... To surmise that 'naturally skinny' goes hand in with either eating or digestive disorders

[5ChildrenAndIt]

The last counter-example in my circle of friends has just been diagnosed as Coeliac.

I now know no one who is vogue-slim without either food trauma in their past or under medical treatment for digestion or immune disorders.

I'm a bit unsettled by it tbh! Do skinny, healthy and happy people even exist?

I think one of the elephants in the room is 'eating healthily'. I very rarely eat 3 meals a day. In fact - never. I'm lazy, I'm not a morning person, I don't want or need breakfast. I want and need the extra time in bed. Someone upthread mentioned biscuits - I never eat biscuits. That's not abnormal, that's just my choice, I don't have a sweet tooth. I like chips, but chips aren't a snack, so I guess that my less healthy food choice is a meal while other people's less healthy food choice is in additional to a meal. But ultimately, I don't think not having a sweet tooth is a sign of abnormal eating. Yet so often these days, people seem to regard those of us who don't want cake or biscuits as denying ourselves (and they don't regard something like marmite as an indulgence, even though, if it's what rocks your boat, then it is).

FIL does no running. He's 81 and had a stroke 20 years ago which left him very weak and barely able to walk. Still genetically slim, though. He was whippet thin in his prime. DS1 has the same build as his father and grandfather. DS2 is also quite tall and slim, but not in the same way. His proportions are very different.

I suspect most of it is just being shat out unutilised.

Or they just don't overeat and don't sit on their arses all day long.

I have a fast metabolism, can eat a lot if I want to and not put on weight, dsis and DM are tha same. I'm 5'10 and currently 9 stone. Was a bit heavier before (9st 4) but have been back and forth to school a lot and the extra walking obviously used up a lot of energy.

To contrast with DH, I used to be underweight, but still wasn't vogue slim. My legs need to be about 4" longer to even begin to get there. I'm just the wrong build, from short, dumpy stock.

I know if I ditched the car and walked everywhere, carrying stuff, I'd be back to my size 8.

Yes slim healthy people do exist and I'm one of them. I've always been slim , at school I used to get teased for it . Now mid thirties I'm still slim. No eating disorders here.
I do love exercise though and run multiple marathons a year. I do eat over 3000 cals a day to avoid weight loss ( lots of it is cake)
My sister is just the same as me , if not thinner ( she does no exercise ) .

I have several extremely slim friends. One is a fitness instructor, constantly on the go doing several classes a day. One has a long term battle with eating disorders, and another was extremely ill as a child. She was unable to stomach any food for so long it stunted her growing up. She's never had periods and had the physic of a young boy. Yet she's the one how gets told she looks great in a size zero dress

That said no one in my family really eats burgers, sausages, chips, crisps or fast food. We just don't like the taste of it. But cake, cheese and chocolate now that's another matter .

Japanese people aren't skinny - they are petite. And I didn't imply that skinny = eating disorder. Just an observation on how, in my circle, the 'effortlessly skinny' have been disproportionately diagnosed with digestive illnesses in their 30s/40s/50s.

I have always been around 7 1/2 stone. I'm 5'4.

Sometimes I try to gain 1/2 a stone but that requires me to eat constantly as in 3 meals, 3 large snacks and a litre of milk min a day. It's way too much and I can't keep it up

Another naturally slim type here - sometimes I eat healthily and exercise a lot, sometimes I spend months being sedentary and eating cake (a tendency to 'hibernate' through winter). I feel more toned and healthy when I exercise and eat well, but it makes very little difference to my weight. My BMI is healthy but towards underweight for my height. Just had a baby and much the same as I was before.

(The person diagnosed Coeliac in their fifties is 5'11", size 6/8 clothes & sedentary lifestyle. I'm really not thinking of gym bunnies.)

I naturally slim/skinny, I can eat what I want and do not exercise, I must have a high metabolism.

My DD(20) is very, very slim; always was, even as a baby. She eats like a horse.
Alas, she doesn't get it from me.

I'm sorry so many of your friends are fucked up or ill for all the different reasons that might be, but to generalise from one small group is offensive to so many who are naturally thin without any effort or neurosis or clinical diagnosis.
Perhaps you could focus on ways of supporting and helping them IRL rather than randomly stating that all skinny people must have an underlying problem.

I'm almost 30, always been a size 6/8, do no exercise whatsoever and love my grub, some folk are just naturally thin, doesn't mean there's anything wrong or they have an eating disorder

'doesn't mean there's anything wrong or they have an eating disorder'

However comforting that thought might be to the OP.

Yes they do. My mum is very slim (size 6, 5ft 3) and always has been slim. She watches what she eats but doesn't starve herself and enjoys cakes/crisps/cheese... when she wants.

The difference is that she doesn't overeat or eat junk daily. The other biggie is that she is not a big drinker. She also walks a lot.

Whereas I enjoy drinking so will always be around 10-12 and am happy that way.

However comforting that thought might be to the OP

Eh?

"Naturally skinny" and "Vogue-slim" are not the same thing at all.

Plenty of people are naturally skinny. Apparently I am one of them, though I'd say I was slim rather than skinny, but people say "ooooh, there's nothing of you".

Living in India for 3 months made me Vogue-slim (or Vogue-slim weight) and it was not a good look. I could feel my pelvis when I sat down.

I am a runner and I see plenty of very healthy and very slight runners, men and women. I'm sure they watch what the eat, but that's no an unhealthy thing to do.

If you had asked me in my teens and 20's I would have said I was naturally skinny

In my 30's and 40's I seem to be naturally fat

No eating disorders either way

What are we all calling skinny?

I know plenty of women who maintain a slim healthy figure through moderate diet and regular exercise.

I don't know any women though are naturally underweight.

Although as well as the eating disordered and those with metabolic/digestive disorders, I would say there was a third category of "unnaturally" slim people- and that's those who lack the basic appetite to eat enough to put weight on.