Lost Your Period? Here's how to Restore Balance and Support Fertility (with Lindsey Lusson, MS, RD)

Is your period irregular? Maybe it's been for a few months or possibly for years. Whether you're looking for ways to restore balance in your menstrual cycle, want to understand why this is happening to your body, or are looking to take the next steps to support your fertility journey, this episode has the answers for you.

Join us as we chat with the incredible Lindsey Lusson, a registered dietitian specializing in period recovery and infertility. Lindsey explains what hypothalamic amenorrhea is and why it wreaks havoc on your health. 

We explore why your favorite workout routine might be sabotaging your hormones, how under fueling impacts not just your menstrual cycle and the importance of addressing physical and psychological factors for a full recovery.

Get ready to empower yourself with knowledge and take control of your menstrual health.

TOPICS COVERED 👇
Introduction to Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (00:00)
Hormone Replacement Therapy vs. Birth Control (10:32)
Importance of Menstrual Health (12:32)
Consequences of Hypothalamic Amenorrhea (16:25)
Nutritional Strategies (21:21)
psychological challenges (28:28)
Body Fat and Menstrual Health (32:53)
Menstrual Cycle Phases (37:50)
Nutritional Needs During Menstruation (40:05)
Period Pain (42:55)
Cycle as a Report Card (45:41)

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

"Why Are You Overeating?" Quiz

Follow Lindsey on socials: @Food.Freedom.Fertility

Lindsey's website

Lindsey's Lab Guide

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Transcript

Michelle Yates 00:00:00  Welcome back to Nourished and Free the Podcast. This is a show where I want to help you live nourished and free. And what I mean by that is have a healthy and nourishing relationship with food that sustains you and fuels you, but is free from feeling like you have to stress over food, or think about it constantly, or obsess about your body. And if you don't know me yet, my name is Michelle Yates. I'm a registered dietitian. I have my master's in health psychology. I'm a certified health mindset coach. I love talking about the intersect between biology and psychology, and how our relationships with food are impacted by our mindset and our psychology, and we see that a lot with disordered eating. And today, I actually do want to talk about something that's a little bit outside of my wheelhouse. I want to talk more about hypothalamic amenorrhea, which if you don't know what that is, H.R is basically when you lose your period because of over exercise and under eating and, and stress. And so because this is outside of my wheelhouse, but at the same time, it's something that I feel like is really important to talk about.

Michelle Yates 00:01:03  And just like fertility, nutrition in general and nutrition around your period. I wanted to bring in a special guest. So I've got Lindsay Lesson today. She is a registered dietitian who specializes in disordered eating and infertility. She has both personal and professional experience with H.R. or that period loss from over exercising and under eating. Her experience led her to become passionate about educating and empowering others to advocate for their health and take charge of their fertility through proper nutrition. She's helped hundreds of women recover from H.R. In over 160, get pregnant, and take home healthy babies. And if you know me, you know I love babies. So I'm really excited for you to hear from her today and hear more from her lens, as she's much more specialized in the topic of hormones and fertility, nutrition and hey, of course, now if you're sitting there and you're thinking, well, I struggle with overeating. I don't struggle with under eating or over exercise. Be sure you check out my resources in the show notes. I've got a quiz that is free.

Michelle Yates 00:02:05  Totally free. Takes two minutes and it's all about learning why you're overeating. So be sure you check out that quiz in the show notes. And if you have a suggestion for a future podcast episode or you just want to leave some feedback, you can send me a message. There's a little link at the top of the show notes as well, to send me a text and let me know what's on your mind. Just know that I actually am not able to respond to that, like there's no way for me to respond to them. So it's purely just for you to give me feedback. I won't be able to respond. But yes, if you love this episode, please let me know by leaving a rating and review. And and don't forget to follow the show as well so you never miss an episode. All right, welcome to the show, Lindsay. I'm so glad you're here.

Lindsey Lusson 00:02:43  I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for having me today.

Michelle Yates 00:02:45  Yes, thanks for giving the gift of your time today.

Michelle Yates 00:02:48  That is a very serious gift that I don't take lightly. So thank you. Okay. So really excited to have you on the show, because we do talk a lot. Or I get questions a lot about fertility and, you know, what's happening around our period biologically, nutrition wise, all of that. And I know your specialty in particular is about or is more focused on hypothalamic amenorrhea, which I think is awesome that you're digging into that. Like, you don't see that very often, you know, that people like, really specialize in that. And it's an issue that I've definitely seen a lot in my work as a dietitian. So let's start off because I know I was on your show last week, which was super fun to get to know you there. And we talked about the similarities that we share in our own stories, with our own relationships, with food and everything. But for anybody who doesn't know you yet, hasn't heard your story yet, I love for you to share what your personal journey has been like with your relationship with food.

Lindsey Lusson 00:03:46  Yeah, so I got really into fitness and nutrition when I was like 17, 1718, kind of like last couple of years of high school, which was a great and not so great segue into me, you know, studying nutrition and college and becoming a registered dietitian. So pretty much all throughout my schooling, I was very interested in nutrition and lived kind of behind this persona of being the healthy person. She's always at the gym. She really takes care of herself. She's really disciplined with food. And as I was going through our dietetic curriculum, there was a lot of things. It was good and bad. There was a lot of things that reinforced a lot of restrictive habits that I had, saying that these are good and healthy, and it opened up my mind to how important nutrition was for the body to function optimally. Unfortunately for me, this obsession with exercise and healthy eating like not so slowly spiraled into an eating disorder. But I was always in a, I was never underweight, So I was really able to kind of fly under the radar for almost a decade, struggling with an eating disorder and psychologically maybe knowing that in the back of my mind.

