If you're slim, what's your lifestyle/ eating habits like?

[thefedupmummyofgoats]

I'm a size 16 which is slightly on the plump side as I'm quite short. I'd love to trim down to about a size 10 so that I'm not crossing my arms or wearing baggy clothing to cover my belly.

If you're slim or have lost weight what is your secret? Do you eat takeout very rarely? Do you walk a lot? Do you make home cooked meals?

I just feel I can't seem to stick to any long term goal. I'm 43 and probably peri which is probably why I've put on weight.

Can we have a little discussion on what the key is for slim living please 🙏

What calories are you consuming... I've downloaded 'my net diary' and it says I can have 1300 calories. Now that I look at the calorie content of food it's no wonder I have ballooned. I reckon I have been eating 3500/4000 calories if I'm being very honest. What the bloody hell 😵‍💫

Two meals per day. One between 11 and 2 and one around 6pm.
Protein and minimal carbs for meal 1.
Mainly protein and veg and carbs if I really want them for evening meal.

Keeping the carbs low and plenty of protein is my key to not getting hungry. If I have lots of carbs I'm on a hunger roller coaster.

This goes out of the window if I'm in a cafe etc or around my period. I like flexibility but I just feel better eating like this so I'm likely to feel less good when I deviate from it.

Sent!

1300 is far too low, especially where you're currently coming from. What is your current height and weight, and I'll help you work it out something more realistic.

As a rule of thumb, a healthy maintenance weight for most slim women will be around 1500 - 2000, depending on activity levels. Id suggest closer to 2000 will be a better starting point for you.

I aim for around 1700 a day during the week - more than that on a regular basis and the pounds would start to pile on. I never feel hungry at the end of the day with this intake and likewise never feel stuffed or bloated. I am more relaxed on holidays and weekends.

I'm 5ft5 and currently 12.3 stone. What would my calories be?

So to maintain your current weight, you would be 1,724 calories. I think the key is to avoid doing any crash dieting and instead work to rectify the lifestyle habits that are working against you, as this will be what makes weight loss sustainable. The slower and more controlled you are in losing weight, the more likely you are to keep it off.

A loss of pound per week is a good amount to aim for, which is 3,500 calories and so a deficit of 500 a day (3,500/7 days). This would mean your daily calories should be around 1,224. You are probably panicking at this number, but keep in mind it's based on your current sedentary lifestyle. Can you get out and walk 7,000 steps a day at a brisk pace? (Do you have a step counter on your phone?)

If so, your maintenance calories change to around 2,120 and so your pound-per-week weight loss target would be 1,620. This is based on your current weight, as you loose you would need to drop the calories a bit or you the steps to maintain the deficit (but this would get easier as you adjusted to the new lifestyle).

The main reason women in their 40s increase their weight inadvertently isn't really because of hormonal changes that typically get blamed, but because of losing muscle mass. Muscle burns much more calories than fat at rest, so as your muscle % drops in your 40s and beyond, your weight will creep up even if nothing else changes. If would be great if you could find a fitness class to go along to once or twice a week, or even an at-home option (lots of free YouTube ones available) to combat this. This will really help your weight loss and health in the long term.

I used chat GPT as a shortcut to work out your stats. The screenshot is before I added the 7000 steps but shows how it was all worked out. It's also great for giving meal plans to that target.

How do you do exercise without feeling hungry? I did a barre class a few months ago, and even after barre which is low impact I still ended up feeling so hungry afterwards that I ate way more than usual. It seemed counter-productive.

I have high-level knowledge and personal experience I can share, but would invite the views of anyone properly qualified.

Hunger is driven by hormones (mainly ghrelin which increases it, and leptin which decreases it, but there are also others). There is research that shows exercise can actually suppress ghrelin, and so your hunger levels would probably be better managed by doing something more intense. If you are overweight you also will be more resistant to leptin, and so the slimmer you are the easier it is to manage your hunger.

For the low intensity activity I think there are 2 factors;

• Your body isn't used to the new routine/activity
• Psychologically, you might be expecting to be hungry or are more aware of it at least

I think it's an inevitable truth that if you are losing weight, you will feel a bit hungry at times as you adapt to the changes in activity and diet - and this isn't a bad thing! It means you are making change that is meaningful enough to be having an effect! I keep in mind what I've eaten through the day and that just because my stomach tells me I'm hungry, doesn't mean I actually need to eat. Distraction is key - like going for a walk. You can also plan your meals for after exercise (I hate going to bed hungry), make sure you're using your calories wisely on nutritious foods that will keep you fuelled (protein, complex carbs) rather than empty calories from simple carbs/sugar.

