Aug 11, 2026 · 33 min · 13 segments
**Hit 3pm and suddenly all you can think about is coffee, chocolate… or preferably both?** Following on from last week's episode on why you're hungry at 10am, this week on Dr Julie's Coffee Chats…
Reason number one is probably the one I see most often in women.
You simply have not eaten enough earlier in the day.
And yes, this follows beautifully from what we talked about last week.
So many women get to 3:00, absolutely ravenous, and immediately blame the chocolate craving.
But I want you to rewind the clock.
What did you actually eat before you got there? Maybe you rushed out the door with a coffee and piece of toast.
You had a busy morning, so lunch got pushed round later than planned.
Then lunch was something small, a salad, a little wrap, maybe whatever you could grab quickly between meetings or running after kids.
And suddenly it's 3:00.
You're tired, you're hungry, and your body wants something that is going to give it energy right now.
Of course the chocolate looks good.
And this is where I think we need to change the conversation, particularly for women.
We spend so much time talking about what women should eat less of: less sugar, less carbohydrate, smaller portions, fewer snacks, don't eat between meals, don't eat after a certain time.
But sometimes the reason you're thinking about food all afternoon isn't because you're eating too much.
It's because you haven't eaten enough.
Your body has energy requirements.
Your brain needs energy.
Your muscles need energy.
You're working, thinking, parenting, exercising, making decisions, and generally doing all the things that make up a normal day.
And if you've given your body very little fuel since you woke up, eventually it's gonna ask for some, quite loudly.
That's why I don't want you looking at the 3:00 PM craving in isolation.
Instead, look at the whole day leading up to it.
Did I have breakfast? Did breakfast actually satisfy me? Did I eat enough at lunch? Have I been unintentionally restricting because I'm trying to be good? Because quite often, what looks like a problem at 3:00 actually started at 7:00 in the morning.
And here's another important piece here.
If you regularly arrive at the afternoon absolutely starving, it becomes much harder to make an intentional food choice.
Reason number one is probably the one I see most often in women.
You simply have not eaten enough earlier in the day.
And yes, this follows beautifully from what we talked about last week.
So many women get to 3:00, absolutely ravenous, and immediately blame the chocolate craving.
But I want you to rewind the clock.
What did you actually eat before you got there? Maybe you rushed out the door with a coffee and piece of toast.
You had a busy morning, so lunch got pushed round later than planned.
Then lunch was something small, a salad, a little wrap, maybe whatever you could grab quickly between meetings or running after kids.
And suddenly it's 3:00.
You're tired, you're hungry, and your body wants something that is going to give it energy right now.
Of course the chocolate looks good.
And this is where I think we need to change the conversation, particularly for women.
We spend so much time talking about what women should eat less of: less sugar, less carbohydrate, smaller portions, fewer snacks, don't eat between meals, don't eat after a certain time.
But sometimes the reason you're thinking about food all afternoon isn't because you're eating too much.
It's because you haven't eaten enough.
Your body has energy requirements.
Your brain needs energy.
Your muscles need energy.
You're working, thinking, parenting, exercising, making decisions, and generally doing all the things that make up a normal day.
And if you've given your body very little fuel since you woke up, eventually it's gonna ask for some, quite loudly.
That's why I don't want you looking at the 3:00 PM craving in isolation.
Instead, look at the whole day leading up to it.
Did I have breakfast? Did breakfast actually satisfy me? Did I eat enough at lunch? Have I been unintentionally restricting because I'm trying to be good? Because quite often, what looks like a problem at 3:00 actually started at 7:00 in the morning.
And here's another important piece here.
If you regularly arrive at the afternoon absolutely starving, it becomes much harder to make an intentional food choice.
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