Fasting for Women - Why Understanding Your Hormones is So Important

Fasting can deliver huge health benefits for women, but it needs to be done in a certain way depending on your life stage - by this, I mean still in your reproductive phase, peri or post-menopause.

Our hormones change throughout our cycle, therefore the inputs (food, fasting, stress, movement, etc) we give it needs to be different. Fasting incorrectly can be detrimental to female health and this is why some women can have a negative experience of fasting.

Why does this matter?

This is why - specifically for pre-menopausal women...

• Day 1 is the start of your period. Our sex hormones are very low on day 1, over the next 10 days our bodies will start to build oestrogen. We are naturally more sensitive to insulin during this time (which is good - it's the opposite of insulin resistance), so glucose should be kept low. Women can tolerate more stress during this initial phase.
• Days 10 - 15. The ovulation phase. Oestrogen has peaked, it's at its highest level throughout your whole cycle. This is the only part of our cycle where Testosterone increases too, as nature wants to increase our libido ready for reproduction. Progesterone also starts to make an appearance, so all 3 of our major sex hormones are doing their thing! Mindy Pelz (author of Fast Like a Girl) calls it our 'Hormonal Superpower Time'. It's the ideal time to power ahead with plans as we are on fire - more motivated, driven, and alert, our brains are sharp and the progesterone adds a calmness. Take advantage of this phase, we can do amazing things!
• Day 16 - 19. Our hormones are now decreasing, they are at their lowest. If you want to fast this is the ideal time.
• Day 20 - 28. The nurture phase, this is our recovery time. Do not fast during the final phase of your cycle, keep stress to a minimum as we don't deal with it well. This is when our bodies naturally become more insulin-resistant. There's a reason for this - we need more glucose in our bloodstream to make progesterone. This is the time to slow right down, the time to nurture ourselves. Be mindful of what you take on during days 20 - 28, what you eat and how you exercise. Prioritise self-care. Be kind to yourself.

We must have an understanding of our hormones, how they influence our health as a woman, and how our external inputs can impact how we think, feel and act.

This is just one of the topics we cover in my brand new 4-week group online programme for women that starts on Monday 23 September, and I'd you to join us.

Find out more right here - https://bit.ly/BETTER_Meno_Info