“But my doctor says I will get FAT when I start HA recovery!!”

I've heard from many women that when they tell their doctors, after they've done some research and learned what it takes to recover from HA, the response is: You want to think about it. Do you really want to end up fat??

I'm talking about it in this video, but if you can also keep reading to see what my thoughts on this are.

I want to remind you though that I'm not a medical doctor but I have overcame Hypothalamic Amenorrhea myself and have helped many other women do the same. There's also an extensive resource out there, called NPNW, where you can find lots of evidence that this method – eat more, exercise less or not at all for the time being – works.

Learn more about how to eat to get your period back, here.

But back to the topic.

Honestly I don’t know why too many doctors don’t seem to be aware of the dangers of under eating, over training and hypothalamic amenorrhea.

It has been proven in hundreds of studies how long time hypothalamic amenorrhea has serious negative effects on health, osteoporosis being the main one. Also atherosclerosis and various cognitive disorders are related to having no period for years.

My personal experience is this: Only 1 of the 4 doctors that I saw for hypothalamic amenorrhea (over the course of 10 years) asked about my lifestyle and training habits and suggested that “you may want to run a little less”. But even she wasn’t sure so I definitely didn’t take it seriously either. With the mindset that I had back then – “I have to be as skinny as possible” – I would have needed much more direct and prescriptive approach.

Unfortunately I’ve even heard of women who have been told by health care professionals that they should NOT rest and eat more or else they get fat. But this “fat”, which often even isn’t fat by any means, is needed to bring the starving body back to balance.

Those who are in recovery do not want to hear it but I’m not going to sugar coat it: don’t think that a magic potion or herb or acupuncture will do the work and you don’t have to gain weight. You do. Yes even if you aren't currently underweight. And while it's not fun or pleasant, you can accept it.

I’m not a medical doctor but I got my period back by gaining weight. I know what worked for me and has worked for so many other women I’ve helped. It wasn’t training harder and eating less.

It was doing the opposite plus changing our mindsets around our body ideas and ourselves. If you’re told that you get “fat” when you start recovery and are encouraged to NOT start that journey, I’d recommend you walk away 🤷🏼‍♀️

Instead, check out this resource for example. You will save a lot of time, money and energy that you would otherwise spend on expensive tests and possibly wrong treatment suggestions…

Question: If you had/have HA: were you ever told to NOT increase calories and gain weight because it’s “unhealthy”? Share your experience if that happened to you, I’m curious!