to think that people's weight is mostly down to how they're made?

[blackwell]

OK, I know there are a few people who either overeat massively or starve, but I think that in general if people are 'heavily built' or 'lightly built' that is just how they are. I would say most of my friends eat roughly the same amount, yet there is quite a big difference in size between us. Some people are just naturally slim and maintain it without effort, and others are naturally bigger and it would take a massive effort for them to maintain a size 8/10 whatever.

It's a massively unscientific theory, I know, mainly based on my personal acquaintance!

for everyone who says that they eat like a sparrow and look like a partridge...
it just isn't true

if you examine your portion size watch calories and fat intake and move about somewhat you simply will not be fat for long

stop kidding yourselves, please

you can try to blame it on everything but if you were honest with yourself you would know why you were overweight

the allergy to wheat made me fat
big bones
low bmr
must be made of muscle etc etc
it's just nonsense, isn't it?

unfortunately we have seen times in history and more shaemfully today where large numbers of people are kept in starvation conditions or in conditions where calories are severely restricted
in those conditions surprise surprise all the people involved, without exception, are very thin

i know that it's hard to accept and we like to have something to blame but the blame is the amount we eat verses the amount we excercise
change your current equation and you will change your body shape

Rannaldini, do share with us what you do for a living - presumably you're a dietician, or a nutritionist, or some other relevant expert? Until you do so, what you've said is just your opinion ... and nothing more than that.

I know what my experience is and I don't kid myself when I've either over-eaten or under-exercised ... I've never seen the point. But if you want to believe that I must be lying to myself, you go ahead ... my GP was like you and she'd have had me on less than 600 calories a day. Presumably you'd have done the same ...

I think the op has a point. I eat so healthily and I run twice a week, sometimes three times a week adn I'm still size 10/ 12 with a 30" inch waist and a BMI of 24. I don't understand how anybody gets down to size 6. I am beginning to think it is just my shape to have not much of a waist. I'm not prepared to walk around hungry all day. I make all the right food choices as it is, and I watch my portions.

YABU. I don't believe there were any "naturally fat" people in Belsen....

Of course some people are of a slight build and others are broader/more stocky - but this is to do with bones not the fat on them. Fat people are fat because they consume more calories than they need/expend.

Have read this thread with huge interest. I think what it does show is that people's attitudes to food and exercise are so varied, and I guess a lot of that is starts very young. One thing I have noticed is that when we were kids, we did not have large portions and few snacks. Now as adults, all 6 of us also eat really, really quickly. I don't think that helps us with our weight, but I think the behaviour goes back a long way.

I also have a few friends who have never struggled with weight, but they are really fussy eaters and have been since childhood.
One question to the runners, which is something I wish I could do, but am hopeless. When do you manage it? Esp in autumn and winter. Do you go in the dark? Cos I am a scaredy cat.

Yes, Valium - whereas I am a size 6, and I don't know what I would have to do to be, say, a 14, except have an underactive thyroid or not be able to move about. And that's not smuggery, because I don't happen to think being a 6 is better than being a 14.

I agree that Ranaldini doesn't know it all.

I have weighed out my portions of brown rice since August. I measure the 40mls of skimmed milk I put in my coffee. I don't like the feeling of being full. I don't want to be hungry for long periods of time just in the persuit of 'thinness' either mind you but I don't like that feeling of being too full.

I have made all these changes to my life and I have lost a mere 7lbs. My bmi has gone from 25.5 to 24.

I have friends who make all the wrong food choices but have a bmi of about 20-22.

You never see a fat skeleton.

My weight goes up and down by 2 st each year- size 10-14. The reason is I eat too much!

I could blame a medical condition which requires steroids occasionally but the truth is that I know the even on steroids if I eat less I weigh less.

We all make excuses- let's be honest- people who don't over eat are not fat.

Some bigger eaters may be thin but then they may be very active as well- they are the lucky exceptions.

