to be sick of diets and diet clubs...calling all skinny people to help!!!

[ChocolateBiscuitCake]

I have always been, in the words of Bridget Jones, 'a little bit fat'. Three children in 4 years (and copious amounts of chocolate biscuit cake ), I am fed up of being fat and all the effects that it has on self esteem, energy, fitness etc. I have two stone to lose and am 35.

I have tried every 'diet' going and fallen off the wagon within weeks. I have been to WW and SW. I am sick of them. They are limiting, I feel hungry and then when I can't have something, I want it and the 'diet' falls apart.

I am binning it all.

And I am going to eat a normal, healthy, balanced diet with small portions. I am going to start exercising and moving more (my personal trainer started today to keep me motivated...I am lazy!).

In the park this morning there were hundreds of thin people exercising - I long to be fit, healthy and 'thin'. What I want to know is:

to all you skinny people - what do you actually eat?
how much exercise do you do?
how much alcohol do you drink? (I suspect this may be where I am going wrong!!!)
any other tips?

Hope you don't mind me posting here - I doubt there are many skinny people in the slimming club section!!!!

Low carbs - high GI and lots and lots of weight training with personal trainer to build super muscles that burn fat whilst you sleep - coz I'm a lazy bugger!

Manic do you reallyonlyeat 1200 calories a day ? Id die of starvation if i did that and imabout the same size as you fromwhat you ve said.

I haven't read the whole thread, so apologies if I'm repeating things other people have said.

1. I only eat as much as I need to stop myself from being hungry. I stop when I have had enough - which is before I am completely full (because it takes time for the "full" sensation to reach my brain). I never eat more of something just because I like the taste. (If I'm tempted to, I tell myself that I can have more in a few hours/ the next day if I still want it.)
2. If I need to snack, I stick to fruit. And water - I try to tell the difference between being hungry and being thirsty/ angry/miserable.
3. I have breakfast (generally cereal) every day.
4. If I'm tempted to overeat, I remember how much I hate feeling very overfull and bloated.
5. I hardly drink any alcohol (but I used to, and I was skinny even when I did.)
6. If I don't feel like exercising, I tell myself I'll try it for 10mins and then stop if I still want to. (Getting started is the difficult bit.)
7. I hardly ever buy things like bars of chocolate etc. If I do, I keep them out of sight. If I really feel like some chocolate, I'll have just a small piece - it IS possible to eat only half a bar...
8. I know (from experience) that the world won't fall in if I miss a meal. (I don't think missing meals is a good idea and I certainly wouldn't recommend it as a way to weight loss, but I think it is easy to put on weight by overcompensating if you do find yourself with no time for lunch/ having to grab something on the run. Don't think "I didn't have lunch, so I deserve an extra portion of pudding". See 1 above.)

Good luck!

I really can not thank you all enough for taking the time to let me know your habits.

It really is unbelievably insightful to confirm what I have always been in denial about: that skinny people eat well and eat less. I think I just assumed they had fast metabolisms and therefore could eat what they want, when they want! And that I was just unlucky!

There is also a very common theme of exercise and I think I have been in denial that if I do a 'diet' or join a 'club' the weight will drop off by doing nothing...nearly every one of you has said that they move.

I actually have a pretty healthy, home cooked diet but I can't resist temptation and have been unable to enjoy 'a little bit' to satisfy my tastebuds/cravings and instead, once I start, I can't stop. I eat till I am bursting.

So from today I start a new leaf - diets are gone, portions are smaller and exercise is more. It's what I always knew, but I needed the 100+ mumsnetters to confirm my suspicions.

Am off to namechange

Like I said, I really can't thank you all enough.

Good luck OP

Remember, if you're used to eating to bursting point then cutting down on portion sizes will probably leave you feeling a bit hungry.

But try to see how long you can ignore that for/fill up on water before you really do have to eat again.

oiwheresthecoffee - yes I do, less in a bad phase. But I'm not naturally skinny as I imagine you are, my comfortable size would probably be a 10-12, judging on other family members, I've just never let myself get there! I wouldn't say I ever feel full but it doesn't leave me hungry either - you can get 3 decent meals plus snacks on it.

For example, today:
breakfast - yogurt and berries (approx 150)
snack - orange (approx 70)
lunch - chicken salad and strawberries (approx 300)
snack - crackers (approx 70)
dinner - salmon and vegetable noodle stirfry (approx 550)
Total - approx 1140

Fitocracy might help? Makes keeping fit a real life RPG game, interesting concept but not many challenges for those who can't do most exercises.

I'm relatively slim (size 10, bit of belly podge) due to genes being honest. I don't do any real exercise but walk quite a bit with my 18mo charge and put her to sleep in a sling by walking up and down hills, that seems to have worked on slimming my waistline the past few months.
I hula hoop on occasion and you can feel that working, it's fun once you get the hang of it but you must do it going both ways or only one set of muscles will tighten!