Lindsey Lusson 00:05:03  But as eating disorders can be very convincing. I always thought I kind of had it under control until I didn't. So fast forward to the end of grad school. my mom basically forced me to go get like a very thorough health assessment with an outpatient eating disorder clinic, and I obliged basically to hopefully shut her up. and it was through that that, for whatever reason, my eyes really started to be open to the how unnormal some of my thoughts and behaviors were with food. And so I did an outpatient program for about a year, mostly recovered from an eating disorder. Got to I definitely more stable place. but still didn't have my period. And I guess I should backtrack. I lost my period around that fitness journey 17 18 years old. It was a mystery to every healthcare professional I saw. I saw reproductive endocrinologist. I saw OB GYNs, I saw, pretty much everything shy of functional medicine doctors and naturopaths because those weren't really a thing back in the early 2000. And nobody knew what to do with me.

Lindsey Lusson 00:06:08  Everybody, nobody.

Michelle Yates 00:06:09  Like, checked on, like, your nutrition status or like.

Lindsey Lusson 00:06:13  No, there were zero questions asked about my nutrition. and on the other side of this, now, I do know two things. I do know that healthcare professionals across the board don't know how to screen for eating disorders. So again, what they're seeing is this disciplined athlete who has a low but normal BMI and pretty normal bloodwork, which is so common with ha. she's just not getting her period. And so the solution from a medical perspective solution air quotes. If you're not watching this video, the solution was to put me on the birth control pill. Well, fast forward 10 to 15 years. We know that the birth control pill doesn't do anything. It's actually depleting your body of more nutrients. It's not protecting against the rapid bone loss that occurs when somebody isn't having their cycle at all. And it's giving people a false reassurance. In my situation where they weren't getting a period, it's giving them a false reassurance that, hey, you're getting your period, you're totally fine.

Lindsey Lusson 00:07:09  Continue to exercise for two hours per day, continue to restrict your food. and so that was my experience with it and the whole issue of the missing cycle for me, and a lot of the women that I work with is very much swept under the rug until someone's ready to have a baby. And then when you have a baby, the next solution is to start fertility treatment. And because most people who aren't getting their period, their hormone levels are all tanked out, it's not this like simple solution of, oh, well, let's just give them, you know, a pill to make them ovulate, or let's just do some low level fertility interventions, like you're basically thrown into IVF. And again, the whole problem is typically not addressed medically.

Michelle Yates 00:07:48  Yeah, so many interesting things there. Like just the sweeping under the rug. I actually for I lost my period too when I was I never had a normal period actually at any point. I do have PCOS, so I think that that was a part of why that got missed like that Undernourishment piece got missed.

Michelle Yates 00:08:07  But I, in the same way as you, was never like severely underweight because I'm so short. It just like never flagged anything for anybody that, oh, I've lost a bunch of weight, but I'm still so short. So I'm quote unquote healthy. Yeah, because I'm still in that BMI range, you know, and anyway. But I like wasn't having a period and I did I mean, I do have PCOS, so I think that was like a part of it too. But I'm also like looking back, I'm like, I know I was not eating enough and I was exercising like, that's a part of it too. I was just not nourishing myself enough. But of course, nobody really like checks on that. Yeah. Yeah. They don't. They don't ask.

Lindsey Lusson 00:08:47  Yeah. Exactly. So I mean there's definitely the lack of proper screening for eating disorders or disordered eating. and then of course, like the weight stigma of how could this person possibly have anorexia if her BMI is, you know, 20.

Michelle Yates 00:09:01  right, right.

Lindsey Lusson 00:09:02  And again, and I kind of already hinted at this, but just the way that I think, like the medical mind works and how most doctors are trained is, is kind of like this flowchart of okay person, you know, do they have x, y or Z? Okay. You know, what's the answer to that question? Here's where we go to where the end of the flowchart, medically speaking, in a traditional medicine setting is does this person want to get pregnant? No. Let's put them on the pill. Do they want to get pregnant? Yes. Let's send them to a referral to a fertility clinic. Sometimes people use hormone replacement therapy, which is a better bridge. and we can get more into this too. But like, when you aren't getting your period and your estrogen levels are low. One of the major benefits of estrogen, among other things, is protection of bone mass. So you're actually losing bone at a pretty rapid rate, and you're not able to build bone like you would if you were cycling regularly.

Lindsey Lusson 00:09:55  This is one of the reasons we see the biggest risk increase for post-menopausal women is because they aren't having a cycle. Well, if you're 20 and not having your cycle, you can very easily end up with the bones of a 67 year old. So originally it was thought, hey, let's give them some synthetic estrogens through birth control to fix this. Now we know that that actually doesn't really make a dent. And in bone loss when somebody isn't getting their period at all. So some practitioners will recommend hormone replacement therapy, which actually can be effective for slowing some of the bone loss. But kind of the gold gold standard is getting your cycle back. but most doctors aren't going to tell you who would you do that or how to do that.

Michelle Yates 00:10:32  So how does that how does hormone replacement therapy differ from being put on the pill?

Lindsey Lusson 00:10:37  So with hormone replacement therapy you're taking bioidentical hormones. hormone. So it's the actual hormone that should and could be made by your body. With most oral contraceptive pills, it is a synthetic form of the hormone.

Lindsey Lusson 00:10:50  And that doesn't do the same things. Which is why. And this is not for everybody, right? Because some people go on birth control, for a variety of issues with their period or their hormones or what have you, and feel amazing, like it can be a game changer for some people. and some people are on the pill to prevent pregnancy, and it's really good at that. Right? But this is another reason why some women will feel like crap on synthetic hormones from oral contraceptives and feel very different than they do when they have their body's natural flow of hormones. Yeah.

