Female Advice Preferred: Period weight gain?

[~anongirl~]

Hi ladies -

I have a hugeeeee problem. I've been on my period for 3 days now, however on my second day (yesterday) I woke up feeling WAY heavier than usual, I felt very big and bloated and my clothes did not fit me. My moms been calling me fat and is very disappointedly in me, I told her I had my period but she said period weight gain is never as severe as what I have. She told me, Bri I have no idea what you've been doing, but you just ruined yourself. She goes on and on about how "big" ive gotten, etc...I admit I have been eating quite unhealthy this past few days, we had a lot of guests over. However not enough for me to gain so much weight.

Plz help me ASAP, I'll be traveling tomorrow afternoon and I don't want to travel being fat

[Jess~]

yeah, i'm almost 98% sure you're not actually fat.
bloating and weight gain during your period is completely normal and you shouldn't be criticized for it because you have no control over what your hormones do to your body.

i'm going to take a wild guess and say that the weight gain isn't too severe, judging by the other things your mom is saying about you. if she was being gentle and genuinely concerned, i might think you should be worried. however, the fact that she says you "ruined" yourself and is calling you big and whatever, that tells me that she's extremely exaggerating the state of YOUR body.

i bolded "YOUR" because it's important to remember that your body belongs to you and you alone. nobody else can tell you what to do with it or whether you should change it, that is entirely up to you.

i tend to eat unhealthily while i'm on my period or a few days before my period as well. again, that's just our hormones giving us cravings and telling us things that we can't control. of course, you can control what you put into your body, and it's good to be aware of that and try to stay healthy. however, you're 15. you're still a kid. you can eat unhealthy things and not have it immediately go to your stomach.
my guess is that this "weight gain" and bloating is more on your period and less on the food you ate.

if you're concerned, and want to work to lose this extra weight (again, my guess is that it's going to go away shortly after your period ends), i'd love to help you design a workout schedule and give you advice on your eating habits. but that will take a lot of time and effort, and honestly, i think you're most likely perfectly fine.

there's not much you can do between now and tomorrow afternoon to "not travel fat". you could always try googling ways to get rid of bloating, because that would help the most.
my advice is, just stop worrying about it, at least while you're traveling. have fun, eat what you want, just enjoy your day. forget whatever your mom says. if you have to, tell her to take a look at herself before she tries judging you. often times people who are ugly on the inside will try to make other people feel ugly on the outside.

It sounds like your mom has a very unhealthy mindset about weight. The fact that she said "You ruined" yourself is quite a damaging concept. It seems to me like it is very likely that your mom is exaggerating your weight gain for some reason...possibly due to her own issues regarding weight.

The best suggestion I can make is that you try and ignore your mom and embrace yourself as you are. There are always going to be people who try and bring you down. I know how hurtful it can be when the person bringing you down is your mom but from experience you have to kind of learn to brush it off and remind yourself that other people's opinion of your body do not matter.

Also, you period can add a bit of weight due to a number of factors. I can't post weight numbers but there have been times when I've been on my period that I've gained quite a bit of weight and I freaked out. Once my period ended I lost most of the weight (if not all of it). I also think it's important to note that there are a lot of people who eat unhealthily and even bigger amounts while they are going to start or are on there period. For me, it would switch between me having cravings and wanting to eat a lot to not wanting to eat much at all.

Best of luck and if you need anything feel free to message me.

[~anongirl~]

Thanks so much for your responses. It helps to know that I'm not alone in this.

Yeah lol I really freaked out when I gained all the weight, it's just that it never happens to th other girls in my family (my mom and sisters complain about "feeling bloated", but it's never truly visible on them, whereas for me during that time of month it almost always looks like I just ate enough to feed a city) ://