There’s usually threads on here along the vein of “if you are slim, tell me all your secrets/what you eat in a day/how you think about food” etc and they are always really interesting. Usually started by an OP who has spent years, perhaps their entire life, struggling with their weight.
It got me to thinking about others like me, who were always effortlessly thin as young adults but then that changed. Why did it change? How did it change?
I was a size 8 up until my mid 20s, when I slowly started putting on weight. Up until the age of 25, when I got weighed at the doctors I was always told “you don’t want to lose any weight”. I’m now 35, 2-3 stone overweight and a size 14-16.
I’ve spent years writing it off by saying “well I’m older now, my metabolism has slowed down, I’ve had a baby” etc but I have been lying to myself. When I honesty look back at my thin days, a few things stick out:
- if I ate a massive dinner, I wouldn’t eat much the next day. Not deliberately, I just wasn’t hungry and I’d listen to my body. I’ve stopped listening to my body and will eat just because “it’s breakfast time” even if I’m not hungry.
- I would eat loads of takeaways, but I’d either buy small portions (my Chinese order at uni was just a portion of egg fried rice and some sweet and sour sauce) or I’d only eat a small amount and then have the rest as leftovers. A medium dominoes pizza would only have half eaten and the rest in the fridge. Same with curries. Now, I’ll eat the lot.
- I never really thought about what I ate. If I wasn’t hungry, I wouldn’t eat and I’d stop when I was full. I now just eat for the sake of it and clear my plate even if I’m not hungry.
On an emotional level, I went through a huge life upheaval in my mid 20s which I think led to me turning to food for comfort in a way I never had before. As a teen and in my early 20s, when I had a breakup or other upsetting experience, I’d lose half a stone as I couldn’t eat. A switch flipped at this age, and I started turning to food for comfort in a way I never had before.
I’m interested to know if anyone else was thin in their younger years but are now overweight, what happened? Can you pinpoint how, when and why it changed?
Let this also be a warning to those of you who are thin now, to not make the mistakes I did!