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?

This makes me feel both depressed and ravenous. One biscuit? One slice? What's the point then?

for me, what's the point if you go past the point of being comfortably satated, and then turn something initially enjoyable into something not enjoyable (i.e. feeling stuffed and bloated).

I like more than one slice of pizza, but never a whole one (unless its one of those pizza hut legera ones with the middle missing) because I enjoy the first 2 or 3 slices. I don't enjoy a 5th/6th slice that just makes me feel uncomfortable and sore.

The diet you describe is not a what it takes to be a thin person. YABU. It is probably one way to be a thin person. But not the only way and not necessarily the best or healthiest or most sustainable way.

OP you're right for me at any rate. I'm size 8-10 and i control portion sizes and avoid junk food because i prefer to be slimmer. I wish i could eat whatever i want but if i did my weight would creep up and i dont feel comfortable when i'm bigger.

I indulge on holiday, special occasions etc and then diet when i get back.
Coffee is my treat really - as long as i can enjoy a lovely skinny latte each day then i am happy eating healthy, small portion meals. My job is fairly active and physical so that helps too.

it might be different in your cirlces OP

but smoothies and spiralising and salads isn't always about body image. It's also about comfort and energy levels. If I eat a lot of heavy food over the weekend I crave something lighter and more veggie based in the following days. It's less about weight and more about enjoying how I feel on fresher foods: less slugish, more energy, less grumpy and not constipated

I think how we see our diets is the problem

They aren't on a diet. They just have a diet that provides the right amount of calories for their body and activity levels.

BeckysMediocreHair what you say about following people around all day is interesting, because that's sort of how I came to be asking this question. The very slender people do seem to eat very small portions, even of salad. I don't wonder how they manage not to be ravenously hungry all the time though. I had one colleague who was a size 12/14 and admitted 'I'm always hungry'. When you were eating she would look over your shoulder and say wistfully 'that looks nice'. I don't know how she could stand to be that hungry all the time.

Vestal, one added factor is that studies have shown that people tend to eat more and stop eating later if the food is served on a larger plate. And that would affect your size. One important difference between Europe and the US is the enormous meal sizes over there. I would imagine that after 6 months or so of being served enormous helpings and watching everybody else eat enormous helpings it must be quite difficult to remember how small a normal portion size actually is.

I can pinpoint the exact time that I started to gain weight. It was when I upped my hours at work. DM otoh has never worked more than part time and is the kind of restless woman who will be up on a chair fetching and dusting things every few minutes. I cook my own food, we even grow our own veggies, but the portions that were absolutely fine for me to eat when I was still having several active hours in the day now need cutting down.

This makes me feel both depressed and ravenous. One biscuit? One slice? What's the point then?

Oh I know! When I see diets in magazines they will always suggest things like "lunch - one lettuce leaf with a single sunflower seed" or "dinner - half a boiled egg with a third of a ryvita".

Sabine

It really is as simply as calories in vs calories out. I usually eat an enormous breakfast, snack at lunch (something like you've described) and a fairly big dinner. Usually supper before bed too.

However, I cycle to work around 3 times a week (15 miles each way) and I spend 45 minutes pretty much every day on an elliptical trainer.

To lose weight, you eat fewer calories than you burn. You can either up your exercise or cut the calories. To maintain the weight, eat the same as you burn. I've never actually been on a diet. Sometimes I feel like I need to do more exercise after a week or month of big meals etc but I'd rather eat the same but exercise more. Some would rather not exercise and eat lettuce soup.

The important thing is, what do you mean when you say "thin" or "slim"?

To answer your question, yes, to maintain a healthy body you need to be conscious of what you eat and most people in the first world eat too much.

I'm a size 10 and eat quite a lot - cakes, biscuits, lots of carbs. Used to be a size 8 back in the day but then I started meds which make me almost permanently hungry (that's my excuse anyway). I think a lot just depends on your metabolism and no doubt it'll catch up on me as I get older.

"Odd interpretation of a diet."

I was intending to mean the conventional interpretation of a diet- as in taking in less calories than you need in order to lose weight.

Lots of us cannot get away with having a cheese baguette and chips for lunch everyday and maintain a slim figure. I can't anyway. It's definitely an either/or thing for most people I know.

I guess I just don't really agree with viewing eating in moderation as a "behaviour". It's what we're all supposed to be doing.

Thats like me saying everyone who is size 16/18/20 onlly eats McDonalds and cake.

This. There are so many variables at play that you can't make a sweeping assumption about women's individual weight.

I'm 48 and a size 8. I've been a 12, but it didn't suit me and was short-lived as I cut back until I could fit my clothes again. I agree that there is vanity sizing - some of my clothes are a 6, some 8, some 10, although mostly 8. I was a stone lighter 30 years ago and wearing a size 8-10 then.

I am not on a diet. I gave up sugar for Lent though if that counts. I run about 5 days a week but that doesn't help me lose weight.

