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.

@Gwenhwyfar
Yes I think they are being penalised by cost, however that is up to the shops NOT a government law. The government does not tax gluten free food. It taxes sugary drinks. Look at the drinks aisle next time and try and find drinks without aspartame.

I can see OP's point, even if it does sound a little smug.

I was a size 18- 20 and 17 stone, but carried it 'well', in that people were always surprised how big I really was. Now size 12-14 but stuck at 12st 7lbs to 13 stone eating 1400 calories daily so still overweight and I am constantly getting comments on how slim I am and to stop losing weight now before I go too far. I do think being overweight has been normalised. It really makes me angry to see very overweight children at my dc's school- and their parents do not seem to see just how big their children are. They are being set up for a lifetime of ill health and obesity.

Massive portion sizes are also normalised. A suitable portion size of pasta (dried) for a woman my height is 60g. I was regularly having upwards of 100g.

I notice it too in the portions people give their children which are often enormous.

Having said that I don't restrict my three year old's food. I grew up never allowed sweets, chocolate, junk food etc and as a result I am now hooked. It was interesting the other day as ds had a friend over whose mother is v strict with "treats", but as it was a special occasion she said it was OK for her dd to have some chocolate. I put out snack bowls for the kids - chocolate buttons, fruit, rice cakes, cheese, veggie crudités. Her dd literally devoured the choccy buttons and nothing else whereas my DS had a couple of buttons, then moved on to the other stuff. Because to him they aren't a treat or a "bad" food, they're just food.

I hate cooking so want it fast n easy
Well here you go! I don't like cleaning, want it fast and easy but I want a, clean house, I have to do it and do it properly.

Keeping a healthy body is no different.

I agree that portions have gone a bit mental. Whenever we go out to eat I end up taking half of it home with me. I remember though even when I was little ppl were always surprised at how small my DMs portions were for us (they weren't, they were correct size) and how we weren't just allowed to help ourselves to the biscuit tin. We were also never taken out for fast food (McDonald's etc.) and tbh I think that's why I've never gotten a taste for it. So I thank MY DPs for that. Other parents thought mine were unbelievably mean and strict though

Keeping a healthy body is no different.

You are ignorant of the many myriad of reasons why people overeat. It's not always that simple.

how we weren't just allowed to help ourselves to the biscuit tin. We were also never taken out for fast food (McDonald's etc.) and tbh I think that's why I've never gotten a taste for it.

Completely opposite effect for me, means I binged on all the things I wasn't allowed at home when I left and got some independence.

I'm not really sure why you're getting flamed so much.

I agree - society has lost sight of what a healthy weight is. I'm forever being told that my children are skinny - they're nowhere near skinny but they are healthy weights. My own weight fluctuates a lot as I have Crohn's disease. When I am really ill, I lose a lot of weight, then have to go on steroids and gain a lot of weight. I am usually around the 9st mark (I'm 5'3), which is a perfect weight for my height. This is around an 8/10 in clothes, depending on the shop. I am currently about 10lbs over that because of my new meds, and I feel quite unhealthy. I've noticed the extra weight when I run, or when I climb the stairs. I have been eating very healthily at work and got told I'll make myself ill if I lose more weight!
Being overweight seems to be very normal now, so that those who are healthy weights are accused of being skinny. A member of my family is obese, as is his partner, and the children are constantly being told by their parents that they're 'so lovely and slim'. They're not, they're all overweight too but compared to their parents they look thinner.
Obviously, lots of people on here will come and tell you that you're being smug/fattist/unreasonable, but I don't think you are and this blindness to how much fatter society is getting is one of the problems!

FYI - 2000-3000 calories a day is an awful lot. My recommended daily allowance for my height is around 1700 I think.

Yes, 2000 calories is way too much for a woman of 5ft3. The blanket 2000 calories a day does not fit all.

According to my research I should only consume 1750 calories per day if I want to maintain my current weight. This is because I don't exercise, do a sedentary job and I'm 5ft 6. If I want to lose weight I need to drop down to roughly 1350 calories per day.

Seeing as all the fatties in the office have eaten all the biscuits; have mine instead.

yes, that sounds about right milly

I'm losing roughly a pound a week on 1400 calories. I think my maintenance calories are about 1800.

Today I am having weetabix with oats, nuts, honey and a banana for breakfast. Tuna rice salad for lunch (60g dried rice), salmon with new potatoes and veg for dinner (max 3 small potatoes). I drink tea but I don't count the milk calories as they are negligible. That takes me to just over 1400. No snacks.

It's amazing how many calories were in the meals I used to eat. I'm not surprised I was the size I was.

And it was portion size more than anything btw. I do have a love of junk food but by and large all my food is cooked from scratch and I eat loads of veg. But my portions were double the size they should have been.

You are ignorant of the many myriad of reasons why people overeat. It's not always that simple
The point of my response is that saying you can't be bothered to cook and want things quick and easy, don't be surprised if you struggle with your weight.

Of course there are various reasons why people struggle, but this one of them and can be the problem alone.

