Genuine question - if you are slim do you feel hungry on a regular basis?

[Cruisebaby]

I'm genuinely curious about this and please, no responses of the 'I have two salad leaves a day and I'm full' variety!

The reason I ask is that although I'm not overweight, I do feel permanently dumpy. Not helped by being 5'3 and having 32G boobs admittedly and even though I've lost a little weight in the last few months I'm struggling to shift any more. I'm currently 9 st 7 and a sort of appley hourglass if that makes any sense.

What prompted my question is that I had lunch with a friend today who is the same age as me (late 50s) but very slim. The sort of slim where there is no excess fat at all and I am sure that every single item of clothing she tries on just fits without issue. When it came to ordering, she chose the lowest calorie item from the starter section and was adamant that was all she needed. Rather than look like a total glutton I also ordered a small meal but was bloody starving by mid afternoon. When I think about it, I rarely see her eat much and in situations where others might have a biscuit she will just sip on water or eat a few nuts.

It's left me wondering, is eating like that what it takes? I love my food but I really hate my body shape now and even regular strength training seems to make little impact. Is it possible to happy and ravenous at the same time? 😩

I’m not slim at all OP unfortunately, but I will say that I also have friends like this and I think there is a small minority of women who genuinely just have bird-like appetites. I think at least 80 percent of the rest and probably more are just so brainwashed by our fatphobic misogynistic society, whether they even realise it themselves or not, that they force themselves to automatically follow the lifestyle of someone with these tendencies and convince themselves they don’t need or even want to eat more than they do. I realised this in my 20s when lIved in with a couple of friends who were very good at this 99 percent of the time, but living with them I got to understand that like the rest of us they occasionally also want to eat an entire pizza and a whole packet of cookies in one sitting, they’re just usually very good at resisting the urge.

My bmi is just below 20 and I'm hungry a lot. I exercise a lot, try to eat healthily most of the time. Some days I'm fine, others like today I wake up starving and go to bed starving. I have a chronic illness that flares up if I eat big meals and gives me GI issues after exercising so tbh eating is complicated for me and spend far too much time thinking about what I can eat to fuel my exercise and when I can eat it that won't make me feel ill or have me sitting on the toilet. Some days like today I just accept the hunger because it's easier.

Pretty sensible weight and hungry most of the time but that’s ok

I eat loads , carbs at every meal, several snacks and then fruit to be healthy. I couldn’t miss a meal! At least 3 meals a day and sometimes supper too

i tend to avoid rich foods and processed foods and 90% is home cooked food and loads of veg as part of that - the rest is crisps and biscuits and sweets

I will
just have 2 biscuits not the pack, a small
bag of crisps not a sharing pack.. because I feel too guilty otherwise

No. I am short and slim and have been pretty much the same weight all my life. I love food and I have to have three meals a day or I get very hungry.

However, I don’t really eat any UPF. So I might have a small home made pizza, but I would not eat a dominoes (mainly because I don’t like the taste and the salt makes me really thirsty).

I love sweet treats but I will have two small scoops of ice cream from my favourite ice cream shop rather than having a tub at home and eating it all.

I follow the intermittent fasting regime. I find it really easy and don’t feel hungry. I’m 5’3” and weigh 9.6. I started the fasting when my weight increased due to the menopause, I put 12 pounds on 🙄

It’s been a slow process to lose the weight, I’ll never go back to my previous eating habits, this really works for me.

This is an interesting question and I’m intrigued by the answers/taking notes for my own tips re weight loss!

I’m 161cm/5ft3 and at 65kg pushing the upper limit of normal BMI, but struggling to lose any weight at all- maybe half a kilo after restricting my intake but that just leaves me hungry & thinking about food more!

I’m mid 40s and my god weight is certainly harder to shift now and has been for the last year or so

Friends of similar age who have lower BMI all in the main restrict their eating eg no carbs, do not eat after 7pm etc

I am so, so jealous of you. I'm sorry, I know that's a bit weird but I can't even imagine feeling like this. It must be so restful.

