serve as the body’s primary fuel source. People “may notice that they’re eating more calories, period, but also more carbohydrates and sugar specifically,” Azzaro says. One study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1995 found that during the luteal phase, women averaged 303 more calories per day.
Emotional eating may also come into play for some. When you’re not feeling well—bloated, crampy, sluggish, or sad—it can feel instinctive to turn to high-carb comfort foods to lift your mood. Besides, the strong cultural association between menstruation and appetite changes, as referenced in everything from movies to marketing campaigns, may independently spur a desire to seek these foods out, so this tendency can also be “more of a learned behavior rather than a physiological change,” Tsui says.
Women taking hormonal contraceptives might not notice as much of a deviation from their baseline because their hormone levels tend to be steadier throughout the month, according to Azzaro. “[Their hormone levels] are being artificially controlled, versus those natural ebbs and flows that happen with an unmedicated cycle,” she says. For folks with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), on the other hand, “some of those feelings might even be more pronounced,” Tsui says.
When you can expect to see a difference
Generally, pre-period appetite changes and cravings will start seven to 10 days before you start to menstruate, according to Azzaro. Even though the luteal phase as a whole runs a bit longer (around 12 to 14 days, like we said), it takes a bit for progesterone levels to reach their peak, so that 7-to-10-day mark is “when you would expect to be noticing changes driven by that high progesterone,” Azzaro says.
As for when those changes will start to abate? The arrival of the crimson tide. “Once your period starts, the whole cycle resets,” Azzaro says. If the egg released by one of your ovaries during ovulation isn’t fertilized and a pregnancy doesn’t occur, your progesterone levels will drop, taking that increase in appetite with them and triggering menstrual bleeding.
Unfortunately, that appetite increase can be replaced by something worse: tiredness. “I see a lot of fatigue and women just not feeling their best in the first one to three days of their cycle, depending on how impacted they are,” Azzaro says. Thankfully, this lethargy is short-lived: Following day three or so, “most women start to feel like themselves again.”
What you can do to feel better
Even though the root cause of pre-period appetite changes and cravings might be your yo-yoing hormones, other factors can also exert an influence, according to Azzaro. “If your blood sugar is a mess and you’ve got high inflammation and chronic stress, or you’re eating at a calorie deficit—all of those things can make it worse or exacerbate the situation,” she says. Say you’re working crushing hours or you’re emerging from a sugar-laden holiday haze: “You can experience this in a more intense, severe way than you would if you had been more balanced throughout the month.”
By the same token, however, you can take proactive measures ahead of the luteal phase so you’re not completely caught off guard when it hits. “If you don’t plan for it, that’s when you end up eating the whole pint of ice cream or the whole bar of chocolate, so with my clients, we work on a strategy of increasing carbohydrates in a conscious manner before your period,” Azzaro says.
Basically, this “more gentle approach” involves stocking or preparing healthier high-carb options (like oatmeal for breakfast, a quinoa salad for lunch, or a sweet potato as a dinner side) as an alternative to the less-healthy sweets you might choose in a pinch (and that could only make you feel worse down the line). That way, “instead of fighting what’s biologically happening, you’re giving your body what it’s asking for in a way that’s not going to completely destroy your blood sugar or your weight goals,” Azzaro says. And, of course, adhering to standard healthy habits like minimizing alcohol and added sugar and incorporating plenty of anti-inflammatory nutrients into your diet never hurts, regardless of where you’re at in your cycle.
Related:
- What Is ‘Period Steak Theory’—and Will It Actually Help Your Cramps?
- Can You Really ‘Scoop Out’ Your Period?
- Are Cycle-Syncing Workouts Legit? Here’s What the Science Says
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