to ask if you have to work hard at being slim

[Tobythecat]

Do you ever eat cake/pizza? Im trying to lose weight and stop binge eating, but the thought that even if i become slimmer, will it mean i can never eat cake?

I really enjoy cake/pizza/pasta and would rather be a size 14 and eat these things once a week or so than be a size 8 or 10 and never get to eat them.

Interested to read your experiences☺

I wonder how much “genetics” count versus “habits”? If you’re brought up in a family with certain portion norms, that MUST affect your weight, when you see the whole pizza= 1/4 small pizza + salad vs pizza=Whole large deep dish+fries+garlic bread followed by ice cream!

Add in the whole lifestyle - exercise habits or hobbies often picked up from or encouraged by parents/cousins etc, and I expect the impact is more important than genetics.

I’m 36, size 8-10, no idea how much I weigh, I never given a thought to calories etc. I eat anything I fancy and as much as I fancy, but when eating with others, or at pubs etc, I can see that I usually cook and serve portions on the smaller side of average. I can (and often do) eat more sweet treats than is probably healthy, but I generally cook healthy meals (a lot of meals I do as my mother’s always made them!) so I hope it balances out.
I absolutely never exercise for exercise sake, but, I have a reasonably active job, various quite physical hobbies, and a young spaniel. Just checking my phone, I’ve done 8 miles today. I’ve eaten a whole load of junk by even my standards, but I’m not beating myself up about it, I’m just grateful that I can enjoy what I like.

I don't think anyone is slim and it's freely without consequences. C4 followed some super slim people round. Turns out they move a lot and restrict after a big blow out.

I am currently trying to lose after gaining far too much in pregnancy but at my 'usual' size I am a 10/12 and boy do I have to work at it. 1300 cals a day and gym 3/4 times a week. If I even sniff a biscuit I pile the pounds on

I do work hard to diet, need to lose 1.65 st, I will run 2x week, one run will be 6/7 miles and do some weights at home. I will record everything on Myfitnesspal just so I can drink wine and eat cake occasionally.

I use those zero noodles and rice which helps cut the carbs.

By summer, I want to fit into my summer clothes.

Used to be easier but am 50 now!

Nope.
5’10”, size 10, BMI 19.5. 28, 3 kids. I eat pretty much whatever I like, have a wicked bad sweet tooth (more worried about my teeth than my weight to be honest). I’ve been vegetarian since I was a kid and don’t really drink, which probably both help too. Also run a couple of times a week, not too far, 5-10k - this is purely for mental health purposes though. I’d run every day if I could, just don’t have the time/childcare! It doesn’t change my weight but does change my shape (running leans me out, weightlifting gives me muscles - my fave look but def no time for gym at the min!).
Thinking about it, I suppose I do naturally self-limit to some extent, but i definitely eat more than I ‘should’ (pfft) and am another who thinks the calories in/out model is too simplistic.
Some of the posts on this thread are sad. I see the same thing in some of my friends who are permanently on diets - the sheer amount of mental energy they expend thinking about food is astonishing. I don’t know what the solution is, but instinctively I feel that losing the whole ‘good/ bad/ treats/ behaving/ naughty’ mentality is a big part of it. Treating your body well and with kindness, even if it means being a few lbs heavier, has to be better for you in the long run.

I’ve got a perfect BMI and LOVE pizza and cake. I eat them every week for sure... but not every day, which I did when I was 15kg heavier. It takes some discipline, but I enjoy being slimmer & fitter, plus a daily sugar rush / dip is actually a bit irritating.

I'm short and my body shape is quite unforgiving to weight gain so I do have to monitor it to remain a healthy weight, certainly since passing 35. My 20s were more forgiving.

I exercise a lot. My TDEE would be depressingly low if I was sedentary. I enjoy exercise and need it to feel good and sleep.

I eat what I like which is varied. Some home cooking, some processed. I keep to full versions of things. No "diet", "low fat" or "sweetners". If it's not healthy such as Coca Cola, I enjoy the real thing occasionally.

I stop when I'm comfortably full. I naturally lose appetite around the right point.

I'm a light drinker.

I avoid certain aisles of the supermarket if there isn't a particular reason to go down for cakes/ biscuits/ crisps etc. If they're not in the house, they can't tempt me.

I'm slimmer than "genetics" suggest I should be. Virtually all of my relatives have gained weight after 35. I have a healthier range of habits (drink less, exercise more, more home cooked food, less snacking, never smoked).