People who dont over eat are not overweight.

It is smuggery.

But I'd probably be smug about being a size 6 too.

Blackwell, I believe you. I'm not losing sleep over it, because I have perspective and I don't think size 10/12 is fat. It's just become obvious to me that we're certainly not all chucked off the conveyor belt with exactly the same frame, fat distribution, metabolism, appetite, muscles etc...

I don't think talking about concentration camps is useful because those people were deprived of food. Starvign them was another torture. But if you want to be really tasteless, I bet you could see different skeleton sizes amongst the starved survivors when they escaped.

yeah the concentration camp line is what doctors say when they can't be arsed to actually look into the complexities of the situation.

but valerie you aren't overweight...

No, I know I'm not Rannaldini, but my point is that given my obsessive attention to my weight the last 10 weeks, I am quite put out now that I'm not thin! or at least a bit thinner! I'm healthy and I'm fit, I can run 5 miles and my route has three hills in it, and I'm very proud of that now, but I'm still not fashionably slim, and fool that I am, I would quite like to be fashionably slim.

i am 5 foot 7 and 9 stone 4 or 5 - I don't eat much but i do eat pasta in huge quantities most nights and carbs every lunchtime -last night most of a box of choc s in bed and run about a lot but do NOT exercise per se.

I think it is a little of each genetics and diet/running about

....... and even though I'm disciplined and I have good willpower and I'm very clued up about food choices it seems that being fashionably slim is not attainable for me.

I thought if I followed x,y,z formula it would be. am I making my point here?!

Overall I agree with the idea that you can't put on weight without eating too many calories relative to how many you burn.
This is technically correct even for example in the underactive thyroid people - they just burn very few calories due to a low metabolic rate, so gain weight very very easily until on appropriate treatment.
However. Recently heard a very good lecture from a obesity expert in which he explained how, once you are significantly overweight, the re-setting of the gut hormone response to food and the associated satiety responses means it often becomes much harder to loose weight - you continue to feel hunger having eaten more than a thinner person. Seems particularly unfair. One of the reasons why people loose more weight after gastric bypass than gastric banding is that the re-plumbing involved alters the point of bile entry into the intestine and modifies the gut hormone responses (although there is a lot more to the whole area from a research pov than this).

10 weeks and 7lbs sounds like a good result though!
i think that fashionably thin as a concept is a large part of the problem
although i do think that you need to be terribly thin for fashion grrrr

You're lucky otter. I couldn't touch chocolates.

Tiggy i like your advice!

It's not touching the chocolates that is the problem for me.......

40denier - I run 3 times a week and do circuits and pilates 2/3 times a week ( at home). In terms of when, I do a long run (currently 9 1/2 miles) on a Griday. I work mon to thurs with a 3 hr daily commute and dh us away from Sunday night to Friday night so fitting it in takes planning! I do a 7 mile run on Sunday when dh is here, and I go to a gym at lunchtime once a week at work (local YMCA that has a pay as you go deal.) I do 25 mins on the treadclimber and then a 20 min fast session on the crosstrainer, which is 3 miles.

I don't look like Elle macpherson, but for nearly 40 I think my body looks pretty good. I eat mostly what I wAnt and the exercise makes the difference.

A huge number of women would be ecstatic to be a 10/12!!

Yes Rannaldini, I know that and I'm cross with myself for wanting to be fashionably thin. although, yes, on one level I'm delighted to have lost the 7lbs. But before I lost it I used to eat toast whenever I was hungry, couple of glasses of wine whenever I fancied it, never went running! would have some chocolate if I fancied it. I was never a pig thoguh! but, lot of sacrifice for just 7 pounds I sometimes think!!

i DO watch what i eat...but equally i a =m used to eating less now i am older. If i am in a cafe i would have a sandwich OR cake with my coffee for lunch not both. I would probably feel over-full if i had both in the day and a bit snoozy ...

Big coffee and cake more than enough food for lunch for me