Amenorrhea and Weight Gain????

Ok, so this has been a problem for me for about a year and a half.  Quick background.  I am a triathlete.  I literally work out 3 hours a day 4-5 days a week and a minimum of an 1 hr. 15 min. 1-2 days a week.  I do take one day off a week. 

I have been experiencing weight gain over the past year and a half.  From December 2008 to May 2009, I gained 15 lbs while maintaining this workout regiment and watching what i ate.  They did several tests on me, (checked my thyroid, other hormone levels, checked for polycistic ovarian disease, etc.).  Everything came back fine.  Since May, I have lost 5-7 lbs of that weight through long sustain working out.  Problem is, its still a daily struggle.  With how much i'm working out and how little i'm eating (averaging around 1500 calories now) I should weigh much less than I do.  You are probably thinking that my calorie count seems low, but I've tried to increase my eating (up to 2200 calories) and that didn't work.  I tried severly cutting my calories (down to 1200) and that didn't work. 

In May I also went off of Birth Control thinking that may have something to do with it.  Well it didn't, but the problem is that I stopped having my period.  I've had several tests done and nothing seems to be causing this Amenorrhea.  The doctor put me an estrogen pill to try and force me to have a period and that didn't work.  So now I'm back on the pill with hopes that it will regulate things and make me normal again.

So my question is, everything I've read equates this condition to Low weight.  How can this be my problem when I have excess fat on me? (I really do, its not just some warped self image).  I am not saying that I am overweight by any means, but I am not at an extremly low body fat percntage that should cause this. Any suggestions?  Is anyone else experiencing the same problem?

Oh, I am 5'6" and weigh around 142 (give or take a pound or two).  and yes I know muscle takes up less space and can cause you to weigh more than you look.

The common causes of amenorrhea include low body-weight and low body-fat % ... BUT.... they also include excessive exercise and a nutritionally poor diet, especially one low in fats.

I would suspect that your problems stem from the last two.  I can guarantee you're malnourished on 1500 cals a day if you're doing that much exercise.  And the exercise on its own would be enough to stop your periods anyway.

I agree that 1500 is too low with activity. How long did you give it on 2200? This can take many months at a higher caloric level with added fats. It probably won't happen a month after and being consistent is key. Your metabolism is probably very slow right now due to the back and forth eating and added activity. I know it can be frustrating to wait but it takes time to repair

Being an athlete you are prob very muscular. Wokring out this much will be building muscle which may account for your weight gain. Do you clothes fit the same?

Loss of period can be caused by low bod fat percentage, if you are very muscular and have low body fat, this could be why you are not getting a period. 

I was in residential treatment for an eating disorder with a young woman who was also an athlete. She was very muscular and had no period. She had blood tests that showed that her levels of estrogen in her blood were too low. She was required to increase her calories significantly and gain body fat. She got her period back within a few months. 

Our bodies need a certain amount of body fat for them to "know" that conceiving would be safe and result in successful pregnancy, which is biologically why we have periods afterall. If your body fat % is too low, your body will stop ovulating/mensturating becuase it "knows" there is not enough body fat, and therefore the body is not healthy enough to sustain pregnancy

Up to 25% of athletes lose their periods for different amounts of time. It's not necessarily a tragedy especially if you've stopped growing, if all the tests came out fine and you are feeling perfectly ok just leave it be, it will come back eventually.

You are definitely not to thin, I'm also athletic 5'7" and 120 pounds, I used to lose periods for up to three or four months when I was 20 and I weighed more than this back then, did a lot of blood tests and ultrasounds but all came back fine and the episodes suddenly stopped around the age of 24. Don't sweat it, just like dismenorrhea (the pains associated with menstruation) amenorrhea is not always explicable.

It's funny, no one really answered your question about weight gain. I remember hearing a long time ago that if our bodies are depleted of fats that we need it will generate some way of creating it--although this seems odd, I wonder. I arrived at this site and your question because I was googling for answers as to why my 14 year old daughter is not "skin and bones", given the amount of cross-country running she does--atleast 4-6 miles on weekdays and about 7-8 on weekends. I'm concerned because she, like you, takes in about 12-1500 calories a day, however very little of them from fat--bowl of oatmeal in the morning; sandwich and apple for lunch; usually fish or pasta, a salad and another veggie for dinner, yet she has GAINED weight--not too much, but enough that it bugs her. This concerns me because she took up running to reduce her weight, and I'm afraid that this may result in all kinds of additional crazy measures to make herself slimmer. Anyway, this morning we talked a bit about it, and she agreed to start adding a carton of yogurt to her breakfast, and have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch, and snack on raw almonds, all to increase the fats she takes in. I'm thinking that with some people there's a relationship with eating low-fat/no-fat and excessive exercise (let's face it, the exercise that runners take on should be deemed excessive--I hardly think our bipedal ancestors RAN 30+ miles a week, maybe walked) and weight gain. That's how I found your question, googling for information. I did run across this great article: http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?Arti cleID=3623&PageNum=2  I didn't answer your question, but thought you should know that you are not alone.

Hey, you said you upped your calories to 2200 at one point, and I think that's even too low. If you burn about 1500 sedentary, and if you're working out at pretty high intensity for 3 hours a day, you probably burn about 600 calories per hour during your workouts. So that's between 3000-3500 calories you burn a day. This sounds like a lot but since you're so active you can easily burn that much. I ate probably 2500+ calories a day back when I was training, and I lost weight. I went from about 142lbs to around 130-132lbs in like 4 months (and I'm 5'6").

I found that simply trying to eat healthy and not really trying to lose weight was actually the way to go. When I actively try to diet, it never seems to work. But when I just eat healthier and exercise, the weight just comes off. 

So my advice to you concerning the weight gain: try to eat more. Aim for between 2500-3000 calories a day. I think it would be nearly impossible for you to gain weight while exercising so much. 

And as far as amenorrhea, what is your BF%? You say it's not too low but some women lose their period at higher BF% than others. 

Anyway, good luck :) :)