Slim women. Do you work at it?

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I always thought slim women could just eat whatever they liked naturally. But looking at the eating habits of my slim friends, they don’t seem to eat whatever they like - they are constantly making healthy, low cal choices and I can’t shake the feeling it’s deliberate in order to stay slim, rather than them just actually fancying the lower cal option.

is this your experience? Is this what slim women have to do forever? When did you start doing this and do you find it easier now?

Oh and people who think that 'low carb diet' means 'no buns or chips with your burgers but massive amounts of cheese, bacon and sauce.'

I do tend to make a mental note of what I've eaten and try to balance it out. So if I've eaten a Mars bar on Wednesday, say, I'll endeavour not to have any other cakes or sweets on that day or maybe for the rest of the week. It rather depends what I'm doing. I'm at my "weakest" when in the company of others, so if I'm at a friend's or family for tea and they wheel out a cake, I'll probably have some whereas at home I wouldn't.

I'm fairly slim, but not skinny. A size 10-12. BMI is about 21, but that's pretty meaningless I think. I'm about 26% fat, according to my scales! 🤣

I’m slim with a BMI around 20. I thought I was lucky and could eat whatever I wanted but a medical issue a few years ago meant I temporarily had to eat a soft/ liquid diet. As a result, I started to notice everyone else’s delicious looking food and I realised just how big other people’s portions often are. I may eat similar food but less of it.

like many others have said, I feel a bit rubbish if my diet hasn’t been great for a few days so I cut back which i suppose acts like compensation.
I take fruit to work for snacks and love veg so have large portions in any meal.
I also don’t drink alcohol in the week and am a very fidgety person.

Just to say I'm size 10, my body fat according to my scales is 34% which actually puts me in the obese category - sizes literally mean nothing

I was effortlessly slim through to my mid 30s. Now I'm about half a stone heavier than I want to be and a stone heavier than through my twenties and 30s. I'm a comfortable 10 rather than size 8 like I was. With peri menopause it's no longer effortless.

I think my body finds a sweet spot for weight and then stays there for a while.

I don't exercise for the sake of it, but I like to get outdoors as much as possible in all weathers and I'm careful what I eat to the extent of not too much snacking.
I find that low carb thru the day means I don't end up on a roller coaster of snacking, but if I meet a friend for coffee I rarely pass up a scone or slice of nice cake! I started low(er) carb because I thought I was one of these people who needed to graze through the day to not get shaky and hungry, which wasn't compatible with the sport I do. It turns out that I just needed to focus more on nutrition and protein.
I was at a kids birthday party a few weeks ago and despite pick pick picking on all the carby snacks just couldn't fill up until I got home and had a proper protein meal.

What counts as slim? I'm slim-ish. 5 ft 4 and size 10. Have never been more than a 10 apart from briefly around pregnancy. I'm 52. I've always basically eaten what I wanted, when I wanted, without any thought about staying slim. I never go unpleasantly hungry or turn down nice food. I don't eat huge amounts of food, just what feels like a "normal" comfortable amount to me.

I'm slim and always have been. I never deny myself anything and enjoy nice food. I don't eat huge portions or snack much. I'm fairly active.
I'm from a slim family and was never over fed or made to eat every morsel as a child.
We only had dessert on a Sunday but had biscuits, sweets, cake and chocolate regularly.

These threads always smack of a thinly veiled attack on slim people who must be neurotic and barely eat. It's as if not being obese is a crime these days.
How dare you be slim.

I have a BMI of 20-21. I genuinely prefer food on the healthier side - a meal doesn't look right without veg and I love salad and all types of fish and seafood.

As an example, I don't feel any hardship in eating eg harissa marinated chicken, salad, houmous and veg with pita bread, which would be a standard meal for me. I don't count calories, but my plate is generally always 80% salad and protein component.

I don't have a very sweet tooth or drink to excess, so that helps. If I am hungry between meals, I'd happily have cheese on cracker, fruit or nuts. I love good quality chocolate or a glass of red wine, but wouldn't waste calories on not great shop bought biscuits, cakes etc as I think they taste rubbish and chemical. I would always eat home made birthday cake though. I only buy really good quality chocolate and ice cream (including for the kids) and we rarely have crisps to graze on other than for picnics from time to time because we cut buying them out when my DH listened to a programme about how bad they are for you and we don't miss them.

I don't drink coffees, just tea, so have no issue avoiding latte and muffin combinations

I guess that I am just lucky that it doesn't involve much willpower for me!

I'm slim but would pile it on if I was to eat what I wanted. I eat very little on a day to day basis but will pig out when I go out for dinner which isn't that often and believe me, I CAN eat - I could easily eat a full 12 inch pizza and a 10 inch garlic bread to myself! However, I can't stand the feeling of being heavier and clothes just don't look as good so I constantly watch what I eat and for me it's worth it!