I eat lots of sugar and pizza etc and do little to no exercise. I am just a little bit fat (hovering on the boundary of a 10 and a 12 depending on the item of clothing/shop).

I am 173 cms (just over 5ft 9in?), and was size 10-12 most of my life (pear shaped with skinny waist and heavier thighs) without much effort. I have always liked to cook and experiment with flavours, don't really care for biscuits etc. And while not really sporty I used to cycle everywhere, walk a lot, run reasonably regularly.
However now in my mid-40s I somehow piled up a lot of weight, got to size 14-16 although still reasonably active. Some of it is hormonal: my thyroid is underactive (I was supplementing thyroid hormone but insufficiently). Some is due to eating too much. While the food that I eat is pretty good and healthy, I have gotten into the habit of eating as much as my (tall) husband, nibbling when kids have their afternoon tea etc.
I had a wake-up call when I stepped on the scales at GPs office a few months ago. And it's not only how I look, running is do much harder and slower with extra weight. Yoga positions feel awkward. Just getting up from the floor requires more strength.
Since then I have reduced my portions, upped exercise, cut out snacks. It's a slow approach, I have only lost about 10 pounds and want to lose another 30 but I don't feel deprived, I can live like this forever, and it's actually very similar to how I lived before the kids (I had them in my late 30s).

I will still have a small slice of a nice homemade cake but avoid shopbought treats in the office, at parties etc. I will definitely have a couple of slices of my own homemade pizza (or a good Italian restaurant) for dinner. I will also have a glass of nice wine when eating out (but will never drink at home unless hosting a dinner party). I don't ever have takeaways: if in rush we will rather have a simple omelette and salad (and I always have homemade soups in the freezer). I may also have pasta but not a large portion. If I eat out I choose a really nice place, and don't mind paying more as it's not that frequent.
I am hoping that this will work out. The only time that my mother was overweight was a few years in her mid-late 40s. Otherwise she has been slim/normal weight. Hopefully I follow the same pattern.

No, just less appetite than most people. Yesterday we commemorated my father's death from last year. I couldn't eat that much, didn't want to waste it and asked for a doggy bag. We had to sign a very official form to say that we wouldn't sue in case of poison.

It was a very simple pub, not anything high class 😀

Oh and 5 foot 8 and 8 and a half stones. Insomniac.

**I have to work very hard to just be a normal weight, never mind slim.
As far as eating cakes goes, because it's just me who eats cakes (or most of the time), I tend to buy individual cakes either from Greggs or somewhere like Lidl. If I buy a packet of cakes I will eat the whole lot, usually in an hour one day. The other day I ate a whole packet of rich tea fingers in one evening. **

There’s a fair bit of self-delusion in this post.
Eating an ENTIRE packet of biscuits in one evening would not suggest “working hard” to stay at a normal weight!

I'm 48, 5'2'' and 8 stone 1/2. I was a chubby child, lost the weight in my late teens, I still have some clothes from that time that fit me. I however had to watch my weight all these years, and have gone 1/2 stone up and down which is a lot for me. It is getting harder now that the menopause has knocked on the door.

I have always eaten a.it of everything, just not regularly. When I want to lose weight, I cut down on sugar and bread. That doesn't mean saying no to it altogether. However, carbohydrates and sugar are addictive, so when the more I cut them down, the less I crave them. I can go to looking at a cake and almost salivating at the sight to looking at the same cake and feeling some nausea.

I also exercise every day, a mixture of light exercise, lots of walking and more intense exercise, running, cycling, roller blading. Exercise will help me in allowing me a few colories à day but it won't help me lose weight or stop me from gaining it if I start eating too much which I stsrt doing at times because some foods are just delicious!

OP I am size 6/8 and in my (very late) 40s am the leanest and fittest I've ever been. I gained a lot of weight after my youngest DC was born 8 years ago and although breaking bad habits was hard work at first, it soon became just habit and I don't really feel as if it's hard work any more. I changed my unhealthy eating patterns, cut way down on drinking (now I have a couple of glasses here and there during the week instead of half a bottle of red a night). It might look hard work to anyone on the outside, but it's just my way of life now. I do eat cake, but not every day, and I'll have a slice, not the whole thing. I exercise a lot and get very hungry so I eat to satisfy my appetite. I love eating good food, healthy home cooked meals (never really liked junk food or lots of very processed things), and luckily really love fruit and veg.

I think it’s a weekly treat on the assumption most days you don’t !?

