If you’ve never been overweight, what do you eat and do

[Kittenswhiskers]

Seems we always seek advice from fellow people with the same problems so I’d like to ask people that have never had this ?

I like food and cooking, but I don't overeat and I'm quite active with a dog to walk five days a week and Pilates twice a week. I'm not skinny; my BMI is about 22-23 and I weigh 60kg at 5'5". Have been around that for the last 40 odd years, and am now nearly 70.

I am quite active - I suspect that is my main weapon. Walk whenever I can - live within a couple km of facilities so I just walk. Even late at night. With a rucksack to carry things ( will drive to pick up compost but anything lighter I will carry ) . Lose weight every holiday as I walk so much

I know that feeling peckish is normal and can sometimes distract myself from it - go for a walk round the block or do an online yoga

Brought up with discipline ( well no money so once things were gone that was it ) and that is habit now - one small bag of crisps ; 2 biscuits ; virtually no takeaways or eating out. Mostly cook From scratch none UPF

Am aware of what's high calorie and what's not - and will chose not to cook the high calorie stuff often -most curries use tomatoes not coconut milk unless it a weekend treat , thin slices of cheese not slabs , pile plate with veg

Some of it is luck (genes), some is upbringing (good, wholesome homemade food environment as a child), some is financial position (good quality food is more expensive), some is will power and the formation of healthy sustainable habits over many years. Being able to delay gratification is really important and I think this stems from upbringing/environment.

I work with people who are overweight. I KNOW how hard it is to lose weight and never want to be fighting that battle so it is easier to prevent it going on in the first place. If I expand a bit, I am more careful with dessert choices and portion size for a while.

Exercise is great as a feedback mechanism - the lighter and stronger and healthier you are, the more enjoyable it is. But it isn't the key to weight loss on its own.

I don't eat fast food - in my head, I know that it contains no nutrition, is bad for the planet and animal welfare and is habit-forming: this now translates to absolutely no desire to have it. It simply isn't attractive to me. My self-image is as someone who Never Eats Fast Food. Same with snacking (for me - I get that other people eat differently, but I do 3 meals with no snacks, unless I am ravenous). I am Not A Snacker. However, it isn't limiting - I eat what I want - I just want good things! (including nice puds and chocolate and alcohol - but in moderation).

Never been overweight. I exercise daily, nothing too strenuous, sometimes just a 30 min walk as deep down I'm quite lazy. I've always had a sweet tooth. I only really took up exercise around 10 years ago, before that it was occasionally. I never miss meals and try to eat a balanced diet but always have cake or biscuits every day. I don't tend to eat after dinner. Drink lots of water. That's it

Low carbs, low sugar. Lots of veggies and protein.

This. I think naturally thin people don't experience "food noise" the way that naturally fat people do.

This is why injections are a game-changer: they stop the food noise.

Yes I agree fantastic observation.

See o do see food as reward
Food as celebration
Food as love
Food as comfort

But I can still avoid overeating - it's not just not having that mental attitude

Don’t eat meat and walk everywhere. Been the same weight since I was 16.

I hate greed and the feeling of being stuffed. I hate eating crap. And I personally would hate my body if I were fat. I also love movement - I'm the sort of person who, on a sedate beach holiday, will say "I'm just going to walk up that hill over there as fast as I can" or "I'm going to swim out to that rock and back 10 times". I've always joked I'm like a dog who needs its daily walk!

So I eat 3 meals a day of real, unprocessed food; in sensible portion sizes and stop before I'm full, and move my body a lot every day.

I'm the same size and weight at 41 as I was at 21, but now with better fitness and muscle tone thanks to 25 years of working out.

I don't really do anything specific, exercise-wise. And food I eat what I want, I just really genuinely don't want to eat a lot. I eat until I'm full, it's just not a big portion.

I've always had an underweight BMI, at 9 months pregnant I tipped into a healthy BMI, back down a week after giving birth. I put no effort into this, and nor did I care. I'd like to weigh more because size 4 clothes are hard to find but I don't find it easy to put on weight without making myself uncomfortable by eating too much, and I don't want to do that. I don't have any health conditions that would cause me to be underweight, nor do I have any health conditions caused by being underweight. For me, it's just the size naturally sit at.

I just eat in tune with my body. I don’t get hungry in the mornings so wouldn’t think to have breakfast ’just because it’s the most important meal of the day’.

I don’t weight myself and never calorie count, but if my clothes start feeling tight then I know I need to reign it back a bit.