I had health problems as a child which meant I became very aware of the importance of dietary fibre. So most meals I eat contain lots of pulses and wholegrain, etc.

And then about 20% of what I eat is butter, chocolate, meat, fish, crisps, etc.

So the first fibre-filled category of food making up 80% of my diet means I can eat the remaining 20% without ill effects.

I wouldn't want it any other way. This is my preference through years of habit.

I have never been overweight. BMI about 24.

Also, I certainly don't have a snack cupboard at home, because if I had one full of chocolate and crisps I'd eat it all immediately!

... and my motivation is, I don't want to be unhealthy. I saw a lot of ill-health in my family growing up.

As an overweight person I genuinely love these threads. Lots of natural eating, good nutrition and small portions and listening to your actual hunger. It gives me hope that I should be able to shift these stones.

I know why I'm big, as a child food was a big deal. Big portions, must clear the plate (starving kids in Africa) must have a big carby breakfast (most important meal of the day). Alongside the big dinners were ice creams for afters, but only if you eaten your huge meal with loads of bread and butter that were stacked high in the middle of the table. We are all overweight, my brother is the fittest as a champion swimmer but if he doesn't regularly train, he piles on the pounds.

I've lost my natural appetite as meals are ruled by the clock rather than how I feel. I still have to finish my plate and I eat too fast as I like food still to be hot. I need a do over to completely retrain my brain and stomach.

I haven't passed it down to my slim kids though, they eat if they are hungry and can leave their plates if they are full. I'd rather they listened to their bodies than silly food rules.

Yes I am currently size 12 and, at 5’ 2” much bigger, than I like to be.

I am 5’2” and once got too slim - size 4, kids clothes. I was pleased as punch but people told me I looked gaunt. When I look back can’t believe that I was proud to fit into kids’ clothes.

It would be interesting to see if there’s a correlation between being overweight and being made to finish your plate as a child. My parents were very strict but being made to eat everything was one thing that wasn’t enforced on us. We were also offered some sort of sweet each night, usually a yoghurt or fruit with carnation milk. My mother’s cooking wasn’t great so it was always the part I looked forward to.

Do you mean a children's size 4? That is indeed teeny tiny!

I used to wear tops from the girls' section back when crops were in the first time, in the 90s, but then an adults size 10 correlated with a girls 14 - not sure if that's still the case with vanity sizing.

@IDriveMySupernova I used to have to finish my plate .I’m slim and so are my siblings. Parents remained slim, DF now in his 80s. We had portions that were appropriate to our age and appetite. Also greed was a negative thing as was waste.Also DM always cooked from scratch. Takeaways were limited to fish and chips in 70s and 80s in our house and a couple of portions would be shared amongst us.

We always had pudding of maybe Angel Delight, Instant whip or fruit cocktail or homemade rice pudding, semolina with a teaspoon of jam. There were NEVER snacks so we were hungry at each meal and knew there’d be nothing in between or after dinner.

Yep - I'm the same as latter pps. Had to eat everything on the plate (which I get because we were piss poor and 7 in the family). No snacks in the house - no biscuits, crisps, cakes. I think snacking is at the root of the UK obesity crisis.

I'm reasonably slim (size 10) and yes, I have to watch what I eat and work out regularly to stay this way. I think it's a bit of a myth that there are lots of slim people who can eat what they want. I've known a couple of skinny (note - not slim, skinny) people who seem to have the skinny gene and can eat what they want. There are certainly some men like this. My slim friends though are like me - we choose to eat the lower calorie options, or just eat a small amount of something higher calorie and then cut back elsewhere if needed.

It suits people who are overweight to think that people who are slim are that way with no effort.

nurse at my health check up when measuring my waist said I wish i had a small waist. She was probably 20 years younger than me. Setting aside the fact that a health professional shouldn’t be commenting on physical appearance unless linked to health, there was no reason why she couldn’t have a smaller waist!

I have always been slim but the menopause has completely messed me up!

Up until I was 45 I was very slim slender, I'm still well within the healthy range but hate my body as it's just not what it was, grrrrr

I noticed that I never snacked in the same way my friends who were overweight did. But I also think it's partly genetic.

Yes, and “treats” are bigger than they used to be. I remember noticing how big doughnuts are these days compared to when I was a kid, also bags of crisps. But those sizes are now normalised. I think even choc bars have been supersized as well as things like burgers.

I'm slim (approaching 50) and have never had to work at it, BMI 18 which is normal in my family. I eat what I want but I don't/can't eat huge portions and try to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables - also generally eat wholemeal versions of bread/rice/pasta. I do this for health rather than weight but I guess it helps. I have a dog and walk a lot as well but have an addiction to cadburys triffles and eat both straight away whenever i buy them. The people around me who weigh a lot more tend to eat big portions with a lot of white carbs I find.