People who are seen to be "naturally" slim.. what do you eat/how much exercise do you do?

[optimisticpessimist01]

I know a lot of people in my life that have always been slim, to an outsider looking in it looks like they have the genetics of God and are naturally very slim. However, I'm sure there is a lot of hard work that we don't see

If you are quite slim and have never really gained lots of weight, what does your usual food/exercise diary look like? Or is it possible that some people are just "naturally" slim?

Also to caveat I’m now more like 11 stone. Because I’m nearly 37 weeks pregnant but the above has been true since I was about 15

I was naturally slim and a petite size 8 and could eat and drink literally anything I wanted with zero exercise until I was 30. Then overnight my metabolism upped and left and I'm 2 stone overweight now and struggling to lose a few years later.

To lose anything I need to seriously restrict calories and have zero carbs, it's horrible. I was always the slim tiny one, not now. Really short so feel huge.

I've always been naturally slim and never had to watch what I eat. However lockdown has made me put on weight, which makes me realise how much exercise I was naturally getting just by going about my day - commuting every day, long walks at lunch, shopping etc. I'm feeling conscious about my body lately but I keep. on. SNACKING. I just can't stop! I can't bring myself to do enough exercise though lol.

My BMI is about 19 atm I think. It's often slightly less.

Today I have eaten:
Breakfast : bowl of fibre flake cereal
Snack: cereal bar
Lunch: sandwich which was two thick slices of white bread, boiled egg, cucumber, tomato and mustard. With a packet of marmite crisps, and a cake bar.
Snack: grapes
Dinner: ready-made lasagne, roast potatoes, smiley faces, broad beans.
Snack: a single bar of Aero chocolate.
Another snack: 4 crackers with cream cheese.

As you can see I tend to eat little and often.

I've had one cup of tea with milk, one cup of coffee with milk, two cups of decaff tea with milk, one cup of orange juice, and quite a few cups of water throughout the day. I did about 40 mins of light exercise by following online videos as part of a programme I am doing that is focused on improving women's core and pelvic floor strength.

@HopeClearwater

Can you say why you are obsessed ... I mean, why is it so important to you to stay slim? I’m genuinely interested.

I love being thin. It makes me feel good, until I think that I am not thin, and then I enjoy being hungry because I am getting thinner.

I have never ever thought about keeping myself slim and I can promise you there's no hard work going on behind the scenes.

If anything I have to work hard to ensure I'm eating enough as I have a tendency to undereat. Yes I do forget to eat, genuinely. (I have ADHD which might be why). I also tend to make less than I intend to, if I misjudge a portion size it will always be in that direction. I don't identify when people say they are thinking about the next meal as soon as they have finished one - I am not that interested in food unless I am hungry. Even when I am hungry I have to be REALLY hungry before I actively want to eat, usually the thought of getting up and preparing the food (and cleaning up afterwards) feels like too much work. I dread the next time I have to do that, rather than looking forward to the next time I get to eat again. I would rather just have a snack than a full meal. I also tend to find my portion sizes are small compared to DH, not even when I misjudge, even when I make as much as I wanted to have. I eat slowly and I don't like it when I have too much food and it gets cold or I feel bored of eating it because there is too much of the same thing.

If I feel full and there is still food on my plate and I don't fancy it I don't eat it.

I tend to prefer lighter foods like fish, rice, vegetables than fatty meat, pasta, bread, cheese etc.

I don't drink alcohol very often because I only like drinking socially.

I do fidget a lot but I don't routinely exercise. I walk a fair amount because I don't drive a car.

So I probably have a fairly low calorie diet but by accident rather than by choice. My mum is the same (I actually find her portions a bit too small now) so I probably just learned it from her.

I was 'naturally slim' til my 40s. I eat/drink/exercise similarly til then but my weight continues to increase. I think possibly because I am not running around after children any more and life is a slower pace.

I think I am putting on weight more since 30 though like someone else said. It's hard to tell because I had a baby that year as well so how much is baby, how much is age! But I had my first baby at 20 and I didn't put weight on after that.

Until I hit my 40s I was naturally slim. I could eat what I liked and my weight never fluctuated. Always a size 8-10. I do like doing exercise and always have done at least a couple of exercise classes a week since I was 18. However, my weight is creeping up since my mid 40s and now I’m a 10-12 and really do need to watch what I eat (and drink!). I’ve upped my exercise so work out 3-5 days a week - which is largely to enable me to eat more ‘normally’ for me and not feel too restricted in what I eat.

I'm a size 10 and apart from my two pregnancies never been bigger than this, ever. Apart from the little "mum pouch" at the bottom of my stomach I am fairly slim. 5ft 7.
I don't limit or cut out carbs or sugar because if I do then all I do is crave them 😂 BUT I do find intermittent fasting really works for me - I maintain my weight easily without needing masses of restrictions on my eating, plus I find it takes away the sugar cravings anyway as your blood sugars are balanced out by it. Essentially just eating between 12 and 8pm and having 2 meals a day. I also drink 3L of water a day.

