Women & fasting

If you’ve ever gone on a health journey or tried dieting with your husband, male partner, friend etc, I will guarantee that he had results quicker and more dramatic than you did. Men have traditionally written the books on fasting and at one point even suggested that women shouldn’t fast due to a number of symptoms that women have experienced; mood swings, hair loss and even weight gain.

But women and men are inherintly different when it comes to how their bodies work…..obvs! This is all down to hormones. Men work on a 24 hour cycle of testosterone, women work on a monthly cycle of estrogen, testosterone and progesterone (to keep it simple). So, why have we been following men’s rules, suggestions and research about fasting?

Fast Like a Girl (FLAG) written by Dr Mindy Pelz revolutionised eating and fasting according to a women’s cycle. Our hormones are designed for us to grow, develop, bleed, get pregnant, mature and cease bleeding. Bleeding is not just the body’s way of informing us that we are not pregnant, it is a huge detox of toxins. In order to bleed as effectively as possible, we need our hormones in prime condition.

Toxins in our foods, packaging, our water supply, our clothes etc are harming us on the inside. Our lifestyles; stress levels, rushing woman syndrome, less sleep, high intensity exercise, running a home, raising a family, prioritising everyone else…..these are elements of life that we have been taught to accept. Put on a brave face and stoically carry on. But every single one of these and more, affect our hormones. And not in a good way.