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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder how the hell she stays so slim??

708 replies

SequinsAndSparkles · 15/03/2011 13:41

My BIL is engaged to a spanish woman, and we spent the weekend at MIL's, all of us together.

She is very slim, I'd guess a size 6/8. Her skin is glowing and she is stunning, yet her diet perplexes me?

On the first morning, we were all having breakfast, MIL made a fry up for everyone, but I am on a diet so I had special K and some toast. SIL prepared her own breakfast (they are currently staying at MILs while they have some work done on their house), and she had some kind of cheese, can't remember what she said it was, about 10 olives and a slice of ham! Yet she said that my breakfast of Special K and toast was stodgy and apparently English women have 'very strange ideas about nutrition'.

For lunch, she had a chicken salad, but it involved lots of extra virgin olive oil, all over the peppers and a big dollop of salsa. And then for dinner she had chicken smeared in pesto, with green beans in salt, more salsa and a slice of cheese.

How is she so slim??

I didn't have a particuarly healthy weekend in the end, we ended up having a takeaway on the Saturday evening, and SIL wouldn't eat any of it, she wasn't rude, she politely declined but I just find it hypocrytical that she eats all this fatty stuff and made the comment about England having strange ideas about nutrition when I was eating Special K and toast!!

OP posts:
ivykaty44 · 17/03/2011 23:09

running off to the gym - do you not go to the gym in your car like normal people do? It always tickles me that people at the gym I go to try to park as close as they can to the door Smile Is it due to not wanting to walk very far I always wonder?

FreeButtonBee · 17/03/2011 23:14

Amimiagic

I think the low carb thing works better for some than others. I have never lost weigh by eating 'heathily' in the low fat high carb way.

2 months low carbing (with a few blow outs on the way) and i'm almost a stone down (and my bmi was 27ish so i wasn't obese to start) .

At the end of the ay we are all different and some weigh loss approaches work better for some than others.

CointreauVersial · 17/03/2011 23:15

Can't be arsed to read whole thread, but I'm delighted to hear about a low-carber in action!

Everyone I know is incredulous about my diet ("but you eat cheese and bacon?") but equally astonished about the fact that I've lost shedloads of weight just by cutting out stodge and refined carbs.

It's the future, people!

CointreauVersial · 17/03/2011 23:16

Hi FBB!!!

HHLimbo · 17/03/2011 23:33

I eat a similar diet to her, except with a big bowl of muesli for breakfast and LOADS of pasta.. I am quite thin tho so might turn invisible if I didnt.

sunshinestate · 17/03/2011 23:52

sequinsandsparkles One of the best pieces of advice I was given was eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper! I try and eat food that is close to it's original form - not processed with a thousand unidentifiable ingredients listed on a packet. Salad, veggies, pulses, milk, cheese, butter, good quality bread, fish and meat. I eat carbohydrates, they are important as part of a balanced diet. I try and choose good quality wholemeal bread or pumpkin for example. I enjoy full fat milk and yogurt, a lot of the goodness is removed and replaced by sugar when made full fat. Once I learnt about the nutritional value of different food I found I naturally wanted to eat healthier and was more conscious of what I put in my body. Understanding portions is also important, I.e stop eating when you feel full - not completely stuffed. Food is there to be enjoyed - I think it's all about good quality fresh food.

sunshinestate · 17/03/2011 23:54

Sorry that should have read that a lot of the goodness is removed and replaced by sugar when food is made low fat or diet.

happiestblonde · 18/03/2011 01:32

Nah my gym is a 10 minute walk, 5 minute run away and it's a good warm up. Did a 10k run, 5k cycle, 5k row and heaps of situps tonight yet I'm still putting weight back on somehow despite eating about 1500 calories a day. I'm having a free session with personal trainer at 8.30 tomorrow (should really sleep) to try and fix this.

onlion · 18/03/2011 07:26

By the way, I have done low carb and didnt lose weight even while poducing ketones. I also have tried a vlcd low carb meal replacement and lost weight in the first three months and then stopped, even while producing ketones.Classic response.

jinxediam · 18/03/2011 09:26

happiestblonde Envy
If meals were left to my DH it would be beans on toast 3x a day (well he's only around a tiny amount so beans on toast for dinner more likely). Actually saying that he is quite good at omelettes so maybe there is hope here yet!!

Well its day 2 here and I don't have the post-school run craving for biscuits so its a good start to Friday Smile

BillComptonstrousers · 18/03/2011 10:10

Well, after starting to read this thread on Tuesday, and totally changing the way I eat for the last two days, I have lost 2lbs!

It's been very odd not eating any crap, but I'm not craving it like I normally do if i'm trying to diet. And I feel full all the time, which is even better.

happiestblonde · 18/03/2011 10:42

Ah, DP is half Italian. He is like masterchef. Seriously, he creates amazing things out of nothing and has embraced my lack of carbs when I'm here and gobbles down plates of pasta when I leave the house.

