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?

We'ld have a carton of soup between the whole family, it would take about 2.5 FULL to the brim bowls to eat a whole carton yourself in one go!

My sister has never been bigger than a size 8, she doesn't diet, she's just naturally small and always has been - she eats cake, she doesn't drink alcohol much, but she has a normal appetite - how difficult is it to understand that people come in different sizes

Interesting article about Biggest Loser contestants and their weight gains since the show:

www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?_r=0

Certainly fits with my experience that it gets harder to lose weight every time you regain it!

Polly how could she have taken that in to account, when you hadn't told her!

I've not read all the replies but from an early sample it appears there are a lot of people who are claiming to be naturally thin!? I, like you, am not. I was when I was younger, exercised loads ( loved doing sport and had time to do it) and therefore had less time to eat. Since having children I've found that I have loads of time to eat and very little opportunity to exercise. I'm trying slimming world as I think it. Seems most family friendly option and also from my children's perspective it looks like healthy eating rather than crazy dieting. I'm only two weeks in and still getting to grips with things, but I think the essence is that if I want to be slim I need to eat very little cake, fat, cheese etc and plenty of fruit, veg and lean protein. This makes sense to me and is a compromise I'm willing to make to drop a dress size or two? I have a neighbour who is very slim, she eats a lot of chopped up raw veg and has salad and a light supper every evening. IMHO Yanbu.

The bigger loser thing. I always think that speed is to blame there

Anyone I know who lost huge amounts fast ended up gaining more than they lost, one became so obese after a meal replacement diet where she lost loads initialy that she was barely mobile afterwards!

The slow and steady ones though seem to make sustainable life changes. I guess it also give the body time to get used to "new normals" too. And I can think of a few people I know who lost big amounts years ago this way who are still slim

Iamloved, let me guess, you're not of slight build?

Everyone is naturally slim, because being slim is completely natural.

Eating too much food and not taking enough exercise, is what makes our bodies unnaturally fat.

So I don't see why anyone would need to "have you believe they are naturally like that" IamlovedbyG

Mardle

Did you used to live in Liverpool?

'I once had an aerobics instructor who was really quite chubby, compared to most fitness instructors not huge or anything, but I think you'd describe her as plump or a bit podgy. She did class after class of high impact aerobics, day in, day out.. But she had the figure of someone you might assume was a bit lazy and ate too many biscuits while moaning about being a bit too fat. I used to look at her and think:

a) how in a fair world, does this work? Why is she not a beanpole? I am exhausted after one class, she'll do three or four or maybe even more in a day.

b) if this is her size/shape given the job she does then what's the point of me flogging my guts out three times a week? '

I swear I had an aerobics instructor exactly the same!!!

I attended 3 classes per week. This woman was always the instructor. She was leaping around for England, yelling into the microphone too. She was extremely energetic, never stopped.

If you would have met her and she would have said what she did for a living, you simply wouldn't have believed her.

I remember thinking that she couldn't possibly eat enough to match her calories burnt.

Nailed it worra.

Go in to a reception class and 95% will be little lithe creatures, with the odd chunky one in there. None will give one thought to calorie intake. Most will be very active.

30 years later is often a very different case.

I was skinny as a rake at 4, and I'm skinny as a rake at 35. I give more thought to my food, I would smashed avo on toast over a bowl of Cheerios, and I'm probably similarly as on the move as I was at 4 tbh, but overall I can still consume a lot of fabulously tasty food and not out on weight.

It's not a lie. It's the truth

"Everyone is naturally slim, because being slim is completely natural" I agree, it's our natural state. Even in colder seasons when we'ld naturally store some extra fat, that wouldn't naturally make us overweight or obese.

Our bodies aren't designed to be overweight, we're all naturally thin. Something unnatural is going on with lifestyles when a lot of people are overweight

So, how would you describe someone who has to make a concerted effort to remain slim - by watching what they eat, and virtually always eating less than they would like to remain slim? As opposed to the many on this thread who eat whatever, and whenever they like, and remain slim?

To me, the latter are naturally slim in a way that I don't think I am.

I am a Brit but have lived abroad for a while.

Simply put,Brits eat more.

They eat more, they drink more, they eat more junk, they eat more processed foods. The access to food is 24-7, and the portions are massive.

That's why we are where we are at.

"So, how would you describe someone who has to make a concerted effort to remain slim - by watching what they eat, and virtually always eating less than they would like to remain slim? As opposed to the many on this thread who eat whatever, and whenever they like, and remain slim?"

The more years of unnatural portions and ingredients or activity levels someone has had in the past the harder it'll be to change of course.

I don't think it's something either type of thin person was born into though, the ones who find it easy just didn't un-learn normal natural habits in the past over their lifetime and the ones who find it hard now probably did at some point and probably kept it up over a period of time (even if they remained slim for that time, but slim wiith an unhealthy diet)

In nature we would have periods with very little food which is why intermittent fasting is good for us and very natural . Trouble is today people don't mimic nature and instead stuff themselvse with cream buns and get extremely fat.

