In the Episode:

• What is set point weight?
• Is it possible to overshoot your setpoint and when will your weight return to baseline?
• Expectations for your 2nd recovery period 
• Why cycle tracking is an important tool for hormonal health
• How to know whether or not you’re ovulating
• Troubleshooting if your period are irregular after recovery 
• The role body and exercise plan in fertility

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Transcript:

Lindsey Lusson  00:00

The next question that I have is from Kelly. And Kelly asks, how can one discern between a real period/ ovulatory cycle, and in ovulatory cycles with just a withdrawal bleed? Even after recovering from HA and getting monthly bleeds, can a lot of exercise and/or low body fat cause in ovulatory cycles? Uh, Kelly, I love that you’re asking this question. Because I do think that so many times we think about, oh, I’ve got a period. I’m fine. And even outside the context of fertility, it is so important to know whether or not you’re ovulating. 

Lindsey Lusson  00:27

The best way to know whether you’re ovulating or not is to actually track your cycles. What I always recommend to clients, once they get their period back, is to download some sort of tracking app. And to use that app in conjunction with the signs and symptoms that your unique body is sending you. 

Lindsey Lusson  00:43

Welcome to the Period Recovery and Fertility Podcast. Here, we discuss the challenging, rewarding and life changing process of recovering your period and finding freedom with food and exercise. Whether you’re hoping to regain your cycle to get your health back on track or you’re ready to become a mama, this podcast is for you. While the recovery process isn’t always rainbows and butterflies, it’s my hope to bring you both information and inspiration during your own recovery journey. I’m your host, registered dietitian and fellow HA woman, Lindsey Lusson. 

Lindsey Lusson  01:14

Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Period Recovery and Fertility Podcast and happy 2025! I don’t know what your 2024 looked like, but I’m so happy that you’re here and joining me today. Whether your goal is to finally start tackling this daunting issue of your missing period. Or you’re here to learn how to optimize your cycle for health and fertility, and You’re thinking about trying to conceive in 2025. Maybe you’ve been on a fertility journey for a while. Hey, I’m so happy you’re here. We’re going to unpack today a couple of listener questions that you guys have submitted to me to answer.

Lindsey Lusson  01:47

Now, if you follow me on Instagram @food.freedom.fertility, I do Q and A’s on Instagram probably about once a month. And I do try to be pretty detailed with the answers that I give to people. Because there’s just so much about hypocolamic amenorrhea and kind of our subtypes of HA with short luteal phases and ovulatory cycles in really, really active women or women who have a history of an eating disorder. 

Lindsey Lusson  02:13

There’s not a lot of information about that on the internet. And Google searches are going to fall flat pretty quickly. So I’ve dedicated some of these episodes on the podcast to really get into the nitty gritty questions that you guys want to know that you’re not getting answers from your doctor, that you can’t find on the internet, and you’re just not sure, or you’re curious. And you don’t know where to go for those answers.

So today I’m going to dive in and answer a couple of listener questions. If you have a question that you want me to answer on the podcast at some point in the future, scroll down to the show note. And we’re going to have a link to a Google form where you can share your first name only and your question. Be sure to listen in the future to see if I happen to answer your question. 

Lindsey Lusson  02:55

So without any further ado, let’s go ahead and jump into it. Okay, so the first listener question that I have is from Jayden. And Jayden asks, Is it possible to have overshot your set point weight wide and recovering? If so, when will this eventually go back down? And how long does it usually take? So in order to properly answer this question, I think we need to kind of define a couple of terms to get everyone on the same page. Sometimes I say set point weight, and people know exactly what I’m talking about, and sometimes people don’t. So the set point weight is a biologically predetermined weight range. And hear me guys when I say range that your body functions most optimally at. The range can kind of vary plus or minus 10 pounds. 

