Carb cycling with menopause?

(Sue ) #1

I’ve been doing keto for 9 weeks now and although my hot flashes are going, I am still struggling with post menopausal symptoms like mood swings, depression, insomnia. And stubborn weight loss!

I’ve read in a couple of places today that some advocate carb cycling for menopausal women to help raise estrogen and progesterone levels. Mindy Pelz, specifically, advises that women of this age do 5 keto days and 2 higher carb days focused on eating foods like oranges, dried fruit, legumes and others found to help build hormone levels. Here is a video of hers on the topic:

Have any of you menopausal ladies like me tried this with any degree of success?

(Lazy, Dirty Keto 😝) #2

I’d actually like to get info on this for my mom too, so thanks for creating this topic! She’s been trying Keto for a while and is gaining weight. She’s exercising, keeping her carbs low, etc but she can’t seem to stop gaining weight.

#3

I have been keto since last August. I do not think that keto has helped with my mood swings or hot flashes. Now that I am in maintenance, about 3 months, I have 2 higher carb days a week. My experience with cycling is that I gain water weight when I eat higher carb limits and then spend the next 2 days losing the water. It has not had any positive effect on my hot flashes or mood. I would be careful (especially if you are still trying to lose weight) with carb cycling, its easy to fall back into old habits, and justification mindsets, when you are eating higher carb foods, as they can trigger cravings.

#4

I spend the next week losing the water weight getting me back to where I started. On top of that carb cycling will kick you out of ketosis and then you will take a day or several to get back. And it will delay (or prevent) getting fat adapted. All around it’s just a bad idea I think. I don’t think menopausal women need more carbs than anyone else (which means none). I really see zero benefit to it.

In fact, if you keep your carbs low all the time it will eventually have a mood stabilizing effect, which would be a benefit. But nine weeks may not be long enough to see a dramatic difference. Also, keto might not completely eliminate all your symptoms; it may just take some time.

This doesn’t even make sense. Oranges to build hormones? Dried fruit? How would dried fruit be somehow hormonally different from fresh? And how would you get enough significant increase in estrogen or progesterone from eating an orange once a week to make a difference? I say show me the science.

I am post-menopausal and I don’t do anything outside normal keto except fasting. The fasting is what is helping me lose weight at other than a glacial pace without (hopefully) dropping my RMR into the toilet. If you’re still losing very slowly (or not at all) after another few weeks, you might try some fasting. You could even start some time-restricted eating now, say 16:8, and see if that helps. Some peoples’ experience is that just doing TRE makes a big difference.

The only thing different that I did while going through menopause was drink soy milk. It probably does have enough substances in it that mimic hormones to make a difference. I used to make a lot of smoothies with it. I didn’t really do it to deal with menopause symptoms, but I think it probably helped and I’ve heard the same thing from other people. I drink a lot less of it these days, but only because I eat breakfast a lot less and I usually make my smoothies with HWC anyway.

(Jill F.) #5

I am menopausal due to hysterectomy but I do take HRT. It helps keep me from being a raving biatch! I have found losing weight is slow and steady for me, it comes off of me often in inches before pounds. I started Dec 27th at 5 ft 4 and 190 pounds very tight size 14. Today I am 154 pounds and size 4. I have lost 36 pounds and 32 inches! Crazy transformation. Slow and steady wins the race.

(hottie turned hag) #6

Some posts in another thread I was reading today on carb cycling, hey @atomicspacebunny, can you swing by and expound on it perhaps?

I was initially skeptical but then some of the posts made me wonder if it does have some merit for some folk? Been reading a bit more about it, seems to be better suited to those with high energy expenditure usually due to athletic activity/weightlifting in particular.

(Bunny) #7

If You Eat Soy, Make Sure it’s Fermented:

The claim that soy products can help prevent osteoporosis, decrease your risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia and protect you from certain cancers is actually true, but ONLY if the soy is fermented and organic (non-GMO).

Why?