I am naturally slim and would say that I can eat what I like but I think it really lies in the fact that I don’t LIKE to eat a lot. I used to think I must have a super fast metabolism as I could eat chocolate and crisps everyday and still be very slim but in reality I’d never feel like eating more than say two chocolate biscuits and a small packet of crisps a day.

That might still seen a lot for some people but I guess what I’m trying to say is that some slim people who state they can ‘eat WHATEVER they want and not gain any weight’ in reality probably just don’t eat that much. If I actually did eat 6 packets of crisps a day I probably would gain weight.

Naturally slim, size 8 bmi 18 definitely mix of genetics and appetite, after having both DC I was back to pre pregnancy weight in a week. Luckily I don't have a sweet tooth but also if stressed or worried or busy I lose my appetite.

I’m actually slimmer I’m my forties after 2 children than I was in my early twenties. I don’t know why. No change in eating habits. I’m not super slim, bmi of about 23, but I pretty short at 5’2”. I weigh about 9.5 stones and wear a size 10.

I eat masses because I am greedy. Ideally I should be a stone lighter but I’m also lazy as well as greedy. If I get near ten stone I limit carbs, alcohol and snacks for a few weeks until I get down to 9 stone. Then go back to normal. I don’t do it often though. Typical day of food.

Breakfast- toast or weatabix (3) with oat milk and sugar, plus earl grey tea with oat milk
Snack - a few biscuits or cookies or crisps or banana or all of them.
Lunch - Sandwich. Or a salad with egg and tuna, or omelette or egg and soldiers. Crisps, Chocolate bar, cereal bar, some raw veg like carrots and peas or cauliflower, piece fruit. I’ll eat this spread out through between about 11am and 3pm.
Snack - another small chocolate bar like a penguin or 2 finger Kitkat
Dinner - lasagne with salad, or a paella, burger in a bun and salad. I don’t really like potatoes which I guess is lucky.
Snack - toast. Or biscuits. Or crips. Or all of it.

I don’t drink anything other than water though. Apart from one cup of tea in the morning. I might have hot water with a mint leaf or lemon in it. But no squash, fizz or juice. Alcohol probably only once a fortnight and not much.

I've always been naturally very slim. I am finally putting on a bit of weight because of lockdown, I think my metabolism is slowing down because I'm not commuting and am generally less mobile.
Food is

• coffee and bowl of fruit and fibre for breakfast.
• lunch is usually a sandwich of some sort and a packet of snackajax or some sort of baked crisps
• home cooked dinner of some sort, usually a medium to large portion.

I drink most evenings and have some evening snacks, usually some crisps or peanuts or maybe some sweets.
Not much in the way of other snacks during the day.

I thinks it's genetic. In my 20s I drank so much beer, and ate so many takeaways . I did walk a lot but I was always really skinny.

Following with interest! I'm greedy and eat a lot of junk food, but it's always snacks alongside healthy home cooked meals. I should definitely be bigger than I am as I'm currently a vanity size 10-12 at 5"6 and I've definitely put on weight over lockdown. I feel porky for my frame right now though, I don't carry weight all that well despite being tall.

I think a lot of it is genetic, as both my DPs are tall and slim. I think it's also habits. So even in lockdown where I've been no stranger to the biscuit barrel, I would never have loads of fast food, take aways every night or not exercise ever, as I'm in the habit of having fairly healthy home cooked meals and exercising 3 times a week. Old habits die hard, and it wouldn't feel normal to not do these things. The habits were formed from my early adulthood.

The snacking must stop though as the weight is creeping up and I find it harder to lose these days.

I used to be naturally slim.
Teased and all. Always heard comments about my waist.

I never put any conscious effort into it Or thought and I assumed that it was just genetics and . Until I had a massive lifestyle change one day and my weight started to creep up. My massive lifestyle change was due to me falling in love with my now DH who is sedentary and junkie.

I was shocked with how much time he spent sitting down. How much junk food he ate. TAke always. Fatty food.

But he was a good weight because he specifically exercised.. unlike me, who never allocated time to go to gym or exercise.

So my weight creeped up by 10kg over a short period.

I then realized that although I never put the “conscious thought” into it, I however had a very healthy lifestyle.

I didn’t crave junk food on a daily basis, only on occasions. I didn’t like sitting on the desk for too long. I like to walk to places to get my stuff and so if it’s a bus journey of 20 mins I just don’t see the need to catch a bus..

It’s probably the way I was raised. Very active childhood. Hardly any screen time.. so sitting down still was the opposite of quality time for me.

So I really think the “naturally slim” are just “naturally active” without the gym.

I also hardly craved food.. I was too active to think about food. Only ate when I was starving which was about twice a day tops.

Naturally slim here in my early 50's and weigh a couple of pounds more than in my twenties. I can and do eat what I like but I can't eat a lot in one go. I never miss a meal and snack between every meal. Do a bit of walking about but definitely not much exercise.
I always feel on here that it's not what people want to hear, but there are people who are naturally slim who eat what they like and don't exercise, I put it down to genetics.