Michelle Yates 00:11:23  That's interesting. I've always wondered what the difference was with that, so thank you for explaining that. This isn't my wheelhouse. So like hormones I don't know. No, it's not my thing. So also just this whole like concept of come back when you want to get pregnant. I feel like it's so common. I know that's for sure how I was treated when I got my PCOS diagnosis. They put me on the pill.

Michelle Yates 00:11:44  They said, well, it doesn't matter because you don't want to get pregnant right now because you're 19 and you're not married, blah, blah blah. But yeah, like even at that point I was like, well, why does it have to be then that we start to consider what my body is doing on its own? Like, why do we have to put me on the pill anyway? I just like even at that point I was like, this doesn't really make sense. And I went on the pill for two weeks, got my period when I wasn't supposed to, and I threw them out. I was like, nope, this is stupid. I wasn't supposed to get my period right now. I got it anyway. I don't want to do this. So talk us through with hypothalamic amenorrhea or hey, how does this happen? I know we've alluded to not eating enough over exercising. What's kind of like biologically the chain of events there into why we lose our periods.

Lindsey Lusson 00:12:32  So ha kind of has three main contributing stress under fueling and under eating or sorry stress over exercise and under eating under fueling.

Lindsey Lusson 00:12:43  I like to use the word actually under fueling more than under eating, because a lot of women who lose their period with Ha are probably not going to self-identify with the idea that they're eating, that they're under eating, because they might be eating a normal amount of calories. But compared to their expenditure through exercise, it like the math is math. the other thing that can play into period loss is significant weight loss. So if somebody is losing ten or more pounds, especially over a short period of time, just kind of genetically dropping below where your body likes to hang out or be can put somebody into. Ha. underlying kind of more root cause would be the actual under fueling. But just kind of that rapid change in weight can be kind of a red flag or a risk factor. the other thing is genetics. So we all know people who might have really unhealthy habits with food, really underweight, exercise too much and don't lose their period. So if you are genetically more sensitive to this like you, this podcast will probably resonate a lot with you.

Lindsey Lusson 00:13:48  If this isn't your problem, this isn't your problem. But hypothetically, any person at any body size could lose their period due to H.R under the right circumstances, right or wrong circumstances.

Michelle Yates 00:13:59  That was going to be my next question. Like is there situations where like calorically, there's enough energy intake but nutrient composition, like maybe we're missing certain amounts, like, how does that kind of play in or I don't know, maybe it just just comes down to calories in balance with the calories out. You know, it's definitely.

Lindsey Lusson 00:14:18  More complicated than calories and calories out. yeah. Because there will be people who might be eating enough within a 24 hour period to maintain their weight, but it's not enough energy for their body to function optimally. So when somebody is losing their period, I know that like that's a pretty big red flag, right? Like if you're not getting your period, you're not getting your period. And unless you're on and you would know that unless you were on birth control and kind of getting that false, that false bleed.

Lindsey Lusson 00:14:43  But I feel like that's a pretty big red flag. What people often fail to recognize is when they're under fueling, a lot of body systems are suffering. So we see a lot of GI issues. People aren't able to have regular bowel movements. There's a lot of bloating and constipation. their thyroid hormones are really slowed. So they might be experiencing and this would be typically more if you ran like a full thyroid panel. but kind of low energy, hair loss, like just like some very obvious signs of clinical malnourishment. Not always though. and it's really interesting just with disordered eating and eating disorders in general, is the way that the body kind of starts to break down or slow down or shut down when it's not getting enough. Nutrition happens differently for different people, so I might lose my period. Michelle, you might have yours, but you might notice that you are tired all the time. You've got a slew of gut and digestive issues, right? I may not have those things. So everybody's body kind of reacts differently to, you know, just that undernourishment.

Lindsey Lusson 00:15:43  And that's why some people lose their parents and people don't.

Michelle Yates 00:15:45  Yeah. I think it's tempting to be like, well, I'm not getting my period. This is so convenient. Like, that's so nice, because obviously getting your period is not the most fun thing in the world. but walk us through, like, well, you did talk to the bone loss risk, but why should we? Why should we worry? I guess, if we're not getting our period? I mean, it sounds like even if you don't necessarily notice other symptoms, if your period is gone, then there's evidence right there that hormones are not functioning properly. Yeah. Can you speak more to that. And I guess the risks behind not getting your period enough or at all.

Lindsey Lusson 00:16:25  Yeah. So the bone risk is huge. I think that's the one that's most universally recognized by most health care practitioners. the one that's a little bit more up and coming. But if we look at data from the Nurses Health study, which was a study done in over 82,000 women, there was some pretty clear correlations drawn between women who had missing or irregular cycles and an increased risk for cardiovascular disease.

Lindsey Lusson 00:16:46  So that's again, women's health is very much understudied, and there's probably more to come there. But it is something to consider when your body is in a low estrogen state. A lot of those risk factors that come for post-menopausal women, such as increased risk for heart disease, elevated cholesterol, elevated blood pressure, those can be things that women in their 20s and 30s are experiencing. If they are in that low estrogen state, not having a period, not cycling regularly. The other thing is mental health. So women who are experiencing amenorrhea or no period at all are at a higher risk for anxiety and depression. They're scoring pretty high on just this mental health assessments and more likely to develop anxiety, depression and mood disorders. The other thing, too, is that estrogen actually has a neuroprotective effect on our brains. so women who aren't having their period are also at risk for early onset dementia and Alzheimer's. So I know that like somebody who's, you know, 22 listening to this podcast is probably like, okay, okay, okay.

