to think that women who are a size 6/8/10 are permanently on a diet?

[SabineUndine]

I don't mean diet as in counting every calorie, but diet as in they hardly eat any carbs and don't eat cakes, biscuits etc more than a couple of times a year? I am not a thin person (you guessed?) and I look at what my really slim female colleagues eat and it's salads with no carbs and just a tiny bit of protein, or soup or smoothies. Is that what it takes to be a thin person?

"diet drinks have been shown to increase hunger and therefore increase calorie intake over the course of the day. "

I think this is still a 'might', but if you have EVIDENCE that it does, please share.

I wont have scales in my house either I dont know what any of us weigh

Oooh enjoyingthepeace that all sounds delish. Am going to steal some of those ideas! Avo on toast - mmm, mmm .

Gwen there was a reacent UK university study that showed that people DO eat more calories over the course of a day after drinking diet drinks, what is still just speculation though is why that happens, there are various theories.

YABU - I'm a 6 and eat like a horse. I'm just naturally small.

Well yes dolly, I would also be starving on a small bowl of cereal and soup. Hence me eating a fair bit more than that!

I'm a size 4/6 and I eat loads of food.

I do have to remind myself to eat though, or I could easily forget to eat all day.

I'm an 8/10 depending on the shop and the time of the month. 5'7" and weigh about 8 stone.

I don't watch what I eat. It's true that I naturally prefer "healthier" foods - I don't really like greasy or fatty food and I like the taste of most fruit and vegetables. I don't really like carbs either - not at all a fan of bread and potatoes only in certain forms and would always rather eat the sauce than the pasta. I don't like chips. I will eat them but I don't tend to go "oooh I would love some chips now!"

That said, I am lazy, and especially if I'm feeling a bit crap and unmotivated, we tend to eat a lot of convenience foods. I like making food with lots of vegetables and fresh ingredients etc but I don't always have the motivation to do it. It's easier to stick something orange on a tray in the oven.

I definitely eat sweets, chocolate, biscuits more than I should but I'm not a big cake fan. I like fizzy drinks but I prefer fruit juice. I don't like drinking water.

I'm one of those annoying people who always gets sneered at because I genuinely do forget to eat. But I have ADHD so I can blame it on that. It just doesn't really occur to me to check the clock and make some food. I do feel hungry but the drive to not bother is higher. That said, when I'm pregnant, I become ravenous on my usual diet and am forced to eat properly and I do feel so much better, though it does start to feel annoyingly as though my entire day is just revolving around or focused on food. So I'm trying currently to focus on eating properly - healthy or not doesn't really bother me, it's quantity, but I need to get enough and hopefully it helps. I feel crap and no energy when I don't eat properly. I have tracked my calories before in an effort to check that I've had enough and it's hard for me to eat 2500 - if I get near that amount then I'm eating when I'm already full. But day to day I couldn't tell you how many calories I eat. It's been too long since I tracked them.

I also have a bit of a belly which I never had before DC! I walk for about an hour a day in 15 min chunks on weekdays, as I don't have a car. My muscles aren't toned up at all and I could be much fitter.

I wonder what industry OP works in.
Someone upthread mentioned TOFIs.
One thing Jimmy Bell explains is that supermodels aren't allowed to work out, they must not get muscular or they won't have the look designers want. So the models are the epitomy of the TOFI: high inner fat & low outer fat. And of course, famous for eating little (don't get to eat much if you have a sedentary lifestyle).

I've got a bmi of 23, am 5ft 6 , and weigh 10 st 3
When I eat whatever I want I'm 11.10lb sadly

So I eat lighter lunches, protein and salad, soup for dinner if I have a panini out at work
But I like salad and soup so don't find it hard
I do like wine, sweets, cake and sugar in my tea, if I didn't I'd probably be 9st 3 !

Ive always been a size 8-10. Except when pregnant when I ballooned alarmingly:)

Raised on a full English every morning ( as I continue for my skinny DC) lunch and a proper dinner ( meat and veg) I don't have the money for snacks like biscuits, crisps, and extra food, and fizzy drinks tbh. We all drink water and I have tea. There is always fruit and the DC help themselves.

I never snack because I don't like sweet things, although I make cakes and stuff for the DC. I am very active though and enjoy running etc. I'm also the fattest in my family (!)