Food wise I seem to have accidentally cut down on carbs and quorn over the past few months where I used to live on them before so I think that's helped a great deal. As has not eating as much diary and cutting down my portion size (again inadvertedly, my new landlords had smaller plates due to them realising they were eating too much!) My diet is still quite fat heavy though. I'm eating less chocolate and sweets than I used too as well, not sure why! Have lots of treats with DP though, takeout once a week, tub of ben and jerry's once a week, chocolate digestives, a pizza once a week, a wispa every now and then, wine, etc. I have a day or two a week when I'm at home and I just graze if I eat anything at all as I'm just not hungry but I drink a lot of tea fluids during those days!

I must say that since February both DP and I have trimmed up a bit and he has as much since September when he was made to stop eating meat in the house (by our vegan landlords, our current landlords encourage him to have a bacon buttie though ). But since we moved to our new place we seemed to start actually planning meals and experiementing more, we were comfortable with some of the new meals we had tried so could cook those when we got in from work and we have started to really enjoy cooking different and purely vegetarian meals (with no soya/alternatives/etc, just vegetables and grains). We're experimenting with alternative products more and we both browse the extensive vegetarian/vegan/raw vegan/raw cacao books I own for food and treat inspiration. Lentils have become a new favourite as has cous cous. I love eating dried fruit, mango and pineapple are my favourite. I buy it in bulk from the Tropical Wholefoods Company and it lasts me a few months. Dried banana chips and cashews are a good combo.

The most important thing has been a huge attitude change towards food in the both of us though. DP started to realise that vegetarian food wasn't so bad and I have slowly been working my way through issues relating to food for a long long time and I'm finally at a point where I feel comfortable exploring food a bit more :)

Sorry for the essay there, I was trying to think of what has changed in the past few months!

I agree low carb is the way forward, well it worked for me. I very rarely eat bread, pasta, white potatoes or rice at home. We often have butternut squash, quinoa, sweet potato, seeds instead to bulk out meals (sounds gross but roasted with olive oil and chilli flakes bns is amazing!) I eat biscuits or cereal bar everyday but low fat ones. I only drink socially and even then it'll be two drinks then diet coke due to being a total light weight these days.

I eat proper butter and full fat yogurt just not loads.

I'm the most active I've ever been (never exercised before) due to a very very active 16mo - that's what's made a big difference and I've lost half a stone since he started walking!

I'm 5ft 7 and weigh 9st 7 which feels right for me. I'm still wobbly and not toned!

I am 5'5" and a size 10, though annoyingly have put on half a stone (now 8 3/4) since the age of 30 despite not doing anything differently!

Not sure if anyone has said this already, but never have pudding straight after your main course - wait half an hour or an hour, and often you'll find you don't actually want pudding anyway.

Also, pay attention to the seasons - it's pretty natural to want cake in winter, but don't get into the habit of eating extra carbs/sweet things all year. If you pay attention to what your body wants you'll probably find that in hot weather a substantial salad for lunch will keep you going until dinner.

Wow.Okay fair enough.It does sound very healthy , i feel a bit lacking now

applecharlotte: Sounds odd but what do you make with quinoa? I keep meaning to try it but have no idea what to do with it? Do you do like a warm salad with roasted squash/sweet potato? We also love squash and sweet potato in this house It's an integral part of our roast dinners too (mashed squash and also a roasted squash/carrot/garlic/red onion/sweet potato dish, the flavours of them all combine well and taste divine!) and that combo is good on cous cous for lunch the next day with a few greens like spinach, asparagus, green beans or peas thrown in :)

Oh, not sure if it's been mentioned by anybody yet but using coconut oil instead of olive oil is great for most things ( am not keen on using it for roast potatoes though!) and coconut flour is really good too, whilst it's expensive you don't use nearly as much of it when baking, I've had the same packet on the go for months and I bake with it every week. Better for you than grain-based flours but do play with those too, there are loads of flours available in the gluten free sections of supermarkets and all have a good purpose (teff is particularly good for savoury, nutty muffins, for example!)

Confused, you could definitely make a warm salad with roasted squash/sweet potato and quinoa. Anything you can do with couscous, you can do with quinoa!

You can also use it to make quinoa 'burgers' - I usually throw in some feta, spring onions, sunflower seeds etc, bind the lot with an egg and then shallow fry but you could bake to use less oil.

Thanks summer :) I will definitely try it and try substituting couscous for quinoa one night!

Good luck OP! This is probably really bad advice but it sounds like your portion sizes are big and it worked for me... I shrank my stomach by not eating v much at all - happened when I got together with my hubby (nerves/excitement) - for a few weeks and that really helped me stop eating until I was overfull. Now I can't stand doing that, it feels so uncomfortable.