Lindsey Lusson 00:17:51  Like, you know, bones, all right. You know, heart like all these things are coming in the future. yeah. I mean, I've seen people in their early 30s who have osteopenia and osteoporosis, osteoporosis to the point where, like, they're not able to breastfeed because it's putting them at too big of a risk for, you know, basically breaking a bone. I've worked with marathon runners who have major stress fractures because their bones are so weak. and so I know that at least for me in my 20s. To your point, Michelle, it can almost feel like an ignorance is bliss issue, but, like, you don't really know what's lurking, you know, internally in your body until you get those things checked out and then the final, you know, kind of health risk of not having a period is fertility. And I already touched upon that, that, you know, if you are having your period, you aren't ovulating. If you aren't ovulating, you can't get pregnant. and fertility interventions can kind of be hit or miss.

Lindsey Lusson 00:18:44  And most often you're jumping to the highest level, $30,000 for one cycle of IVF.

Michelle Yates 00:18:50  oh. That just makes me want to cry.

Lindsey Lusson 00:18:53  That's it's a bleak outlook. And I think that, like, one of the most frustrating things for me to kind of come full circle to your original question of like, how did you get into all of this work for me? You know, I'm I'm 31, I'm ready to start my family and I like going to my OBGYN. I'm like, okay, I've been on birth control for nine months. I don't have my period. No one's surprised we knew this was going on. and I'm like, cool. So she's just going to write me a prescription for Clomid and we're going to go on our merry little way and we're fixed. And she was real honest and was like, hey, I don't think that this is going to work for you. This doesn't typically work for women who don't have a cycle at all. There's no communication between your brain and your ovaries.

Lindsey Lusson 00:19:28  I'm probably going to write you a referral to a fertility clinic, and most likely we're going to have to start with injectable amounts potentially moving up the ladder to IVF. And that's when I think that I got kind of serious, because I kind of started to learn and understand. I was always looking for a name for what was going on with me, and I kept coming across information in grad school about the female athlete triad. And I'm like, that sounds a lot like me. But like, you can ask my past Division one athlete husband. I am by no means an athlete. So I was like, this can't be me. Because like, I don't play a sport.

Michelle Yates 00:20:01  I just like to work out.

Lindsey Lusson 00:20:03  Yeah, yeah. and so when I finally heard the term hypothalamic amenorrhea was about a year before, you know, my husband and I were wanting to start a family. So after that visit with my ob gyn is when I really started getting serious about, okay, like, can I get my period back? Is this really the whole reason, and would doing this give me a shot at getting pregnant? Naturally it did work.

Lindsey Lusson 00:20:26  I've had three natural pregnancies, less blessings since then. And after that experience, I was kind of I kind of started to just share that with people on social media. I knew that I wanted to do something with women's health and helping women heal their relationship with food. And the more that I talked about my personal story, the more that I realized that, like, this isn't that uncommon. And there's a huge gap in women feeling known and understood, getting properly diagnosed, and an even bigger gap, and women being able to actually, recover and get to the other side of their fertility journey. So, yeah, do what I do.

Michelle Yates 00:21:02  Yeah. We brought up the triad. I did like some undergraduate research with that when I was in school, and we noticed, like even among the athletes, it was something that in the dietitian like heading the research project like this was kind of the whole reason she did it in the first place. It's something that's just not talked about Among athletes and coaches and all of that.

Michelle Yates 00:21:21  But then, like the other side of the coin of that is to your point, is what about the non-athletes who are excessively exercising? You don't need to be playing a sport to be using a lot of energy through movement, you know? And yeah, I think it's just it's something that isn't a people aren't aware of it. There's no screening for it. Like it's it's a shame. It's a shame. So what are some things that women can focus on if they've lost their period because we've already established like, hey, this is important. We should get our periods regularly. If you're not on the pill, then let's try and get that back naturally for a lot of reasons mental health, bone health, cardiac, risk, all of that. What are some things that we can focus on when it comes to nutrition for restoring a lost or irregular cycle.

Lindsey Lusson 00:22:18  So nutrient timing is huge. I see a lot of women, whether they're getting their period or not, under fueling during the day. I think we talked about this last week, Michel, but the idea of like, I'm going to be good all day long.

Lindsey Lusson 00:22:31  Yeah. so I'm going to have, you know, a protein shake for breakfast, the salad with the dressing on the side for lunch, and then by then it's already 4:00, so I might as well just push off until dinner, and then you get home and maybe you're bingeing, right? Well, maybe calorically you're eating enough because you're maintaining your weight. But if you think about it realistically, you woke up, you went to work, you might have walked to work, you might have, you know, done a little walk or a lunch workout or something like that. You've gone through almost a full day of eating, I don't know, like 500 to 700 calories, but your body has expended a lot. So we see this in the clients that we work with, even who do have their cycle, but or maybe having difficulty ovulating or their or their, cycles are really irregular is we want to first make sure that the energy is available all day long. So making sure that you are actually eating breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Lindsey Lusson 00:23:26  And if you're an active woman having snacks in between. I also like to emphasize balance at meals, and making sure that there are actually carbohydrates, fat, and protein at the meals to make sure that, you know, again, the salad with the dressing on the side, like you're like, there's no protein. There's probably if you're doing a low fat dressing, there's not there's not any fat. so nutrient adequacy, nutrient timing really matter. And, you know, just also to managing other areas of your lifestyle that can play into hormone balances. Sleep is really huge for people. I know that there's a lot of women that we work with that are very career oriented, very hustle culture. Go go go go go. And they might be running on five hours of sleep, exercising at 5 a.m. and skimping by on the bare minimum. And that that's right there. What I just described as kind of a recipe for disaster for your homes.

Michelle Yates 00:24:17  Yeah. Yeah. That whole culture it'll get you. Yeah.

