To think being slim should be normal for most people.

[DevilishDebbie]

By slim i mean sizes 8 to 12.

Obviously you get a minority who are not in this range naturally but for 80% of people this size should be natural, say they eat a reasonable diet of between 2000-3000 calories.

Im so sick of people at work making out i am abnormally thin for being a size 10. I watch what I eat but dont deprive myself. The same people making me out to be lucky to be slim eat fried chicken or pizza for lunch and seem to be able to demolish a whole pack of biscuits at 3 o clock.

Aibu to think that the normal human man/woman should be a size 8-12 and that to attain or maintain this does not require super human discipline or strength.

I haven't read all the comments on this but I do understand what you are saying, OP. I'm an 8-10, I exercise (not at a gym but do a lot of walking) and I eat what I believe to be relatively normal and by no means majorly healthy. A normal day for me would be toast for breakfast (6am) a mid morning snack of some kind of biscuit (usually chocolate), lunch would be a sandwich and a yoghurt and then I would have a home made dinner like a pasta or rice dish with veg and meat. I don't drink fizzy pop so I think this reduces the amount of calories I have compared to my co workers and I don't drink milky lattes like a lot of colleagues. I drink loads of water and don't drink alcohol as I hate being drunk. I have takeaways a few times a month and I'll eat more crap at the weekend like crisps with a movie, cake if we are at a cafe etc I don't deny myself things but I've always had remarks made to me throughout my adult life from fellow students, friends, coworkers that there's 'nothing to me' and back handed compliments on my weight. On many occasions I've had it implied that I must live on salads and be constantly hungry because I'm not overweight which can be really infuriating. I would never ever dream of commenting on someone else weight but it seems that society is now trying to empower larger figures so much that it's almost become okay to make slim people feel like they aren't normal. Campaigns for clothes companies talking about 'real women' which only cater for sizes 12 and up or the banning of skeletal runway models but introducing morbidly obese models on the cover of magazines and celebrating it. It baffles me. Why can't everyone just accept that weight is a personal thing and stop passing judgement on others for their bodies

Genetics play a large part in how fat or thin you are

This thread is disgusting and I'm baffled that MN haven't taken it down.

OP, if I ate like you, I would be the size of a house.
I could say so many things in response to this thread, but will just say this: get over yourself.

Genetics play a large part in how fat or thin you are
How does this explain that the average person in the 70s was almost half the size they are now. Didn't they get the sane genes they passed on to our overweight generation?

I agree, a lot of excuses and defensiveness for what is mainly self inflicted through lack of self discipline. Yes, keeping a good weigh is hard, very hard, but very hard doesn't have to mean impossible.

See I'm not sure genetics actually play as big a part as so many think, I think environment does, if you're raised by thinner/overweight people those diets will influence you and that that will have an impact, obviously health concerns are another issue. If you're broader boned, taller etc, yes you'll be heavier but if you're obese I think very few people will have genes to blame on that unless there is a genetic health condition. I think slimmer people get a hard time being told "they're lucky" "it's genes" etc etc but I wonder if you actually tracked their activity and calorie intake how many are actually taking in so much more than they should but managing to stay slim.

@AleFailTrail I have the same problem with sorbitol, it ulcerates my insides

Not ashamed to say I jumped from page 2 to page 26. I think the debate woild be more appropriate to be around why some people seemingly don't care about eating an incredibly high sugar, high bad fat and unhealthy diet. What dress size they are is hardly the point.

Haha when the average size is a 16 now in the UK. Its bloody awful. Such a strain on the NHS. I blame biscuits hahaha

Genes probably influences metabolism to an extent but even if this is the case, so what? We have to adjust accordingly. Its the same with age and it being much harder to lose a stone at 50 than at 20. Does this mean anyone over 50 shouldn't bother because it's harder and that makes it unfair?

A quick look around me and I can see that 90% of people around me are in the healthy weight range or at least not very obviously overweight. Slightly lower percentage once I get to the city but at a glance I'd say most are in the healthy range.

I find it a bit baffling that this subject can be so emotive. I wonder whether it’s because it is quite difficult to maintain a healthy weight. I recently lost a stone that had hung around far too long. It had to go as I felt uncomfortable with a bit of a tummy and not as lively as I would like to be. I wasn’t even technically overweight, just at the top of my BMI, but I was struggling to bend over to put my shoes on, so clearly too big for me and as it was all on my tummy it probably wasn’t too healthy. It took a good three months to lose even though I was quite strict and exercised every day. There are other emotions too, I suppose. I definitely noticed more (unwanted) male attention from people who wouldn’t have paid me any attention before.

It's not just diet. My diet is v healthy (all home cooked food from scratch, healthy fats, v low sugar, loads of veg).

