menopause and food cravings
By Andrea Donsky | Fact Checked | Sources
It is nine in the evening. You are not hungry. You had a proper dinner. And you are standing in front of the cupboard because there is a very specific thing you need and it is not carrot sticks.
Cravings in perimenopause are real and they are not a discipline problem. But the usual explanation for them, that your hormones are making you want sugar, is shakier than you have been told.
Are cravings the same thing as hunger?
No, and getting this distinction right changes what actually works.
Hunger builds slowly, you feel it in your body, and any reasonable food will fix it. A craving arrives suddenly, you feel it in your head, and only one specific thing will do. Nobody ever craved a plain chicken breast at 9pm.
They also respond to completely different things. Hunger responds to protein and regular meals. A craving responds to interrupting the cue that set it off. If what you are experiencing is mostly the first kind, menopause and increased hunger is the more useful page, and there is good measured data on it.
Do hormones actually cause food cravings?
Less directly than you would expect from the internet, and we would rather tell you that than sell you an easy story.
J. Scott Bembry, MD, of Premier Ob-Gyn, makes the point that there is no good evidence that falling estrogen and progesterone directly cause cravings. What is better established is cortisol's role, since cortisol increases appetite and it is elevated in a lot of women in this stage of life.
So the honest chain is indirect rather than direct. Perimenopause disturbs your sleep, raises your stress and unsettles your mood. Poor sleep, high stress and low mood are each independently strong drivers of craving. The hormones are upstream of the cravings rather than causing them at the point of the cupboard.
That is not worse news. It is better news, because every link in that chain is something you can actually work on, whereas your estrogen level is not.
Why does bad sleep make it so much worse?
This is the strongest and most practical link on the page.
A 2021 study in Food Quality and Preference on acute partial sleep deprivation found something specific about how short sleep changes food choice. The effect was not mainly a stronger pull toward high-energy food. It was a reduced desire for low-energy food.
Sit with that for a second, because it reframes the whole thing. After a broken night the salad does not become unappealing because you are weak. It becomes unappealing. You are choosing between options that do not look the same as they did yesterday.
Which means if perimenopause has wrecked your nights, the cravings are downstream of that, and menopause sleep problems is where the real work is.
Why does trying harder make it worse?
Because restriction and self-blame both feed the loop.
Deciding a food is forbidden reliably increases how much you think about it. And if you then eat it and feel awful about yourself, the low mood that follows is itself a craving trigger. That is the cycle a great many women are stuck in, and it is not fixed by more willpower. It is fixed by taking the moral weight off the food.
Wanting a biscuit is not a failure of character. It is a want. You can have it or not have it, and either way the world continues.
What else drives cravings?
- Low mood or depression. One of the strongest drivers, and one that deserves attention in its own right rather than being managed at the fridge.
- Thirst. Genuinely easy to mistake for a craving. Drink a glass of water and wait ten minutes before deciding.
- Boredom. Named honestly by more women than any other single reason.
- Habit and cue. If you always eat something sweet on the sofa at nine, the sofa at nine is the trigger, not your hormones.
- Medications. Steroids and several other prescriptions increase appetite as a known effect.
- Blood sugar swings. A meal that spikes and crashes leaves you craving the next spike. Menopause and blood sugar dysregulation covers it.
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What actually works?
Know your window
Almost every woman can name the time this happens. Late afternoon and mid-evening are the two big ones. Knowing yours is most of the battle, because you can put something in place at 3pm that you will never invent at 4.30pm standing in the kitchen. Track it for a week and the pattern will be obvious.
Wait ten minutes and do something with your hands
Cravings peak and pass. You are not trying to resist forever, only to get to the other side of a wave. Call someone, walk to the end of the road, do a puzzle, get in the shower. Anything that takes you out of the room with the food in it.
Protein and fiber at meals, so you arrive less depleted
This does not stop cravings directly. It stops the blood sugar crash that turns a mild want into an urgent one. Protein at every meal, plenty of vegetables, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds. What your body really needs when you crave is worth a read, and so is this on curbing cravings.
