Table of Contents
Last updated on August 20th, 2025 at 04:45 pm
If you’ve lost your period during or after dieting or an eating disorder, you’re not alone. Many people experience hypothalamic amenorrhea, the loss of menstruation, when the body isn’t getting enough energy, rest, or balance.
Missing your cycle can feel stressful, but it’s actually your body’s way of signaling that it needs more care and nourishment. The good news is that with time, healing, and the right support, getting your period back after starvation is possible. Restoring your cycle is more than just a physical milestone, it’s a sign that your body is recovering, your hormones are finding balance again, and your health is moving in a positive direction.Period recovery is a powerful signal that your body is healing, nourished, and safe.
This article will walk you through why you may have lost your period, what is happening in your body when you no longer have a period, and supportive steps you can take to encourage your periods to return.
Understanding Why My Period is Missing
Hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA) is the loss of your menstrual cycle due to the hypothalamus, the part of your brain that regulates hormones, slowing down or shutting off the signals that control ovulation. When your body doesn’t receive enough calories to meet its energy needs, it reduces non-essential functions, like reproduction, to conserve energy. This is one of the most common causes in eating disorders or restrictive diets. Losing your period is one of the early warning signs of an eating disorder.
Food restriction will often result in a woman’s period stopping or changing significantly. When you are starving, your body shuts down many “non essential” biological processes such as the ability to reproduce.
The process in the body that causes you to lose your period with an eating disorder look like this:
- Your body is suppressing something called ganadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). It’s not important that you know how to say it-or even that you know the acronym. But it is an essential component in the body for the feedback mechanisms involved in making estradiol.
- Low GnRH causes low follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)
- Low GnRH also causes low luteinizing hormone (LH)
- As a result of all of these hormones being low- the ovarian granulosa does not produce estradiol.
- Endometrial thickening does not occur. Meaning you won’t have a period.
Eating Disorder Behaviors That Cause Loss of Period
In short, any eating disorder behavior that reduces energy availability, stresses the body, or causes nutrient deficiencies can contribute to the loss of your period. While losing your period is often associated with an eating disorder, losing your period might not always be related to intentional food restiction. You may lose your period because you have an intense physical activity routine and are not properly fueling your body. If this is the case, sometimes simple education can help you to increase your food intake to meet your calorie needs.
Regardless losing your period from intense physical activity alone is never normal. Seek out professional guidance immediately if you have noticed a loss of period with increased sports performance or other physical activity.
Eating disroder behaviors that lead to period loss include:
- Compulsive exercise
- Cutting out food groups
- Restricting your calories
- Intentional weight loss
- Purging
- Laxative abuse
Why Do I Need To Have My Period
Having a regular menstrual cycle is important for far more than fertility, it’s a key indicator of overall health. Estrogen, which rises and falls with your period, plays a crucial role in maintaining bone density, and without it, the risk of osteopenia, osteoporosis, and fractures increases significantly. If you have an eating disorders and have lost your period, you have a 60% increased risk in bone fractures.
Estrogen also protects cardiovascular health by keeping blood vessels flexible and supporting healthy cholesterol levels, which lowers the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. Regular periods signal that ovulation is occurring, which is essential not only for pregnancy but also for long-term reproductive health. Beyond reproduction, balanced levels of estrogen and progesterone affect mood, sleep, libido, and energy regulation
When your body is in starvation syndrome, it will attempt to conserve energy wherever it can. If your a woman, the first thing to go is often your period. However, your lean body mass, hair, skin and every other non vital function will also suffer simultaneously.
Some biological shifts your body makes to conserve energy with starvation include:
- Decreased bone mineral density
- Heart attacks
- Psychological Disturbances
- Infertility
- Low sex drive
- Compromised immune system
- Hair loss
- Decrease in mood and memory
How Quickly Will I Lose My Period With An ED
The timing is different for everyone. Some people lose their period within just a few months of restrictive eating, over-exercising, or rapid weight loss. For others, it may take longer, even up to a year, before you period stops. The speed depends on several factors, including how much energy your body is receiving compared to what it needs, how quickly weight changes, exercise intensity, stress levels, and your unique genetics and hormone sensitivity.
It’s also possible for periods to become irregular before stopping completely. You might notice lighter bleeding, longer cycles, or skipped months before losing your period altogether. This is your body’s way of signaling that it’s under stress and doesn’t feel safe to maintain reproduction.
While the exact timing can vary, the key point is that menstrual changes are an early warning sign of energy deficiency and stress. If your period has stopped or is irregular, it’s important to take it seriously and tell someone you trust about your eating disorder.
How To Get Your Period Back
Getting your period back will require you to increase your total calorie intake, reduce your total physical activity, and repair any organ and tissue damage that has occurred as a result of starvation.
If you have an eating disorder, your eating disorder voice will likely get in the way of any of your attempts to gain weight or reduce eating disorder behaviors, so it’s important that you work with a qualified support team to help you manage your eating disorder symptoms.
It’s also VERY important to remember that you CAN resume your periods BEFORE you are fully weight restored. Just because you have got your period back does not mean you do not need to gain more weight after an eating disorder for full repair of your organs and tissues.
To get your period back after an ED, you need to be actively doing these things:
- Weight restoring including any overshoot weight needed for organ and tissue repair
- Period recovery may require you gain overshoot weight which is maintaining a higher weight than what you were at before you stopped having your period
- Stop exercise until you are fully weight restored and your healthcare team states it is safe to do so.
- Use stress management tools to help reduce stress and cortisol in your body which can prolong period recovery
- Get adequate sleep to help with energy and cortisol levels
Period Recovery Meal Plan
A period recovery meal plan typically ranges from 2400 calories per day all the way up to 6000+ calories per day. If you have an eating disorder, you will need a recovery meal plan prescribed by an eating disorder dietitian in order to safely begin the weight restoration process.