Michelle Yates 00:24:22  The the composition to like I think there's still a lot of leftover fear around carbohydrates and fats from well carbohydrates is still like a current fear. But I think that with dietary fats that's more left over from the 90s and the low fat craze 80s and 90s, but it's still there. Like people still feel like they shouldn't be having dietary fats. And it's like, man, those are so important for your hormones and for cholesterol and all that. Like it's essential. And we're just like, nah, I don't need it. I'll just have the protein shake.

Lindsey Lusson 00:24:57  I usually see that more in like my very like fitness conscious clients or people who are doing macros and things like that. Because if you've ever counted macros, you'll learn very quickly that fat carries a higher amount. Like you, you know, if you're budgeting, if you will. It's an expensive macro. So usually in my clients that are doing bodybuilding or have done bodybuilding or just have come from a macro accounting background, that's usually more where I see fat restricted in almost.

Lindsey Lusson 00:25:23  I mean, I think I can say this pretty confidently, and 100% of the clients that I work with for fertility issues and missing a regular periods and active women, no one is eating enough carbohydrates. And you're right, we're still in the thick of everyone fearing carbohydrates. But fun fact when your body is low on carbohydrate availability, your body will mimic low energy availability. So even if calories are adequate and your, you know, eating less than 100g of carbs per day, or you're only allowing yourself carbs once per day, especially if you have a high expenditure, your body and your hormones will reflect low energy availability. Hypothalamic embryo.

Michelle Yates 00:26:02  That's so interesting. Even if you've got enough calories from.

Lindsey Lusson 00:26:05  Right. And we don't even work with clients that will we'll do food log reviews with. And I'll be like, well, you know, technically the calories are there. However, first of all, your hormone levels are completely tanked out, so let's fix that. And typically and the missing ingredient for a lot of people is getting their carbon take up, which also raises, you know, their energy intake.

Lindsey Lusson 00:26:23  But again carbs are important. Like we can't just, you know, eat, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of calories of protein and fat and expect to have healthy hormones like our body truly does need all three.

Michelle Yates 00:26:33  Yeah, yeah. It's like that, that, debate about like, well, carbs aren't essential. Well, yeah. Your body can create glucose when it has to, but that doesn't mean it's ideal. And that doesn't mean you're going to function optimally and everything's going to be working well, like your hormones and fertility and everything. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

Lindsey Lusson 00:26:55  Yeah, exactly. And I think like people that are pushing that agenda are also people who are probably trying to sell people into body recomposition, weight loss, that type of things. And like, yeah, sure. Like that works. Air quotes for a finite amount of time on achieving that specific goal. But it's also like at what cost? Hormonally, mentally, physiologically. And I think I believe we're going to start seeing a shift and not over the next decade, the shift away from low carb and all of that.

Michelle Yates 00:27:25  Hopefully we'll see. I don't know, I don't have a lot of faith in mankind when it comes to nutrition advice. Well, I'm.

Lindsey Lusson 00:27:33  Sure that it will be replaced with another fad, but I think the longer but like, I don't know how many people like listening to this podcast or and they're, you know, 30s or 40s. But like the longer that you live, the more that you'll see diet trends kind of circle back around. And the more I think that it becomes evidence that like, okay, like people are pushing an agenda and a product here and it's probably not in your best interest 100%.

Michelle Yates 00:27:58  The most boring nutrition advice is usually the best because it's stood the test of time. Yeah. so for somebody that doesn't have regular periods or regular cycles, but they're like, I don't want to get pregnant yet, but I will in the future. What would you say to them about working on their fertility now and getting that cycle restored now, versus waiting until it's quote unquote go time?

Lindsey Lusson 00:28:28  I would say that it will probably never feel like the right time to get your period back.

Lindsey Lusson 00:28:33  getting your period back does require eating more, and it does require lowering your exercise intensity and duration. And for most people, it does require putting on some necessary body fat. And that sucks. Like, people hate to hear that. And I hate to be the bearer of the bad news. But really and truly, guys, if there was a way to do this without having to gain weight, I would know about it and I would be screaming it from the rooftops. But it's part of the process. So understand that whether you're 23 or 33, you're probably never going to have this day where you wake up and you're like, it's the today's the day. Like, I'm so ready to embrace all of these uncomfortable changes. So what I would say to somebody who wants to put it off or doesn't think that it's important right now, is that psychologically it gets a lot harder. We know that early intervention is key for healing from disordered eating and eating disorders, and the longer that they go on, the harder it is to fully recover from them, which means you might have a harder time getting pregnant and being able to get your period back.

Lindsey Lusson 00:29:35  Not physiologically, because the body is actually pretty dang resilient. But psychologically, it might be harder for you to truly overcome that because you're just going to be stuck in your ways a little bit more. You're going to become more functional in your disordered habits with food and exercise, and those neural pathways that you've been believing for, you know, ten years about the way that your body needs to look or certain, you know, kind of things about food. those neural pathways are just very, very well established, so it's harder to undo them and create new ones. Not impossible, but harder.

Michelle Yates 00:30:12  Absolutely. Yeah. It's. Yeah, that's what I say a lot too, when it comes to, like, struggling with bingeing, emotional eating, yo yo dieting and body image issues, it's like, man, the longer this goes on, you might not have any. Like you might not feel like it's urgent. Urgent right now. And at some point it may be. But do you really want to wait until then? Because it is going to be so much harder, like the longer you wait, this is so much harder because it becomes more and more part of a part of you, you know, and like really embedded and deeply ingrained in your brain.

Michelle Yates 00:30:44  And it's an automatic response, you know, to think that way, feel that way, behave that way. And, and that's not necessarily supportive of your long term goals. and then it also it sounds like too, there's a lot of health risks too, that can come along with Forgoing addressing a hormonal imbalance like this when you have that symptom of irregular or missing cycles. So yeah, get those parents back, ladies, if you can. I know it's inconvenient, but the.

