What do thin/slim people eat?

[cherrypiepie]

I'm genuinely intrigued as I am far from slim with a BMI of 30.

Watching an American series with some very tiny actresses and thinking that they can't eat much. It was the Bold Type.

So if you are slim with BMI around 20 what do you eat?

And I suppose how much do you exercise? But I reckon the old rule of 80% diet : 20 % exercise is right when It comes to weight management.

A typical day for me (bear in mind I am in recovery from an eating disorder)

• a protein shake with whole milk a tbsp peanut butter and the same of Nutella
• sandwich, crisps, yoghurt and a scoop of ice cream
• snack of fruit, biscuits, a cake bar or similar
• chicken breast, rice or pasta, veggies, a dessert usually with custard or ice cream
• another shake exactly like the above
• cereal with whole milk and a cup of tea probably a couple of biscuits or a chocolate bar

I struggle with the intake hence the shakes to top my calories up but I spend a lot of my day in pain and bloated. I weigh around the 6 stone mark at the moment but hoping this diet will help me get back on track very soon!

See I read these and am "why the fuck am I fat?!" Apart from the dodgy thyroid and inability to exercise I guess
Today I had

B - three marmite rice cakes with cottage cheese (never changes!)
L - chicken salad wrap with cucumber mint yoghurt, a bag of popchips, 4 squares dark chocolate
Snack - apple and 2 fruit/seed oatcakes
T - chicken pad Thai (homemade, small portion)

That's pretty much what I eat except for a takeaway or cake maybe every fortnight/month

I tend to eat whatever and whenever I want but 90% of food will be unprocessed which needs preparing from scratch therefore needs considerable effort. I live in a place without access to multi packs and 100 different flavour choices. I also never associate food with my emotional state, I eat because I am hungry twice a day. For some reason I never have breakfast because I am rarely hungry before midday. If I do come across/ prepare something I like particularly, I eat as much as I like, for example the whole cake, and never even think about it as something you shouldn't do🤷‍♀️

I eat slow, usually snacks instead of meals except dinner where I eat good. Not a huge amount of bread, pasta or fried food but I don't restrict it entirely. I keep a well stocked fridge with fruit, veg and ready to eat food so I don't go for easy options like a chocolate bar or takeout instead of a healthy snack/meal.

I get a starbucks every day and I bake a lot but thankfully my husband is the English equivalent of a Viking so he polishes off a fair amount of it.

I'm disabled so can only manage walking and yoga on good days which keeps me strong and as fit as I can be.

My MIL is a very glamorous and slim 70 year old. She has a tiny breakfast of home made muesli with yoghurt for breakfast. Has something like a satsuma for lunch and a light dinner of grilled fish and salad or a stir fry. She has a couple of cups of tea with skimmed milk a day. She's super healthy and does lots of walking, pilates etc. I'd faint if I ate that little but she's fine on it. She's an amazing cook but never eats much. I guess that's the trick.
I bloody love food and although I'm fairly slim ish, I couldn't deny myself all the yummy stuff.

I have always been slim and I’m now 55.

This is what I had today.

Greek yoghurt with a small amount of granola and a banana
Two slices of cheese on wholemeal toast, small mozzarella, tomato and basil salad with balsamic vinegar
Meatballs with a sauce made of tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, red onion, broccoli, peas and small amount of linguine.

I drink tea and coffee with semi skimmed milk and water, often a small glass of orange or apple juice. I always have warm milk before bed.

I mainly eat stir fried vegetables with a small amount of meat and rice. I’m Chinese and my food is usually 4 to 5 days Chinese and the rest western as DH is English. I rarely snack and I don’t like chocolate much at all or cake or biscuits. I do love cheese, crisps and ice cream and have all in moderation.