If you are interested in the science of obesity, especially diabetes, I recommend the work of Dr Aseem Malhotra (he has a website) and 'The Obesity Code' by Dr Jason Fung.

Im 59 and a short size 10. I would say that yes Im constantly being careful what I eat now at this age as if I ate what I ate 10/20/30 years ago I become a size 14.
Still walk lots and eat healthily with lots of cake but def not so easy to stay at a weight I like.

A4Document the ones that get me are the week-long diet plans that say 'half an orange' or something, and you're sort of wondering what you're expected to do with the rest. '3 almonds' and they come in 50g bags, so you'll need 10 weeks to finish the rest. And all the recipes are like that so you'll end up with a fridge and cupboard full of unfinished odds and ends.

I'm a size 8-10 and I eat what I want, sometimes healthily sometimes not.

I am not on a diet. I didn't even diet when I had DS, it just fell off.

I've been sizes 8-18 in the last 6 years (currently size 12 but fighting to get back in a 10 12-weeks after having DD). When I was a size 18 I ate crap & did no exercise. When I was an 8 I ate reasonably healthily (but still had carbs, cakes, takeaways etc in moderation) and went running several times a week.

Laws of physics say energy can't be created on destroyed. So if you're putting more in than you're burning off then you'll be overweight. Granted, people burn it off at different rates so one person may need to do more exercise than another to burn off the same Mars bar. But ultimately people are slim because (intentionally or not) they are doing more activity or eating less than their larger peers.

Have to agree with Worra and others. You started your thread with a ridiculous generalisation - you can't really then get huffy when people call you on it.

IME, there's definitely a genetic element to it as well as the obvious link with over eating (or eating lots of the wrong things) and exercise. My extended family have all been able to eat what they want and none of us have ever carried any weight until getting to 45+ when it seems to have caught me. Dh's family all struggle with their weight but don't eat differently from my family.

Interesting bit of objective assessing is - dh's brother is adopted, and skinny as a bean pole. So he's eaten the same as dh, his parents and his sister, but his genes are different, and he has a completely different body shape from the rest of the family eating the same stuff.

Hmm I am a 6-8. I'm not healthy, I don't do enough exercise. I eat carbs and chocolate galore ( I am normally the first to the snack tin at work). I drink full fat coke, have sugar in tea and coffee. I think I am just naturally small.. Not sure how much longer it will last but not a choice. Typical lunch for me is cheese sandwich, packet of crisps, Apple, chocolate bar, small bottle of coke. Cake if I have any at home and snack on biscuits throughout the day...

Well, thanks to vanity sizing I'm now an 8. I eat what I like, but I know when to stop. I can eat 2 biscuits and not actually want anymore (as opposed to forcing myself to stop), other times I'll eat more. I'm vegetarian which I think does help in some way, in that I understand nutrition and view food primarily as fuel to make our bodies work and keep them strong. That said I'm also a bit of a foodie who appreciates good quality food, flavours etc. and I don't deny myself a glass of good wine with my meals or a portion of chips from the chippy when I fancy some.

I'm also late for everything so tend to run a lot and not having a car means I do a lot of walking.

I was a bit rounder in my late teens, which coincided with a period of having food hang ups. As soon as I stopped giving a fuck the weight dropped off and 30 odd years later has stayed off despite hormonal fluctuations, pregnancy etc. I never weigh myself, I just notice if my waistband gets a bit tighter and will do something like The Shred for a couple of weeks to rein it in.

I always assumed it was partly down to genes (I could be wrong) my dad was always skinny and I've never put on weight (and I am pretty lazy). Neither have my sisters. My mums always had to watch her weight and stay active.

I don't think that's right OP. Obviously some people who are very slender have to watch what they eat. My MIL is like this. She eats very little - perhaps one meal a day - to maintain her size 8 figure. Being slim a real priority for her and she has restricted food for many years.

But I also have a couple of friends who are very slim. Both eat what they want. But they key issue is that what they want is considerably less than what I want. So whereas they might ocassionally eat 2 or 3 biscuits in one go, they would never finish the packet off like I would. And food genuinely isn't a priority for them. Both ocassionally skip meals - not to stay slim but because if they're busy they forget to eat. I have never, ever been so busy I forget to eat!

I was size 8-10 for years and ate all kinds of crap, but I was constantly on the move. Until I was in my very late teens I would spend hours a day walking round in circles in my room (daydreaming!) and then throughout my 20s I walked a lot as I don't drive so had to walk to get anywhere. Have never been on a diet (except for a high calorie diet a few years ago to try and put on some weight after losing far too much for some unknown reason).

Am size 12 now, guess my metabolism is catching up.

I'm a size 10ish usually and apart from when pregnant (when I have To watch my sugar levels) I eat what I want to. I'd say my portion sizes are 'normal' I never go hungry but don't have a piled high plate either and eat some type of pudding most days.

Size 8.

Eat what I want when I want, just not as much as fat people do. And I walk most places as I don't drive. What a silly thing to say.