Intermittent Fasting for Girls: How It Impacts Hormones

I consider that feeling our greatest comes after we be taught to hearken to our our bodies—and one factor I’ve personally noticed through the years is that I’m my most vibrant after I cycle out and in of intermittent fasting. Once I’m per a rhythm that works for me, I’ve regular vitality, higher digestion, and I discover it simpler to take care of my weight with out stressing over each chunk.

However right here’s the important thing: I’m not inflexible a couple of fasting schedule. If I get up actually hungry, I eat. If it’s the week earlier than my interval, I skip fasting completely. Intermittent fasting, for me, is about listening to my physique and tapping into that instinct—not “forcing” something.

My present strategy is generally impressed by Dr. Mindy Pelz’s guide, Quick Like a Woman. Her analysis is all about how ladies can quick in a method that helps our hormones, fairly than working towards them. I loosely sync my fasting habits with my menstrual cycle: throughout a lot of the month, I often observe a 16:8 quick (an 8-hour consuming window, so between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., for instance). In the course of the luteal part (the week earlier than my interval), I don’t quick in any respect. Throughout my follicular part, I wish to experiment with a barely longer quick, when my vitality naturally feels greater.

This versatile strategy has been such a game-changer for me. But it surely’s not simply anecdotal expertise—there’s actual science behind why intermittent fasting can help ladies’s well being, enhance longevity, scale back irritation, and convey a complete host of different well being advantages.

To assist us dig into the analysis, Lauren Zielinski, MSN, CNM, a licensed nurse, midwife, and ladies’s well being knowledgeable shares sensible recommendation to strategy intermittent fasting in a grounded, supportive method.

The Science Behind Intermittent Fasting

“There’s an abundance of analysis behind intermittent fasting,” Lauren shares. “And whereas it can result in weight reduction, the advantages run a lot deeper. Analysis has proven its skill to “clear cells,” enhance longevity, and reduce the chance of frequent illnesses like diabetes and coronary heart illness. Intermittent fasting retains your DNA and cells wholesome, and might decelerate the getting old course of. I’d argue that it’s the closest factor to the fountain of youth.”

Lauren explains that intermittent fasting isn’t a fad—it’s been studied at main analysis establishments together with USC’s Longevity Institute and Harvard College. Research hyperlink it to improved metabolic well being, diminished irritation, higher mind perform, and elevated longevity.

How Fasting Truly Works within the Physique

On a traditional day, your physique makes use of glucose from meals for vitality. However if you quick, it shifts from burning sugar to burning saved fats—a course of referred to as metabolic switching (a time period coined by Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Mark Mattson, Ph.D.).

This change doesn’t simply assist with fats loss. It triggers a cascade of mobile advantages. As fasting continues, glycogen shops deplete, and your physique enters ketogenesis—releasing ketones into the bloodstream. These ketones:

• Improve the physique’s defenses towards oxidative stress
• Assist take away or restore broken cells
• Enhance blood sugar regulation
• Improve stress resistance and scale back irritation

Much more fascinating: ketones stimulate the discharge of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic issue), a molecule that strengthens neurons and neural connections, supporting reminiscence and cognitive well being.

“Consider fasting as a mini ‘spring cleansing’ to your physique,” Lauren says. “You’re giving your system a break from fixed digestion, which permits your cells to restore and regenerate.”

The Distinctive Concerns of Intermittent Fasting for Girls

Whereas intermittent fasting can profit almost everybody, ladies’s hormones make it particularly necessary to strategy it with flexibility. Lauren emphasizes: “Girls are usually not simply smaller males. Our hormonal fluctuations all through the month imply that fasting can really feel superb at sure occasions and depleting at others.”

Right here’s a simplified information based mostly on what each analysis and many ladies (together with myself) have skilled:

• Follicular part (Day 1–14): Estrogen is rising, vitality is greater. That is usually the most effective time to attempt longer fasts (14–16 hours).
• Ovulation: Proceed average fasting if it feels good, however hearken to your physique.
• Luteal part (the week earlier than your interval): Cortisol is extra delicate, and your physique might have extra nourishment. This can be a nice time to ease off fasting or skip it altogether.
• Menstrual part: Many ladies really feel higher with mild fasting or none in any respect throughout their interval.

This cyclical strategy is what’s labored finest for me. It’s additionally what Mindy Pelz and lots of hormone specialists advocate: honor your cycle, fairly than pushing by it.

The Lengthy-Time period Advantages of Intermittent Fasting

A 2019 New England Journal of Drugs evaluation of fasting analysis discovered important, wide-ranging advantages, together with:

• Cognitive perform: Improved reminiscence and psychological readability
• Coronary heart well being: Higher blood stress, ldl cholesterol, and resting coronary heart fee
• Metabolic well being: Improved insulin sensitivity and diminished threat of Sort 2 diabetes
• Bodily efficiency: Enhanced endurance and lean muscle preservation
• Longevity: Improved mobile restore mechanisms that will sluggish getting old

For me, these advantages present up as sustained vitality, higher digestion, and feeling extra in tune with my physique’s cues.

The way to Begin Intermittent Fasting Gently

In case you’d like to provide fasting a attempt, right here’s Lauren’s aware strategy:

1. Start with 12 hours between dinner and breakfast.
2. After every week or two, lengthen to 14–16 hours if it feels good.
3. Keep hydrated—water, black espresso, and natural teas are your finest pals.
4. Deal with nutrient-dense meals throughout your consuming window to help hormones and blood sugar stability.
5. Give your physique 3–4 weeks to adapt. “It’s regular to really feel drained or irritable at first,” Lauren says. “That often passes as your metabolism adjusts.”

And maybe most significantly: it doesn’t must be all or nothing. In case you get up hungry, eat. In case your physique wants extra gasoline throughout sure phases of your cycle, hear.

When to Keep away from Intermittent Fasting

Whereas intermittent fasting might be useful, it’s not proper for everybody. Lauren advises towards fasting in case you:

• Are underneath 18
• Are pregnant or breastfeeding
• Have a historical past of consuming problems
• Have diabetes or different blood sugar problems

All the time examine with a healthcare supplier earlier than making main modifications to your consuming routine—particularly if in case you have underlying circumstances.

Meals Freedom, Not Restriction

For me, intermittent fasting isn’t about restriction. It’s about discovering a rhythm that helps my vitality, temper, and hormones—and being versatile when my physique wants one thing completely different.

Lauren sums it up completely:

“When performed thoughtfully, intermittent fasting generally is a highly effective instrument to help ladies’s well being, however the secret is flexibility. Our hormones are dynamic, and our strategy to fasting must be, too.”

References & Sources:

• Pelz, M. Quick Like a Woman (2022)
• Mattson MP et al. “Intermittent Fasting and Human Metabolic Well being.” New England Journal of Drugs, 2019.
• Nationwide Institute of Well being. “Ketogenesis and Mobile Stress Response.”
• USC Longevity Institute; Harvard Medical Faculty research on metabolic switching.

This publish was final up to date on October 24, 2025, to incorporate new insights.