By now, you’ve likely scrolled past a few pastel-toned charts on Instagram telling you exactly how to eat, exercise, and live during each phase of your menstrual cycle. The concept: “Cycle syncing.” It’s a buzzy approach that matches your movement and meals to your hormones, with the promise of peak performance and glowing health.
But Dr. Preyasi Kothari, a physician at Innovative Vitality, urges us to pause before hopping on that neatly color-coded bandwagon. Her hot take? Cycle syncing, as it’s often presented online, isn’t grounded in solid science and could end up doing more harm than good.
“There are no studies that really give credence to cycle syncing,” she explains. “From a muscular physiological standpoint, our muscles can handle growth and exercise at any phase. The difference is more around how you feel — your mood, your energy level. So I like to think about it more as body awareness.”
That subtle shift, from prescriptive plans to intuitive self-awareness, is key. While it’s true that hormone levels fluctuate throughout the month, Dr. Kothari emphasizes that those changes don’t require a strict regimen swap.
So what is happening across the menstrual cycle?
Here’s a quick breakdown of the four phases according to Dr. Kothari and how you might feel, not what you must do.
1. Menstrual Phase (Days 1–5):
This is the bleeding part of your cycle, and the official “day one.” Hormones like estrogen and progesterone drop, which can lead to low energy, cramps, and disrupted sleep. Some people power through workouts. Others need rest. Both are valid.
2. Follicular Phase (Days 1–13):
Running alongside your period and continuing after, this phase is when estrogen gradually rises as your body prepares to release an egg. Many people report feeling more energized, focused, and upbeat. It’s a great time for creativity (and for those who lift, maybe adding a little more weight on the bar).
3. Ovulation (Around Day 14):
Estrogen peaks, testosterone makes a quick cameo, and you might feel strong, social, and ready to crush a workout. Some even say this is when they feel most powerful physically. It’s just a day or two, but it can be a sweet spot for high-performance movement.
4. Luteal Phase (Days 15–28):
Progesterone rises to prep the body for possible pregnancy. This hormone is calming (it even works on GABA receptors in the brain), but can also cause bloating, mood shifts, and lower energy. Your sleep might get funky. Your lifts might feel heavier. It’s not a failure, it’s physiology.
Dr. Kothari encourages viewing this timeline not as a rigid plan, but as a framework for self-compassion. “Instead of getting angry ‘Why did my workout suck today?’ ask yourself, ‘Where am I in my cycle?’ Use that awareness to give yourself grace.”
In fact, it’s how she structures her own workouts. “I don’t change my workouts based on where I am in the month. But I do listen to my body. If I can’t lift as heavy one week, I go a little lighter. It’s not a bad workout, it’s just a different day,” she said.
Where did Cycle Syncing come from?
The concept of cycle syncing was popularized by Alisa Vitti, a holistic health coach and the founder of FLO Living, in her 2014 book “WomanCode”. In it, she outlined a method for aligning food, exercise, and productivity with the four phases of the menstrual cycle. The method took off, especially on social media, where it’s often presented as a scientific truth rather than a personal protocol.
But as Dr. Kothari points out, the cycle syncing narrative often pulls from bits and pieces of science, wrapped in buzzwords like “hormone balancing.”
“If someone is trying to sell you something, especially with fear-based language or oversimplified claims like ‘balance your hormones,’ that’s a red flag. What hormones? Estrogen? Cortisol? Insulin? It’s misleading.”
A recent TIME article titled “You Don’t Need to ‘Balance’ Your Hormones” echoes this skepticism, calling out how social media wellness advice often oversimplifies women’s physiology and pathologizes normal fluctuations.
Dr. Kothari is particularly frustrated by the way influencers have co-opted complex biological processes into marketable trends, often aimed squarely at women — a demographic long subjected to messages that our bodies are broken and in need of constant fixing.
“There’s a lot of fear-mongering language, urgency, and absolutes,” she says. “And unfortunately, that plays into an ancient narrative that women’s bodies are inferior or too complicated to understand.”
So what should we do?
Start with tracking. Not so you can follow a rigid plan, but so you can recognize patterns in your energy, mood, digestion, sleep, and symptoms. Dr. Kothari suggests using Apple Health or Flo – I like Natural Cycles paired with Oura Ring – to log your cycle length, bleeding duration, and how you feel day to day. Then, let your body lead.
“Cycle syncing equals body awareness,” she says. “Honor your body. Listen to your body. That’s the only expert you need.”