It is all too easy to blame external circumstances or hormones but most people are fat because they eat more than they expend. That doesn't mean it's easy to lose weight but the solution is usually within our own hands.

Most of the normal weight people on the thread rather than larger ones eat as they have described - normal meals, few snacks or small amounts through the day. They also tend to avoid junk food. So although I may well be eating as much as I like of the lovely salmon, salads, nuts etc I love that doesn't mean i am eating a box of chocolates a day.

"To me, the latter are naturally slim in a way that I don't think I am"

It just seems to me like a bit of a cop out, sorry. Like it's something innate and congenital.

Take maybe two 40 year olds who've both slowed down after the kids are raised. 1st lady piles it on the other doesn't, the first one now has to work hard to maintain her old weight the other doesn't have to put much effort into it, both previously thin

Well maybe the first lady has had years of being unhealthy and spent her 20s staying slim by eating small portions of junk and "whatever she wanted". the 2nd lady had never really dieted either but always enjoyed a sensible rainbow diet..

.. fast forward to their 40s and you'ld class the 1st lady as "naturally slim"
She's not, it's just that the 1st lady's body is out of touch with normal habbits because of habits through the years.

They're both naturally the same, if the 1st lady had the 2nd lady's lifestyle history she'ld be in the same boat

Yes Laura, similar here.

When I say I eat a shed load of fabulous tasty food, I'm referring to avocados, salmon, prawns, butternut squash, berries.

I'm not referring to doughnuts (can't stand them), biscuits (maybe eat 5 a year) or fizzy drinks. I will eat dessert in a restaurant though... The occasional sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream? Now, that can really hit the spot! Again though, maybe I eat dessert in a restaurant, a dozen times a year and always shared with dh

That is such depressing reading vimfuego re the Biggest Losers finding that their metabolic rates were severely compromised post rapid and great weight loss.

It also goes a long way to explain why some posters on this thread are overweight despite having restrictive diets and aren't necessarily telling porkies about what they are eating. It also explains why simply telling people with weight to lose to eat less and exercise more isn't necessarily always the right answer - or if it is it should at least be caveated with make sure not to lose weight too quickly, or be overly reliant on hours and hours of exercise.

I was wondering as well if doing intermittent fasting to lose weight, would go some way to avoid this, it would be interesting to find out.

Haven't read the whole thread but I'm naturally slim. I don't have a sweet tooth but I do like biscuits. But I eat mainly healthy well balanced home cooked meals, with occasional crap. I'm 46 and honestly have never calorie counted or dieted in my life.

But yeah I think metabolism has a lot to do with it. I'm fairly active but don't actually exercise, apart from walking, but I have a fast metabolism.

Yes, some have been mean. But it's like water off a ducks back for most of us slim posters.

Copied + pasted from elsewhere to save me typing it all out again.

When i lost 10 stone (before the 4 stone regain and subsequent loss) i developed gall bladder disease (now before anyone starts 2 doctors and my surgeon told me it was due to losing weight too fast. In fact they asked me Slimming World or Weight Watchers? The surgeon was very kind to me and when i made a private appointment to see him after being told i would have to live with frequent gallstone pain for another YEAR everytime i ate SOLID food not fatty food because id already lost the weight remember ....but SOLID food....the surgeon did however say to me that he wished he could use me as an example to his other patients who wouldnt believe him that heartburn is affected by weight.
Re. the gallstones he was appalled that i should have to wait a year after making all that effort .....

5 weeks later i was on his operating table under the NHS!
Add message | Report | Message poster HelenaDove Sat 02-Apr-16 23:16:07
Before that operation i had spent months having intermittent attacks where i was rolling around on the floor or the bed in excrutiating pain every time i ate solid food. I was living on slim a soups and water biscuits and tinned salmon
while trying to hold down a ten hour a night job in a sex chatline office running from room to room answering different phones.

Every time i had a very severe attack i would have the emergency on call GP come out and give me a morphine injection. The neighbours actually said they could hear me screaming. On Xmas Eve 2002 the doc had to come out for the same reason... and on Xmas Day i couldnt stand up My legs kept giving way and i had to be taken to hospital where i was kept under observation until the morphine wore off.

A later attack came at work DH had to come and pick me up help me into the car and take me to a little local hospital where a camp and v. funny doctor who would have made me laugh if i hadnt been in so much pain gave me a box of morphine pills and told me to put one under my tongue when i felt an attack coming on.

Prior to the morphine injections i had been given tramadol which did fuck all to stop the pain and i got so desperate i was taking 2 of them an hour later 2 paracetamol then nurofen anything to stop the pain.

To this day i owe my thanks to the surgeon who did my op and the doc at the local hosp who gave me those pills.

I hope no one ever has to go through what i did

Agree that we are all naturally slim - very few babies are born fat - those that are often have diabetic mothers.

I also agree with Laura & Enjoying about eating a shedload of tasty food, meaning healthy, natural, unprocessed stuff - I really do prefer that sort of food to junk. It is no hardship to me to eat healthily & consequently stay slim.