{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Balancing Hormones Naturally","title":"Does Fasting Affect Your Menstrual Cycle - The Truth about Intermittent Fasting and Your Period","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1487,"description":"The Truth About Fasting for Women: Why Most Studies Don’t Apply to Your CycleBalancing Hormones Naturally Podcast with Leah BrueggemannEveryone keeps telling you to fast. Skip breakfast. Push your eating window. Drink coffee until noon. And somewhere along the way, fasting got marketed as the secret to weight loss, balanced blood sugar, and longevity for every human on the planet.Here is what nobody mentions in those reels: most of the research behind those claims was done on men or postmenopausal women. If you have an active cycle, applying that data to your body without context can quietly tank your hormones, flatten your energy, and wreck your periods.In this episode, Leah breaks down what fasting actually does to a cycling woman’s body, when it works in your favor, when it backfires, and the one fasting style most women can use safely without sending their adrenals into a tailspin.What You’ll Learn in This Episode•        Why fasting research done on men doesn’t translate cleanly to menstruating women•        How estrogen and progesterone change your insulin sensitivity across your cycle•        The connection between aggressive fasting, LH pulsatility, ovulation, and progesterone•        Why intermittent fasting can become a fancy way of chronically under-eating•        What circadian fasting is, why Leah loves it, and how to do it•        Follicular fasting: the one-day-per-cycle window where a longer fast may serve you•        How melatonin and your circadian insulin sensitivity should shape when you eat•        Why your minerals and vital reserve matter before you ever consider a fast•        How to break a fast without spiking your blood sugar into the stratosphereKey Concepts From the EpisodeYou’re Not a Small ManMen run on a 24-hour hormonal rhythm. Women run on a 28 to 36-day rhythm. Their dominant hormone is testosterone, which doesn’t tank under stress the way progesterone does. Stretching male fasting protocols across a cycling woman’s body ignores...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/86wOr6F_xPdgn7OPf0XXH95ik4VSvdkxX5yC3FNCRRo/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9jZDg5/ZjRlYmM5NDBiZTc4/MDg0MmUyMWY5OTAx/NWQyYi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}