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!

I don't really get how activity levels can be "set" or genetically determined. I currently walk to work and back every day (90 minutes in total) and I swim for an hour about 5 days a week. I am on my feet the whole time that I'm at work.

In my previous job I walked for about 20 minutes a day and sat down all day. Before that, I worked from home and did no exercise at all.

Before that, I had 2 jobs, walked for about 3 and a half hours a day and swam for 40 minutes 4 times a week.

Unsurprisingly, my weight has fluctuated hugely over the years - but my point is that all of these sets of circumstances has felt equally "natural." I didn't feel anxious to walk around for hours after work every day when I was working in an office/working from home. My activity levels just were low, and that was that.

My current activity levels would seem to suggest that I have a "naturally" or "genetically" high base-level of moving-aboutness; but previous stages in my life suggest that I definitely do not. None of the circumstances I've described has been forced on me; they were all the result of choices that I made, and I just adapted to them. So in my case, anyway, I don't think there's anything predetermined about it, I think that my activity levels just reflect my current life circumstances.

Exactly Leonie, you do LOADS more exercise than I do and I am your height but 7st 2, it's just down to chance.

I am slim and eat like a pig.

I also have an underactive thyroid for which I take thyroxine.

I genuinely believe the only reason I am thin is because I exercise.

I run or cycle to work and back 5 times a week (10 mile round trip), swim at lunchtimes and also have no car so walk to the supermarket, into town, to do errands etc.

I think if I stopped doing all that I'd probably be fat.

So that - I think, is the secret.

Leonie, have you ever had your thyroid checked out?

Alot of large people believe that, and that's why they are the size they are. Of course there are exeptions to every rule, and due to medical factors some people will always be fat, and some people will always be thin. But they are the minority.

What bugs me about that arguement is that my large friends really do believe it, all of them, and there is no way they all have dodgy thyroids or metabolisms or whatever. then they say 'Oh you are so lucky to be a size 10'. No, I'm not lucky, I just don't eat whatever I want, when I want, in the quantities I want. If I did, I'd be huge. And I could quite happily almost double what I eat most days, but then I would be a glutton, fat, and unhealthy. Most slim people have to make some effort to stay that way.

Funny, just had a similar discussion on another forum I post on.

My experience: grow up with parents and siblings over-weight, I was the slim one. When I wanted to shift a few pounds I just smoked more and drank lots of black coffee. When I gave up smoking, I gained weight (of course), but managed to lose it by following a sensible eating and exercise programme. It was during this programme (which included group therapy) that I started to learn about my emotional relationship with food. Despite this, I'd have still agreed with the eat less & exercise more principle of weightloss.

However ... in my 40s, I suffered from burn out, injured my back and was pre-menopausal. My weight got seriously out of control, so I decided to apply that simple eat less & exercise more principle. I started at a daily calorie intake of 1,200 and did a lot of walking but the weight was refusing to shift and I was constantly exhausted. I went to see my GP who told me to reduce my calorie intake still further - so, down it went and down until I got to 800 calories a day and was still not losing weight. Now, call me a fool, but even I know that 800 calories a day is not healthy. So, back to my GP ... who gave me the same "reduce your calorie intake" advice, at which point I realised that she believed I was lying. Now I kept a food diary religiously and was pretty bloody upset by her reaction. I was also exhausted and feeling like shit, so felt extremely let down at a time when I was pretty desperate. After a good cry, I googled like mad and decided to consult a nutritionist. Three months later, the weight was steadily coming off, my energy levels were on the up and I felt better. How? Simple, I gave up wheat. But I do worry how close I was to following my GP's advice and ending up on 600 calories a day. So, please be careful when expressing the simplistic diet view to someone who is struggling. By all means be firm in getting them to look at their diet in an honest way, but please don't assume they must be lying because something that works for you (or even the majority of people) doesn't work for them.

IME you get to where you are going to settle fairly early, most of my friends found it was late teens/early 20s when they were fending for themselves, food wise. It then doesn't matter if all in a group eat the same, they will all stay at around where they are unless they make the effort to lose/gain weight. People who say that they have always been overweight, there has been a cause for that somewhere along the line, medical, physical or emotional. I don't know anyone who has dropped to 1200 calories per day and done 1hr evercise every other day who has maintained or put on weight. I do know a lot of people, myself included, who have these intentions but don't stick to them. Just my experience though.

Coldcomfort - I don't think so, mum is slim with a small appetite and dad and brothers very active. I got the appetite of the fitties and the laziness of the skinnies!

Trillian - I have miniscule boobs but was a pretty fabby hourglass if I say so myself :) Not any longer though since having DS :(

look
i'm sorry to break this to you but if you eat sensibly and excercise you will weigh a decent amount

if any of those factors are out of kilter so will your weight

I'm extremely thin. I have no idea why. It's not like I eat particularly healthily or exercise loads. Maybe I just eat that much? I'd love a few more pounds particularly around the boob area. But alas it's not going to happen.

Maybe it's just I don't eat that much, sorry.

