I am a little embarrassed to be asking/worrying about this, especially after telling you guys how wonderfully I'm doing with food and weight and stuff recently, but...whatever, here goes:
First, my weight has made a little jump over the past few weeks. I'm trying not to freak out—has anyone else noticed their weight go up after exercising? Intuitively it doesn't really make sense to me, and I'm trying to see this as a maybe-normal fluctuation, but UGH. I hate gaining weight. Especially when I'm trying so hard to stay motivated, work on body image, keep my calories up, and even increase my intake a little. Objectively, I know that I'm not eating too many calories, so I worry that my metabolism just permanently sucks or something.
Second: My period is late and no, I'm not pregnant. Do you guys think even the small amount of exercise I've been doing could affect it so quickly?? I've literally done maybe an hour total of cardio (mix of running and biking - both light) over the past month, and weight lifting on average twice a week. My cycle has been pretty darn regular since July, so I can't think of what else would affect it. Dr. A didn't say anything about the hormone treatment having any impact, and it's such a low dose anyway. Besides, I started that back in December and have had two normal periods since then.
Anyways, hopefully I'm just being paranoid as per usual. Happy Saturday, everyone.
Yup, post exercise, especially weight training you'll see a bump in your weight. You get microtears in your muscles as your body gets stronger, these lead to localized edema [which is posited to be responsible for the delayed onset muscles soreness-- you get the edema over a few days, and then swollen = pressure on your nerves = pain... or something like that].
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, yes, well documented totally normal totally not sudden fatness.
I've not no data, but my anecdata from me/other ED pts who I've whined with would say that yeah... getting the periods back to totally normal happens over time and erratically, and may or may not be hypersensitive to any minor changes in your diet or exercise. Are you seeing an MD/RD lately? I'd run it by them.
JS—has anyone ever told you that you simply ooze credibility? thanks for the reassurance and for not making me feel like a neurotic idiot. good to know this is normal, going to just stay the course and let things even out.
Deleteforgot to mention that no, I'm not currently seeing an RD or doctor specifically for ED stuff, more because of logistical/insurance/laziness reasons than anything else. Although, I may ask my new therapist to recommend a dietician at some point, just to get another perspective.
DeleteI definitely agree with JS--building muscle does some odd things to weight. I'm really glad you're trying to stay calm about it, go you!
ReplyDeleteSeems like there are a lot of factors that can really mess with periods--could it be the stress you've had lately with school stuff? I know you've been really busy and had some stretches of stress, which I know can sometimes delay periods. Like JS said, though, might be good to run it by a medical professional. Hope it comes soon!
still waiting, but I'm getting the tell-tale cramps so hopefully it's on the way, just late! I've always heard that stress affects periods but guess I haven't had regular periods in so long that it's hard to track patterns. I'm going to keep a better eye on that and hopefully learn to reduce stress in the process. Thanks Alie!
DeleteI never gain when when I stop exercising, like one would think. But, sometimes, I do gain weight after I start exercising. It's not out of control - it won't go up infinitely. But, yes, this totally has happened to me quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteAs for the period - absolutely the exercise could be related. I once lost my period at a BMI that was half way through "underweight" and "overweight" when I had started exercising. My guess is that my recovery/health was "too new" and therefore my period was "too fragile" or something. Maybe the same thing applies to you?
oh, how weird! I remember being SHOCKED last winter when I abruptly quit all exercise and didn't gain a pound. And I too have seen definite correlations between exercise and my period. In fact, last January my period showed up for the first time in years about a month after the aforementioned abrupt quitting of exercise. So I suppose that for me historically, period and exercise have always been more closely correlated than period and weight.
Delete