Run 5/6 days a week - only do 20 min runs (used to go to gym 5 nights a week)
Salad for lunch at work, evening meals made from scratch with brown carbs & a lot of veg. No desserts/alcohol in the week.
Treat food only at weekends. Alcohol only at social events.
After having baby, breastfeeding for 18 months.

No bread, no pasta, no rice and no sugar. I eat vegetables, fruit, chicken and fish.

This sounds like a sad existence!

I don't know tbh, I'm not overly happy with my weight so I'm not entirely 'in control', but I've never been overweight (technically speaking, at least). I somewhat inadvertently fast, I don't tend to eat until lunch time. I limit treats, so in the week I'd only have one sweet treat a day (won't be as strict on a weekend), I try to limit alcohol to weekends only. I don't force myself to finish what's on my plate if I'm done.

I'm also quite active, play a sport, get out and lunch time every day for a walk.

This is quite interesting as it seems like most people who are naturally thin don't enjoy food for the sake of food and just see it as fuel.

Meanwhile, I'm a massive pig. I eat at least 2,000 to 2,500 calories a day and often more. But, I also exercise an insane amount.

When I stopped exercising - after quitting the sport I'd done at a v. high level for years - I piled on the weight. I couldn't eat less as exercising 3-4 hours a day since I was 14 meant that I was just used to eating lots. Psychologically I was still hungry, even though I didn't need the calories and I ended up getting far too chunky (and then depressed, which made me eat even more). Eventually, I just accepted that in order to keep eating the amount and the type of food I enjoyed that I needed to exercise even if I wasn't 'competing' anymore.

So, I do at least 2-3 hours of good, hard, exercise a day - whether there's hiking along the beach, swimming or running. I work full time and go into the office two days a week and my hours are typically very long when I do go in (out the house for over fourteen hours). I have three kids and a dog. Life is busy. But every day, regardless of whether it is raining or 30+, I exercise because I like food.

I eat whatever I want. For example, today I've had a pain au chocolat, club sandwich (with three tablespoons of mayonaise - and not the low calorie crap either), three lattes (12oz, full fat milk), and dinner will be steak, bearnaise sauce, a jacket potato, asparagus, broccoli and peas. I'll probably have some mango and a slice of cake for after. But I've also done 3 hours of good, hard, exercise (admittedly, I am on my NWD so today is particularly good for both exercise and eating a lot!)

@MollieMex

I am convinced it is all about the way the mind relates to food. I don't care about food much, I assign it no moral/ emotional meaning such as reward, punishment or comfort. Food is just fuel to me, so I mostly eat nutritious stuff as long as it tastes okay.

Makes sense. Whereas I'm the opposite and really need to sort it out.

I look forward to my 3 meals a day and don't just see food as fuel. I love to cook. A holiday to Italy/France/Spain is all about the food. I'm just not greedy with it.

I know you're eating what you want, but that doesn't sound like a massive amount to me. But that's because I'm lazy and was once very fat.

I’m lucky in that I don’t really enjoy junk food, so don’t eat it that often. I eat reasonably healthy and try to eat a good amount of protein as it fills me up, cook from scratch as much as I can, limit snacking. If I notice my weight is creeping up then I clean up my diet and I lose it fairly easily without much effort.

I think I just tend to prefer eating healthier food, so my weight has never been an issue and I’ve never needed to diet or calorie count.

The two thinnest people I know have always been thin and both say they don't get hungry. One of them eats a bag of salad for her lunch. Neither of them snack. I'd love to be like that.

I eat what I want. But I don't have massive portions.

Though I think some of it stems from my childhood. Where even to this day my mother thinks a decent portion of food is 4 chicken dippers and a handful of chips.

I eats a lot more now but I tend to eat 4 smaller meals a day.

So would I!

I have a friend who is tall and slender. Never been anything but thin in her life. She’s also never seen the inside of a gym in her life either. She would rather poke her eye out than do exercise of any sort. She eats a donut for breakfast and McDonald’s for lunch and might on rare occasions cook something for dinner, otherwise she eats out. She’s been eating like this since we were early 20s at least and we are now mid 40s. She did get breast cancer though. But not fat. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Same, I just feel full very quickly and it isn’t nice. I don’t usually eat breakfast at all as I just don’t fancy it.
I also love sport, I don’t do it for fitness or weight loss, it’s my hobby. My diet generally isn’t that great right now, so I do need to work harder on that, but I’ve weighed 50kg all my life and it doesn’t change much.

I eat whatever I want whenever I want it (and not when the clock tells me it's time to eat), but compared to a lot of people I know, I guess I don't have a very large appetite.

Also, I haven't been able to eat breakfast since primary school, so I only have 2 meals a day.