I've been listening to a few items recently that specifically focus on women's health, and there are apparently quite a lot of differences in how diets work for men and women, beyond the calorie allowances we're all aware of, so I though I should pass some information along.
Calorie controlled diets/fasting supposedly raises ghrelin levels in both men and women (this is the hunger signal), which makes women more "hangry" than men. Higher levels of Ghrelin result in lower levels of thyroid hormones, specifically something called T3, which is mostly what drives your metabolism.
A study put women on 1200 calories/day, and found their T3 levels dropped by 40%, while a sub group were restricted further to 400 calories/day, and their levels dropped by 66%:
The other diet mentioned was keto, which they said can be an issue for pre-menopausal women (not necessarily every woman), because women can often benefit from higher levels of carbs in the early half of their cycle. I am mostly taking their word for this one, but did find this article (not read closely from beginning to end):
Interesting post . My husband has followed a low carb diet for some time, so to keep him company, and as I usually produce the meals I went on a low carb diet. It suits him very well, but I started having fluctuations in my thyroid levels.
I don’t know if the low carb caused the fluctuation or not, I’m post menopausal, so theoretically shouldn’t be affected (?) My GP suggested fluctuations could have been been down to illness / inflammation of some kind.
It's hard to know, but very possible based on this study.
I read my post back, and missed the bit where I was supposed to say ghrelin increases much more in women than in men 🙄 that was an important line! But that's why husband's thrive and women struggle.
When I looked for more info, I found many keto "fact busting" pages trying to say that low T3 is a good thing, or at a minimum it's not a bad thing (because doctors don't think it's important enough to test, which must mean it's insignificant).
I agree with you that I think most people have an ideal carb level, and that current dietary guidelines go way above what most people need.
I guess this is the first time I've heard it mentioned that the sweet spot isn't going to be e.g. 50g/day, every day. It might be that the sweet spot is 80g/day for 2 weeks a month and 40g for the other 2.
The information has generally been from people who have had a paleo-ish background, so people who aren't afraid of fat but who also aren't too pro-carb, which is interesting.
I really don't know what the difference would be, it's just an example. But I suppose if you think of it that cycles are about the body trying to get pregnant, and that in early stages of pregnancy, women tend to require more carbs, it could make sense that the body wants them to prepare.
The higher carb intake here isn't necessarily requiring lower fat intake, it's more saying that the "one size fits all" approach tends to cater more for men, whose bodies don't fluctuate in the same way as women's.
I can’t comment on the monthly cycle as I’ve been perimenopausal for over two years now and hormones no longer follow any kind of pattern! But the ghrelin levels rising with a low calorie intake reinforces my N=1 experience that losing weight slowly minimises the effects on hormones and hunger. I started out with 40 lb to lose, the first 20 lb came off at about 1lb a week, then over the summer it has naturally slowed down and I had “diet breaks” for holidays and birthdays. The next 11 lbs came off slowly over the summer and I’m currently working on the last 9lb. Would be nice if it’s all gone by 21st jan 2020 which would be a year from when I started, but even if not I’ll be most of the way there! I’ve been eating at 1500-1600 calories a day which is quite generous for a very short woman in her 50s and I do believe this has helped me sustain what I’m doing without ever getting over hungry or losing energy.
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