I used to be stupidly slim (size 8), and I ate like a ravenous pig.

Nowadays I'm just a healthy BMI (so not slim anymore, but not fat either. Usually I wear size 12 to be comfy), but I'm 40 with 2 kids. I eat reasonable meals (lots of vegs, not much fat... except when I go on a cheese eating frenzy), but I snack like crazy (staaaarving in the afternoon!) and I don't exercise much at all.
I don't understand why my body works like that (struggles to put on any weight)
I'm not even sure it's genetic, because most of my older female relatives would be somewhat overweight at my age.

I think my hormones/metabolism might be a bit weird

I am fidgety and drink loads of coffee in the morning with full fat milk. Don’t eat much or any breakfast - was never hungry before 10am, since childhood. Love vegetables and nuts but drink quite a bit, love chocolate and ice cream. I am really not very healthy have had 2 curries today, loads of ice cream and beer. Some veg, over 40, 4 kids, bmi of 19, no stomach. It is entirely genetic and I really have never cared about what I eat nor ever been on a diet. I don’t think anyone should starve themselves but just accept the way they are and society places far too much emphasis on weight, it is really unfair! Nobody is allowed to say x hair colour or eye colour is better or skin tone etc so I think it is really wrong that certain body shapes which are actually beautiful are shamed or made to feel less “right”. It really angers me so much! We are still in touch with my Dds newborn friends and she is a teenager now and in most cases, body shape and future likely weight was quite evident from very early on. It is so sad to watch how young girls are already on diets who are just my dds age. It makes me so angry for women in particular.

I’m probably what you call naturally slim. In the last year I’ve started weight lifting (heavy weightlifting). I can eat about 2700-3000 calories a day or 2500 if I just want to maintain. I’m 5ft 1 and about 52kg currently. Had to seriously cut back the calories since lockdown while I’ve sat on my arse most days. Haven’t gained weight though so I do have a naturally high metabolism.

I am naturally slim I'd say, not thin though. I eat plenty but no sweet stuff, I just don't like it, and I don't usually have snacks in the house. I've put a few pounds on over lockdown - less walking, less stress (lucky) and less exercise as I've not been 100% (less lucky). Probably more wine though. So I'll up the exercise and reduce calories a bit at some point, and hope as I near 50 that it isn't going to take any more than that.

5.5 and 8stones
I’ve been 8.5-9 stone in early 20s but as soon as I graduated and got my own place I never weighed more than 8.5.
Very fast metabolism, always moving. Hated PE at school because it was so competitive and cliquey.
Now early 40s two early teens and womanly figure still not arrived. Women would shame me call me skinny, tell me I don’t eat, accuse me of behind the scenes hard work etc. The reality was, and still is, that I can eat whatever I like and do not gain weight. When I am stressed I lose my appetite. I have to work at eating a lot just to maintain my weight at 8stones. Sometimes do yoga or run but mainly I love walking. Have to be careful with exercise as it also affects my weight.

I agree with PP who said a lot of slim people say they can "eat whatever I like" and not put on weight but in reality our "whatever I like" is a lot less than someone who is obese. Im sure I would put a lot of weight on if I suddenly started matching DH's intake for example! He's double my weight atm and is overweight and wants to lose but finding it very difficult and has only managed to shift a couple of kg so far despite wanting to lose weight since Jan. I think he does have a slower metabolism than me genetically - both his parents are morbidly obese (and they haven't been a couple since his childhood) - but also his attitudes to food through psychology. He turns to food for comfort/reward more than I do and he also eats what I consider to be very large portions at meals. As a teenager he often didn't have enough food to eat through poverty and neglect and I'm sure that must have something to do with it. Whereas I grew up in a household were food was just something we had every day that we enjoyed and we had unrestricted access to snacks etc. There's three of us and two of us have 'healthy' BMIs at the bottom of the healthy range and the other one is underweight. Both my parents have healthy BMIs too.

I eat mostly unprocessed foods eg I won’t snack on crisps but I’ll eat nuts. I don’t eat oven chips but I’ll fry cubes of potatoes in beef dripping. I don’t have cereal in the morning I have proper porridge oats with banana and prunes.

I’m allergic to cows milk.

I don’t drink alcohol.

I eat lots of pulses, lentils, I freeze portions of spring greens to steam as a side dish.

I don’t have puddings routinely (esp in restaurants, £4-5 for a chilled dessert mass produced? I don’t think so. I can make a treacle suet sponge for about a £1 at home)

If I decide to eat a pack of ginger nut biscuits in a day that’s the only unhealthy thing I’ll have. I won’t follow it up with a binge.

I know that if I eat rubbish food I’ll feel all lethargic & I don’t like feeling lethargic.

I’ve tended to be naturally slim, but had much larger friend move in with me for a few months and the difference in quantity of what we ate was huge. As was the amount of snacking, but it was the portion size of each meal which was a surprise to me.