can PMS cause the carb flu? page

[laura642]

This is my third cycle on PB. With every cycle it seems that my carb cravings (mostly sugar) are getting worse. THis time it seems to be putting me back into carb flu like symptoms. headache, shaky legs,wanting to eat anything with sugar,uncontrolable hunger. I have upped my carbs , banannas, sweet potatoes, plantain chips, during this time trying to combat it. Unfortunately, this lasts about two weeks. The rest of the time I am fine on a low carb diet, in fact I prefer it. So I guess what I want to know is, can PMS send you into Low carb flu and can eating carbs during this time, sabotage you in the future and cause the same thing to happen again?

Thanks.

Laura

[canio6]

Firstly, primal is not low carb. Some follow a low carb version of primal and primal is often lower carb than SAD (it is amazing how many carbs you can pack in eating a footlong sub, two bags of chips, cookies, cake etc), but many here eat quite a few carbs. It has also been suggested in some threads that women do better on a bit more carbs (check out the woman's only thread and I think it is in Paleobird's calorie counting thread somewhere but do not quote me on that). Perhaps a more carb friendly form of primal would work better for you - a sweet potato a day or some white rice or some such. I've found that sometimes upping my carbs sensibly (a potato for example) kills the desire to attack something sweet and sugary.

As to TotM etc, I am a dude so have no experience with that personally.

[GeorgiaPeach]

I second canio on the low carb thing, but will add that primal has different flavors... Meaning that people tweak it to fit their needs. So my primal is pretty low carb because if I eat one, I want them all! Fruit is especially tricky. It makes me want stuff that is bad like candy and junk food.

But to answer your question, PMS is awful for me when it comes to carbs. I started using an ovulation calendar online to track it. During the luteal phase (which can be between 10 and 14 days depending on your cycle length and happens after you ovulate and before you start your period), I want to go carb crazy! It drives me crazy every month. I'm trying to get rid of a tiny more bit of fat, so I like to stay low carb generally, but during that time, I slightly increase my carbs and make sure I eat them WITH fat and protein. Otherwise, my blood sugar gets wonky. I also opt for sweet potato over white- white makes me want dessert. Bananas send me down a spiral too- I stick with berries or cherries. If I am craving dessert, I blend coconut milk and mashed sweet potato into a smoothie and that works sometimes. When all else fails, I go for a walk on the trails and get my heart pumping.