Well I can appreciate that what I enjoy eating on a daily basis might look like a diet to someone who prefers richer foods. I was raised as a vegetarian although I eat fish, dairy and a bit of meat now and my parents have gone full carnivore in recent years. I love salads and veggies and I don't have sweet tooth. I used eat chocolate but I've lost the taste for that over the years. I don't feel superior though, just very lucky. I have one colleague who had gastric bypass surgery and while she lost a lot of weight it didn't cure her appetite for sugary foods so she constantly eats sweets and drinks sugary lattes at her desk. I imagine it's pretty miserable to have a constant desire for rich food.

I used to be larger. And have changed my lifestyle in order to be slim. I don't think of it as a diet now, I just would naturally go for the healthy choice instead of something greasy, and my portion size has reduced. But I am hugely interested in food, I love everything about it including eating out and have done throughout losing weight and now. I firmly believe that it's not practical or sensible to completely cut out things you enjoy completely, or to remove food groups. I have what I consider to be a balanced and healthy diet, some days/weeks are more healthy than others. Some times I'm stricter with myself. But I wouldn't say I now diet constantly to be slim.

I imagine it's pretty miserable to have a constant desire for rich food
true but...well couldnt most of us cultivate a taste for that sort of thing?
I'm sure I could but I dont want to eat that kind of food, I only want to eat food that I consider to be health promoting

Icebeing, as someone stated above, you check you're eating enough FAT and protein. The way you describe your hunger makes it sound like your blood sugar is being spiked frequently.

I'm a size 4-6 and I have never dieted. I can still wear clothes from high school and I am in my 40s. I eat a carb heavy diet - it is what suits me. I However, my carbs are complex and I don't have a sweet tooth. I love vegetables and fish, and not a big fan of meat, except a rare steak. I do have a salty tooth, and love crisps, nuts, and am a cheesaholoic, and love my sparkling wine. However, I don't eat big portions and I principally cook from scratch. I certainly don't deprive myself of anything I want to eat, but I listen to my body and have never overrated (not pleasurable).

I am very active - school runs are on foot, dog walks, and I run at least 30 miles on top of that.

I was size 8 till about 30 and ate a hideous junk food diet. But at 31 it suddenly all came calling. I ballooned and developed several health problems and now have to eat very carefully to manage my health. But I think I'd rather than than carrying on eating crap for another 30 years.

*rather that

According to my FitBit, for my height (5.3) and weight (8.5) I burn about 1400 calories a day if I've done minimal steps (i.e. less than 7,000) and around 1700 calories if I've done a lot of steps (say around 15,000). This was a bit of a revelation to me as the standard assumption is that women need about 2,000 calories. It totally explains why I don't really eat a lot.

I've been the same weight for around 20 years, weigh less than I did before I had DC (I'm more active now) and gave up dieting in my early 20s. I am now convinced that dieting makes you fat.

I don't drink fizzy drinks and I don't snack - just wasn't brought up that way. I do however drink quite a bit of wine. I am active and I try to eat healthily when I can. I enjoy cake many, many times a year.

YABU

Nope defo not I eat waaaay to much chocolate in one day

I'm a size 8 and I eat a disgusting amount of chocolate, sugary crap, and carbs - so I'm very possibly 'skinny fat' - ie slim physique but visceral fat round my organs

I've always been very slight - my Mum was a size 8 in her early 60s, and I have the same figure.

I also lose weight very easily when stressed - this isn't so much a diet as just I lose all my appetite and have to force myself to eat. After my Mum died very suddenly, I lost half a stone in about 10 days

It took me a long time to get my weight up. 2 years ago I was about 7 stone 10, with a BMI of about 17 (I'm 5'7''), and looked very bony.

I'm now the biggest I've ever been, and worked really hard to get my weight up before we started our first IVF cycle (now BMI of 19.5)

I've never been on a diet. The closest to a diet I've been on has been to put ON weight, where I tracked what I ate via MyFitnessPal, to get a sense for how much I needed to be eating to get enough calories to maintain a steady weight gain.

Shining
I get your point BadDo, but imo walking absolutely does count as proper exercise, it's also very handy for getting from A-B

Yeah you and I know that, but when quizzed on this in the past and I said "walking" I get and "yeah but what proper exercise do you do?, Don't you go to the gym, or do weights?"
The answer is "no, but I have a child who I carry a lot, a dog and no car"

As far as I'm concerned, people were slimmer in the "olden days", and I'm pretty sure 99% of them never set foot in the gym, so I've come to the conclusion it mudt be due to the portions, plus all the walking/cycling/sheer hard work that went into simply running the house or going to work.

banana- just out of interest, when you tracked on MFP how many calories were you eating?