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?

I'm a size 6-8. I've always been slim but it has caught up with me throughout my mid twenties and beyond and I can't eat whatever I want.

Main reasons I'm this size:

• I eat small portions and get full quickly
• I do a lot of exercise (run 30 miles per week)
• I'm not hugely into food - I eat to live

Also because I'm used to being slim I'm conscious of any weight gain and will try to get back to my 'normal' size, which I appreciate is smaller than others 'normal size'.

Agree with many of those who say its down to self regulation

Must try that

I haven't read all the replies, too many. But I hate to think that everyone a size 6-8 is starving or dieting, in the same way I hate to think those who are without much effort believe those who are not, and who choose their clothes at the end of the rack, are stuffing themselves.

It varies.

Size 8/10 here
I eat carbs and chocolate/cakes etc on a daily basis!
I look slim in clothing but i do have a pot belly from all the junk haha
I'm actually trying to switch to healthier diet because of my skin.. but i think i'm genuinely addicted to sugar! i feel ill without it

If I eat absolute crap I'm a 10, eating healthy/clean but still eating 2000 cals and over I'm a 6/8. I eat 3 meals a day and have to eat every 3 hrs, I realise I have a good metabolism though.

I do tend to agree with u a bit in that most people I know at 6/8/10 diet, binge eat or have some sort of disordered eating habits.

I was a size 8/10 all my life..no diets..no issue maintaining it...never really put weight on...could not understand how people put weight on whilst on holiday for eg (i actually used to lose it because it was too hot to eat) ...

Then. Bam. 2 kids in under 18months. Body destroyed!

Currently a size 14. Maintaining it beautifully but not losing weight in the slightest!!!!

Sorry WhatTheFox - agree with ScreenShotting - she does eat whatever she wants. It's not that she has a "small appitite" - it's that yours is too big! If she's not losing or gaining weight - then her appitite is exactly perfect, not "small" just normal! It's actually very bad that you see overeating as eating "normally" and her eating as "small amounts" - a better challenge would be for you to eat only what she ate for a month and see if you shrink your appitite and get used to eating the correct amount for your body to the extent you don't feel the need for the extra food?

Yes, that's really interesting re the actually eating less than we think we do as smaller people. it's the opposite of the whole secret eater tv prog where people think they eat much less than they do but actually eat alot more

I have had people comment, come to think of it, that I don't eat much. That puzzles me because I eat enough, I eat until I am full. Sometimes I really want lots of peanut butter then don't eat any for weeks, then it'll be say fish, or soup, or pearl barely! Often the food cravings are very specific. I think it's about listening to the body and its nutritional needs at the time.
I am absolutely no angel though. I drink too much and have endless cups of tea with sugar in.

Also a lot of the daily intake for many 'diets' seems like a lot of food to me at times.

interesting thread, not sure if any kind of consensus has emerged yet?

I'm going to go massively against the grain, and say that I do have to watch what I eat, and actively reduce/control portion sizes / not have things I quite fancy, to stay slim.

I am not naturally slim. I put on weight easily. But I prefer to be slim, so I work at it. I wish I was like all the people piling onto this thread who say they eat whatever they like, live on cakes and carbs and never put a kilo on, but I never will be.

I've never dieted in my life, eat whatever I fancy and I'm a size 10.

big buttons as terrible a show as it is, that supersize vs superskinny programme rang very true for me. Lots of the 'super skinnies' would eat loads of chocolate and cake and crisps but not proper meals, and thus their daily calorie intake was very low

Reader77 that isn't just Zoe Harcombe who says that, it is what most nutritionists say and I truly believe it too!

Studying nutrition as a hobby (and I mean boring scientific articles, not popular press bites), I don't think this is true. Craving usuallyhappen when the body is missing nutrients.

"I am not naturally slim"

everyone is naturally slim. Our bodies aren't built to carry the levels of weight some people gain these days.

Some people struggle more, yes, but the concept that their body is not naturally thin might be part of the problem? do you know what I mean?

We as a society need to get back to knowing what is and feels natural/normal, and by normal I don't mean average because the average now is often above what we as humans should naturally be.

dowager I do put weight on if I eat more than I should. I say should in the context of eating when I don't need to. Eating when I am absolutely not hungry but say bored . If I listen to my body and eat when I am hungry then my size pretty much stays the same. I have no idea what I actually weigh as I don't have scales.

But like a few people here I am not that interested in food. I am always starving at lunchtime and always have breakfast but often don't have much in the evenings.

Can I say do all women sized 16+ eat McDonald's, chocolate, cheese all the time?

I have always been slim. Skinny kid, still getting mistaken for a boy at 19, that sort of thing. I know that it's largely genetic, I am never still - fidget, fidget fidget constantly, I exercise properly, eat clean except I'm a sugare fiend and I'm not a TOFI. But most of all I know I just eat less than most people. When I look at other people's plates, I can't imagine where they put it all. I'm convinced that's the difference between fatties and skinnies in a lot of cases.

Obv that's a major generalisation but why is slim shaming and "she needs to eat a burger"accepted but if you told an obese person to "put down the fork" you'd be destroyed

Size 8 - 10, never diet, and eat more or less what I like. In my 50s and weight has been pretty constant except for about a year after DD1 when I carried an extra stone and a half. That fell off when I stopped feeding.

I do tend to eat less than some people, because I stop eating when I feel full. I've never got into a habit of snacking which is what I think leads to a lot of weight problems; if you eat constantly, you'll never feel "full".

I do drink too much - a large glass of wine most nights. If I stop drinking for any length of time I lose weight.

Totally agree re food cravings, as in above post. I often crave and eat huge amounts of green veg. I think your body will tell you what it needs. People will often eat piles of empty calories because they are hungry but the body isn't actually getting the nutrients it needs so will give the signal that it needs more food. It doesn't need more , it needs certain nutrients and will keep sending signals to eat in the quest to get those nutritional needs met.

I'm going to go massively against the grain, and say that I do have to watch what I eat, and actively reduce/control portion sizes / not have things I quite fancy, to stay slim.

Same for me Dowager.

Its not a popular thing to say, but being slim matters more to me than being able to enjoy food. I do get hungry between meals, i do sometimes go to bed feeling hungry, but i suck it up and just have a herbal tea or something instead because i don't want to be overweight. It might be effortless for some people but it isnt for me. If i do have a big indulgent lunch, or a chunk of cake, then i have Miso soup or something for dinner to compensate.

I agree with pretty much everything bigbuttons said. I find that left to myself, say if DH is away, I will eat the same meal three times a day for days, or nothing much at all.

I said on a thread once that I firmly believed slim/skinny people simply ate (in some cases, a lot) less than overweight people, and was ripped into.

Everyone came on, as in this thread, to say they ate whatever they liked - cakes, carbs, pizza, wine, the lot - and they never put an ounce of weight on.

To be honest, I still think that. It's just that slim people think what they eat is 'a lot' (since it satisfies them) - but if you were to compare it to an overweight person's intake, it would be a lot less. How could it not be?

If I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted it, I would be overweight.

"Totally agree re food cravings, as in above post. I often crave and eat huge amounts of green veg."

This makes me laugh. I never crave healthy food. Not sure why some people do and others don't. Do you think it's do with what you eat as a child?

I saw your post earlier in the thread Hollie, and completely agreed with you, too.