Hunger builds slowly and accepts almost any food. A craving arrives suddenly, wants something specific, and usually shows up on schedule. They are different signals with different mechanics, and they respond to different fixes.
The most common craving trigger in logged data is the post-carb dip: a fast glucose rise followed by an overshooting decline two to three hours later. The brain reads the slope of that fall — not the absolute number — and asks for quick fuel. The second most common trigger is pure habit: the 16:00 desk snack, the after-dinner couch sweet. Those fire even when glucose is flat. Stress sits on top of both, raising cortisol and lowering the threshold for “yes”.
IQFood draws a cravings-pressure curve from these inputs, which changes the question from “why am I weak?” to “which trigger was that?”. A dip-triggered craving fades if you wait twenty minutes or walk; a habit-triggered one fades if the routine changes; a stress-triggered one responds to the stress, not the snack drawer.
None of this is willpower advice. It is a map — and cravings are much easier to navigate when you can see which road you’re on.