If I'm not completely full I want to eat. I suppose it's food noise - it's an incessant chatter in my head that makes it difficult to concentrate. So I spend a lot of my time ignoring that chatter, but obviously still overeat because my brain tells me I need so much more food than I really do. I don't eat junk or particularly unhealthy food - I mostly overeat bread.

It's crazy how differently people experience life.

I would say yes and no. Unhelpful.

Currently I am post partum so it’s not a great time to answer but today for example. I was so so busy with 4 age 6 and under that by 930 tonight I realised that from 7.30 when I got up I had only eaten once slice of toast with Philly cheese and a latte. I had drunk a lot of water as it was so hot. I felt hunger pangs a couple of times and lightheaded when I finally got the baby settled and I sat down for my dinner at 9.30pm.

Had I had a day with no children about (never happens!) I would no doubt have been hungry, taken time to prep and enjoy lunch and dinner (I hate breakfast and am really not hungry until lunch time)

The downside of my manic day (which is not my norm) is my breast milk supply tanked and my son was very hungry as there was little milk there so I had to use some of my freezer stash for a bottle for him. It was only when I went to feed him and did so for ages and he wasn’t settling, that I realised I hadn’t eaten much at all to sustain an adult never mind an adult also feeding a child.

I am naturally quite slim and find whenever I want to shift a couple of unwanted pounds (when not post partum or BF) that all I do is think about food. When I don’t care I often forget to eat or it is more thoughtfully fitted in, eg in a lunch break in work.

I am sorry you aren’t feeling comfortable with your weight. There is always a balance to be had with weight and food and I don’t think anyone gets it perfectly right all the time. Keep going towards what you want and try not to make food miserable for yourself or a constant uphill battle all the time. That will wear you out.

Yep constantly fighting hunger and temptation and always have.
and the one time I haven’t I put 10 stone on scarily quickly, because that’s how much I truly want to eat!
But stayed slim most of my life by being strict.

I’m slim, 40s and yes, it’s normal to feel hungry on a regular basis. If I ate everything I wanted I would be fat. Even eating the three meals a day that we are supposed to have would make me fat. Being slim takes effort for most people.

I eat meat and fish and find they fill me up rather than the carb pit. The only time a I ate like a shitting monster was when I was on Mirtazapine, Oh my fucking God, they are the devil.

So, my answer is meat and fish but if you’re vegan that won’t help.

I eat a lot but fewer meals, if that makes sense?

I stuff my face for breakfast and lunch, but have a light/no dinner.

I'm no longer slim after 4 dc and hitting 40 but I was very slim until age 30. I literally had no appetite. I would eat my main meal at lunch time at work (catering on site) and something light in the evening. Sometimes I would have to force myself to eat as I had no desire for food. It's something I find so hard to believe now that I'm fat & always hungry 😅

I'm 60, 5'8" and a size 10.

I eat normal size meals but I cook everything from scratch. Most premade food & sauces are loaded with sugar and additives which cause you to pile on the weight. Avoid them and things are much easier.

This evening we had grilled pork chop, with fried egg, wholemeal couscous, peas & broccoli, followed by kiwi fruit. Lunch was home made tsatsiki & wholemeal pitta bread. Neither meal took more than 10 minutes to make. Breakfast was coffee & a satsuma. That's a typical day.

I try to eat more protein & veg, fewer carbs

My exercise week is ParkRun on Saturday, followed by a swim. An hour's karate class on Sunday. When it's not too hot I might run again during the week.

I’m about 9.5 stone and am almost 5ft 5 and 59. I do not feel as if I need anything to eat until I have been awake for about 3 hours. Then that’s very much because I need the energy. I find when I don’t have food in my face I don’t think about it. I also like really good food and hate really cheap processed food including take aways.

I am hosting an afternoon tea later and will be baking this morning. Making three or four types. Will have a little of each. I find the initial hit of a great taste can be enough. So smaller portions are fine for me.

