What do you eat if you’re slim?

[Merryoldgoat]

I’m sorry but I really don’t know.

I’m very fat and have been yo-yo dieting for years to the point where I don’t know what a normal healthy day-to-day diet is. I know all the various weight-loss diets etc but it’s the normal eating I struggle with.

I’m currently on a LONG weight loss journey and have lost 3 stone so far but I want to keep it off once I’ve lost it.

I like healthy food and a variety of food - I’m just trying to understand what slim people eat on a typical day.

In particular I’m really interested in what you have for family dinners.

I’m hoping things that can be batches cool feature as I need to save time where I can.

Thank you for reading my very boring AIBU

I hardly ever eat breakfast and then usually have something light for lunch . Eat what I want for dinner - but I have to watch portion size . I think for me it’s not eating too much through the day so that I can enjoy my evening meal. I also don’t drink coffee or tea , so I don’t have biscuits. I think dh doesn’t notice how many times he has a biscuit with his tea through the day ..
I do have cake / takeaway when I fancy it just not too often.

Family dinners, I have almost the same but just in smaller portions. I usually have more vegetables than the others. I actually do this because of the comment on “is that all you are having” which gets on my nerves. I always try and eat slowly and leave food on my plate as soon as I am full. I like bread and potatoes, but I try to go 2 days each week without either. I also try not to have bread and potato on the same day.

The two key things for me staying slim are shopping sensibly. To avoid buying lots of things that are bad for me. And never allowing myself to be hungry. I make up carrot and celery sticks, nuts and fruit salads so that when I start to feel pangs I eat those. After I have them, I then Have the treat that I fancied. I can eat just half a packet of crisps or just one biscuit. My stomach has shrunk but I don’t feel deprived.

Breakfast - berries and homemade yoghurt, honey

Lunch - baked salmon with salad
or 2 boiled eggs with toast & almond butter
or roast chicken with potato/rice & veg
or jacket potato with tuna & salad
or tuna salad sandwich
or pasta with sardines & vegetables

or homemade soup with bread
or paella/risotto

All followed by yoghurt

Snack - apple or banana or nuts or three biscuits or a piece of cake

Dinner - Often nothing at all because I don't feel hungry in the evenings.
Or if I do, I might have more soup.

Throughout the day I have loads of drinks - tea, water, sparkling water.

I think naturally slim people are not your go-to for advice.

One of my children is naturally slim and if given a choice he would prefer not to have to eat. He can tell you about the 2-3 times in his life he overate and how awful he felt, as a teenage he won't eat dessert if he isn't hungry. It is no effort for him at all and he is a bit judgy. His brother love food and has to pay attention not to over-indulge.

I have to concentrate all the time not to be fat. Fat is my natural state and I love to eat for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with hunger. For me it is constant vigilance, and the minute I let up I gain weight. Ignore the naturally think, their struggle is not our struggle.

It is about changing habits and having good patterns, and it never ever lets up. When I am very thin I am thinking about it all the time. I aim for the high end of a healthy BMI.

I really should proofread, sorry for so many mistakes

i forgot to say my current weight, i'm 5 ft 9 and 10 stone. i am not definitely NOT slim. i am normal weight.

to stay at this weight, i currently stuff at least 5x regular dairy milk bars, 2-3 nutty protein cereal bars, 2 bags of crisps through out the day and only have one main meal of protein and veg or salad. i eat about 2300 calories per day

Merryoldgoat, if you find it hard to keep a handle on calorie-counting, what also works is eating until you’re not hungry rather than full (which makes me feel better) and walking as much as poss, and I mean walking with a purpose, like shopping or whatever you would normally go in the car for.

I have been bigger and smaller but quite slim now. I have to watch what I eat quite ruthlessly - I am definitely not naturally slim. Typical meals:

Breakfast: porridge with skim milk, honey and cinnamon.

Weekday lunch (at work): I bring in a homemade grain salad: lentils, bulgur wheat, chickpeas, bean sprouts + tomatoes, olives and feta in a light (homemade) mint dressing.

Weekend lunch: Big but simple salad - lots of leaves, light (homemade) dressing and usually a small bit of feta or goat's cheese.

