How the pill made boxer Kate McLaren experience a phantom pregnancy and gain 10kg in three months

Kate Mclaren gained 10kg in three months after taking the pill. Before that she was a strict vegan who wouldn’t even pick up a chocolate bar. Now the professional boxer reveals her journey.

A messy break-up and isolation led Kate McLaren to take up boxing two years ago, but when she began taking contraceptive pills she experienced significant weight gain.

It is a largely ignored hurdle female athletes must endure, and when it comes to boxing and cutting weight, can become a logistical nightmare.

For 32-year-old English-born McLaren, the journey from body confidence issues, to hating food, to loving fitness and now managing a professional boxing career while on the pill remain tricky to navigate.

“How I got into boxing was, I went through a really narcissistic break-up, basically my partner at the time made me feel very sh-t about myself,” McLaren said.

“I was being programmed then, like, ‘Watch what you're eating, why are you eating that, do you know how many calories are in one of those?’

“So I became obsessed with calorie counting, I was always on my fitness pal, was always meal prepping and watching everything I used to eat. I used to be a strict, strict vegan at this point, like you wouldn‘t even see me pick up a chocolate bar.

“I was running twice a day at this point. So that's all I used to do, I just ran in the morning, ran in the evening, and I’d go to work in the day. I’d take my meals and watch everything I’m eating. And that was how I lived. And then I broke up with my ex, ended up in hospital.

“They said, ‘What’s your support system here in Australia?’ COVID was here at this point, I had no support, I was completely on my own. I was in a very dark place.

Kate McLaren reveals how taking contraceptive pills have made her weight fluctuate

“I fell out of love with food and I couldn't bring myself to eat. And mentally I thought I was a big girl and I thought that I’d been dumped because I was bigger and tall. And he used to say, ‘You’re so tall. Take those heels off’. So body image became really f---ing hard for me at that time.

“So I then got into boxing, for my first fight, but on the night of the fight, I ended up getting my monthly cycle. And that basically put me into shock and I was like, ‘I'm about to go and perform and this has come’.

“Obviously I knew prior to it, ‘I think I'm due’ because I was feeling heavier. And then that came on the night of that and I was like, ‘This is an absolute disaster’.”

McLaren, who’d previously been a model, had been conscious of her weight and skin for years.

“After that fight I spoke to my mum and she said, ‘Look, if you're going to pursue your boxing career, you need to be in control of knowing when your weight is going to fluctuate, when your cycle is going to be, if it’s on the fight night that is something you’ve got to take into consideration’,” McLaren said.

“Also I was very, very insecure about my skin. She said ‘If you go on the contraceptive pill, it will clear up all of your skin’. So that was what originally made me go on the contraceptive pill.

Kate McLaren was obsessed with her weight

“I went to the doctor, ended up on Diane-35 and all of the insecurities and worries about eating food completely disappeared, and I went in the complete opposite end of the spectrum to the point where I was uncontrollable, I could not stop eating.

“And because I’d deprived my body of that for so many years and then obviously struggling with my mental health and my body image and my self-esteem, putting everything down to blaming the food, I then found boxing and became happy, was doing what I was loving doing and had followed and pursued my dreams and ambitions of doing Bridal Fashion Week, and I was like, f--- it.

“I didn't have my next fight lined up then, so I just was uncontrollable and I ate and ate and ate, and trained a little bit, and ate, to the point where then I couldn’t get into any of my clothes.

“But mentally I was loving food so much because there were flavours and things I’d completely deprived myself of.”

McLaren gained more than 10kg in three months.

“I get to an appointment with the doctor and I said, ‘The doctor put me on this three months ago, I’m now 10 and a bit kilos heavier, do you think it’s down to the pill?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, most likely’,” McLaren said.

Boxer Kate McLaren said she started to hate food

“What can happen with the pill is sometimes your body can go into like a phantom pregnancy where your body thinks that you're pregnant, your hormones are running around all over the place.

“So she put me onto a pill called Yasmin, and that pill has worked really, really well for me, it is the pill I’m still on at the moment.

“And the weight just came off. She said to me, ‘I’m pretty sure all the cravings are going to stop and the weight will just fall off of you and you’ll go back to normal weight’. That’s exactly what happened.”

IMPACTING CAREER

McLaren, trained by the legendary Jeff Fenech, has now had four professional bouts for two wins and two draws.

But while she’d campaigned at super-lightweight, the weight cuts on the pill have proved drastic, so she has decided to move up to welterweight.

“I have moved up a weight division because I don't want to be killing myself to fight at 63.5kg, super lightweight, it’s a real challenge and it’s hard for me,” she said.

“I walk around at 70 kilos. That’s my comfortable weight.

“So welterweight, at 66.7kg is my best division, and I’m aiming to weigh in at 66kg. “My fight is coming up on March 24.”

McLaren fights Kaitlyn Lodge, sister of NRL player Matt Lodge, in Windsor and is still undecided as to whether she’ll come off the pill to reduce bloating and make the weight cut easier.

