Hi everybody

New member, first post!
I’ve been doing Fast 800, ie VLCD 800 cals and IF at 16:8, for 5 and a half weeks
My BMI was close to 30 after lockdown so it was time for a change
Iv had amazing results so far, Iv found it really easy to stick to, the IF keeps insulin down so I’m rarely hungry. Iv lost over a stone going from 14 stone 2 to 13 stone 0.8 and am now at my lowest weight since at least 2016.
I was always 10.5 stone but a stressful job and death of my dad led to over eating and I guess that combined with reaching my 30s piled the pounds on for me.

The reason I’m posting is because my period is late (definitely not pregnant!) and I wanted to see if any other women have had a similar experience or generally what your experience of your menstrual cycle has been on this type of diet?

Iv read a fair bit online and some studies do show that IF can adversely impact women’s hormones cycles and shrink ovaries in rats
Also Iv read very low calorie diets can stop periods, although most of the articles seem to be talking about low BMI women or anorexia, my bmi is still overweight, but if my calorie intake is too low to sustain pregnancy then I wonder if that’s causing it?

I know weight loss is going to bring so many health and life benefits for me, so I wonder if it’s worth messing up my periods for 4 months to get the weight off and then the periods will return to normal if I increase my calories
The Articles seem to suggest periods come back when people eat more food

I plan to have children at some point and in fact being a healthy weight for conceiving children and being an active mum in future is one of my main motivation factors in losing weight.
So it feels like a cruel joke that the weight loss my be disrupting my periods!

Do any dieters, doctors or maintainers have any insights into this?

Thanks so much for listening I really appreciate it

Have a wonderful weekend 🙂