But my portions are too big. I have huge issues around disordered eating and restriction.

I'm 5ft3 and 11 stone. I was 10 stone before I had my son, trying to get down to 9st7 now through intuitive eating which is the only thing that works for me long term.

why some people seemingly don't care about eating an incredibly high sugar, high bad fat and unhealthy diet.

It tastes good, its cheaper, its faster to prep
I hate cooking so want it fast n easy.
Im on a strict budget. Its all well and good to buy heaps of fruit and veg but if it goes off before use your throwing money away.

I have a small appetite in general so i wanna eat things i enjoy.
I dont enjoy salads, nuts, seeds, allergic to fish.
I enjoy fried food, creamy pastas, chocolate, crispy salty chicken skin and bacon. Give me a butter chicken over white rice over some vege stir fry

Thevthing is...food is so good. Depends on howcyou want to live your life really. If you need to work hard to stay slim then eat healthy and worknout.
If like me, you prefer being a bit curvy and love your junk food...size 12...allow a few treats.
If you just want to scoff what you like shovel all the food in and sit on the cou h.

I have no time for all this fat shaming crap. Live and let live and dont judge others. Life is short...eat what you enjoy...in moderation!

Sqeekums - its not cheaper to eat crap processed food. That's just an excuse

Well no. If you look at the body shapes of other great apes, humans often (but certainly not always) look really different. Is the body shape you're talking really our natural one OP, especially if it takes so much effort to maintain? No effort for you of course. I'm also wondering how you get so many calories into your small frame without eating calorie-dense food.

No sugar drinks containing asparatame and saccharine etc are worse than the sugar. They are incredibly bad for you and linked to cancer. Water, water every time. Not the flavoured type either!

Going to readTFT now but this stuck out for me.

*You wait till you have a couple of kids and hit middle age, your size 10 smugness will be a far and distant memory
*
Why is this assumed? It's categorically not true for me with 2 DC at nearly 42. Nor for many of my friends. It's nothing to do with smugness either to not want to eat myself into the overweight category .. what a strange way to think.

Op I understand I was regularly asked at work if I actually ate at all mainly by the overweight. I rarely go far below 9 stone. I eat what I like half the time then carefulish the other half - suits me. They're projecting their own issues- the more they go on the more bothered they are. Change the subject to, IDK, the current political climate, what they've read lately anything that engages the brain Nothing worse than food bores.

Genetics and never having had a big appetite is why I am the size I am 62kg / 168 cm). When people congratulate me on my weight all I do is smile and nod because I can take no credit for my genetic pre disposition.

Some people are lazy (hands up), some people work incredibly hard but struggle, I think making hard and fast judgements based on someone’s weight is incredibly lazy because there are so many factors involved, many of which, have nothing to to with the individual.

If i excercied and are better I would be definitely lighter and that is something I have no interest in being, therefore I will need a fitness plan tailored to me specifically, not some one size fits all plan that doesn’t take into consideration my individual needs.

Sorry for typos...hate this phone!

certainly

No they aren't. www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/are-sweeteners-safe/

I don't like diet drinks myself but please don't spread fear mongering bullshit that they cause cancer.

I wonder if partly the difference in attitude of being overweight Vs underweight is down to education. Not the healthy eating type education but I can remember a big push on understanding conditions such as anorexia and bulimia at school, and recognising that people were suffering, and dying from these conditions. Princess Diana of course was famously bulimic and this raised awareness. They are horrible, I had a friend as a teen who was anorexic, I only found out a few years later, I didn't see what was in front of me because I just didn't know. There's far more awareness now and understanding of what's behind it. And how to treat it. It became very unacceptable to say someone slim was anorexic or bulimic as a joke, because it's no joke.
I feel maybe we're in that transition stage now with obesity, discovering there's more to it than just lazy arses who stuff their faces. And of course like anything, there are sceptics. Anorexia and bulimia are obviously more acute and happens faster with devastating concequences for some, obesity is more chronic, as in it takes longer to get to the point where life is imminently in danger, but it happens. So maybe the understanding for overeating isn't like it is for undereating because it's still not really understood or accepted that it's an issue, rather than a lack of self control.
That still doesn't mean though that we should normalise being overweight, by doing that we encourage people to ignore something that's very important and needs addressing.
I still don't think shaming anyone for their body is the way forward though, it's not right on either side of the argument.

discovering there's more to it than just lazy arses who stuff their faces

The problem is that a lot of society does view the overweight as greedy and lazy or ignorant, as this thread shows.

The fact of the matter is most people who are overweight have disordered eating, just as most who are underweight have disordered eating.

@saxatablesalt

Exactly, it's still a disruptive relationship with food, with health implications.