To ask how much slim people eat in a day?

[InSpaceNooneCanHearYouScream]

I know this is an odd question, but bear with me! I used to be a normal healthy weight when I was young, but over the years my BMI crept up to 30. I've been battling with my weight for the past few years, and have managed to wrestle my BMI down to 27. But I've yo-yo-ing up and down for a while, and I think I've lost sight of what a normal daily food intake looks like.

My worry is that if I manage to get down to a BMI of 23 or 24, with a reasonable amount of activity per day, how will I manage to sustain it long term? I know how to eat healthily, but I also like the odd takeaway, wine and occasional junk food. I suspect that slim people maybe just don't eat that much? Except for the few with high metabolisms of course.

So, it would be really helpful for some slim people in their 30's, 40's, or older, to give me a quick example of their daily diet. Thanks in advance!

Hi I was slim them got fat...tried every diet going but then read an article about a man how was same as me. he tied all the diets but all diets did was make him think about food, eg what he was going to have for each meal, what he could not should not eat. I am also a grazer once I start I cant stop I use food for comfort and as a reward. I am slim now how ...I followed his advice eat only one meal per day. For that meal nothing is barred, don't measure or weigh eat what you like. I have done it for 3 months now and its great. I do not use don't to comfort me , I have lost the chocolate craving and don't think about food at all. If I am hungry I have a cup of coffee as most hunger pans go off after 20 minutes. I feel so much better and some friends have said I am mad but think about the poor in the world they often only have one meal a day and survive - its only those poor things that got for weeks that cant survive - god bless them. But for me I am awake approx 16 hrs and eat a very healthy nmeal just as before in the evening but cut breakfast and dinner so once you get over the first two to three days its easy...try it!

I have always been active - not exercise as much as movement. I walk fast, run up the stairs etc.

I think this is key.
Slim people are always moving more in general. Even when they're sat down.

Look around you the next time you're at the Doctor's and Dentists waiting rooms (or any waiting room) and you will find that very overweight people tend to sit very still - and are very economical with their movements, and they can sit like that for ages, and if they do move their hands, for example, it's in slow motion,
whereas the slimmer people are constantly 'moving', even in little ways, they will move their heads, their arms, shift position and it's all done at a faster pace fidget arses really

But it works!
It's not all about spending your life in the gym.

Increase your movement in everyday things.

There's a very definite split between those people who consciously regulate their eating in some way and those (like me) who seem to do the same thing without thinking about it.

I rarely sit still

Just thought of something else. I have just eaten 2 slices of toast while typing this post. I didn't even think about what I was eating, so it could have been 1 slice or it could have been 5!

We usually have our main meal sat together as a family, rather than a TV dinner.

Off to cook a vegetable and chick pea curry, but also bake some parkin

Thanks InSpace! Most of the slim ladies seem to eat protein with with every meal/snack. This is key for me as I used to eat so many carbs, which make you hungrier. Protein keeps you fuller for longer. I was a slim child and teenager it was when I went to uni and lived off of cheese toasties and pasta and guzzled loads of beer that it went wrong. I have been up and down since my early twenties so this time I want to sort it out for good. I know how to do it I just have to make it a lifestyle instead of a 'diet'.

oh yeah I have protein with every meal and snack

think that's The Law

Do they, though?

I get the idea that the slim folk eat what they fancy, but regulate naturally, move naturally and do not eat other than for hunger, rather than emotion?

I have no idea how much protein, or carbs, or fat I have per meal tbh. Which is not meant to be in any way a snarky comment, and probably shows my ignorance

I am 5 foot 3 and weigh about 7 and 3/4 stone. I eat quite a lot, and am known at work as a starch monster due to the fact that I've never met a potato product I didn't like.....often have cooked lunch eg a roast as have a canteen at work. Never have sandwiches for lunch, as am wheat intolerant and even if I weren't I would be hungry again within 2 hours....I tend to need 'real' food, ie meat and veg etc. I am 38. I do walk about 4 miles a day, and never sit down at my desk for more than about 20 mins at a time, so maybe that is the key.

...........and never sit down at my desk for more than about 20 mins at a time, so maybe that is the key.

Yep, lots of movement throughout the day, not just a big blast at the gym ,seems to be one of the secret to staying slim.
(and not snacking between meals)
I don't believe this business of eating little and often. It encourages constant snacking - grazing.
And we weren't meant to graze.

We were meant to graze. Just not alongside 3 big meals. I.e. graze instead of meals

I'm menopausal so I'm not as slim as I used to be but I'm still a healthy weight with a "good" BMI. I eat quite a lot but I rein in on the carbs and choose proteins, fats and vegetables with occasional lentils, chickpeas and so on. Being busy helps too, rarely have time to sit.

I am not particularly fidgety. I can easily sit down for long stretches and chill. I do exercise though.

?I am menopausal and leaner than I've ever been...visible abs lean
I have one big blast per day at the gym and the rest of the day I barely move.

Issy that's a very interesting story, I like the one meal a day approach, I eat 3 times per day but not evenly spaced, I go about 16 hours without food then eat 3 times between 5 pm and midnight ?.
I go to the gym and train really really hard (heavy strength training and running) having not eaten for 12 - 14 hours?

I don't think we are meant to graze, I don't think that we are meant to do anything, what do you even mean by 'meant' to eat in a certain way?
Meant by whom?
Do you mean that eating very small frequent amounts has health advantages over other patterns of food intake?

I'm not sure that it does ?

I eat every two or three hours

am not really a fan of it but can feel some benefits

otherwise there are way too many calories to get in with just two or three sittings unless you can sustain yourself on nut butter alone

(but have had problems with restrictive eating at times in life so is helpful to me at the moment)

horses for courses innit

Different strokes for different folks

but the moral is probably that still the old calories in/calories out equation has some use

even though we know not all calories were created equal when it comes to weight management and there are other things to take into account

mind you I am Largely sustained by nut butter

Yes indeed, eating too much is wot makes us fat
question is wot makes us eat too much??

but have you read 'why we get fat?' is fascinating

he doesn't think it's about eating too much at all (which seems obvious because of the problems with childhood obesity during the great depression, and now of course, and earlier in C19th the starving native americans during the gold rush who also had problems with obesity, and as we know today the poorer you are the more likely you are to be obese) but I read it going 'la la la not listening' because of course my life revolves around those numbers, miles run per week, calories needed per day

?yes I've read Taubes, also like Steven Guyenet, recent work on the microbiome is interesting, I think there's more to be uncovered, no doubt more theories will be born and then shot down in flames:o

Afaik Taubes doesn't set much store by exercise? ?

no he somewhat unhelpfully for some of his readers kicks off with an example of a runner who gets fatter and fatter and fatter despite restricting their intake further and further and increasing their training volume

that's when I started going 'la la la'

Well then he's clearly mad, whoever heard of a runner like that, my body fat levels always drop like a stone when I up the cardio

I sometimes gain weight and it's not all lean, in fact can lose a bit of muscle. People I know who run 60+ miles a week find it hard to lose body fat, it must be difficult (and stupid) to train that hard with a calorie deficit!