It’s critical to know that starting too low or too high in your recovery meal plan could be life-threatening. You should carefully work with your healthcare team to establish the right meal plan for you. Sometimes during eating disorder recovery, people experience something called hypermetabolism. This means your body will need an extreme amount of calories to weight restore and prevent weight loss.
You should plan to have 3 meals and 3 snacks a day every day, no more than 3 hours apart to get your period back. You also may need to use supplement shakes if your calories are high in order to recover your period.
Here is a sample starter period recovery meal plan (you may need significantly more food than is on this plan):
- Breakfast: English muffin with 2 eggs, 1 full avocado split into two halves, cheese (2oz), 8 oz of whole milk
- Snack: Apple with peanut butter (2oz), string cheese
- Lunch: Pasta (2.5 cups cooked) with meat sauce (1 cup), cheese (2oz), garlic bread (2 slices), 8 oz whole milke
- Snack: Carrots with hummus (4 tbsp), 2 cookies
- Dinner: Meatloaf (8 oz) with mashed potatoes (1.5 cups), cooked broccoli, 8 oz whole milk
- Snack: Ice cream with chocolate sauce (1.5 cups)
Foods To Eat To Get Your Period Back
Foods with more energy per volume (high calorie foods) can make it easier for you to meet the high metabolic demands necessary to get your period back.
There is no one single food or group or food group that will cause you to get your period back. However, these foods will help you get more calories with less volume to increase your total calorie intake and help you get your period back. These foods can be helpful if you are experiencing early satiety often associated with weight restoration because you won’t need to eat as much to achieve your nutrition needs for the day.
If you are having a hard time getting in enough calories for the day, you might try making a porition of your calories liquid for easier digestion.
Some good foods to include to help get your period back are:
- Nuts and nut butter
- Avocado
- Ice cream
- Added oils and fats
- Butter
- Smoothies (especially with nuts, seeds, or nut butters)
- Full-fat yogurt
- Protein shakes
- Red meats
- Seeds
How Long Does It Take To Get Your Period Back
The timeline for getting your period back after an eating disorder can vary widely from person to person. For some, menstruation returns within a few months of consistent nourishment, rest, and reduced stress. For others, it may take six months, a year, or even longer. Factors like how long you’ve been without a period, your body weight and composition, exercise levels, stress, and overall hormone health all play a role in how quickly your cycle returns.
In general, research suggests that many people see their period return within 6–12 months of restoring adequate energy intake and making lifestyle changes that support recovery. However, it’s important to remember that your body operates on its own timeline. Even small changes, ike lighter bleeding, spotting, or shifts in cervical mucus, can be positive signs that your cycle is beginning to restart.
Most importantly, the return of your period is a sign of healing: your body recognizing that it’s safe, nourished, and has enough energy to support reproduction again. Working with a healthcare provider who understands eating disorders can help monitor your progress and rule out any other medical causes.
Should I Take Birth Control To Get My Period Back
No!
In fact, using birth control to try to get a period back can be very dangerous and cause you to falsely believe your body is “okay” when it is still experiencing all of the risks associated with starvation.
While most birth control pills will result in blood flow during the “placebo” days, the hormones in birth control pills simply mask the absence of those hormones required to produce a period in our body.
This is dangerous for a few reasons including:
- Your body requires energy to produce a placebo period caused by birth control. This is often energy that cannot be spared, thus furthering the problems already common with low energy intake.
- You may think that they are weight restored because they are having a placebo period from using birth control. It tricks the eating disorder into thinking the body is “healthy” and does not need to gain more weight.
- You and your healthcare team may miss the severity of your eating disorder. The underlying cause is not being treated (which is starvation) and your eating disorder could get worse!
Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Recovery Signs
Before you get your period back, your body will start to show you signs that it is preparing for a cycle. These body changes can let you know that you are moving in the right direction even if you have not got your period back just yet.
Signs that you are about to get your period back include:
- Increase in body temperature
- You notice you’re getting your hunger cues back
- You may notice an improvement in sleep
- No longer having night sweats
- You might notice breast tenderness or swelling
- You may notice more vaginal discharge or spotting
Coping Tools for Getting Your Period Back
There are often two competing voices when it comes to the way you might feel about getting your period back. You might feel accomplished and safe because you are one step closer to eating disorder recovery. On the other hand, you might feel anxious that you are losing some of the control the eating disorder gave you. You might also be afraid that once your period comes back, people won’t know how truly sick you still feel.
You might be grieving your thinner body, even though you knew it was sick when your period is gone. Getting your period back is a real physical representation that your body is healing and that you are leaving your eating disorder identity in the past. This can feel terrifying, and can even leave you feel like you are failing yoruself.
Some things that can help with the high emotions of getting your period back include:
- Using body-positive journal prompts to get out the emotions you are feeling
- Practicing respecting your body both mentally and physically
- Check out these eating disorder recovery books to share in others’ journeys
- Choose a powerful mantra or eating disorder recovery quote
- Stop body checking
- Practice food neutrality
- Keep a list of inspiring eating disorder recovery songs
- Keep a list of your favorite recovery bible quotes
It can also be helpful to look at some of the facts and myths that are common when it comes to eating disorders. Many of your negative thoughts around food and our bodies comes false information from the media about what it means like to have an eating disorder and recover.
- 10 Tips To Cope With Bad Body Image Days - September 29, 2025
- Managing Bloating in Anorexia Recovery - September 15, 2025
- The Orthorexia Quiz: Created by A Dietitian - August 25, 2025