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Intermittent Fasting and Hormones: The Latest Findings and What They Mean for Women

 


Hey lovelies! 🌟

So, you know how intermittent fasting (IF) is all the rage for weight loss? Critics have been throwing shade, worrying it might mess with women's reproductive hormones. But guess what? A fresh study from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is here to spill the tea, and it's not all bad news. 🍵

The amazing Krista Varady and her team followed a group of pre- and post-menopausal obese women for eight weeks on the “warrior diet.” Picture this: a four-hour window where you can eat guilt-free, followed by a water fast until the next day. Sounds wild, right?

After eight weeks, here’s what they found:

  • Sex-binding globulin hormone: No change. This protein carries reproductive hormones around, and it was steady as a rock.

  • Testosterone and androstenedione: No changes here either. Both are crucial for producing testosterone and estrogen.

Now, the biggie: DHEA. This hormone, which fertility clinics adore for improving ovarian function and egg quality, saw a drop of about 14% in both pre- and post-menopausal women. But wait—it stayed within the normal range. So, don't panic!

Varady explains, “In pre-menopausal women, this small drop in DHEA needs to be balanced against the benefits of a lower body mass.” For post-menopausal women, lower DHEA might be concerning since menopause already reduces estrogen, but there were no reported side effects like sexual dysfunction or skin changes.

Plus, lower DHEA might even help reduce breast cancer risk. Talk about a silver lining! 🌈

The study also looked at estradiol, estrone, and progesterone levels in post-menopausal women (because tracking these hormones in pre-menopausal women is like trying to catch a cloud), and guess what? No changes after eight weeks.

And let’s not forget: Women on the warrior diet shed 3%-4% of their baseline weight, saw drops in insulin resistance, and reduced oxidative stress markers. Meanwhile, the control group didn’t lose much weight at all.

While perimenopausal women weren’t part of this study, Varady’s hopeful. “This is a great first step,” she says. “Intermittent fasting just makes people eat less by shortening the eating window. Most negative info on IF comes from animal studies. We need more human research.”

The study, “Effect of time-restricted eating on sex hormone levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal females” was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01DK119783). Shoutout to all the co-authors who made this possible: Faiza Kalam, Rand Akasheh, Sofia Cienfuegos, Aparna Ankireddy, Kelsey Gabel, Mark Ezpeleta, Shuhao Lin, Chandra Tamatam, Sekhar Reddy, Bonnie Spring, and Seema Khan.

Till next time, stay curious and fabulous! 💖


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