McLaren took up professional boxing and is being coached by Australian boxing legend Jeff Fenech. Picture: Toby Zerna

“My thoughts at the moment, I'm training ridiculously hard, I’m in camp, I’m working with my nutritionist, I’m doing everything right, but do I come off of the pill to increase my muscle mass and my power by 60 per cent?” McLaren said.

“And even sitting here right now, I still don't know.

“It's going to make my skin break out. My hormones are going to change all over the place. It’s going to affect my training. It’s probably going to affect my mental health because I’m going, ‘What’s my body doing? Is this the right thing?’

“I'm going to lose track of my cycle because that’s what happens if you come off the pill, sometimes your body is trying to adjust and you just you just don’t know what’s going on.

“Or do I continue to take that pill and have 60 per cent less muscle mass and just sit where I am at the moment? Or do I come off of the pill, reduce my bloating, probably find it easier to make weight, have stronger, firmer skin because obviously I've built more muscle and know when my cycle is.

“But I don't know. I’m looking for answers still myself.”

HABITS BECAME DANGEROUS

While McLaren is a fit and healthy athlete now, there was once a time when her eating and training habits were dangerous.

“I remember I modelled at Bridal Fashion Week, and when we were getting sized up at I was working with one of the designers, I couldn't get into this one dress, and he said ‘Oh, we’ve got a bigger girl here, we’re going to need to go and get some bigger sizes of the dresses’,” McLaren said.

“And I remember thinking, ‘Oh, a big girl’. I've just not eaten food for the last month so that I can do the show.

“I remember the day of the fashion show. I hadn't put a single thing in my body because I didn’t want to bloat or anything like that. Probably the day before I hadn’t put anything in my body.

“I was obsessed with making sure, okay, I'm about to do Australian Bridal Fashion Week, this has been an absolute dream of mine, I need to sacrifice food in order to be able to walk the runway.

Kate McLaren first became body conscious when she began her modelling career and was told she was 'big'.

“It was a massive trigger point, ‘We’ve got a bigger girl, I'm going to need to go out and get a bigger dress’.”

But now, instead of worrying about dresses, McLaren is more concerned with belts – the world title kind.

While she has started her boxing career much later than usual, she is convinced her natural talent, work ethic and journey of discover over the past decade will allow her to conquer the mountain.

“I feel like knowledge is power and I have the knowledge now,” she said.

“A lot of people would say as you get older, the body slows down. Look at the girls that do CrossFit, a lot of them are like 35, 40 plus and they are killing it. They're ripped, they’re strong, they’re empowering.

“And I just think if they can do that, why can't I box until I’m older?

“I’m doing what I love doing. This is the best thing for my mental health, boxing just makes me happy. So why would I stop?”

THE DIET

Female athletes not only have to consider the side effects of the pill on their weight, but firmly understand their food intake, training and recovery habits, and gut health to get a true indication of how they’ll best perform.

That is the approach nutritionist Jennifer May is taking with boxer Kate McLaren.

While McLaren experienced weight gain after taking a certain contraceptive pill, May is working with the fighter on a number of issues to get maximum performance out of her body.

Kate McLaren says taking contraceptive pills have made her weight fluctuate

McLaren, who grew up mostly vegetarian and then became a strict vegan a few years ago, will conduct a food intolerance test this month.

“Kate was vegan, and that was another layer of complexity, coupled with that, she also suffers with some pretty severe digestive disturbance,” said May, who runs Sydney City Nutritionist.

“So she does struggle with digestive symptoms which can cause a lot of bloating and we have to manage that.

“And the vegan diet, being so rich in legumes and fibre particularly, you're trying to achieve a certain protein target to be able to support the level of muscle work, the muscle recovery and trying to stimulate the metabolism to work a little bit harder than it necessarily needs. To try to do all of that with a vegan diet, with a digestive system that isn’t really coping, is very difficult.

“So one of the things that Kate has done already is she started including some animal protein, in the form of white fish.

“She doesn't like doing it, it doesn’t make her feel good to be eating it. But she mentioned that she does feel better physically for having included it, and she’s very motivated and dedicated so that is one of the changes she’s made.”

May has also incorporated natural diuretics into McLaren’s daily diet to reduce bloating.

“A huge impact of the pill is that it causes a lot of water retention,” May said.

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“We can combat this with diuretics, including green tea between meals, eating celery during meals. These are quite strong diuretics that will help to reduce the excess fluid, but without dehydrating you in the process.

“And then also making sure that you're eating plenty of foods that contain the right balance of electrolytes. So salt is very important to athletes. But it’s really important to make sure that you’re also including fruits, cucumber and watermelon.”

McLaren has found the changes to her diet effective so far.

“One thing I have learned is food is fuel,” McLaren said.

“And the plan Jen has got me on, I've got all the colours of the rainbow going on, all the good colours of the rainbow and getting that bit of fish into me, I like it. I feel really good eating this way.

“She‘s got me to eat pumpkin and asparagus and cut up celery and cut up cucumbers, and fish and veggies and capsicums, but all in sauces, marinated in healthy stuff, lemon and chilli, it’s giving my body exactly what it needs to perform.”

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