Kikipost not selfdeluded at all. I know exactly where I'm at, which is why I very rarely buy biscuits.

And I can work off a packet of biscuits in a couple of days.

I guess I do. I look at what I eat and adjust my meals. It's just a way of life.
Big slab of cake in work I'd have soup or veg stir fry in the evening.
Takeaway on Saturday night means no fatty foods for the next few days.
I eat everything and also enjoy a drink but it's all accounted for.
It's harder now as the cold revs up my appetite.
I'm not skinny I'm a size 12 and 5ft6 but I'm at the top of where I should be.
When my clothes start to feel like they don't fit as well as they should I cut down a bit.

I feel like I have never worked hard to stay slim, would eat what I wanted and didn't exercise and although fluctuating by a few pounds, stayed a size 8.
I would regularly eat a 100g or sometimes even 150gm massive bar of chocolate. But as other posters say, if I ate that, it'd usually be at about 6pm, 7pm that I get that craving so I would eat that, and end up not eating any dinner that day instead. So basically, I self-regulate naturally, which is why I don't put on weight.
And for example, yesterday at lunchtime, I started a big bag of tortilla chips and a cut-up cucumber and a tub of hummus. the last time I had crisps was probably a year ago because I don't usually like them and I have never eaten a whole tub of hummus in one go before I know just how much fat and calories are in it. However yesterday for some reason, I fancied it, so I started eating it at lunchtime, and so there was no way I was gonna have dinner on top of that, so it was my lunch and dinner.

However I've realised that chocolate or crisps dinner, and doing no exercise, is not good for me, and I was lulled into thinking it was fine because I was still slim. But I'm actually worried about my arteries, heart, organs etc!
So due to this lulling into a false sense of security, during a stressful period last year where I was eating a lot more chocolate than usual (and I do eat a lot of chocolate), I put on half a stone, which I actually haven't been able to shift since. That's because I've never had a diet mentality, I literally was aghast at the idea of ever feeling hungry or not eating what I want when I want to lose the weight.
So for the first time in my life, I am realising I am going to have to work hard. I think the reason I've put on the weight is that I'd stopped self-regulating as well- I would eat the chocolate AND the dinner AND some more chocolate probably.
I am absolutely addicted to chocolate, I would eat it every single day, so for the past 6 days I have actually banned myself from chocolate for the first time ever. Just to break the addiction. I have tried to do this before, but started too big by banning myself from sugar or banning myself from unhealthy foods and I would always break that within days because it was too big an ask. So I'm starting with 21 days without chocolate- and I'm so proud that I'm actually managing it!

Some of the posts on this thread are sad. I see the same thing in some of my friends who are permanently on diets - the sheer amount of mental energy they expend thinking about food is astonishing.

I guess for some people it’s a worthwhile investment? I’m really enjoying the weight loss journey I’m on atm. I’m finding it fun figuring out my meal plan for the day and adding it into myfitnesspal, I enjoy weighing myself each morning to see what’s changed and it motivates me to keep going (I know you don’t put on real fat overnight of course but having a huge carb heavy meal late at night means the scale does go up the next morning). I’m learning more about nutrition and what amount of protein/fat I should aim for etc. And more than anything, when I look in the mirror I feel really great about myself and how I look and proud of how far I’ve come so far.

It’s swings and roundabouts. I’m doing this as well as the rest of my busy life. But if someone else makes a different choice and sees all of the above as dull or too much effort and decides they’d rather trade off for eating however they like and dealing with the effect on their body that’s totally fair too.

I don’t feel sad for people who are on a diet or healthy eating kick, I think good for them taking ownership of something they wanna improve or change about themselves and making it happen! It’s inspiring to me more than anything.

Also shameless brag, but I just wanna celebrate that I got under 69kg for the first time since I started losing weight last year today! 68.9kg so hardly much, but it feels significant as I’m now on the 68s to work through

theonetowalkinthesun go for it! What day are you on? When you reach the end of 21 days I recommend trying myfitnesspal or any calorie counting app, you can eat chocolate but you just have to account for it somewhere else. If you wanna eat 600 calories of chocolate in a day and 600 calories of ‘real food’ and meals you’ll still lose weight :)

For me personally a small size 12 is the perfect size ...i still have curves without the back fat and i can have treats. I think size 10 looks lovely but the lifestyle would make me unhappy and id miss my arse.

I have always been slim but I am permanently starving which a friend pointed out to me recently.