One of the most powerful things I have learned through nearly two years of Time Related Eating is that hunger is not always hunger.

I notice it most at 4pm and again at 6pm. These are the times I feel most pulled toward food, and for a long time I assumed this was genuine hunger. It is not. It is body memory. As a schoolgirl I ate at 4pm when school ended. In my family we were served dinner at 6pm. Decades later, my body still remembers those mealtimes and produces a very convincing imitation of hunger at exactly those times.

Then there is what I call brain hunger. One morning at 10am I started thinking about chunky chips and within minutes I felt genuinely hungry for them, despite having no intention of eating for hours. That is the mind running the show. What is in your head drives your appetite far more than we realise. A thought about food can trigger a physical sensation of hunger that feels completely real.

And there is emotional eating, reaching for food not because the body needs fuel but because it needs soothing. When we are stressed, bored, in pain or feeling low, food activates reward and comfort pathways in the brain. The reach for food at those moments is often a reach for safety and connection. Ultra-processed food is particularly effective at this because it gives us a quick hit of the feel-good chemicals we are actually craving.

So how do you tell the difference? The question I now ask myself is simple: is this my stomach or my brain? Real stomach hunger builds gradually, is satisfied by proper food and passes when you eat enough. Brain hunger and emotional hunger arrive suddenly, demand specific foods and are rarely satisfied by eating.

When a craving hits outside my eating window, I have a hot black coffee, some soda water and a gentle word with myself. I tell myself this is a memory, not a hunger, and that the feeling will pass. It always does, usually within minutes.

Over time, something remarkable happens. The body develops its own wisdom. On two evenings recently my brain pushed for food at 6pm but my stomach said a clear and firm no. I tried one teaspoonful of risotto. My stomach was not interested. After nearly two years of consistent Time Related Eating, my body knows when it is ready to eat and when it is not. That is not restriction. That is trust, built up slowly over time. It is also leptin, the satiety hormone, doing its job properly, and that is a very comfortable feeling.

This is why making a plan for your eating day is so important. A clear plan is the antidote to food noise, not willpower. When you know what you are eating and when, the mental chatter quietens. And when a craving does arrive, you can meet it with curiosity rather than panic: is this real, or is this my brain remembering an old pattern?

You do not have to fight yourself. You just have to start noticing.

Jo writes honestly about hunger, cravings and emotional eating every day in her On the RAFT diary, available to members of the Foodsane community. Members also get access to the eating window and mood tracker, community chat, monthly Zoom meetings and free training. Membership is £10/month with no contract. Join here.