Dinners: Default dinner is chicken breast fried with 1 cal cooking spray + 50gm (dry weight) of rice. I do lots of different marinades for the chicken with fat free greek yoghurt (I read somewhere that the yoghurt makes the marinade sink in better).
I also cook lots of spicy food - curries and stir fries, usually with chicken. Everything homemade , no oil or cream, use fat free greek yoghurt for creaminess and use light coconut milk if making something Thai.

Snacks: Sugar-free tea with skim milk. Very occasionally some fruit. Mostly no snacks.

No alcohol.

What works for me:

1. I do ALL the cooking (I hate washing up and DH is not a great cook, so this division of labour works for us). Complete control over what I eat.
2. Everything is homemade - dressings, sauces, marinades etc. That way I know exactly what has gone into them.
3. I weigh and measure EVERYTHING - the porridge oats, the rice, the dressings, the veg, EVERYTHING. I make exact portions for me and DH - if he wants something bigger he can have something after dinner.
4. I don't worry about what I am eating if we eat out (which is relatively rare - toddler DC), and I will still get an ice cream on a hot day or a nice slice of cake if out for coffee. But we never have takeaway or ready meals or any other prepared food at home, and I always take homemade food at work. I would say 95% of what I eat is prepared at home.

If you like to cook, why not sign up to My Fitness Pal for a week and just log all your favourite meals - work out how you can make them lower calorie and figure out the exact quantities you need of different ingredients to get them within a certain calorie count. then you can forget about actually tracking but just cook and eat meals that you know are healthy and relatively low calorie.

You’re maybe better not saying “slim” because that’s subjective and actually will apply to lots of different people at different heights, weights and BMRs, find out what people are doing at your target weight or close to it.

Very low carbs especially sugar/refined carbs. You can lose the taste for sweet stuff once you stay off it for a while. (My downfall is wine though, which is chock ful of carbs. If i didn't like alcohol I'd be even slimmer).
Two rather than three meals (i don't eat breakfast. My sister who is also slim doesn't eat dinner. )
Try not to snack. I keep a sandwich box of cooked chopped chicken or pork in the fridge so can have that if I'm starving, rather than attacking the kids' biscuits etc.

Dont drink calorific drinks. I just drink water, tea (no sugar), black coffee and wine.

I do work out but i don't actually think that helps lose weight (as it makes you hungrier) but it does help your fitness and muscle tone, mental health etc so helps you look and feel better.

I'm 44, 5'6 and just under 9 stone, size 8-10. There's no magic, no short cuts. Just eat less and be aware of what you eat.

It depends how slim, I am 5'7 And just under 10st. I eat:

Breakfast: 1 slice of toast +peanut butter, 1 slice of toast with 1 egg, 40g oats porridge with 50/50 milk/water, slice of toast with half an avocado. I never have cereal but that's because I don't like it.

Lunch: sandwich with plenty of salad in It, fruit, tomatoes, cucumber style stuff; salad with mozzerella or feta; roast veg with feta; lentil type salad; occasionally soup; toast with smoked salmon and poached eggs or avocado and eggs.

Dinner: normal dinners tbh but smallish portions. Try and have 1 fish a week, 2 vegetarian days and 1 salad day then the other 3 whatever I fancy. Could be roast, could be chilli, could be sausages, could be homemade pizza. Weigh out your carbs when having pasta and rice.

Pudding: ice lolly, couple of squares of chocolate, small homemade cake or flapjack.

Sometimes have a packet of crisps for snack, normally a muktipack 100kcal one or sometimes have a babybel.

I also walk around 4 miles a day and exercise about 3 or 4 times a week, but only doing something fun e.g. bike ride or going swimming or dancing type thing. I don't go to the gym because I find it's boring.

I eat about 1500-2500kcal a day averaging about 1800 over the course of the week. I find sticking rigidly to a calorie deficit each day leads to binging and it's better to average over the week. I am not trying to loose weight though atm

Lots of water.
No snacking.
Lean protein mostly grilled.
Exercising.

I'm very slim over all but I stopped exercising about 2 years ago (had a baby and just haven't made it back yet).
I noticed that even though I weigh the same amount and still fit into my clothes I 'look fatter' because my body has lost strength and tone all over. I'm flabbier and I 'jiggle' in places, which sounds crazy as I'm still a size 6-8.
I'm still the same size but I just look bigger.