I am 5ft 2 I exercise every day, walking, swimming, cricket. aerobics.

I eat 12 to 1400 calories a day.

I weigh 12 stone.

Nothing I do makes me thinner.
I attended a family wedding recently and all of my aunts uncles and nieces are huge, so I have probably saved my self from being 22 stone.

My husband is 5ft 11 and weighs 11 stone he eats 5000 calories a day.

My DD2 eats like a locust, gave birth a week ago and at 5ft 4 weighs less than 8 stone.

Not always but often it is genetic.

I watched an interesting documentary made in an American prison, where the inmates agreed to be used as guinea pigs in an obessity study.

They were over fed every day for six months there were 20 of them.

6 of the 20 didn't gain more than 5 lbs no matter how much food they were given.

7 were between one and two stone heavier and the rest were double their original weight.

"They were over fed every day for six months there were 20 of them.

6 of the 20 didn't gain more than 5 lbs no matter how much food they were given.

7 were between one and two stone heavier and the rest were double their original weight."

Would love to read more about this. Wondering if they were all FED the same amount, or GIVEN the same amount and allowed to regulate their own food intake.

Rannaldini ... so, you're saying that I was lying in my post above? Nice ....

"It then doesn't matter if all in a group eat the same, they will all stay at around where they are unless they make the effort to lose/gain weight."

Abso-blimmin-lutely. Love the fact you point to the fact that there are reasons that people become a certain weight, too.

I was never overweight until I had a massive asthma exacerbation in November 2007 for which I was hospitalised for two weeks. It sapped my energy massively and I gained 2 stone over three months when I was on heavy-duty oral steroids and unable to exercise.

Since the weight went on, I've been pretty static with my weight. Gained 2 stone 7lbs while pregnant with my massive 9 lb 4 baby, lost every single pound of it by the day he turned 10 months.

I reckon I could just sit here and stay 12 and a half stone forever if I didn't consciously restrict my caloric intake. If you increase exercise without watching calories, you will still maintain the weight as you will automatically adjust your input to match your output.

It's not all about eating sensibly and exercising. For the majority of people, if you make no conscious effort to lose or gain weight you will maintain. The body aims for homeostasis.

YABU, some people find it much easier to maintain a healthy weight, but most people who are overweight eat too much.

I am currently dieting to loose baby weight, realistically I can get down to 10-12 at 9.5 stone, but to go lighter ie 8-10 I'd have to starve myself.

The major point here, by the way, is that when people may think they know why someone is a particular weight, they very rarely understand the underlying reasons for the weight gain, so can happily bleat about it being input vs output..

Well, d'uh.

However, for many people, once weight has been gained - for whatever reason - it is extremely difficult to lose and maintain that loss. People who are naturally thinner seem to forget that they may have maintained that weight by eating 1800-2000 calories their whole life, while people who are heavier and trying to lose spend months eating 1200-1500 calories a day, which is much harder to do than it sounds, especially when your heavy body is actually crying out for 2200-2500 calories.

I am strikingly similar to LeQueen in that my set-point is about 11 4 (I am two inches taller) and when I was at that weight, I could eat what I wanted/exercise as much or as little as I felt like and maintain that weight. However, once the system was thrown out of balance, it requires dull, boring sodding work to right it.

I can't stand it when people who are naturally slim feel they can comment on what heavier people need to do. I don't know why they would feel the need to comment, particularly.

If I eat next to nothing, I lose weight then stop.
If I do a diet plan like WW, I lose weight then stop. (About 2 stone in both scenarios) I don't 'plateau', it just stops coming off. WW leader gave me different things to try then gave up trying to help so I gave up WWs.
(any ideas greatly received)

DH eats at least 4000 calories a day and maintains a weight of 10.5 to 11 stone at 5ft 11. He has a 32 inch waist.

re: the prison - they were all fed the same amount, but some where more active than others, it was the fidgeters etc who were thin!!!

YABU. Your slim and fat might eat the same "amount" but their calorie intake would differ significantly if one tends to eat grilled foods and the other fried ones, to give an example.

I thought I ate small portions and couldn't see how I could cut eat less to lose weight, when a dietician pointed out the sauces I was using for every meal. A year later, I am 10 kgs lighter. Was L, now S.

Lady - When I was being followed by this dietician, she said to tell her when my weight plateaued, because eventually it would. When it did, she modified the diet slightly so I ate slightly less (except on days when I exercised) and I started to lose weight again.

So I suppose you should persevere with your diet and restrict calories a bit more when you stop losing weight some time into your diet.

Ladyoftheflowers

if you undereat you will stop losing weight due to your metabolism responding to the threat of starvation and slowing down to preserve fat stores. This is why it's so important to lose weight slowly and sensibly. If weight loss stops, shake it up, do more exercise (whilst eating the extra calories you burn), try different exercise, try reducing carbs and upping fat or vice versa. Above all, don't starve yourself.

I've decided it's down to what your thyroid levels are. I've been overactive and underactive. Very overactive couldn't keep weight on, underactive couldn't lose a pound. Overactive side of normal = very easy to maintain a weight.