Lindsey Lusson  03:38

What I will say about set point weight range for people who have experienced disordered eating or an eating disorder. Whatever you want to call it. Maybe you don’t identify with either of those terms. But if you’ve lost your period, it’s safe to say that you’ve probably dropped below the set point weight range that your body wants to be at. And what we need to know too about set point weight is it’s really not something that we can change or manipulate. Like your set point, weight is what it is. That actually can be really hard to reconcile with. I completely understand it and empathize.

Lindsey Lusson  04:12

 If somebody’s like, oh, well, I don’t like that. I’m gonna be in control of my weight. Look, I get it. But also, I think if we really think about it for a second. This makes sense. If you’re a chronic dieter, there’s probably a weight that your body kind of just seems to return to. Or sits at when you’re not restricting, when you’re not engaging in over exercise. But if you’re like a lot of the clients that we work with inside Food Freedom Fertility Society, you might have been over stressing your body with too much exercise and restricting food for a long amount of time to where you have no idea what your set point rate range is. 

Lindsey Lusson  04:45

So that’s kind of the first thing that I always like to remind my clients when I’m talking about set point weight is, hey, if you haven’t had a period since high school and you’re in your early 30s, we really don’t know where your body is going to want to sit. But a little bit more about set point weight range is that the theory of what we’ve kind of learned through the research on set point weight range is that this weight range is really, really easy for you to maintain. You shouldn’t have to exercise seven days a week or stick to a specific calorie range in order to maintain a specific weight. Your body has some predetermined control feedback mechanisms that help you to maintain this weight. 

Lindsey Lusson  05:26

And as you start to get closer to your weight range, there will be things that happen biologically to help you become more resistant towards further weight gain. One of those is increased NEAT, which stands for non exercise activity, thermogenesis. This is a really fancy word that kind of just describes our general metabolism. Or the energy expenditure related to our daily movements. Like rushing our teeth, taking out the trash, walking as a form of just getting to and from. Not walking as a form of intentional exercise. Fidgeting, standing up, doing household chores, etc. So as the body becomes more fat and starts to move into that predetermined set point rate range for you, you might notice that you have more energy or more of a desire to move your body more. 

Lindsey Lusson  06:13

Now pause, because having worked with a lot of clients who struggle with eating disorders, I’ll also say that the idea of trying to move compulsively isn’t necessarily a sign that you’re in your set point weight range. A lot of the clients that I’ve worked with that have struggled with exercise addiction as part of an eating disorder, typically do tend to seek out extra ways to just burn calories that is different than what I’m talking about here, with increased NEAT as a part of your body entering into that safety zone of where it wants to be with your set point weight range. 

Lindsey Lusson  06:45

Another thing that happens… Because I’m going to go ahead and dive into this whole idea of like, oh my gosh, I feel like I’m going to gain weight forever in recovery. You won’t because of set point weight range. And as you start to move into that healthy range for you, we’ll actually start to see a decrease in the kind of primary hunger hormone, Ghrelin and an increase in one of our major satiety hormones, leptin. And kind of fun fact about leptin… Leptin levels are very often reduced whenever somebody has been doing a prolonged diet, calorie restriction, experience any sort of significant weight loss and or and typically also, too, with period loss. 

Lindsey Lusson  07:21

And so as somebody does start to weight restore and start to has an increase in their body fat, we’ll start to see the body slow down its resistance towards weight gain. Meaning that you might notice in the beginning of your recovery journey, you put on weight really rapidly. And now you tend to not put on weight as rapidly. Or maybe even you see weights start to settle around a specific range. That’s kind of one way to know whether or not you’re in your set point weight range.

Side note too, though I don’t necessarily recommend focusing too much on the number on the scale. If you’re a long time listener on the podcast, you already know this. Or if you’re one of our past clients, you know this. But you might be able to notice this too. Just from the way that your clothes are fitting, like, oh, like, I haven’t noticed, like, needing to size up anymore. 

Lindsey Lusson  08:07

So that’s one way to know that you’re kind of getting into whatever that range is. But to go back to this question of the idea of overshooting that range. This is a pretty common term, if you’re plugged in at all, into any sort of eating disorder or ha recovery podcast or YouTube channels. The person that comes to mind when I think about weight overshoot in the way that it’s been talked about the most in like the social media world is Stephanie Buttermore, who went through a journey of healing her relationship with food in her body and overcoming binge eating.