Not many carbs. Chose between alcohol and cakes/biscuits/choc now Im heading towards 40 metabolism can't take both.

I weigh myself at least once a day. I know thats frowned upon but it helps keep me aware of bad habits beginning and the consequence. I would rather step on the scales daily and be slim to be frank (sorry body positivity peeps!!)

Yes, I agree slim is a subjective term. I suppose I just mean a normal healthy weight that doesn’t make the doctor wince every time you go (even if it’s for an earache).

As I suspected though there’s a big variation so I will have to really work at it long term and probably be vigilant for the next 40 odd years if I’m lucky enough to be around that long.

I'm 5ft 6 and dress size 8-10. Exercise is important but it must be one you like and will keep up. It needs to fit into life easily and not be a fad. I do lots of dog walking plus some pilates and yoga and the odd weights session.

I think there's no point having a dinner that not satisfying because then I find I just eat loads of pudding stuff, so I try and have plenty of food for dinner and make sure it is stuff I like.

Calories are around:
300 breakfast
500 lunch
800 dinner
Plus 200 to snack

Sometimes will be more, sometimes less

To lose weight I lower that to
200 breakfast
400 lunch
600 dinner
Plus 100 extra to snack- when losing weight I don't snack but this is about the extra amount of milk etc. I am eating

No snacks, no takeaways.
Balanced meal at mealtimes.

Try eating your dinner off a sandwich plate (just something smaller than dinner-size) and eat slowly with a glass of water. You will feel fuller quicker and feel like you've eaten more than you have.

I've always been slim but since reaching my 30's I have to do a lot more exercise to stop the love handles! I drink a lot of water and green tea and I avoid bread during the week. I have cracker-bread at lunchtime with 'be good to yourself' houmous.

When you've lot the weight I think it's definitely portion size, exercise when you can (once you start exercising you miss it if you don't do anything for a day!). Still treat yourself - I'm a sucker for crisps and I drink wine 4 nights a week generally. I want to stay slim but I don't want to be miserable!! Good luck

I think a size 12 on my height and frame is slim - I’m 5’ 5” but very large breasts and bottom with a small waist. Slightly cartoonish proportions unfortunately.

Definitely helps to eat slowly.
Don't drink while you are eating.
Don't add things to your food mindlessly- cream, dressings, ketchup etc.
Avoid high GI foods.

My exercise seems similar to Underparmummy - I have a dog who needs walking (although I run with her in the mornings) twice a day so I have to exercise plus I do a pilates class once a week. It has taken a few months but it's done wonders for my core strength - I really recommend it.

For me, plenty of fruit, veg and nuts. And I follow 3 rules:

1. Only eat when hungry.
2. Only eat until satisfied, not full.
3. Eat a healthy snack before eating crap.

Diets don't work so I don't deny myself any food. Just try to stick to the above. Healthy snacks can be apples, nuts, olives.

Sorry for multiple postings but using My Net Diary can also help make sure you are really aware of what you are eating.

Congratulations on the 3 stone loss - that is a huge amount!

As pps have said the focus should be on portion size, but it is very easy to lose weight without cutting back on filling meals. Focus on grilled lean proteins and lots and lots of green veg. I'm 5'9" and around 10 and a half stone (so a solidly healthy weight), last Sept I was 13st 5lb - this was my diet, which I maintain.

Average day for me:
Breakfast: porridge or greek yoghurt (NOT greek style) and fruit
Lunch: soup or salad (salmon, tuna, egg, chicken)
Snack: nuts
Dinner: Grilled fish or chicken with a plateful of green veg - usually broccoli, spinach, kale.
Dessert: melon

On a day I'm exercising, I add couscous or other wholegrain, or pulses such as lentils and/or chickpeas to the dinner.

I strongly recommend removing as much processed food as you can, although I stick to a 70/30 rule of keeping 30% for not the above (for me, that's booze)

No breakfast, litres of water, sometimes soup for lunch but don’t always eat lunch. Dinner just whatever I fancy but it’s usually something healthy like a jacket potato and tuna or something. No snacks. I do drink alcohol, without that I’d be much slimmer I’m sure, I’m a size 10 now but quite tall