... 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?

[Morrigu]

I'm slim, never been any thing other than a size 8 and mid thirties. Some days I don't eat a huge amount, other days I eat like a horse, I listen to my body. Definitely no issues with food, don't even own scales and no health problems that I know of.

I'm a non stop person, always on the move, fidgety and walk everywhere which I think contributes to not putting on weight. A lot of my family share my body shape.

[TalkinPeace]

A modern size 6 is a 1970's size 10 : ie what the Nolan Sisters were in their FU jeans

I am nearly 50 and a small size 8 - 1970's size 12

does not sound skinny in my book

[Pinkwillow]

Skinny is not a 'vile' word. It's just irritating.

[BalloonSlayer]

I am 5'5" tall.

At the age of 20 I was 7 stone.

At the age of 30 I was 8 stone. I was 8st 2lb three weeks after having my first DC aged 35.

I have never had an eating disorder or a digestive disorder. My Mum was thin when young. My Dad was skin and bone all his life and a type 2 diabetic. Neither of them had an eating disorder or a digestive disorder (unless you count Dad's diabetes but it didn't change his weight much).

At the age of 50 I am 9 stone 5. I wish I was a bit lighter but TBH it's OK and a lot of people call me thin.

My DD eats utter crap, like a lot of teens. She is by far the thinnest of all her friends. I'd say she is 5'3" and weighs about 6 stone or less. She has no issues with eating whatsover unless you count a pathological hatred of vegetables. She eats what she likes.

I think I come from a naturally skinny family.

[Octopus37]

I never know where to put myself on this scale (no pun intended), I have got a history of being obsessed with diets (was bulimic in my late teens/early twenties), not now, also know that I can be a bit compulsive about food, eat more when tired, stressed, definitely an emotional eater, can eat large portions v easily but mainly the case with snacks, chocolate etc. Tried to diet recently to lose half a stone for my 40th, lo carbed for a bit, didn't lose much weight, gave up. At the moment eating what I want, which is a fair amount of food but not excessive, do walk a lot and would class myself as an anxious figity type. That said, my BMI is lowish (prob dead on 20, I am 5ft5 and 8st7 at the moment which is heavy for me, although trying to break habit of weighing myself, I only weigh a few pounds more than I did at age 14 (am 40 next month) and I lost my baby weight easily, first time within a week and then lost more weight breastfeeding. On paper I probably sound as if I am naturally slim (although to me I have too much cellulite, bum and tummy are too big, am fed up that I am size 10 and only sometimes a vanity 8, rarely a true 8 and never have been), but it just goes to show that on the inside somebody can look slimish ie low BMI, but still have a slightly disordered attitude towards food.

[addictedtobass]

Yup i know a fair few. 1 is a pole dance, 1 is a yoga instructor, 1 has a vegan diet and 1 is just able to burn off food doing nothing. That might all change in time but the youngest is 34 and the olderst 39 so I doubt it.

I think that's a shame with your friends OP but I can honestly say that in mine I'm the one with the eating disorder and I'm overweight. In my friendship group, it's those of us overweight who have medical issues- underactive thyroid, bad back- or over eating issues.

[Usernamegone]

My mother was 7/7.5 stone all her life and constantly had your too skinny comments all her life.

I was a size 8 until my late 20's then 10 years in a desk job with no exercise caught up with me and I put on 3 stone. I'm now a size 10 but exercise 3 x week. I always eat 3 meals day and never skip meals. I also take healthy snakes to work e.g fruit or nuts to eat as always get hungry mid morning and afternoon! I would probably be an 8 if I gave up chocolate and biscuits (but life is too short )

Basically you have got to work with what you have been given body shape wise and genetically. What might be a healthy weight or size for me may not be for someone else.

[RexMottramsTortoise]

Another natural skinny here. It's genetic - I am European but have the build of a Japanese woman. My BMI is 18.5 precisely and I weigh 7 st 10 and have done for years. My family are/were much the same.

No eating disorder, I don't eat a great deal during the week because my job is hectic but I still eat 3 meals a day and when I have a blow-out once in a while (nice food only, no shit) I go for it. I don't know how many calories there are in anything or how many calories I eat per day. I drink but not very much and no more than a couple of glasses of wine at a time.

I also have a thigh gap, which I once heard someone on the telly say was the preserve of a woman who was 'severely clinically underweight or not yet fully mature'. Nope, it's just the way my legs go.

[ThereIsACarInTheKitchen]

Surely humans are meant to be slim? The main reason why people are getting bigger is because of easier access to calorific food and sedentary lifestyles so it would stand to reason that people just eat too much and become unnaturally fat.

[StillSquirrelling]

I have ulcerative colitis (IBD..NOT to be confused with IBS). I am quite slim and it makes me really upset when people comment on my weight and wish they could be as slim as I am - even those who know the pain, fatigue and general shittiness (no pun intended) of my life. I've just been to the loo for the 8th time since 7pm, pains in my stomach are just like labour pains frankly. The drugs I have to take for the rest of my life (low dose chemo drugs) cause me even more fatigue, massive hair loss and unbearable itching - not to mention liver damage.

