AIBU to ask how people stay slim without strict dieting?

Exercise and only eating what I actually want

That's not deprivation I mean I don't waste calories on porridge or sthg

Ideally walk 20-30km a day though and I know not everyone would consider that realistic

I do think some people just love to perform martyrdom

I don't eat much bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta. I don't eat in between meals and walk vout 3-4 miles a day. Weaknesses sugar and alcohol.

I snack/graze continually, but rarely eat big meals. It suits me far more. I eat tons of fish, seafood, vegetables, nuts, beans, eggs, fruit etc. Not bothered about meat. I love cooking and preparing food and don't have a sweet tooth at all.

I eat a few processed foods but not too many. Drink wine, but no beer/fizzy drinks. Takeaway about twice a year.

I don't restrict myself at all, because I genuinely enjoy pretty healthy foods, so I eat fairly freely. I had fresh anchovies, cherry tomatoes and roast sweet potato for breakfast, which probably sounds bloody awful to many people

I'm an ex-ballet dancer, but I really don't do much exercise these days. I stretch, bit of yoga, walking, occasional weights.

That's a lot of walking for somebody with a full time job!

I used to love biscuits, never particularly liked cake.

When i realised that biscuits are basically just palm oil and sugar, and eating 3 per day was enough to make me gain weight, it put me right off them. The more i've cleaned my diet of refined carbs like bread, the less i want snacks like biscuits. At work i keep a box of dates and apples for when i want something sweet.

I have a labradoodle. That's 2 hours of walking a day, right there. I gave up alcohol a few years ago (not for weight loss, but family history of alcohol abuse). I lift heavy weights three times a week and do sprint intervals on a row erg twice a week. I do snack, though.

The honey roasting bit is processing - it makes the nuts more palatable. It may or may not be ultra-processing, have a look at the ingredients - what's gone into the honey roast coating.

If you had a bag of plain peanuts - not salted, not roasted, not flavoured, just straight out of the shell, you might find them less easy to eat in a larger quantity.

Walk/take the stairs whenever you can, lay off booze, takeaways and refined carbs and don’t buy shite snacks in the food shop - if it’s there I’ll eat it but if it’s not I can’t.

I’m also a big fan of a social run, if I’ve arranged to meet someone I’ll go and we have a slow and steady plod and can chat away.

I do snack but I’m very active. I run minimum 3 days a week and one of those will be long distance. I try to also implement strength training a couple of times a week too. I commute via train so have to walk to and from the train station and my job tends to be 75% on my feet moving around. It isn’t really about food for me but exercise. I can eat what I want really provided I stay mega active. I’m not “naturally” slim, my whole family struggle with their weight and I have too in the past.

I don't eat sweets and puddings.

it’s primarily about blood sugar control.

do keto.

I am virtually the same - 5 ft 7.5inches, 60kg and size 12. It comes down to the size of your frame. I’m late 40s now and have put on a couple of kg but even when down around 56 - 58kg I was 10 - 12.

They don’t eat when they’re not hungry. And when they do eat, they don’t eat massive portions.

My friend who is a size 6 eats everything but really small amounts.

I was an 8 till menopause then became a 10. I had an accident 2 years ago where I could hardly move for 5 months, I went up to a 12. After months of physio and then another issue with a severe reaction to medication that set me back again I’m back to a 10.

It’s all about smaller portions for me, snacking is very rare, hardly any sugar, fresh food and lots of walking and hiking. Never been a huge drinker, I get drunk very easily, too easily. On a big night out, friends would be drinking 5 to 10 glasses I would have had 2, all be at around the same level of being drunk. It’s a lot less calories for me.

Luck and genetics. That’s it.

There was a programme about this on channel 4 probably about 10 years ago and this was always the conclusion. All the people couldn’t understand why they were so slim without trying and when you followed them they just didn’t eat much.