After a long fermentation process, the phytate and “anti-nutrient” levels of soybeans are reduced, and their beneficial properties become available to your digestive system. One of the main benefits of fermented soy, especially fermented soybeans called natto, is that it is the best food source of vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 is essential to preventing osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and diseases of the brain such as dementia, and helping to protect you from various cancers including prostate, lung, liver cancer and leukemia. …” ”…Soy contains hormonal mimics in the form of isoflavones, which can not only disrupt delicate hormone systems in your body, but also act as goitrogens, substances that suppress your thyroid function. When the thyroid is suppressed, a host of health problems result, namely:

  • Anxiety and mood swings
  • Insomnia
  • Difficulty losing weight
  • Difficulty conceiving children
  • Digestive problems and food allergies

“…For instance, both estrogen and progesterone are necessary in the female cycle, and their balance is key for optimal health. Many women have an imbalance of these hormones, regardless of their age. …”

”…Further, one of the worst problems with soy comes from the fact that 90 to 95 percent of soybeans grown in the US are genetically modified (GM), and these are used to create soy protein isolate. As GM expert Jeffrey Smith states:

" … the only published human feeding study on GM foods ever conducted verified that the gene inserted into GM soy transfers into the DNA of our gut bacteria and continues to function. This means that years after we stop eating GM soy, we may still have the potentially allergenic protein continuously produced within our intestines." …” …More

Note: GMO plants: crossed with the DNA of fish to resist weed killers in your gut flora microbiome?

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(Helen Taylor) #8

I use a lot of Tofu, I’m perimenopausal, and now on 98 day notice for my next monthly so it might never turn up. But I get hot flushes if I don’t eat tofu at least once a week. It has phytoestrogens in that mimic the lost ovary juice and works well. Can’t stand soya milk but it would do the same thing if fermented.

(Sue ) #9

In the video she cites oranges and other foods as helping to build estrogen. :woman_shrugging:

(Sue ) #10

Thanks everyone for your input! Carb cycling really doesn’t feel right to me for the reasons some of you mentioned - I was just curious about it after I saw that video. I’m going to go the supplement route for my menopause symptoms and add IF back in (I was doing it for a bit and lost more weight but then I kept getting hungry, so I stopped).

I also think I need to cut sweetener in my coffee (as I sit here now sipping coffee with Swerve in it), it’s my very last vice and I’ve been digging in my heels, but I know I need to try to give it up. I’ve found keto to be pretty effortless except for this!

#11

Yeah, I know. People think soy is the Devil’s own. But my own experience has been different along with lots of other menopausal women, and 127 million Japanese people are doing okay with it. So, for women who are looking for some hormonal support that isn’t HRT, the phytoestrogens might work. Eat organic; try edamame, tofu, soy milk.

I’m not challenging you. I’m challenging her. It doesn’t make logical sense and if there’s some scientific proof to what she’s saying, I’d like to know what it is.

(Bunny) #12

Although we were not really discussing cancer; here are some other things that are good to know:

When breast cancer cells were cultured in a Petri dish they used soy as a medium for the culture, but their is also a process happening inside the Petri dish called fermentation (what they need; and how cancer cells proliferate) and in the soy based breast cancer culture is a phytoestrogen chemical called genistein, that started killing (angiogenesis inhibitor[1]) all the breast cancer cultures and that is why it became so popular in the the 1990’s as a non-un-fermented supplement?

That is also why eating fermented soy is so important because it is not just the soy, it is the co-factor of the fermentation (which may also occur in the gut?) occurring along with it that prevents other cancers too[2] but eating it fermented first is probably a much wiser thing to do?

Footnotes:

[1] Genistein is an isoflavone that is described as an angiogenesis inhibitor and a phytoestrogen. It was first isolated in 1899 from the dyer’s broom, Genista tinctoria ; hence, the chemical name. The compound structure was established in 1926, when it was found to be identical with that of prunetol (inhibitor of tyrosine specific protein kinases). It was chemically synthesized in 1928.[1] …” …More

[2] The Healthy Aspects of Soy: Fermented vs. Unfermented

In order to back up the claim that soy is a health food, privately funded “researchers” have been quick to point out that Asians, who consume a diet high in soy, have less risk of breast, uterine and prostate cancer.

Unfortunately, they leave out two very important points: Asians, especially the Japanese, while having a decreased risk of the above-mentioned cancers, have a much higher risk of developing cancer of the esophagus, thyroid, stomach, pancreas and liver!

•Asians also consume a diet rich in fermented soy, which is the only type of soy to offer health benefits.

•The reason Asians have an increased risk for some cancers is the same reason they do not develop others: unfermented soy.

The soy marketing and promotion gurus left out this critical piece of information. Would you rather have one cancer over another? Isn’t that like asking whether or not you’d like to be whacked in the head with a two-by-four vs. a wooden stick? …” …More

#13

Well, bacon is going to give me cancer, too. As I said, when I was going through menopause, I used to drink a lot more soy milk and it was helpful at that time. These days, I’m lucky to use a whole quart before it goes bad (and it lasts longer than milk). I’m not going to worry about it.