And she documents a lot of how her body had changed and how she ate unrestricted as a way to cure her extreme hunger. She documents how her body gained to a certain amount. And then after a while, she actually started to lose weight, back down to her set point weight range. 

Lindsey Lusson  09:01

I want to first of all call out that I think it’s so cool that she documented that journey. And I know that that’s helped so many people just on understanding what weight can do. And what weight can do over time, and how weight can settle back down to whatever that weight range is for you. I also want to call out that this is not everyone’s experience with recovery. I’ve also known that people watch that story and get really scared out of recovery. Thinking, oh my gosh, I’m going to gain, you know, an excessive amount of weight. Or I’m going to overshoot my weight. I really don’t like to try and predict where somebody’s body needs to be to recover. 

Lindsey Lusson  09:37

We have worked with clients who really don’t gain a whole lot of weight. And they get their periods back, and they go on in their merry little way. And yeah, they did need to gain weight to recover and be fertile and get pregnant. But the amount that somebody needs to gain is going to depend on so many different factors. Such as genetics, such as proper fueling, how much activity they’re doing. Where they’re set point weight range is, right? We’ve definitely worked with clients who are at a healthy BMI. They’ve already gained weight, and they really don’t end up gaining that much more. And then we’ve worked with people that actually do have to gain a pretty significant amount of weight to where their BMI point is changing multiple times. So everyone is different. 

Lindsey Lusson  10:15

And so what I want anyone who’s listening to this and wondering this question to kind of hear is that your body is going to settle wherever it needs to. To feel safe and happy, to ovulate regularly and to make a baby. Now, in time, it is possible that some people do tend to have weight redistribution. Most people that I’ve worked with don’t necessarily see significant weight loss over time. But maybe rather that their body starts to recomp. That, like the weight that they gain, maybe more in their midsection starts to redistribute more to kind of hips and thighs and just kind of more of a different figure. Also, too, as people are incorporating exercise back in I’ve seen her clients experience about how their will put on more muscle and have a little bit less body fat.  

Lindsey Lusson  11:03

So I believe, yes, absolutely, weight overshoot can happen for some people. But it’s probably not something that’s going to happen until you are, like, a year plus into recovery. So I would really encourage anybody who’s starting eight day recovery or is in the middle of eight day recovery, to not fixate on this idea of when I lose the weight, or I’ve overshot my weight.

Because the truth is, again, if we go back to that scenario of like, Okay, the last time you had a period was when you were 15 years old, and now you’re, you know, 28 we really don’t know where your body needs to be. So if you did happen to overshoot your set point weight range, your weight will in time, remember, think a year plus will naturally start to redistribute that weight or have a slight decrease in weight in time without any sort of manipulation of your diet or exercise routine. 

Lindsey Lusson  11:58

So that was definitely a little long winded. But I hope that that helps clarify some of these terms and kind of next steps for expectations. If you’re thinking that, hey, I’m uncomfortable in my body, or did I really need to gain all that weight? Yes, you needed to gain that weight for your body to be healthy. Will your body stay that exact same weight or that exact same size, like indefinitely? No, of course not. Bodies are designed to change. You might gain more weight. You might have some weight redistribution. The best advice that I would give is to try to not have expectations on your recovery and what your recovered body should look like. 

Lindsey Lusson  12:31

All right. Second question comes from Natalie, and Natalie asked what to expect for the second recovery cycle. I know a longer follicular phase, but how long before I should start to worry? Okay, so great question. And this is one of the most common questions we get after somebody gets their period back. Because sometimes the anxiety of waiting for that second recovery period can be just as much as waiting for that first recovery period. Which is why I really like cycle tracking. So I’ll talk about that a little bit here in a second. But I’m going to tell you what’s typical for clients following our Food Freedom Fertility method. And that’s that, yes, the second ovulation is a bit delayed. Usually, we see our clients ovulate anywhere between cycle day 18 and cycle day 25 and with ongoing recovery. 

