Did you try keto as a woman and lost your period?

You are not alone. I was also one of them. I did a lifestyle intervention during the summer of 2019. I went on a low carb diet, and I mean low, I aimed for under 20 grams of carbs per day. This is also what is called keto. It had great effects on my insulin resistance, and I dropped weight like a charm. I also added in fasting and strength training. But after four months I lost my cycle. I was very confused.

Low carb sources represented by men

The issue for me was also that all sources I came across related to low carb information, was represented by men. And nowhere did I hear about any side effects to the low carb lifestyle. Not until I finally found a female doctor called Dr Mindy Pelz and her YouTube channel. She gave me insights about the female body and our hormones, and she taught me how to vary my lifestyle around my cycle.

Hormonal hierarchy

Mindy talks a lot about the hormonal hierarchy where she put oxytocin at the top as the master hormone. I have not found the connection to oxytocin and food though. But oxytocin and stress probably have a relation and low carb, fasting and training are also stressors. And too much stress lowers oxytocin.

Edit: Dr Mindy just stated in this video that the female body needs glucose to make progesterone. So then we have the answer and correlation to food. What happened to me was that I tanked my progesterone and that set my hormones out of balance, and I lost my period. This is why keto is something we should cycle as women (and probably also as men but not in the same way).

Serotonin and food

But there is a connection between the neurotransmitter serotonin and food. Serotonin and also GABA is extremely important for us women. If we deplete these then our hormones will become unbalanced. Serotonin is made from the essential amino acid tryptophan. This amino acid must enter your body through your diet and is commonly found in foods such as nuts, cheese, tuna, and chicken.
By eating healthy carbs you raise insulin which enables tryptophan to get into the brain and increase serotonin production. Most serotonin is made in the brain, but we have an ability to store serotonin in the gut. (Here is where having a healthy gut is also very important). This also helps us sleep better since serotonin is a prerequisite for melatonin.

So essentially, eating healthy carbs will make sure that you do not tank your progesterone since this reduces stress. This is very important during the luteal phase because this is when progesterone is present in the female body. Progesterone is extremely sensitive to stress and also needs glucose to be produced.

Healthy carbs = nature’s carbs

As for me my period came back once I introduced healthy carbs back into my life again. I almost exclusively opt for eating whole foods so for example white rice, honey, citrus fruits, tropical fruits, potatoes, sweet potatoes, berries, and also unsweetened sourdough bread that gives me b-vitamins as well as carbs.

So what is tryptophan?

Well tryptophan is an amino acid, but it is a bit special compared to other aminos. This is because in order to get around in the blood stream and make it into the blood brain barrier it needs a carrier called albumin. Furthermore tryptophan is not able to get into the cells of the muscles, it just flows around in the blood stream waiting to get into the brain. Here is where you need insulin, and it serves two purposes:

• Insulin increases the amount of tryptophan that binds to its carrier albumin.
• Insulin opens up the door to the muscle cells for all other aminos which reduces the competition for tryptophan who then can easier get into the brain.

This way the female brain gets access to the vital serotonin for hormonal balance and further down the line also melatonin for optimal sleep. So to optimize this process it is great to get tryptophan from a protein source that has lots of it along with some healthy carbs. An example could be organic chicken breast with white rice.