Appetite and the menstrual cycle: why you’re hungrier before your period

Many women notice it every month: a few days when they are hungrier than usual, when chocolate or bread calls louder, when a normal lunch doesn’t seem to hold. It is easy to read those days as a lack of willpower. The research says something kinder — appetite really does move with the menstrual cycle, and knowing your own pattern makes those days easier.

This article is general information, not medical advice. Strong mood changes before a period, very painful or irregular periods, or eating that feels out of control deserve a conversation with a doctor.

What changes across the cycle

In the first half of the cycle (the follicular phase, from the period to ovulation) oestrogen rises and appetite tends to be lower. After ovulation, in the luteal phase, progesterone rises — and in many women so does hunger. A review of the studies found that energy intake in the luteal phase is higher by roughly 90 to 500 kcal a day, with the largest increase in the days just before the period. The body’s energy use at rest also rises a little in that phase, though by less than the appetite does.

Not everyone notices it, and it varies from person to person and from cycle to cycle. In one study women without premenstrual syndrome ate more before their period, while women with it ate about the same — which is a good reminder that the general pattern may not be yours.

Cravings, mood and the scale

• Cravings for sweet, fatty or salty food are common before a period. They are a signal to notice, not a rule to fight.
• Mood and energy often dip in the same days, and tiredness makes quick snacks more tempting.
• Weight commonly goes up by up to a kilogram or so before a period — that is water, not fat, and it goes when the period starts. Comparing weigh-ins across the same point of different cycles is fairer than day to day.

What helps on the hungrier days

• Eat a little more, on purpose. If you are hungrier, a planned extra snack beats a fight that ends in the biscuit tin.
• Protein and fibre at every meal — eggs, yoghurt, legumes, wholegrains, vegetables — keep you full for longer.
• Don’t skip meals. Long gaps make cravings stronger.
• Make room for what you crave — a few squares of chocolate after a meal satisfy more than forbidding it for three days.
• Sleep and move. Both soften cravings and lift mood.

Above all: these days are the cycle, not a failure. Knowing they are coming takes most of the stress out of them.

How foodoo helps

In foodoo’s “Food and you”, the cycle is a switch of its own, off until you turn it on. It reads your period from Apple Health or Health Connect each time and compares the five days before a period and the period itself with the rest of your cycle — calories, sugar, sweets, mood and how you feel after meals — and says only what holds up after being checked against chance. Findings are told as what bodies commonly do, with a line that takes the weight off. Your cycle data is never kept and never leaves your phone: not to our server, the coach, the pet or the doctor’s report. An evening mood question can sit beside it, and in “No numbers” mode calorie findings stay hidden.