Our abel and cole organic veg box arrived this morning. It's like Christmas to me every Friday.

noddyholder · 18/03/2011 10:47

I have also been motivated by this and cut out carbs again esp teh stodgy crap.Already seeing results jeans looser but won't weigh myself for a week otherwise become obsessed!

electra · 18/03/2011 11:44

Spanish women are often tiny anyway - it seems to be in the genes. But it doesn't sound like your SIL to be eats a lot anyway - especially if that list is it for the entire day. And yes, no carbs will automatically mean fewer calories.

RamblingRosa · 18/03/2011 11:46

I don't think no carbs = fewer calories. Lard is low carb!

I agree that Spanish women are often tiny though. I think it's a combination of genes/smaller frames and diet.

electra · 18/03/2011 11:50

But if you eat a diet that has no carbs, you will be eating fewer calories than if you were eating carbs and fat iyswim.

electra · 18/03/2011 11:53

I'm a size 8. But I find that if I cut out carbs entirely it messes with my head! I avoid the refined stuff though and pasta etc. Also low-carb diets make your breath stink.

Ormirian · 18/03/2011 11:55

I just eat less. In fact compared to before I eat like a bird. A carnivorous fat-devouring bird but a bird none-the-less Grin

Dinner last night was a plate of mixed salad leaves with a few little bits of meat, cheese, nuts and olives. 2 rashers of bacon for breakfast. More salad with feta and ham for lunch. Half the qty I used to eat and if I eat between meals it's on high-protein, high-fat foods that fill me up. And I am never hungry. The sheer bulk of carbohydrate is gone - the calories intake has got to be smaller overall.

CointreauVersial · 18/03/2011 11:55

Rosa - it's true, lower carb doesn't automatically mean lower calories, but it sometimes happens by accident. For example if I give up a jacket potato (with the inevitable lump of butter) in favour of extra green veg, it brings the calorie count down. Ditto passing on the cake!

But I probably eat the same calorie count with my low-carb diet as I did before. It goes against what we've traditionally been taught about weight-loss, but there you go.

RamblingRosa · 18/03/2011 12:47

I know what you mean. I just meant it's more complicated than low carb = low calorie. It's about limiting choice (any restrictive diet is going to mean lower calorie intake just because certain foods are automatically ruled out and it's harder to just scoff somethign because you fancy it). It's also about satiety. Lard may be calorific but you couldn't eat much of it without wanting to be sick whereas I know I could eat bread/pasta/potatoes until the cows come home.

I'm the same as you Electra. I'm a size 8 and vegetarian so can't really do low-carb and don't really want to. I do try to cut down on bread and really refined carbs sometimes though.

Kewcumber · 18/03/2011 12:52

but its quite hard to eat a lot of lard. Carbs and fat combined are quite easy to get down though, as are carbs alone and carbs alone are the least filling of any of teh food groups.

IME if you're going to have bread then have a sandwich with a decent amount of protein ham etc because you can eat toast and be hungry an hour later but a chicken sandwich with plenty of chicken will keep you going much longer.

ChippingInMistressSteamMop · 18/03/2011 14:31

I have been reading this thread, nodding away... growling a little bit (at the 'country' derailment) and thinking that I really need to cut the processed carbs out - all the while eating toast and tea... it's not going to be easy

BsshBossh · 18/03/2011 14:59

I'm not on any particular diet, as such but I am trying to eat only when hungry, stopping when satisfied or full, and eating more slowly. Naturally my portions per meal have gone down by half. Also, because I am eating more slowly I'm eating less processed foods - have you tried eating "diet food" or white bread slowly? Tastes vile! It's full fat for me now. I really enjoy meat, cheese and eggs too so have been savouring these much more and lo and behold am eating less because they're keeping me fuller for longer. Have lost weight and gained loads of energy.

TattyDevine · 18/03/2011 15:01

You tend to eat less butter if you are not having bread.

Less cheese if you can't have crackers

Even a fry up is a couple of hundred less calories without toast and butter.

Plus you are less hungry generally once used to it.

It doesn't always mean less calories but often it ends up levelling out that way...or if nothing else its easier to eat less calories.

petisa · 18/03/2011 15:19

Chipping there wasn't a country 'derailment', the OP started the thread off with some of her SIL's sweeping generalisations about a whole country.

FWIW I don't like v low carb diets at all and think too much protein in your diet is bad for you. For a start I think it's too low in fibre. But then I am a veggie. I agree that fat and protein fill you up and that plates full of stodgy white carbs are bad for you and will make you fat.

I think that the good old fashioned food pyramid is spot on, and that a healthy diet will contain plenty of wholegrain carbs, fruit and veg and proteins, and v little processed crap.

Personally if I want to lose weight I only have a biscuit or two per day with my tea, eat more fruit and veg, and take about a third of the carbs off my plate before I eat. That and exercise 3 times a week. Has worked fine so far.