Insulin spikes + crashes
A high-glycaemic meal sends glucose up, insulin overshoots, glucose drops below baseline — and the brain screams for sugar to climb back out. The 3pm crash is usually breakfast's fault.
+ Symptom 11
Insulin · Dopamine · Magnesium
Sugar cravings I can't out-willpower.
The 3pm chocolate. The wine after dinner. The biscuit you didn't decide to eat — you just looked down and it was gone. You're not weak. You're not undisciplined. You're running a body whose blood sugar, brain chemistry and reward system are asking for something the willpower channel can't deliver.
Cravings that override conscious choice are almost always biochemistry — insulin swings, magnesium depletion, dopamine dysregulation, gut dysbiosis, perimenopausal hormone shift. We test the chemistry instead of asking you to try harder.
The Picture
If this is you,
it might sound like —
Read these the way you'd read a letter from someone who already knows. If three or more land hard, you're in the right place.
- I crash at 3pm and I'd hand over a kidney for chocolate.
- I'm fine all day — and then 9pm hits and I can't stop snacking.
- Wine has stopped feeling optional.
- I eat a 'good' breakfast and I'm starving by 11.
- I get hangry — properly, scary-hangry — if I'm 30 minutes late to a meal.
- I've quit sugar cold turkey six times. It always comes back.
- I genuinely don't know if it's hunger or a craving anymore.
- I feel like an addict and I've never said that out loud.
+ Key Drivers
What's actually driving it.
Cravings that survive willpower are almost always a biochemical signal — not a moral failing. The drivers are testable, and they respond.
Magnesium depletion
Chocolate cravings — especially premenstrual — are often a cry for magnesium. Cocoa is the richest dietary source. The body is medicating itself.
Dopamine dysregulation
Chronic restriction + binge cycles re-wire the reward system. Sugar becomes the only reliable hit. The fix isn't more restriction — it's restoring the upstream chemistry.
Gut dysbiosis (candida, SIBO)
Certain gut microbes literally feed on sugar and signal the brain to send more. The cravings aren't always yours — some of them are the bugs.
Progesterone drop + serotonin dip
The premenstrual chocolate craving is real biochemistry — falling progesterone, falling serotonin, rising appetite. It isn't your imagination.
Sleep debt + cortisol
One night under six hours raises ghrelin, drops leptin, and increases sugar-seeking by 30-40% the next day. The craving is a sleep symptom.
+ Key Tests
How we see the chemistry.
Cravings respond to data fast. A two-week look at glucose, insulin, magnesium and gut chemistry usually rewrites the entire approach.
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CGM · Continuous glucose monitorTwo weeks of real-time data on which meals spike you, which crash you, and which 'healthy' foods are actually driving the 3pm collapse.
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Bloods · Insulin + glycaemicFasting insulin, HbA1c, glucose. Identifies insulin resistance years before fasting glucose looks abnormal.
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HTMA · Mineral panelMagnesium, chromium, zinc — the minerals blood-sugar regulation runs on, and the ones cravings most reliably signal.
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OAT · Organic acidsGut dysbiosis markers (candida, bacterial overgrowth), neurotransmitter metabolites, B-vitamin status. Identifies the gut + dopamine drivers.
+ Foundational Must-Haves
What you can start today.
Six high-leverage daily moves. Most clients feel the cravings drop meaningfully inside 2-3 weeks just from these — before any prescription protocol begins.
- 30 g protein at breakfast within an hour of waking. The single most leveraged move for shutting down 3pm cravings.
- Never eat carbs alone. Always pair with protein, fat or fibre. Halves the spike, halves the crash, halves the next craving.
- Magnesium glycinate 300–400 mg at bedtime. Premenstrual chocolate cravings often vanish inside one cycle.
- Walk 10 minutes after every main meal. Drops the post-meal glucose spike by 20-30% — which means no crash, no craving.
- Eat lunch by 1pm and include 30 g protein. The 3pm crash is almost always a late, light, carb-heavy lunch.
- Cap alcohol — especially weeknights. Alcohol crashes overnight glucose, which is why you wake up wanting toast.
+ The Process with How It Heals
Not weakness. Not willpower.
Cravings that override conscious choice are biochemistry. Insulin swings, magnesium depletion, gut dysbiosis, dopamine dysregulation and the premenstrual hormone drop account for most of it. None of them respond to trying harder. All of them respond to addressing the upstream cause.
Most clients feel the cravings drop meaningfully inside 2-3 weeks once breakfast and magnesium are in. The 3pm crash usually goes first.
+ From the women in front of us
What changed.
Selected from clients who started here — chronic 3pm cravings, evening sugar/alcohol pull, hangry rage at lunch — and worked through the 22-week reset.
My 3pm chocolate habit just… stopped. I didn't quit it. I ate breakfast properly and it walked away on its own.
L.K. · 38 · New Farm
CGM showed my oat-and-banana 'healthy' breakfast was spiking me to 11 and crashing me to 3.8. Changed it. Cravings gone in a week.
M.S. · 42 · Telehealth