Im 39, size 10 and weigh 10stone. I exercise mon-sat at gym (30mins minimum to an hour) i walk 3 miles almost daily. Try to hit 15k steps a day.
Diet - porridge and fruit
Lunch - usually x2 bagels and banana
Tea- pasta/veg
Chicken curry and rice
Potatoes/veg/ pie or some meat
Treat - choc under 200 cals.
And if hungry an orange/apple

Airfryer frozen chips once a week. Take away about 4 a year.

Diet not fantastic i know but weight stays consistent.

See that's incredible no wonder you're lovely and slim. To me that hardly seems like much (in comparison to my glutinous feedings) is it any wonder I'm getting bigger.

I used to be size 10 and never really worried about size of clothing but as I've got older and lifestyle has changed, I need to revisit my eating habits

I honestly thought most people got a takeout on a sat night 🫢

@Choirsinging - nothing wrong with feeling hungry, you don’t need to act on it other than a glass of water. A lot of people think that hunger = something bad will happen if you don’t eat immediately. Sit with the feeling and it will go away.

I didn't say it in my past reply, but I really admire that you've identified an area of your life you want to improve and are being really honest with yourself about your current situation. It would have been easy to kid yourself on that "it's not my fault I'm not the weight I want to be" and blamed it on XYZ unrelated factors, but you've held a mirror to your current habits and found where improvement is needed.

The change is hard at first, but I promise it gets easier (especially once you start seeing the changes in yourself) and once your new habits are established you will look back at where you are now and realise where you've got to is actually totally manageable!

But it made me feel so hungry that I was actually getting a panic attack. I had to eat to calm myself down, otherwise I’d be worried about fainting. Have to say I don’t understand this thread at all as nobody seems to have mentioned mental health, anxiety eating, eating as self harm etc. w feel like a lot of the commenters here don’t seem to have any emotions.

Yes I'm definitely 'big boned'. If I tell someone my weight they don't believe me as I look a lot lighter.

My MH is impacted when I eat bad, feel sluggish and don't exercise. I feel like it's a downward spiral too easy to get caught up in. So I don't. I fuel my body to be able to do active things, and I feel great.

Have to say I don’t understand this thread at all as nobody seems to have mentioned mental health, anxiety eating, eating as self harm etc. w feel like a lot of the commenters here don’t seem to have any emotions.

That's because the commentators have a healthy relationship with food - they enjoy it but do not need it as a source of enjoyment/comfort. It is possible to develop this way of thinking.

For most people, controlling eating impulses through willpower and planning should be perfectly achievable (with support, advice and practice). I don't think the intention of OP's post was to go as broad as emotional eating and mental health complexities. That's an entirely different post and not really something you would expect people on Mumsnet to be able to give meaningful advice on.

I'm a boredom eater, I think. I also reward myself with food or alcohol. If I'm anxious I don't eat at all because my stomach knots.
If my head goes, I need to get outside. Outside cures everything.

How can one barre class make you that hungry? It sounds more like anxiety than hunger itself. Unless you have some kind of blood sugar imbalance.

I feel faint if I haven’t eaten for some time but it wouldn’t be triggered by exercise - it’s more if I haven’t eaten all day.

I have no idea why it made me so hungry, that’s why I asked about it.

If I feel very hungry/faint after exercise I would rehydrate and if that didn't work, eat a filling snack with protein and maybe fibre/healthy fats. It might depend on what else you'd eaten that day and when.

If anyone uses Headspace there's a good Mindful Eating pack to get you thinking about what you eat and how hungry you actually are.

The pps who said they were the same height and weight but different sizes could be down to muscle %. Muscle weighs more but takes up less volume on your body. I can wear a lot of my clothes from 20-30 yrs ago, but weigh about 1 stone more, because I have more muscle. It's not about losing weight, but losing excess fat, which is about being healthy.

Oh it would be pleasurable every day for me, but I wouldn’t take pleasure in being two stone heavier.

The trick is a) timing your food around exercise so you don’t end up eating an extra meal, and b) which I’m afraid is the hard bit, accepting that it’s okay to be hungry sometimes and distracting yourself from feeling of wanting to eat lots