I have health issues so can only manage walking, tai chi, yoga stretches and gardening.

place marking as I have no clue

My BMI is around 19. I don't monitor what I eat (two small children keep me very busy!) and have always been slim. I think for me it's enjoying everything, but in moderation. I rarely have more than two biscuits for example. It's not that I'm forcing myself to stop, I just don't want more! Don't get me wrong, I have my 'excess moments' (recently ate a tub of Ben and Jerry's in over just two evenings!) but they aren't that often. My only exercise is walking, housework and looking after the kids.

I'm very slim, BMI around 18/19. Yesterday I had:

Breakfast - museli plus glass of orange juice

Lunch - pesto pasta (100g pasta dry weight)

Snack - dairy milk (one of the small bars)

Dinner - pan fried salmon, new potatoes in sour cream sauce plus asparagus fried in garlic butter. Fruit for afterwards.

I naturally like healthy food and hate feeling too full so I think that helps. Never let myself get too hungry and stop eating when satisfied. I’m active so walk or cycle everywhere I can but don’t do workouts or gym. I mostly follow a vegan diet

Channel 4 did a series called The Secret Lives of Slim People that's still on All 4 about people who 'never stopped eating but didn't put on weight'. Virtually all of them didn't actually eat that much when they watched them for a few days.

There was also Secret Eaters which appears to be available on YouTube. Here we see the people who 'live on salad and can't understand why they're overweight'.

But when you watched them for a few days you saw massive portions, a McDonald's meal as a snack between meals and my personal favourite, the woman who worked as a traffic warden on the high street and was getting things from Greggs during every shift, usually more than once.

BMI 19.8
Eat small portions on small plate. Lots of veg, salad, eggs.
Snack on fruit. One treat a day.
Stay away from pasta and rice.
Lots of walking / very high step count.

BMI is 17.5 so "underweight" I do no excercise and eat whatever I want. Croissants for breakfast, tea with lots of sugar, literally whatever I want for lunch dinner, I do lots of home cooking and am vegetarian but eat full fat cheese, proper butter, eggs, sometimes eat super healthy whole grain stuff, sometimes have a Burger King and everything in between. I can snack whenever I want and I love to eat cake! Not a huge chocolate or sweets fan and never have been.

I think for me my metabolism was determined in my teen years when I was doing lots of dancing, every night after school and my body hasn't really changed since I was about 19.

BMI of 18 aged 27, my genetics play a huge role as I'm half Chinese and all the women in my family are very petite. I agree with pp who say they don't have an emotional attachment to food life anything my appetite disappears when I'm stressed or upset. I also think that being a lower bmi means that you are more in tune with your body's calorie needs and pick up hunger/ satiety cues. Being overweight throws all of this out of whack and makes losing weight and then maintaining MUCH harder as your body will want to gain again as it views the heavier weight as your natural set point. Yes eating healthy and appropriate calories and getting sufficient exercise is prudent but it's much to simplistic to assume that's it all it takes, everyone is different.

Im a size 8 but I'm afraid all I eat is junk food. Really wish I could eat more healthily but it's a struggle. I don't know why I'm not the size of a house.

BMI 20 and currently eating an ice cream cone. 36 years old and until a couple years ago I ate whatever I wanted BUT I don’t drink much (couple times a month), we don’t buy/eat processed foods or generally have stuff like biscuits/crisps in the house. Cook pretty much everything from scratch, only drink water & coffee. I never got into the habit of eating that stuff so it’s not really denying myself. We definitely prioritize high quality food with an emphasis on meat, dairy, fruit, veg. Recently I’ve watched what I eat a little more, which has mainly been conscious of portions and not eating many wheat based products.

It honestly feels like it’s luck? And maybe not growing up with a lot of the stuff that’s really bad for you & deciding for myself to continue to eat that way. I was strictly gluten free for about 5 years for health reasons and that really reset my thinking too, you have to read labels constantly and now I can’t really bring myself to even buy processed food knowing how much sugar and chemicals are in most things.