I'd much rather be 2 stone heavier and healthy

[fluffymouse]

I'm thin despite eating like a horse. I have a good relationship with food: I love it! No digestive problems.

My daughter is the same and has been known to eat 6 weetabix in a sitting aged 4. She is still skinny as a rake. She is always telling me how hungry she is.

[however]

Are you serious??

Take a look at pictures from the 70s. Everyone was what would today be referred to as 'skinny'.

[AggressiveBunting]

I have a friend who is 5'10'' and probably weighs less than 8 stone. She has neither an eating or a digestive disorder but she is one of those quite highly strung people who moves constantly. She's also really easily distracted, so quite often leaves meals largely uneaten as she's too busy chatting/ debating some point, or remembers something she was supposed to do. She isnt very interested in food and if busy at work, would just power through. She also used to smoke at least 20a day although she has now given up and is still skinny.

I think thh causes of obesity are quite complex. As a population we're getting much fatter, and that has to be environmental (easy availability of highly palatable, calorie dense foods) as opposed to genetic because the gene pool hasnt really changed. However, within the overall trend, there will always be differences in how people respond to that environmental change. Some people dont get fat as they seem to have a better appetite control so even though there's a surplus of food they dont want to eat it, some people dont convert excess calories to fat as efficiently, some people do more exercise, some people exhibit major self-control. Lots of reasons, and that's before you start on the emotional factors impacting food intake.

[Pelicangiraffe]

Running doesn't give the women I know athletic bodies. Running an hour four times a week is enough to keep fit and healthy.

Not piling on the pounds aged 35-45 is important for many as it gets harder to shift the weight.

Having children often switches women on to eating more and eating more sweet stuff. I guess we suddenly have to spend ages preparing food for others but at the same time will be low in stamina/sleep, so reach for quick fixes to get through the day.

[Pelicangiraffe]

Yes agree we are all fatter now then in the 70's. They were a much healthier size then pre ready made food and wheat obsession.

[CaoNiMa]

This may be a wacky theory, but I think the human body is designed to work with 'just enough' food - perhaps less than just enough. In our consumerist, capitalist, post-industrial society where food is plentiful and lifestyles generally sedentary, this has led to overeating and obesity. Genetics will always have played a part, but back when there was 'just enough' food for everyone, the propensity to store fat didn't play into it because nobody was getting any - neither the genetically thin ones nor the genetically larger ones.

[Mamadothehump]

I'm 33, 5ft 8 and weigh around 8st 5lbs. I have no medical issues and have no eating disorder. I do however, eat very healthily most of the time but don't deny myself anything. I like wine. Wine is good!

[AggressiveBunting]

well it's more that food was available in abundance at certain times of the year, and was very scarce at others, because there were no ways of storing food until the agricultral revolution. People who were best at storing fat in times of plenty survived the lean times, but even they didnt get very overweight because they still had to survive fairly long periods of food scarcity. In the current environment, food is plentiful and in constant supply. In addition, it's very calorie dense relative to food that early man would have eaten, barely needs chewing and is highly palatable. It is cheap and marketed to us 24/7. The surprise is not that half the population is overweight so much as that the other half isnt.

[tobysmum77]

skinny is a vile word, I disagree. It is a quasi insult/ complement. It gives me a vision of skin and bone, someone ill and very underweight.

Because it is used for normal weight (dd and i get called 'skinny' and we aren't) People want to be 'skinny' yuck. They should want to be healthy and have a normal bmi no one should strive to be too thin.

[velourvoyageur]

I'm slim with an underweight BMI and am perfectly healthy. I rarely feel the need to control my eating and think my body is great :-)
I eat when I want and what I want. I have healthy phases and junk phases and my weight doesn't fluctuate beyond a kg or so.

I am just lucky not to have a large appetite so my food intake is fairly small. I am also young with similarly built family. I don't really do any exercise but always take the stairs instead of the escalators in the underground, walk up five flights of stairs every day to get home, seem to do a lot of walking to get to places etc. I know in ten, twenty years I'll have to change my habits if I want to stay thin.

At uni (here where the kids don't throw food) say 97% of the students are thin. It is super rare to see anyone who could shed a stone and still be in the healthy range. I doubt they're all ill.

[velourvoyageur]

Squirrelling sounds very hard

[howtoapproachthis]

didn't read the whole thread. just wanted to point out that the experience of being underweight itself, leads to disordered eating. whether that begins through dieting, through illness or whatever, it can often lead to an eating disorder. its important to get the distinction between skinny and underweight sometimes. also, people with an eating disorder will almost always deny it. i recovered from severe eating disorder, still not 100% and some of my closest friends still don't know anything about it and think when i was so thin in the past it was natural as i was so sporty. nothing natural about it.

[howtoapproachthis]

also to say obviously i realise not everyone who is or becomes underweight gets an ed, (like velour)but it can and does happen

[BikeRunSki]

V late to this thread, but I genuine do not believe that dH or dS have eating or digestive disorders and there's not a scrap of fat on them. They both go a lot of sport and eat to refuel only - no greed, no emotions around food, it's just fuel and they stop when they are full.