Lindsey Lusson  13:15

So remember, getting your period back isn’t just this one and done. Okay, like I, you know, ate a lot more, and I went, you know, scaled back on my exercise. I got my period back. Hooray. I’m done. It is very much a ongoing recovery journey. And with ongoing recovery, what we typically see with our clients is that the time to ovulation decreases and cycles start to become more normal. If they don’t, that’s when I like to troubleshoot. So for instance, if I’m working with a client, and we don’t have clear signs of ovulation by, say, cycle day 30, that’s when I kind of want to go back to the drawing board. 

Lindsey Lusson  13:46

So some questions I’ll start to ask is, have we introduced any exercise? Like, what are we doing? What has changed? Because again, when we get our first recovery period, we finally know, in some ways, kind of the magic formula for that point in time that your body needed to actually get a period. So what did we change from the time we got our period back to now?

And so some of the questions I’ll ask is about exercise. Of course, I’ll also ask about food. And sometimes this happens almost unintentionally. Which is why we like to do food blog reviews with a lot of our clients, #1 for accountability, and #2 for a second set of eyes. In particular professional set of eyes from a registered dietitian to make sure, hey, do we really have everything there. And are we doing that consistently to support the safety that our body needs to feel to ovulate regularly? 

Lindsey Lusson  14:30

I’ll also ask questions about stress. Sometimes people will have changes in their situation going through any sort of major life change. Whether it’s work, whether it’s relationship, stress, something like that, can definitely impact your time to ovulation. We work with quite a few clients in healthcare. So there are definitely certain jobs that could impact how your body feels and whether or not it would be ovulating in a normal timeframe.  Also ask about sleep. You know, if you are doing everything right, but you’re skimping by on like five, six hours of sleep. That could definitely interfere with our body’s natural circadian rhythm. And hormones can be tied to that rhythm as well. 

Lindsey Lusson  15:09

Nutrient timing is a big one I’ve talked about on the last Q and A episode that I did. So you can go check that out if you want to know more about what I’m talking about when I refer to nutrient timing. And then, for instance, like, we’ll get clients inside of Food Freedom Fertility Society, who got their period back on their own. But then they’re experiencing, you know, 60 to 90 day cycles. Or they’re getting their period, but it’s like, really spotty. They’re not really getting a full flow. And so that’s where I’ll kind of ask the question, Hey, where were the gaps in your initial recovery plan? Because it’s possible that there’s some things that allowed you to get a bleed one time that maybe still aren’t supportive of having a regular ovulatory cycle. 

Lindsey Lusson  15:45

So if you’re having irregular cycles after HA recovery, there’s typically a reason for that. And you know, it can have patterns in a lot of different things. But if we know your history. If we know that the reason why you lost your period had some sort of roots in restricting food over exercise. Just kind of this, go, go, go, high stress, kind of operating in constant fight or flight mode, lifestyle. If that’s what initially led to the loss of your cycle, that’s where I want to start. Because there’s a really good chance that some of those things are off contributing to the irregular cycle before we start going down any sort of other rabbit hole. 

Lindsey Lusson  16:20

So to the original question, When should you start to worry… if I have a client who you know has a recovery period or two even, and it’s kind of weird, it’s we can’t identify ovulation, or the cycles are really long, or they’re only bleeding for like one to two days. This is like the first recovery period. I’m not worried at all. If it’s the second recovery period, I probably want to go back to some of the basics that we teach inside of our group coaching program.

And just to kind of remind people that your cycle should always be getting more normal with ongoing recovery. So even if you happen to have a bleed and then 28 days later you get another bleed, that’s amazing. If, for some reason, though, then your 28 day cycles start turning into like, 38 day cycles and then 42 day cycles, right? Like, if cycles are starting to become more irregular as you’re going on with recovery, then there’s probably something up. 