Lindsey Lusson 00:31:15  Only other thing that I would add to, and I think that this, you know, fits well to with struggling with any sort of, food or eating disorder is, you know, another reason to not delay or put it off is you might feel like you are living the life and you've got everything that you want right now. I think if you really think about it, you probably don't. And this is hard because you won't really fully realize the real life this until you have healed your relationship with food. But you are losing time and energy, and there are so many things that are being robbed from you by struggling with an eating disorder.

Lindsey Lusson 00:31:53  There is so much life that you're missing out on. There is so much mental space that's being occupied by food and exercise on your body that really and truly doesn't have to, and you don't have to stay stuck. And again, that I think that that one's a little bit hard because that's almost more of like a oh my gosh, I didn't realize how much this was ruling my life. Like, it's hard to recognize what you're missing out on when you're in it. Yeah.

Michelle Yates 00:32:17  100%. Once you get it back, it's like, whoa, that was a lot that I was missing out on and I didn't really like. Until you have that contrast, you don't really realize how bad it is. Yeah. Something I wanted to, to circle back to was this idea of maybe needing to to put on body fat in order to restore regular cycles and more of just an observation that I have about that is just this idea that we always have that less body fat is better, and there's no you can't go wrong by losing more body, you know, like there's no harm ever if you continue.

Michelle Yates 00:32:53  And it's just interesting because it's like here we have evidence that yes, your body literally like one of your systems will start to shut down if there's not enough body fat. And then it continues like it does cascade from there. And it seems like the reproductive system is usually kind of like the first to go. Right, because it's not essential for your life necessarily. But yeah, like what a what a testament that was actually really healing for me to realize at one point was if my body is giving me this feedback that I don't have enough body fat, then why aren't I listening to that and taking care of my health like that might be misaligned with what my ideal body is, but what am I basing that off of, right? The celebrity is like what other people are saying. I'm getting this feedback biologically from this body that has been so intelligently designed that it doesn't have enough body fat. So I should listen to that, you know? But that's so scary. Yeah. To to have those different, kind of conflicting pieces of information where you have a desire, but then you have this also reality of, well, health wise.

Michelle Yates 00:34:06  I have to do something I don't actually want to do. Yeah. And that's never fun 100%.

Lindsey Lusson 00:34:12  And I think that when somebody finds themselves in that scenario of, I logically recognized that my body would be healthier at a higher weight with more body fat. But I don't want to do that or I'm scared to do that. I think that that's an important time to start examining your input and your surroundings. Like, yeah, if you're following a ton of people on Instagram who you know are all a size two and have, you know, very low body fat percentage or following a lot of fitness influencers and, you know, style bloggers and stuff like that, like, yeah, like, if that's all you're saying, you probably think that that is exactly what you need to be to have the life. But if you can shut off of social media or diversify your feed to see people who have different body types live different lives, even like people like different skin colors, like if you can actually open your eyes to the world, you will see that there are people living in all different types of bodies having an awesome time and that, you know, I think that when you're feeling really stuck in that, it's a really important time to start, like thinking about other things.

Lindsey Lusson 00:35:20  Because what I notice in a lot of the clients that I'm working with, with restrictive eating disorders, is there's a ton of comparison, but she's smaller than me, but she runs marathons and she just had a baby. First of all, you don't know anyone's story. You don't know. You really don't know any one story. Even whenever you know they're acting like they're being open and sharing their story, they may not be sharing the nitty gritty details. I know I yeah, they're still.

Michelle Yates 00:35:41  Selecting what to.

Lindsey Lusson 00:35:42  Share. Yeah, exactly. So you never know anyone's stories, but also to what I've noticed about my clients that struggle with restrictive eating disorders is they just have this tiny, tiny little filter with, with, with, with how they view the world. They're only comparing themselves to women and then or thinner than them, rather than being like, hey, there is all of these really beautiful women in medium to larger sized bodies that, like, are living full lives. And I feel like that's just the society that we live in.

Lindsey Lusson 00:36:09  We just marginalize people in larger bodies and act like they live this like awful, depressive, unhealthy lifestyle. And that is just not true for a lot of individuals.

Michelle Yates 00:36:20  Yeah, absolutely. It's it's tough to to get outside of that point of view. And I think like we just get so used to looking outside at other people, we forget to look inside at ourselves and how we're feeling and, and even just physically how we're feeling. Like if you're not getting regular cycles and you have all these other things coming along and too, like gut issues or a low energy or whatever it is, we can miss that feedback from our body when we're just so focused on what's going on out here and on our screens and in that person's life, that you just forget to examine your own and think about how you're doing as an individual. It's yeah, it's a hard, hard mindset to get out of, but it's so important and it can be so transformative and then help you become healthy, you know, or healthier, I should say.

Michelle Yates 00:37:11  Okay, so I've got a couple of questions for you on the topic of just like menstruation and and nutrition in general like that, I get questions like this all the time. When I do like a question box on my story or something, it'll be like, how do my period or how do my nutrition needs change during my period or whatever? And I'm like, this is not my specialty. So I'll ask Lindsay. So first thing, we were talking about this before we started recording is like appetite changes around pregnancy. I have a little bit of knowledge on this, but like I said, is not my specialty. So I want you to share, like what you know about the changes in our appetite that we can experience around menstruation demonstration when we are having a successful cycle.

Lindsey Lusson 00:37:50  Yes. So in your follicular phase. So that is the first half of your cycle before you ovulate. Hormone levels are typically kind of in a lower range. This is typically if you're an active woman. This is probably the time when you feel a little bit more motivated in the gym.