I’m 5,7 and weigh 9 stone 7. I don't eat until lunchtime (fast) during the working day but slack off at the wend. I need to focus on high protein and keep my white bread/pasta down otherwise the scales rocket. I’m a sucker for crisps & choc but not greedy.

Prior to my 40s I never went over 8 stone no matter what I ate. I also had huge children (9.7 and 11.4) and went back to being slim but peri menopause meant I had to really moderate myself.

Edited to say I’m forever hungry when the pasta and breads are on the go but when I’m eating well with a protein focus I’m satisfied.

Thank you for this post. Would any other slim people on this thread mind sharing what a typical day of meals looks like for them?

Im not very thin but i could be if I ate a bit less 😁
My life doesn’t revolve around food, but I do feel hungry if I don’t eat. When I was younger I used to never be hungry and only eat tiny amounts because I wasn’t bothered about food or even thought about it. I could also have forgotten to eat if I was busy. That doesn’t really happen any more now but it does make me realise that some people definitely have it easier than others with the hunger.

Yes I feel hungry a lot and I have to be strict with myself or I’d snack.
That said, I have a small appetite when it comes to meals. I’m hungry but I can’t eat lots at once.

In my twenties I was slim. I didn’t eat loads but what I ate was fairly unhealthy. I also drank regularly and smoked. I was never hungary but I didn’t have a big appetite. I started to gain weight in my mid thirties but even then I was a size 12. I started to be healthier and quit smoking but my weight stayed roughly the same. I was eating more but less calories.
in my forties I gained a couple stone. I eat extremely well/healthily and exercise daily and I struggle to get any weight off. I don’t go hungry but I do keep portions fairly small.

I am 155cm and currently weigh about 48kg which is a BMI of 20 although I used to weigh more than that.

I eat 3 meals a day, love food and certainly get hungry, particularly for lunch - that’s probably the meal I would least like to skip. I do quite a lot of exercise, including regular swimming. I think the differences from when I weighed more are more exercise, eating less at each meal, and limiting but not avoiding biscuits/crisps/cakes etc. I also don’t drink alcohol or fizzy drinks.

I’m 5’ 6” and just over 9 stone. I’ve always been slim, was a size 8 until my early 30s and after kids have settled at my current weight and size 8-10. The honest answer is no, I’m not always hungry. I have always just eaten what I like and it’s been fine.

While I am generally active I don’t push exercise. I’m just exceptionally fortunate. I eat until I’m full and stop and I’ve never had an issue with control around food and consumption. It’s not that I’m better or worked harder it’s just the way I’ve always been. I think some is genetics too. All my family on my dads side have majority slim people in there.

Meals wise I eat breakfast of cereal or toast, orange juice and coffee.

Lunch will be leftovers, sandwich, or egg fried rice / soup. Something simple.

Dinner is sometimes freezer beige but not often. Usually it’s homemade bologneee, of meat and veg. I’ll have a pudding sometimes.

I don’t snack much but will have some chocolate and biscuits here and there. But a bag of little Cadbury bites can last me a week.

Yes. Being hungry the hour or so before a meal is normal, right?

It depends on your metabolism I would have thought, it sounds ike your friend is permanently on a diet. I'm what you would call average size, BMI is 22 and eat loads and also a lot of cake and chocolate. I think if I wanted to be slimmer I would have to probably diet a lot all the while so don't.

I have always been slim. To answer your op - I think I am often hungry but I don’t find it unpleasant until I’m at the loud stomach rumbling stage. I can easily forget to eat if I’m busy and if I’m feeling low I have to force myself to eat - I totally loose my appetite.

I have recently put on a bit of weight for the first time, I really don’t like it so am currently being more mindful - few sugary snacks, no second helpings, modest portions. I don’t find this difficult to do.

I think luck, life experiences and genetics are the reason for the way people perceive hunger differently .