Lindsey Lusson  17:10

But give yourself a little bit of time. Like I said, we do see that kind of later ovulation and clients following our method anywhere between cycle day 18 and cycle day 25. If you’re getting closer to cycle day 3040, etc, and you can’t confirm ovulation, that’s when I would at least start asking some of those questions. And then, of course, if you’re noticing kind of those ongoing patterns of more and more irregularities going back to the basics for recovery is always a great place to start. 

Lindsey Lusson  17:35

Okay, the next question that I have is from Kelly. And Kelly asks, how can one discern between a real period, slash ovulatory cycle and inovulatory cycles, with just a withdrawal bleed? Even after recovering from HA and getting monthly bleeds, can a lot of exercise and or low body fat cause in ovulatory cycles. 

Lindsey Lusson  17:52

Oh, Kelly, I love that you’re asking this question, because I do think that so many times we think about, oh, I’ve got a period, I’m fine. And even outside the context of fertility, it is so important to know whether or not you’re ovulating. So I’m going to talk through how to know whether or not that you are and then answer kind of that second part of the question about exercise and body fat. The best way to know whether you’re ovulating or not is to actually track your cycles. What I always recommend to clients once they get their period back, is to download some sort of tracking app and to use that app in conjunction with the signs and symptoms that your unique body is sending you. 

Lindsey Lusson  18:27

The tracking apps, I have a love hate relationship with them. I think, all in all, they’re really good. But they’re only going to be accurate when it has a significant amount of your data. In terms of predicting your fertile window, predicting ovulation. And make sure that you’re not taking everything from the app at face value. Because once you download an app, if it doesn’t have any of your historical data, it’s going to tell you that you ovulate on cycle day 14. And that your period should come on cycle day 28. As I just discussed in the last question, even when people are doing everything right for HA recovery that is not typically, honestly, ever anyone’s experience for clients that I’ve worked with. 

Lindsey Lusson  19:02

So I like the tracking apps basically as just a one place to have all of your information. So I always tell people to pay attention to things like cervical mucus and other fertile signs. Such as an increase in libido, nipple sensitivity, increase in acne. And you’ll learn more of this, the more that you get regular cycles, you’ll kind of learn your own signs and signs and symptoms. But paying attention to cervical mucus and some of those other things can help you to identify when your body might be trying to ovulate. 

Lindsey Lusson  19:31

Next, I like to bring in ovulation predictor kits or OPKs. And an OPK measures the amount of luteinizing hormone or LH in your urine to tell us when your body is trying to ovulate. Now, OPKs predict, but don’t actually confirm ovulation. So if you’re using OPKs and you’re never getting positive, number one, make sure that you’re taking them correctly. If you read the directions, they’re going to tell you to not use first of the morning urine. And to make sure that you’re taking them roughly at the same time. Kind of every single day, during fertile window. So it’s possible you’re missing your surge. But again, the only way to know that is if we’re actually taking OPKs correctly. 

Lindsey Lusson  20:06

Now, since OPKs predict but don’t actually confirm ovulation, we do need to make sure that ovulation did occur. So if you get a positive that doesn’t necessarily mean that you did ovulate, we would want to follow that up with one of two different methods for confirming ovulation. The first is to track your basal body temperature. Now, basal body temperature tracking is a little bit tedious.

So if somebody is not trying to conceive, this isn’t my 100% favorite way. Although I do think that there’s tons of value and insights that it can provide about your hormones in your cycle. And just a really easy way to or maybe not the easiest way. But it is a way to know whether or not you’re ovulating. So if you’re manually doing basal body temperature, you want to make sure that you are starting on cycle day one of your new cycle. And that you’re taking your temperature each morning at the same time before you get out of bed. 

Lindsey Lusson  20:57

A lot of times when people are manually doing it, they’re doing it wrong. And then we just have this mixed bag of information that really can’t tell us anything. So before you get out of bed same time, pretty much every single day, even if it’s on the weekend, set an alarm, go back to sleep. Really, all we’re looking for is a temperature shift of about a half a degree and a sustained rise for at least three days. However, if we’re trying to conceive, we really want that sustained rise to last 10 to 14 days, or at least until your period comes to confirm a healthy ovulation. 

