What's behind those mid-day cravings?

We’ve all been there. It’s 3 pm, and you’re sitting at work. You’ve already eaten lunch, but you’re not quite satisfied. You’ve got a couple of hours before dinner, but you’re getting those mid-afternoon cravings.

You might grab a chocolate bar from the stash that you have in your desk drawer. Or you might head over to the coffee machine and treat yourself to a frothy latte with an extra pump of caramel syrup. Anything to satisfy your cravings until dinner time.

Mid-afternoon cravings are a normal part of life, but what causes them? Why do you get the urge to reach into the snack drawer or satisfy your sweet tooth in between lunch and dinner time?

Eating too little at lunch

One of the most common reasons for mid-afternoon cravings is genuine hunger. If you have eaten very little at breakfast or lunchtime, your body might be in a calorie deficit, and your stomach is sending hunger signals to your brain.

If you are working all day, your brain and body use energy to help you focus on your tasks. Therefore, you might need an energy boost during the afternoon to keep you going if you’ve not eaten a substantial lunch.

Fatigue

Another common reason for cravings is fatigue. Whether you are physically or mentally tired, your body’s way of coping might be through an increased intake of food.

Even if you don’t feel tired throughout the rest of your day, it’s common to feel a sudden onset of fatigue between midday and dinner time.

This is because your body is busy digesting the food you have just eaten for lunch. Blood gets diverted away from the muscles to the digestive system, which can leave you feeling low on energy. This is often referred to as post-lunch hypoglycemia and is caused by a drop in blood sugar levels.

Lack of sleep

When you lack the quality or quantity of your sleep, it can throw your hunger hormones out of balance.

Ghrelin and leptin are responsible for regulating how hungry and full you feel. When you’ve had an inadequate amount of sleep, your ghrelin increases, causing you to feel hungrier than usual. Because of this, you end up craving a sweet treat by the time 3 pm comes around to try to reduce these hunger signals.

Boredom or stress

A lot of the time, cravings are psychological in nature. If you’ve finished most of your work tasks for the day or you’re bored at home, you might find yourself snacking to pass the time. Boredom leads to cravings for high fat and high sugar foods, such as chips or chocolate.

There is also the opposite problem. If you have a long list of things that need to be done before you finish working for the day, this can cause you to become stressed. When you’re stressed, you often end up craving sugary foods that are quick and easy to eat and will give you lots of energy to get everything done.