Do not skip meals
Skipping lunch to save calories reliably produces a worse evening. This is one of the most consistent patterns there is.
Have the thing, on purpose, sitting down
A moderate amount, on a plate, at the table, paying attention to it. Then leave the kitchen. This works considerably better than eating it standing at the counter while telling yourself you are not eating it.
Move regularly
Exercise you actually enjoy, dancing, swimming, tennis, walking with a friend, does more for mood and cravings than exercise you endure. Consistency beats intensity here by a wide margin.
Drink enough water
Simple, easily skipped, and it removes one whole category of false alarm. Five ways to stay hydrated besides water.
Handle the stress upstream
Deep breathing, yoga, meditation, tai chi, guided visualization, or a walk outside. Since cortisol is the most credible hormonal link to cravings, this is not a soft suggestion, it is the mechanism. More on relieving stress and on stress, sleep and strategies that work.
On probiotics and sugar cravings
You will see it claimed that gut bacteria drive sugar cravings and that a probiotic will fix them. The gut microbiome is a genuinely interesting area and this specific claim has not been established in humans. Probiotics have their own reasonable uses. Ending your 9pm cravings is not a promise we would make for them.
When should you talk to someone?
Cravings on their own rarely need a doctor. Do raise it if you feel out of control around food, if you are eating in secret, if eating is followed by intense shame, or if you are using food as the main way you manage difficult feelings. Those are worth proper support and there is help that works.
Also raise it if the cravings arrived with a new medication, or alongside constant thirst, needing to urinate more or unexplained weight change.
The short version
Cravings and hunger are different things and respond to different fixes. Falling estrogen does not appear to cause cravings directly. Cortisol, broken sleep and low mood do, and perimenopause supplies all three. Research on short sleep suggests it works mainly by making healthy food less appealing rather than junk food more appealing, which is worth knowing before you blame yourself. Learn the time of day yours arrive, wait ten minutes and change the room, eat protein at meals, do not skip lunch, and take the moral weight off the food. Restriction and shame both make cravings worse, reliably.
Related perimenopause and menopause symptoms
- Menopause and increased hunger
- Menopause and weight gain
- Menopause and blood sugar dysregulation
- Menopause and sleep problems
Frequently Asked Questions
Does menopause cause food cravings?
Not directly, according to the available evidence. There is no good research showing falling estrogen and progesterone cause cravings on their own. The better established link is cortisol, which increases appetite. Perimenopause raises stress, disturbs sleep and unsettles mood, and each of those independently drives craving, so the chain is indirect.
What is the difference between a craving and hunger?
Hunger builds gradually, is felt in the body and can be satisfied by any reasonable food. A craving arrives suddenly, is felt in the head and demands one specific thing. They also respond to different strategies: hunger to protein and regular meals, cravings to interrupting the cue that triggered them.
Why do I crave sugar more when I have not slept?
A 2021 study in Food Quality and Preference on acute partial sleep deprivation found the main effect was a reduced desire for low-energy foods rather than an increased desire for high-energy ones. In practice, after a broken night healthy food genuinely becomes less appealing, which is a different thing from lacking willpower.
Why does restricting food make cravings worse?
Deciding a food is forbidden reliably increases how often you think about it. If you then eat it and feel ashamed, that low mood is itself a craving trigger, which starts the cycle again. Removing the moral weight from the food breaks the loop more effectively than more willpower does.
Do probiotics stop sugar cravings?
The claim that gut bacteria drive sugar cravings and that probiotics will resolve them has not been established in humans. The microbiome is a genuinely interesting field and probiotics have other reasonable uses, but stopping evening cravings is not a promise the current evidence supports.
When should I get help with food cravings?
If you feel out of control around food, are eating in secret, feel intense shame afterwards, or are using food as your main way of managing difficult feelings. Also if cravings started with a new medication, or arrived alongside constant thirst, frequent urination or unexplained weight change.