Lindsey Lusson  21:24

Now, in this day and age, there are a ton of really wonderful wearables. I typically recommend Tempdrop to my clients. And I’ll provide a link in the show notes for that, as well as a discount code if you’re interested in investing in a wearable like Tempdrop. I also have a lot of clients who use the aura ring. So anything that you’re going to be consistent with is really helpful for tracking that basal body temperature. And that’s one way to confirm that you are ovulating.

Another, if you’re not all about the tracking, is to have a blood progesterone test done seven days past suspected ovulation. If you get a blood progesterone test done anything above three nanograms per deciliter, confirms that you did ovulate. So those are two ways to confirm that ovulation did occur. And I think that it’s really important. As you are getting more serious about your hormonal health, especially if you have fertility goals in 2025 that you know that you are ovulating, and that you know that your luteal phase is healthy enough for fertility. 

Lindsey Lusson  22:13

So tracking can be a little bit tedious, but it’s actually really important. And I think for a lot of women who have lost their period, they kind of actually start to geek out and enjoy having the data just be like, Wow, it’s so cool. Like, look at what my body’s doing. 

Lindsey Lusson  22:25

So second part of the question, Can having low body fat or excessive exercise cause an ovulatory cycle? Yes, I actually see this all the time. Research suggests that close to 50% of women can experience in ovulatory cycles from time so it’s definitely worth testing to make sure you know for sure that you are ovulating, and to start making some of those appropriate lifestyle changes and increase in body fat, reducing the intensity and duration of your exercise if you find out that you actually aren’t ovulating. And the reason being like even if you’re not trying to conceive, is that we only make the hormone progesterone in significant amounts after ovulation occurs. And progesterone is important for mood balance, bone metabolism, sleep, thyroid health, and, of course, fertility. 

Lindsey Lusson  23:10

So making sure that you’re tracking your cycles can give you so so much insight on the health of your cycle and your hormones, and help you to know if there’s things that need to be tweaked and not something that we do inside of our group program as well. I would say about 20% of the clients that we work with actually do have their periods back, but they’re still experiencing infertility issues. Whether it’s a body fat issue, whether it’s a stress exercise issue, whether it’s a fueling issue or some sort of combination, your body was designed to ovulate and to make a baby. And so even if you are getting a regular bleed and ovulation isn’t occurring, We definitely want to get to the bottom of that. 

Lindsey Lusson  23:43

Okay, going to wrap up this week’s listener questions with a fun question from Brittany. And Brittany said, What is your favorite dessert? So thanks for asking this question, Brittany. I know so many times we’re asking kind of more deep, serious questions about fertility or hormones or exercise or disordered eating, so it’s always fun to put a mix in there. And, man, I could go so many different directions with this question.

First of all, pretty much like all desserts, but if I’m like out to eat and there’s a dessert menu and I’m not familiar with the desserts, what I’m usually picking out is something that is chocolate, like a chocolate cake, like, I would say, one of the cakes for like, you cut it open, and then there’s like, chocolate lava that comes out.

That one is always a fan favorite, and preferably with some ice cream. So interestingly enough, like chocolate cake, I wouldn’t necessarily rank at like, the top of my favorites, but if I’m going down a menu and there’s like, creme brulee and sorbet and key lime pie, I’m definitely going to choose the chocolate over that. 

Lindsey Lusson  24:39

So thanks you guys for tuning in and asking questions. If you have more questions that you guys want me to answer in the future, these episodes are super fun. I’m gonna try to do them quarterly in 2025 so drop me a question in the show notes again below. And thanks for tuning in.

Connect with Lindsey Lusson: 

Instagram: @‌food.freedom.fertility
Website: www.foodfreedomandfertility.com/
Twitter: @LindseyLusson
Tiktok: @food.freedom.fertility