Cravings… Do you struggle with them?
If you have PCOS, cravings can feel like a constant battle. Whether it’s emotional eating or cravings driven by insulin resistance and resulting blood sugar fluctuations, these urges can make losing weight and keeping it off incredibly challenging.
The good news? PCOS cravings can be helped — often quite quickly — with the right approach.
8 Top Tips To Conquer Your PCOS Cravings
These strategies have helped both my patients and myself take back control of eating habits, reduce cravings, and improve long-term health.
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Identify Your Triggers
Notice when and why cravings hit. Are they stress-related, boredom-driven, or linked to specific situations or emotions? Once identified, you can implement practical measures to prevent or address these triggers. -
Go for a 10-Minute Walk
Physical activity can calm your nervous system and reduce stress hormones that fuel cravings. Even a short walk helps distract and reset your brain, lessening the urge to snack. -
Stay Hydrated
Sometimes thirst disguises itself as hunger. Drinking a full glass of water before giving in to a craving often helps you realise you’re not truly hungry. -
Practice Stress-Relief Techniques
Techniques like meditation, deep breathing, or gentle yoga can help reduce stress—the common root of many emotional and insulin-driven cravings. -
Adopt a Low-Glycaemic-Load Natural Food Plan
Sticking to low GI/GL foods helps balance blood sugar and insulin levels, which in turn reduces cravings. Within just a week or so on this type of eating plan, many notice cravings significantly decrease — or even disappear. -
Get Sufficient Sleep
Lack of sleep throws your hunger hormones out of balance, making cravings worse and increasing appetite. Aim for 7–9 hours of restful sleep per night. -
Seek Counselling if Needed
If stress, anxiety, or emotional eating play a significant role in your cravings, a qualified counsellor can help provide tools to manage these triggers healthily. -
Eat Regularly and Include Protein With Every Meal
Regular meal timing stabilises blood sugar levels, while protein increases feelings of fullness and slows digestion, reducing the chances of sudden, intense cravings.
Why These Tips Work
Cravings in PCOS often stem from a combination of insulin resistance and hormonal imbalances that impact your body’s blood sugar regulation and stress response. By addressing these root causes through diet, exercise, stress management, and sleep, cravings are less likely to derail your health journey.
In particular, focusing on real, whole foods that gently support blood sugar helps break the cycle of spikes and crashes that fuel cravings. Combining this approach with mindfulness and self-compassion creates a sustainable lifestyle rather than a short-term fix.
Extra Support: Supplements and Activity
Along with these lifestyle changes, some people find that supplements such as inositol can improve insulin sensitivity and help reduce the intensity of cravings. Regular physical activity—primarily a mix of cardio and strength training—also improves insulin function and mood, further diminishing cravings.
Remember: managing PCOS cravings is a journey. Small, consistent steps add up to big changes. You’re not alone in this, and you can take control of cravings and build a healthy, balanced relationship with food.
Want to learn more?
From PCOS to perfect health, with love,
Dr. Rebecca Harwin
The PCOS Expert
Chiropractor & Bestselling Author of
Conquer Your PCOS Naturally
www.ConquerYourPCOSNaturally.com
P.S. Feel overwhelmed? Just implement one strategy at a time. As one of my colleagues says, “You can’t sprint a marathon.”
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