Lindsey Lusson 00:38:04  You're going to be more likely to push yourself. and you're kind of, you know, feeling good in your cycle as we gear up to ovulate and make a baby, there's a major shift in hormones. We see pretty much all of our major players in the hormone cycle FSH, LH, estrogen are all surging at the same time. That's a biological event that has to happen for ovulation to occur. And when this happens, people can kind of go a couple of different ways. Some people can still feel really good. some people will start to notice, ovulation symptoms. A lot of people will bloat around the time of ovulation, have an increase in sex drive, like all the things are happening. Right? And then after we ovulate, we have a rise in the hormone progesterone When there's a rise in progesterone. We also have an increase in our basal metabolic rate due to the increase in body temperature. So if anybody tracks their cycle or they've ever done like a wearable or use a thermometer, you will see about a half a degree shift between your follicular phase before you ovulate in your luteal phase, the phase after you ovulate, and with that increase in temperature is an increase in your metabolism, which will also increase in your appetite.

Lindsey Lusson 00:39:10  So some women report feeling hungrier in their luteal phase. a lot of women. I think that this makes sense if you just think about yourself. Most people are talking about feeling hungrier right before their period starts or when they're on their period. And many times there's those kind of rapid shifts in hormones. It can definitely impact our appetite. But the body actually does burn, on average, about 300 calories more in your luteal phase versus your follicular phase. So there is like an actual biological need for more energy in the luteal phase due to the increase in metabolism. And if you think about it, makes sense to the whole point of having a period is preparing your body to make a baby. So the body in the luteal phase is kind of in this slower, you know, you might be feeling more tired. You might be feeling more bloated, you might be a little bit, you know, kind of less motivated to get out there to go to the gym and you might be hungrier. And again, if you think about that from a biological perspective, your body's kind of preparing to make a baby.

Lindsey Lusson 00:40:02  And so it would be asking for an increase in energy and food.

Michelle Yates 00:40:05  It's so interesting. Like we we constantly second guess hunger and are like, why am I hungry? Like, why do I feel so hungry? This is just like my body trying to sabotage me and make me get bigger. And I don't want to get bigger because that's scary. But it's like, no, there's usually a reason. Like usually we can boil it down to some sort of biological need. When we look at all of these different things going on in your life, maybe you walked a lot yesterday. Maybe you're getting sick, like, or you're gearing up to do something that's kind of miraculous with your body, even though it happens, like in the background for you, and you're not actively like thinking about, okay, now I have to, like, shift my hormone into this. But like, you're not thinking about it, but your body is working really hard. And that's so. I hadn't heard that until today.

Michelle Yates 00:40:48  Until you said that about the 300 calories on average. Obviously everybody will have a difference there. But it's it's very interesting that that correlates with an increase in energy use, like wow, shocker, right. There was a reason that we were feeling more hungry. You know, we use more energy. It's just it's fascinating. Are there any other like nutrient shifts that you think are helpful to make like an iron because you're losing blood or something like that, like things that so during that time.

Lindsey Lusson 00:41:17  So the iron thing is really going to depend upon how much you're bleeding. So in a, in a, in a healthy or a normal menstrual cycle, you know, bleeding of anywhere between 3 and 5, up to 6 or 7 days can be normal for each individual. You know, what I always encourage people to do is just to pay attention to their patterns, right? So like if you go from like a, you know, 4 to 5 day bleed to bleeding seven days like go. And it's consistent, right.

Lindsey Lusson 00:41:45  Like go talk to your doctor about that. same thing with the other way. Right. If your periods are, you know, like clockwork, five days and now all of a sudden they're coming every 45, every 60 days and you're bleeding goes from like five days to three days. Talk to your doctor about it. Examine your energy expenditure and your intake. You know, so if somebody is having heavy bleeding, iron can start to become a concern. But in my field of work, rather than just being like, oh, take an iron supplement, I would be like, okay, well, why are you having heavy periods? And especially if there's pain, pain is never normal. so and I hate I don't hate this topic. I hate the I hear, I hate the stories I hear around this topic of heavy, painful periods because there are so many women who are just dismissed and made to think that that is normal and that is not normal. So if that is your experience, make sure that you're getting second opinions and working with practitioners who will actually listen to you, because there are things that you can do to, make that time of the month not so unpleasant.

Michelle Yates 00:42:46  Like beyond. Are you saying that, like, even just cramping is, like, abnormal or is that normal? It's just when it's like, continuing to be painful. So what I.

Lindsey Lusson 00:42:55  Always tell people is like taking a Tylenol or an Advil or something like that for a day or two during your period can be normal, but you should not feel like you're having to take the max dose of Tylenol every single month to alleviate or get through the pain that you're feeling every single time.

Michelle Yates 00:43:14  Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is interesting because I mean, usually it's just like, well, this is just how I am. Yeah, exactly.

Lindsey Lusson 00:43:23  This is just. Yeah, periods aren't supposed to be, you know, fun and like. Yeah. I mean, hear me when I say that there's a difference between like, you know, you don't have to love your period, but pain or normal. and, you know, unfortunately, I think women have just been I think the birth control pill has been overprescribed.

Lindsey Lusson 00:43:41  And in certain situations, sometimes the pill is the right decision for managing whatever symptoms you're experiencing. but if you don't want to go that route, you know, I feel like every woman deserves, information and support to really balance their hormones versus just kind of putting a Band-Aid on it.

Michelle Yates 00:43:59  Yeah. Yeah. This conversation is, is bringing, I think, light to how important it is to be aware of what's going on with your body. And even just like the simple act of tracking your cycle to get some basic data of how long your period normally last or how heavy it normally. That way you can see when there is a change, because it sounds like, from what you're saying, Lindsay, that even if there's a like, you don't need to lose your period completely in order to notice that something's changing and to maybe do something about it and, and bring that up with your practitioner, who hopefully will be able to handle that Conversation.

