Understanding Monthly Hormone Fluctuations effects on your body: How to Adjust Your Nutrition, Training & Lifestyle to Feel and Perform Your Best

This blog is specific to women who were assigned female at birth (AFAB) and are in their pre-menopausal years. If you’re peri-menopausal, postmenopausal, or biologically male, don’t worry—there’ll be other posts relevant to you. However this is still a beneficial read for all genders and ages. 

Understanding Monthly Hormone Fluctuations effects on your body: How to Adjust Your Nutrition, Training & Lifestyle to Feel and Perform Your Best

We have over 50 hormones working behind the scenes in our bodies—in this blog I’m going to focus on two of your sex hormones: 
oestrogen a(estradiol)* and progesterone.

By the end of reading this, I want you to feel clear about which hormones dominate which parts of your cycle, and what effects they can have on your physiology.
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🌀 Understanding the Menstrual Cycle: The Two Main Phases
A menstrual cycle can be divided into two main phases:

1. Follicular Phase (Day 1 of bleed → Ovulation)
   • Low hormone state, with oestrogen steadily increasing and a constant low level of progesterone.
2. Luteal Phase (Post-ovulation → Day 1 of bleed)
   • High hormone state, dominated by progesterone, with moderate levels of oestrogen (also spelt estrogen) . Both hormones steadily decrease, oestrogen declining more quickly.

(See image)

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🔬 Hormone Effects on the Body
Oestrogen: Your Follicular Phase
• ✅ Anabolic (it builds): Supports muscle, tissue, and bone growth.
• ✅ Boosts muscle contractions and strength.
• ✅ Increases uptake of serotonin—our “feel-good” hormone—so this improves mood and motivation.
• ✅ Increases stress resilience (we cope better with physical, mental, and emotional stress).
• ✅ Faster recovery times.
• ✅ Prefers fat for fuel: low-carb works well here.
• ✅ Slightly inflammatory: supports immune vigilance.
• ✅ Improves immune function overall.
• ✅ Stabilises and reduces appetite.
Progesterone: Your Luteal Phase
• 🔻 Catabolic (it breaks down): reduces muscle-building, increases tissue turnover.
• 🔻 Weaker neuromuscular response: you may feel slower or weaker.
• 🔻 Heightens sensitivity in the nervous system.
• 🔻 Acts on GABA receptors: promotes calm but reduces drive.
• 🔻 Lowers stress resilience: more reactive to emotional or physical stress.
• 🔻 Slows recovery: your body needs more rest to perform optimally.
• 🔻 can’t access fatty acids or stored glucose as fuel as effectively  
• 🔻 Anti-inflammatory: reduced immune defence short-term.

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🏋️‍♀️ Adjusting Your Lifestyle by Phase
🌞 Follicular Phase (Day 1 to Ovulation)
Think: energy, performance, momentum.
• Training:
•  Now’s the time for an extra spin class or new personal best.
• You recover faster and tolerate more volume and intensity.
• Nutrition:
•  Better ability to utilise fatty acids (fats) as fuel.
• Appetite may be lower—oestergen is involved In appetite regulation. 
•  Your body will cope well with an 8- or 10-hour eating window if you like time-restricted eating.
• Motivation, productivity, and social energy tend to be higher.
You are more stress resilient to emotional and physical stress as Oestrogen drives a parasympathetic nervous system response (rest and restore, so we don’t stay in a fight and flight state continuously) 
• This is a great time to start new projects or push forward on goals.
Common symptoms as you move towards the day of ovulation when Oestrogen is highest: temporary bloating, fluid retention, sore breasts, and mild cramps (especially around ovulation). These are due to rising oestrogen—not weight gain.

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🌙 Luteal Phase (Post-ovulation to Period)
Think: recovery, nourishment, intuition.
• Training:
• Scale back high-intensity or high-stress work—your nervous system is more sensitive, you will lean more into a sympathetic nervous system state ( fight and fight), you come less stress resilient .
• Prioritise rest, mobility, yoga, and technique sessions rather than full-on hard workouts, your now in more of a catabolic state ( breaking down cells and muscle) .
• Build in more rest days between sessions, to prevent over strain of the hypothalamus ( the gland which controls most bodily functions in response to stress) 
• Nutrition:
• Increase whole-food carbohydrates to support energy and hormone production.
• Avoid fasted training—your body needs fuel carbohydrates as fuel and it cant access stored glucose as quickly.
• A 12-hour eating window is more supportive for your adrenals and will reduce cortisol spikes.
• Lifestyle:
• Energy dips are natural—prioritise sleep, rest, and emotional care.
• You may feel less social and more introspective. Honour that.
• Be creative, enjoy being unproductive, go inward, and allow space to reset.

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When you align your habits with your hormonal landscape, you not only perform better—you also avoid burnout, injuries, and emotional overwhelm.

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🎯 Final Thoughts
Your menstrual cycle isn’t a limitation. It’s a powerful rhythm that, when understood and respected, becomes one of your greatest tools for self knowledge, sustainable health, energy, and performance.
You shouldn’t be “on” or super-productive all month. Let’s get excited about tuning in, listening, and adapting to what our body needs. It’s empowering. For too long we have looked outside to know what we should be doing with our bodies. Put yourself in the driver’s seat—your body will tell you.
Your body is you, and you don’t need to be a mystery to yourself.
*There are actually 3 types of oestrogen in the female body: E1, E2, and E3. Estradiol (aka E2) is the dominant oestrogen in premenopausal, non-pregnant women, and that’s the oestrogen I’m talking about in the blog above.