I can’t remember it all but I do remember

• the man who said he ate ENORMOUS dinners did so but rarely ate anything else
• the woman who said she got 4 take aways a week did so but never finished them and often skipped breakfast

Basically none of them were eating a lot of calories - it’s literally the only answer. My DH lost loads of weight on his year abroad at uni while surviving on a diet, pizza and white wine spritzers - too hungover or lazy to get up and eat breakfast or lunch most days and walked everywhere so even though the diet was awful there just wasn’t a lot going in.

I'm not sure you can actively lose weight by following the habits of a slim person who is maintaining their size (unless by doing so they are living/eating what you would term a diet)

I've lost a lot of weight cutting out most sugar, alcohol and eating low carbs. Doesn't have to be every day, you could do it in a 5/2 basis or 4/3 basis so that 2 or 3 days a week you can eat those things if that is how your lifestyle works.

My job involves a lot of travel round the country. If I am organised I pack lunch (and breakfast if I'm out by 5). If not then Pret does quite nice salads e.g. broccoli, chicken, edamame beans and eggs / tuna nicoise / small protein pots with a small soup. Gail's also does a really lovely 4 bean salad with broccoli and pickled fennel and a turmeric dressing. If you are really hungry/ in need of carbs, Leon brown rice bowls with chicken and slaw. You just have to ignore all the lovely looking baguettes and pastries that call your name when you are tired!

Just don't eat a lot of calories. It's as simple and as complicated as that.

I am not very slim now post children but I was in the past and when I think about what I ate then compared to now I can see why.

For me it’s lots of allergies which mean that my diet is restricted, strength training (for my mh and bones) and not being overly interested in food (due to mh and allergies).

Or as others like to tell me ‘luck’. (I would love to not shit myself every time I eat ‘normally’).

@Coffeeloveer its just finding a lifestyle where your food intake matches your activity level.

Once you get this right and it becomes routine it's actually quite hard to put on weight without conscious effort.

My metabolism has dropped off recently (mid/late 40s) so I'm currently adjusting my routine. I've opted for more active for now.

Don’t focus on losing weight. Focus on getting back in touch with your natural appetite, so that you can eat when hungry and stop when satiated. Once you’ve got this nailed, you genuinely can eat what you want and not gain excess weight. I naturally eat less when I am less active and more when more active. No foods are off limits. No foods are ‘good’ or ‘bad’ . No weird rules to follow.

It took me a year to achieve this in my late twenties. ( I had a sub-clinical eating disorder of binge eating/ compulsive overeating before this), but I’m mid fifties now, so it worked. I can see now it got rid of ‘food noise’ the same way WLI do, but without using WLI.

This

Go and stand in a supermarket
Its wall to wall carbs
Of course this is deliberate because carbs spike your blood glucose, insulin is produced then your BG drops rapidly
this prompts you to eat
You dont use your stored carbs, glycogen as they are always available
Watch a documentary called " The men who made us fat"
It was deliberate, yep read again
Deliberate because it gets you buying again and again

Add in time poverty, poverty, price and availability, lack of cooking space and knowledge and no eating area/ table plus the instant availability of crap via Just eat etc

Unless you are an Olympic rower or run marathons you do not need so many carbs!

The cherry on the cake
Now we have made you fat, lets invent and sell you jabs to make you slim
Keep the money rolling in !

It was this, it's still on catch up

Watch The Secret Lives of Slim People | Stream free on Channel 4

However, I think that one of the 8 people they featured did appear to eat more calories than she burned but for the other 7, it was always the case that they didn't eat much, in one way or another, when they looked at everything they ate over time.

A few years ago, I did a work project where a group of us stayed in a hotel for weeks on end, so we were together for breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner every day. We saw everything that everyone ate and it was obvious why people were the weight they were.

So the person who always had 3 courses at dinner and was always buying doughnuts for everyone, so they had an excuse to eat them themselves, was obviously heavier than the slim person who never touched the doughnuts and other snacks that were always available and for dinner, had a starter and a main course that they left most of or took for lunch the next day.

If I did this, I'd be obese!

My appetite far outweighs my actual calorie needs.

And that's eating a healthy diet, 3 meals a day, 100g+ protein, wholefoods, no booze etc.

I just have a big appetite.