Two thirds of adults in England are obese or overweight. It would make as much sense to ask what is different about the other one third.

My sister is in the 3rd of the population that is and always has been a healthy weight, I ate and have the same activity level as she did but I gain weight, she stays the same no matter what she eats. Her metabolism just seems faster and her body shape is different to mine, I have slim legs and arms and put weight on my middle. To be slim I have to eat a lot less than she does and still I have a bit of a belly. We both had large babies, mine 10 pounds and hers 9 pounds, she went straight back to a size 10 I went to a size 16. Both breastfed, etc. I am now a size 12 and OK with that, but have to watch what I eat, whereas she has chocolate and drinks wine. She used to be teased about being too thin too!

I also have a friend who is desperate to put on weigh as he hates being so thin and no matter what he eats he cant gain weight, so some of this is genetics.

To answer a couple of points -

I'm vegetarian and I'm overweight. My daughter is vegetarian and she is fat.

Lots of young people are vegan or veggie and some of them are fat.

When I was slim I ate what I wanted. No self discipline whatsoever. I'm actually far more self disciplined now I'm 20 years older, peri menopausal and overweight. I no longer drink alcohol, I snack far less and you'll never catch me eating puddings more than about twice a year,

I was underweight growing up. Normal meals, no eating disorders, just genetically skinny. Dad was slim all his life.

I've been a size 8 for years. Size 10 bottom, since I hit my 40s.

Now on the right side of 50s, these are the things I do/don't do:

Don't drink. Complete teetotaller. Occasionally had a few drinks in my 20s.
It's just not my thing. Don't like the after effects.

Never smoked.

Skip breakfast as usually not hungry
In the morning

Eat a big meal once a day. Usually late lunch or early dinner.

Do snack, crisps and dark chocolate. Not daily.

Minimal exercise

It's a myth that slim people are healthy. My dad had high blood pressure and suffered from a stroke. My mum too. I think I'm predisposed to that disease as it runs in my family.

You've got my dad's attitude to food he ended up with malnutrition and type 2 diabetes. Make sure you are eating the foods that is beneficial for your body to keep it healthy.

Most nurses work shifts or have done for a significant part of their career. Shift working, particularly overnight, is a health risk, including metabolic issues. We are incredibly lucky that people compromise their health to look after us. Of course the food environment doesn't help in hospitals where lack of budget means junk food companies win over providing staff with healthier choices. It is well known that when people are tired they will crave more sugar and fat, yet the vending machines and shops are stuffed full of those products rather than removing the worst products.

For me it would be having basic nutritional knowledge - thank you, parents! Having been brought up with small plates in the house. We literally had one "normal size" dinner plate in the household of 4 which my grandfather occasionally used. The rest of our plates were sort-of 50s-style (9inches) and our soup bowls probably held no more than 250ml of food. Concept of snacking didn't exist in our house. You got three square meals a day and that was your lot. A small bar of good quality dark chocolate would be shared among the entire family with evening cup of tea.
There were no condiments like mayo or ketchup.

Also I lost 5 stone and I don’t understand the term “food noise”. Even when I was 15 stone plus the reasons were, lack of planning, lack of knowing when to stop, I always gave myself a treat with food and used it as a reward or to soothe myself or because I “deserved” it. I had PCOS which I don’t suffer so much from now that I don’t eat any sugar at all.

I eat healthily now, I reward myself with other things. I do have times when I’m heavier like at Christmas but I realised I wasn’t actually getting anything from food except fat, poor and emotionally empty.

I can’t say what other people’s reasons are but those are mine.

I ignore my food noise. Eating protein, cutting out sugar and UPFs helps hugely.

Oprah Winfrey just sees the financial potential in normalising weakness. People desperately want to believe what she says is true so they can feel good. Meanwhile she rakes in the dosh and becomes an icon. She's a highly articulate business woman.

That said, I think the weight loss jabs are a good thing for anyone who struggles and certainly respect anyone taking control in that way too. Whatever works, go for it.

My (female) partner is a healthy weight and has weighed the same, give or take a few 3lbs since her early 20s. She is now mid 50s. She has a healthy emotional relationship with food in that she doesn’t binge eat or starve herself and has never been on a diet in her life. She doesn’t really exercise and is quite sedentary. She doesn’t have a great diet. She makes relatively healthy breakfast choices (weetabix and fruit) and her standard lunches are fairly balanced and healthy (say a sandwich, some fruit and a cake) but she snacks a lot on crisps, cakes, biscuits and chocolate, loves sugary coffees from Costa etc and she has unhealthy, fatty takeaways at least 3 times per week, sometimes more if she has McDonald’s a couple of times for lunch instead of taking sandwiches from home. She lives for carbs and her evening meals tend to be ultra processed freezer food. I’ve come to the conclusion that she’s just very lucky. Her older sister has the exact same body type as her and similar eating habits and is about the same size and weight as her.

(meanwhile I’m over here eating low carb, low sugar, no alcohol etc and I struggle to even stay in the healthy part of the BMI chart - I’m usually a few lbs over)

I've been borderline underweight all my life (40s now) but I like food, cooking and eating and eat whatever I want, have snacks daily, drink alcohol, certainly no picture of virtue or health. I just stop when I've had enough so probably end up eating smaller portions? Like PP have said, I just don't hear the 'food noise': if I'm not hungry you can waft my favourite food in front of me and I won't be tempted, never mind popping into a cafe or the snack cupboard just because they're there. Genuinely no willpower required.
It makes sense to me from an evolutionary perspective that more people hear the food noise than don't.

