Period cravings are so prevalent, they’re practically a punchline: women get hangry when Aunt Flo comes to town. To be more specific, we “tend to crave sugar and chocolate before our period starts,” Melissa Groves Azzaro, a practitioner who specialises in women’s health, tells us.
While this trope can take on a sexist tinge, considering many men use it to mock, criticise or dismiss legitimate female frustration (or even pain), there is definitely some truth to the idea that women can experience changes in appetite in the days leading up to that time of the month. Everybody (and every body) is different, of course, but these appetite changes “affect most women who are having normally controlled cycles,” Azzaro says, referring to those who aren’t on hormonal contraception.
Below, we’ll explore why these cravings happens, when you can expect to feel a difference and what you can do to feel a little bit better because while the process may be natural, that doesn’t mean it’s fun.
Why you might feel hungrier before your period
You can thank the hormonal fluctuations occurring during the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle, which roughly spans the 12 to 14 days between ovulation (which occurs around day 14 of a typical 28-day cycle) and the start of your next period (which marks the start of a new cycle). “Your body wants to make sure that you have enough energy on board,” as it’s technically using this window to prepare for a potential pregnancy, Azzaro says. Your metabolism revs up and your caloric needs increase slightly.
During the luteal phase, levels of one particular sex hormone, progesterone, start rising and levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin start falling, Vincci Tsui, a certified intuitive eating counsellor based in Canada, says. It’s a development that can cause an increase in appetite and food cravings, especially for high-carb foods, as carbs serve as the body’s primary fuel source. People “may notice that they’re eating more calories, but also more carbohydrates and sugar specifically,” Azzaro says. One study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1995 found that during the luteal phase, women averaged 303 more calories per day.
Emotional eating may also come into play for some. When you’re not feeling well (bloated, crampy, sluggish or sad), it can feel instinctive to turn to high-carb comfort foods to lift your mood. Besides, the strong cultural association between menstruation and appetite changes, as referenced in everything from movies to marketing campaigns, may independently spur a desire to seek these foods out, so this tendency can also be “more of a learned behaviour rather than a physiological change,” Tsui says.
Women taking hormonal contraceptives might not notice as much of a deviation from their baseline because their hormone levels tend to be steadier throughout the month, according to Azzaro. “[Their hormone levels] are being artificially controlled versus those natural ebbs and flows that happen with an unmedicated cycle,” she says. For folks with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), on the other hand, “some of those feelings might even be more pronounced,” Tsui says.
When you can expect to see a difference
Generally, pre-period appetite changes and cravings will start seven to 10 days before you start to menstruate, according to Azzaro. Even though the luteal phase as a whole runs a bit longer (around 12 to 14 days, like we said), it takes a bit for progesterone levels to reach their peak, so that 7-to-10-day mark is “when you would expect to be noticing changes driven by that high progesterone,” Azzaro says.