Perhaps part of the problem is that 2000-3000 calories a day has been normalised. That is WAY too much for most women. You’d have to be doing a lot of exercise and have a lot of muscle for that to be a suitable amount. So for all you’re saying it should be “easy”, OP, you are part of the problem.

That's interesting salt that ppl react so differently. I do often wonder whether it's more genetics or environment that control taste. I meet a lot of ppl that say they hate healthy food, love junk etc. Is this because this is what they're used to or is it certain ppl are more susceptible to fat/sugar etc.? I really have no idea, I just wonder because I'm always surprised at the amount of ppl that tell me they "hate vegetables"

I'm obviously coming to this thread a bit late but my thoughts on the OP are this: as far as other people's weight is concerned WTF has it got to do with you? Whatever happened to minding your own business. Smug much.

A very slim friend of mine told me that the women in her office are always calling her skinny and saying "just you wait till you're older, it won't last" etc. Her whole family are slim, including her parents but they all eat v healthy and are extremely active. Tbh I think it's weird that ppl comment on others weight at work in general whether they're slim or overweight.

People are different sizes for all different sorts of reasons which is absolutely fine.

But what does my head in at my place is people telling me they want to go on a diet and are really unhappy with how they feel and look, then having massive amounts of unhealthy food for lunch with a side of chips to boot. AFTER they’ve had bacon sandwiches at 10am for breakfast.

Then telling me they don’t know how they’d cope if like me all they had was a sandwich, which is actually just a normal portion of food.

I don’t care what size people are or what they eat but don’t moan about it and especially don’t project it in to me just because I don’t eat shit food all day. Do something about it if you aren’t happy.

You are ignorant of the many myriad of reasons why people overeat. It's not always that simple.

But it is simple. It's not easy. But it is simple.

We are finding ourselves in a situation where more and more people eat themselves to death. Where they get so big that they can no longer wipe their own arse. More and more people are needing hip replacements at a young age. This is fucking tragic, because they cannot control themselves around food.

As for the whole 'real women have curves' argument. Yeah, women have curves. But spheres aren't curves. Fat is not attractive. Their faces lose their individual features and morph into a generic fat face. Their secondary sexual characteristics disappear (in both sexes), covered by a thick layer of fat, and they look androgynous. They remind me of overgrown toddlers, actually. If you're going to eat yourself to that size, be prepared to cope with the fact that your dating pool will almost vanish.

'Genetics'. This makes me laugh, really. No, you're not fat because of genetics, you're fat cause you're eating too much. The average person needs very little food to maintain a healthy weight, unless very tall or a literal athlete - but then, a tall athlete is not the benchmark for the average person. Thyroid disease can account for a 10-20lb weight gain, but once the meds are in place, that weight should come off. PCOS is caused BY obesity, not the other way around.

'Starvation Mode'. Load of bollocks. Isn't it odd how starvation mode only seems to be a problem in the West, where coincidentally there happens to be an awful lot of food around? Isn't it weird how seemingly the Western body has evolved to defy the laws of thermodynamics and there don't seem to be any mordibly obese people in 'starvation mode' in places where people are, you know, starving? Wow, us Europeans and Americans are well and truly special, aren't we? We can create energy out of thin air!

If you create a deficit you WILL lose. If you think you're eating at a deficit and not losing, you're probably still eating too much. Count your calories, work out how much you're REALLY eating, and yes, you will lose.

I just snort when I see these excuses. Cause I've made each and every single one myself when I was obese. Truth is, I just wanted to stuff my face. And shockingly, as soon as I stopped making bullshit excuses, all of my 'cundishuns' disappeared. Poof. Gone. Food wasn't worth all the pain, a shortened life span, and unattractiveness.

It wasn't easy, but it was simple.

I meet a lot of ppl that say they hate healthy food, love junk etc
Isn't this the norm? Kids from their earlier age will almost always pick unhealthy food if they got to chose their meals.

If weight and health wasn't an issue, I would have fast food every day, especially Mc Donald's. I don't because I know it would be a trade off for very instant gratification at the cost of negative outcomes lasting much longer.

I think a lot of ppl believe the 2000 kcal a day thing. For me it's around 15000 (5ft,6, sedentary job).

coffee talking complete sense.
It can come across as harsh, but the more that people are blind to the underlying issue of overeating, the harder it is to be wushu washy on the subject.

If it was about genetics, you'd have high profile people in active sport that are obese. But they're not, because they exercise regularly and monitor their diet.

Can't speak for everyone swing but I actually love healthy food. My ideal lunch is a big salad with lots of lovely veg, buffalo mozzarella and lots of sourdough bread. That's the food I was raised on.

I was still fat eating that food because I simply ate way too much of it.

I do love maccy d's, domino's etc but if I have a day or two where that's all I eat I feel gross.

My DS is the same. I do not restrict his intake. If he wants chips he can have them.

Yes they should in an ideal world and circumstances, but of course it’s not.
The RDAs are very misleading, they were set decades ago when people were much more physically active in daily life than they are now, without modern personal transport, household appliances and technology (and cheap, poor quality food). Most women, particularly post menopause, will steadily gain weight eating in excess of 2,000 calories a day unless they put in substantial exercise.
That figure really doesn’t help people and I wish the health department would revise it.