Is it a result of aging population ? more middle age people - women gone through menopause and older men. It seem to be when weight appears in Dh and my family.

Though increase food prices in last few years haven't helped - we have to bring that down with three teens - I used to do all the cooking from scratch but less so now fussy eaters and increased costs and fuel costs all make that more a luxury and thus rarer for us. We wee never much for take outs - more quicker cheaper home cooking with time poor individuals.

My brother is obese and I am healthy weight. I eat in moderation - he stuffs his face and does not stop until food is taken away from him.
I work full time and work out 4-5 times a week.
He is on benefits and does very little physical activity.
We had the same childhood. Same access to food. Same parents.

I'm happy. He is happy.

Sometimes people make different choices.

I agree with most of the slim responses on here. I’m slim, I don’t over eat, ever, it makes me feel heavy and very uncomfortable if I do eat too much. If I’m out and hungry I can honestly say I’ll never grab a fast food takeaway, I’ll either wait til I get home, or I’ll get a banana from Tesco express etc…

Genetics. My dad was very thin, I am very thin and my son is very thin. Doesn’t matter what we eat or how we exercise.

A difference I have noticed is the amount of food though - I get full quicker than others and I can’t stomach a lot of sweet stuff in one go. Like one doughnut is fine, two in a row would make me feel sick. But it’s an innate thing, not something I have to tell myself.

Same for people who aren't overweight except for fear of hunger feelings and lack of will power. A skinny person can still eat all the wrong foods and be incredibly unhealthy with malnutrition and type 2 diabetes.

Because being very slim and having that flat, empty stomach feeling gives me far more pleasure than any food in the world could. So it's simple for me.

And also not being a foodie helps. I don't derive any pleasure from food whatsoever, eat to live, don't live to eat. All the 'trying new foods, visiting exciting restaurants, enjoying fresh organic ingredients, etc' leave me completely cold. I can munch on a plate of broccoli just as happily as a McD's burger or a Michelin dinner, I don't care. My criteria is: as fast as possible, cheap-ish (hate wasting money on something as pointless as food), healty-ish and won't make me fat (most important). So I usually eat same-y: eggs, stir-fry veg, some meat-protein, some pulses, salads, etc, quikly thrown together.

I don't think it's possible to ignore ravenous hunger, that's the thing and for many that's a reality. We are genetically hardwired to eventually respond to hunger. So low dose of weight loss jabs for life might be the reality for those who want to keep weight at bay. Some just don't experience hunger in the same way.

I was overweight as a teenager and have been around 8.5-9st at 5ft 7 for my adult life. I do lots of exercise and eat to fuel that exercise with balance in my food. My observations are that people who I work with who are overweight appear to eat little at lunch for eg, but their lunch is processed food and then they snack on crisps, biscuits etc. And are horrified by getting sweaty. It's pretty basic calories in vs out for me. And a big ass salad and chickpeas takes longer to eat and makes you feel more full than a meal deal sandwich. So you're not reaching for the biscuits an hour later...

I don't want to get fat so I have learnt to say no to myself. I eat relatively healthily and am very active through both necessity and choice. I have fat family. My portions sizes are smaller than average perhaps. I don't eat take aways very often, don't drink, and don't drive anywhere. I rarely eat out and don't snack a lot although I eat chocolate daily m. Essentially for me it's down to willpower and lifestyle choices.

It's hardly rocket science. I don't think anyone will be massively impressed if I tell them I eat sensibly-sized portions for 80% of the time and I exercise almost daily. We all know the right things to do. I think it is important we do ask people with weight problems what stops them from doing things they are well aware they should be doing.

As a slim person that is not my experience. My family are all fat. It's got nothing to do with everything lining up for me. It's a choice that I make everyday to be disciplined and eat healthy food in portions that aren't too big. I would also love too eat too much crap but I know the results of that. It really annoys me when people act like it's ever so easy for slim people to be slim. In my experience it takes work, exercise, choices and loads of food prep.

Both DH and I are slim. We both excersize (running, walking) regularly, eat pretty healthily, don't smoke and drink very little (I'm teetotal and DH has a couple of beers a week.)

I'm conscious that everyone has different circumstances, what works or is indeed possible for one won't be for another.

Not really because they will hear "food noise" as soon as they stop taking it. So at some point they need to learn to hear the noise and ignore the temptations around them, as most slim people do.

I think it's more to do with psychology than anything else personally and I say that as an obese person.

Interesting .It seems that there are various reasons ,Lots of well heeled people seem very slim, compared to the general population.Yes many lower income folk are overweight .But lots of Nurses for example, are often on the large side.This seems strange as they are well educated health professionals.I think that some people may like exercise ,may have a better metabolism , and be free of childhood trauma which has a huge bearing on weight issues as well

This is going to sound unhelpful but in all honesty I think it's genetic for me. I will have periods when I eat more unhealthily than others (e.g. a week with several takeaways) but my weight has never fluctuated.

My DH can only lose weight by cutting carbs. But I eat loads of carbs and don't gain. Feels like it must be biology.

The only thing I would say is that I think my appetite regulates itself. When pregnant I naturally fancied double my usual basic breakfast but everything else was the same. I also never, ever eat until I'm really full as I don't like the feeling.

I think people at work would say im always eating, but thats because I'll be hungry and start eating my lunch at 11. But I finish early so I eat dinner by 4.30/5. So really my diet is no different from theirs...Im just eating each meal earlier.

I think I absolutely have 'food noise' like those who have injections to combat it. I think about food an awful lot, never miss a meal (and they're quite close together) and am always looking forward to the next one. But my way of eating just seems to work for me.