It probably helps that I do all the food shopping and DH and DD never complain/request so I get what I think is healthy and we never have crap in the house, apart from homemade ice cream.

Bmi 20.5

Eat whatever for meals but I am dairy free so am a bit restricted there. Fruit snacks during the day and a few sweets on an eve. Don't really drink much maybe a couple of times a month.

Over 9 hours exercise a week, mixture of swimming, walking, spinning and weights.

@Iminaglasscaseofemotion

I started but doing the James Duncan diet for 7 days (religiously stuck to to it) then switched to kind of 'fast 800' everyday except Saturday and (even then it was just Saturday dinner)

I used nutracheck to count calories and limit carbs but didn't always follow the no/ low carbs rule.

I found losing weight quickly was very motivating as per the tv programme Michael Mosley . Found it Difficult to fully restart once you stop though. But I did gain some helpful habits.

@BarbaraofSeville I remember those programmes now you mention them - I will have re watch

I lost weight by just cutting out all processed foods (including bread) for six months. I now eat as much as I want of real foods like fruit, veg, eggs, fish, and add on a bag of popcorn and several cookies a day too. Fitbit helps me log calories in and out but at this stage I kind of know that anyway.

One thing that I hadn't expected - when I stopped losing weight, I lost more inches anyway through exercises. So if you're not already, try to do some kind of strengthening exercises, lots of stretches, and a bit of cardio too OP.

Agree that slim people eat smaller portions, don’t feel the need to ‘clear their plates’ snd don’t have an emotional attachment to food.
Hated it when my kids were little and older family members tried to insist they cleared their plates. Sometimes my kids would say they were full and leave say just one chip on the plate. And a family member would either nag them to eat it (why?) it , or hoover it up themselves. Can see how bad habits get ingrained in kids.

Every thin person who says they eat whatever they like isn't quite telling the truth.
I'd say we probably know our eating habits better than a stranger to be honest.

I do eat whatever I like. If I want a pudding then I'll have a pudding. If I want a takeaway then I'll have a takeaway and I'll order what I want, eat what I want and then have the rest as leftovers.

It'a possible to eat what you like, listen to your body, and stop when satisfied.

I’ve not always been slim, used to be a bit chubby. But I’ve worked through those issues, learnt a lot about nutrition, and no longer struggle to stay slim. Like others, I think it stems from not having emotional attachment to food. That’s not to say I don’t love it. I love entertaining, I love cooking fun meals for my toddler, and I spend a lot of time in the day balancing our her (and ours) diet! the last thing I think about at night is what my next three meals will be. But it’s just fun for me.

For yesterday
Breakfast - 3 crumpets dripping in butter and a large banana shared with daughter
Lunch - cheese jacket potatoes with rocket tomato salad. Followed by grapes, tangerine
Snack - homemade brownie and cup of milk
Snack - chipsticks
Dinner - beef mushroom stroganoff with rice, 100% fat Greek yog with teaspoon jam

My food is always 100% taste, 100% fat, 100% quality within our budget. Think pink lady apples, 3 or 4 blocks lurpak or Kerrygold butters for the week, great chocolate, the real Parmesan, young garlic, fresh berries…. things I refuse to eat are cheap biscuits, cheap chocolates, flavoured low fat high sugar yoghurts, semi skimmed milk. If I do fancy a Mars bar or packet of crisps I’ll walk to the shops.. which to be honest I am doing maybe once a week because I’m also pregnant 😂

I also think this has more to do with a toddler but I can wait up to three weeks to fulfill a craving. I don’t like to do it, mind. But the opportunities to sit down quietly with a cuppa and a crisp sandwich without having to share with a toddler are very slim and I am willing to wait … all for her own health in mind of course!!

No carbs. 46, 5.6 and 56kg.

I eat carbs in winter and go up to 60kg.

Post my early menopause it's the only way. It's fine, after a few weeks I get out of the carb habit.

I basically don't eat loads. I could when I was in my 20s and 30s but not now.