If you rush through your day and arrive home ravenous, ready to eat everything in the fridge, here’s a different perspective: that feeling is often true hunger, not some mysterious craving — and that’s okay. Recognizing the difference is the first step to changing how you relate to food.
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Cravings and Hunger Aren’t Bad
Society often treats cravings and hunger as failures to be fixed. I want to reframe that: cravings can be signals your body is under-fueled. Instead of shaming yourself, look at how well you’re nourishing and fueling your body throughout the day. Balancing energy (calories), nutrients, and appetite cues helps stop the cycle of restriction, bingeing, guilt, and further restriction.
If cravings dominate your life, this episode is a wake-up call — a prompt to examine your daily intake, stress, sleep, and overall lifestyle so you can enjoy food and your life more fully. Share how hunger shows up for you in the comments; honest observations are the best starting point for change.
On Today’s Episode
- The difference between a low-nutrient and a low-energy diet (10:10)
- How dieting mentality still shapes the wellness world (12:20)
- Finding balance between energy and nutrient intake (13:45)
- Signs your plate’s volume doesn’t match your energy needs (17:30)
- How stress and your menstrual cycle influence cravings (20:32)
Resources Mentioned In This Show
Nutritional Therapy 101 Free 7 Day Course
Order The Core 4 Book
Nutritional Therapy Association Website
Quotes
“This is not a cravings problem. This is a lack of food problem.” (9:36)
“Relatively speaking, this 1200 calorie business has got to stop.” (10:50)
“If you get home at the end of the day and all you want to do is vacuum up everything in the kitchen, take an honest look at what you ate during the day.” (14:56)
“At the very baseline, we have our Basal Metabolic Rate — the energy needed for basic bodily function. Many people are subsisting far below that with what they eat.” (17:18)
“This is not a failing of you, this is not a character flaw, but you do need to do something about it.” (20:26)
“Sometimes cravings aren’t cravings — they are just hunger.” (22:26)
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246: How To Know If It’s Cravings or Hunger — Full Transcript (Edited)
Welcome to episode 246 of Harder to Kill Radio. I’m Steph Gaudreau, and this Friday episode — Fierce Love Friday — is a solo conversation about a common question: how to stop cravings. I’m focusing on one major piece today: many “cravings” are actually signals of under-fueling.
Imagine you skip breakfast or have only coffee, then lunch is a tiny salad with minimal protein and dressing on the side. By late afternoon your willpower is low — not just for food choices but because daily stressors drain mental energy. When you get home, you reach for quick-energy foods, usually sugary carbs. That urge isn’t typically for a boiled egg; it’s for rapid carbs that restore energy fast. Over time this pattern can look like mysterious carb cravings, which then fuels shame and increased restriction the next day. That cycle perpetuates itself.
We can view under-fueling in two ways: energy (calorie) deficit and nutrient deficit. Some people eat calorie-dense but nutrient-poor food; others eat very nutrient-dense food but not enough calories. In many wellness communities I see plates with lots of vegetables — which are excellent — but too little starchy or caloric content for active adults. Eating consistently below your basal metabolic rate is harmful. The “1200 calorie” approach is still common and problematic for many active people who aren’t extremely petite.
Fasting or time-restricted eating can work for some, but for others it makes it hard to consume sufficient energy within a narrow window. If fasting leaves you under-eating day after day, it may be contributing to cravings. Likewise, dieting mentality can be transported into any eating approach, even those marketed as “real food.”
Another factor is biological rhythm: people who menstruate will experience appetite and carbohydrate cravings that fluctuate across the cycle. The luteal phase (after ovulation) often brings higher appetite due to hormonal changes. This variability is normal, not a personal failure. Trying to force the exact same intake every day ignores physiological reality and often leads to frustration.
If you’ve adjusted food intake and still struggle, look beyond food. Chronic stress, sleep deprivation, overwork, and emotional challenges all increase vulnerability and can dysregulate appetite and blood sugar. Addressing those non-food factors can reduce the power of cravings.
Bottom line: sometimes cravings are just hunger. Start by honestly evaluating how much and what you eat during the day, consider your cycle and stress levels, and make adjustments that prioritize consistent nourishment. This episode is one piece of the puzzle; future episodes will explore other drivers and strategies in more depth.
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