Lindsey Lusson 00:44:35  And it's interesting, right? Because you think when you go to like your, your gynecologist, that they're going to be very well versed in cycle tracking and things like that, and sometimes they're not.

Lindsey Lusson 00:44:46  And that's where, you know, like a, fertility awareness method educator or like, I don't even know what it stands for, but film educators, there are some people out there who who really do know a lot about cycle tracking. I'll drop a resource that I really like. the, Oh my gosh, why am I completely blanking on the name of the book? Lisa Hendrickson Jack is the author of the book. the fifth vital sign is the book, world of information about your cycle, about birth control, about your hormones. and, you know, if somebody is on hormonal birth control and just is a little bit curious about how their natural cycle of hormones works, like it could be worth coming off the pill for a finite amount of time. Just check in with yourself and then if you feel it's right to go back on the pill, that's totally fine. Make sure you're using backup forms and birth control. If you come off the pill and you do not desire pregnancy. little disclaimer sometimes.

Lindsey Lusson 00:45:41  but yeah, there's a lot there's a lot of cool things that you can learn. I like to think about your cycle as a monthly report card. So, you know, I think even people, you know, healing from an eating disorder, especially, you know, binge eating disorder and getting your body just kind of better nutrition and back into balance. If you've struggled with period issues in the past, you might be pleasantly surprised at how some of these things take care of themselves when you're actually taking care of your body.

Michelle Yates 00:46:08  Yeah, yeah, it's it's something that you don't really think about. And then you start to notice it and it's like, oh wow. My, my cycles are like regular and they're not as horrible. And it's like a fun little side effect when you start taking care of yourself.

Lindsey Lusson 00:46:21  And then sometimes every once in a while, like I was traveling the past two months. So like just time zone change schedule and drinking more And like my periods, like the past two months have just been so wonky for me.

Lindsey Lusson 00:46:34  And I'm like, okay, well, I mean, like that makes sense. Like if I think about what I was doing that, you know, report card is, you know, lens, we weren't 100% on track with all the things that we know make us feel our best. So what do you expect?

Michelle Yates 00:46:46  I love that that report card analogy that's so good, especially for, like, us perfectionists. Yeah. And Type-A people who love feedback and were the teacher's pet, you know? Yeah. Whereas my report cards say today. Oh, well, this was so good. I know this is going to be so helpful for my audience. I'm so excited to have this resource available to share with people who are wondering about this, struggling with this. so tell us more about how we can find you, learn more from you, work with you. If somebody desires that, like, yeah, fill us in on on your world. Yeah.

Lindsey Lusson 00:47:20  So I'm probably most active on Instagram. I'm also on TikTok, but I'm more hang out on Instagram.

Lindsey Lusson 00:47:26  food dot freedom. Dot fertility is my handle on both platforms. and follow along. I share like information really more geared towards active women who are trying to conceive. And we didn't actually get into this a whole, whole lot. But I'll just drop this in right here. Not everybody who is under fueling and over exercising completely loses their period. And there are fertility issues that can show up in your cycle. And that is a big major player as to, you know, why somebody may not be ovulating or being able to get pregnant. So we work with women who deal with irregular cycles due to those two issues too. But, you know, a lot of what we do is helping people get their period back. So we work with clients who go, you know, five, ten, 15, 20 years without a cycle and are able to cycle naturally. and so, yeah, that's what we do. You can follow on Instagram. I also have a podcast, period Recovery and Fertility podcast.

Lindsey Lusson 00:48:16  So if you just want to hang out and follow along, that's fine. Or if you're interested in working with our team, I'm going to share, a, lab guide that I wrote that's just going to tell you a little bit more about your hormones and what typical hormones look like when you're experiencing. Ha, as well as some lifestyle questions to kind of ask yourself. Because if you're like me and a lot of the women that I've worked with, it's a journey to admit that maybe your healthy habits aren't so healthy and just kind of a self-assessment question. And then at the bottom of that guide is opportunities on how to reach out and work with our team. If you are interested in more support.

Michelle Yates 00:48:52  Oh, that sounds like such a good resource. That is a hard reality to be like, oh, maybe I'm not the picture of health.

Lindsey Lusson 00:48:59  Yeah, yeah. Because I think at the end of the day, first of all, nobody likes to admit they're doing anything wrong. I mean, like, raise your hand if you love being wrong.

Lindsey Lusson 00:49:04  No hands raised ever. But a lot of times, too, there's a lot of, pride. Yeah. You know, taken in the way that, you know, we we think we're taking care of ourselves, or especially if we're getting a lot of praise and validation. Right? People being like, oh, you're so fit, you're so disciplined. and so, yeah, it can, it can be it can be really hard to accept that maybe it's not so healthy and maybe some things do need to change, but, yeah, just kind of my hope, just that women start to be a little bit more educated at a minimum, and eventually take action.

Michelle Yates 00:49:37  Yeah, yeah. Love that. I will put all the links to all the things in the show notes to, to make it easy for anybody that wants to learn more from Lindsey, which I highly recommend. It's. Yeah, something that we don't hear a lot about when you're a woman is the importance of your cycle and how that can be, like Lindsay said, a report card for you.

Michelle Yates 00:49:58  And yeah, again, like back to something we said before. I can just kind of be something that's dismissed and seen as an inconvenience and not as any kind of important information, but it really does provide quite a bit of information for you. So yeah, learn more from her. She's great. She's she's awesome. As you've learned from this 45 minute episode together. And yeah, we so appreciate your time today. So thank.

Lindsey Lusson 00:50:20  You. Absolutely. Thanks for having me on that.