How do slim people think?

[Episcomama]

...because I really do think there is a difference between how slim and overweight people think. I am very overweight - BMI of 33. So obese rather than overweight, technically.

I've been off and on diets all my adult life, and the only thing I've really had success with is intermittent fasting and keto. When I stick to it, it works. The problem isn't my body, it's my mind. It's as though there's a switch that gets flicked from time to time. A voice in my head telling me to eat in case of famine. Food occupies much of my waking hours - once I've had a meal I'm thinking ahead to the next one.

A dear friend is very slim and once mentioned that she just doesn't really find satisfaction in food in the way I do (comfort, commiseration, celebration, whatever.) When I spent the weekend with her recently, it really became apparent how differently we see food. She was mildly horrified at both the quantity and frequency of my meals whereas I couldn't understand how she was satisfied with what she ate.

Eating disorders aside, do you think there's a difference between a "thin mind" and a "fat mind", to express it crudely. And if you have a thin mind and used to have a fat mind, can you share with me how you flicked that switch?

Zaphod I think It was only mentioned as it was being queried why you were burning 600 calories in 2 hours. 600 cals in 2 hours sounds about right when taking into account the average speed of your run. On your solo runs (without doggy) you will burn the calories much faster.

Sprints/ Intervals incidentally are much better at calorie/fat burning than steady slogging away and build your overall fitness faster.

Yes, all the math points to (when you transfer km to miles) approx 100 calories an hour.

Generally you can walk a mile in twenty mins, at a normal pace.

Zaphod, it was just your post gave the impression you were running for two hours everyday, which would make three miles an hour very low as you entered it into the discussion as an example of how many calories are burnt off running.. But based on it's not that then 600 would be about right.

As well as your weight, calories burnt depends on your cardio. I'm 57kgs for 5'8 and have a low resting heart rate, so for my daily runs at just over 10kph my cardio rarely gets above 130 therefore I only burn 400 cals and hour. I don't agree about intervals burning more calories because you only do them for short times and distances whereas a long slow run is longer and therefore you are burning calories for a longer period.

I looked at my stats this morning and we ran 5.5 miles in 1hr 11mins (moving time). The remainder of our time out (45 mins) was spent by me shouting at the dog to get a move on, standing in a puddle whilst she ate grass.

So it was my fault for saying that I run for 2 hours a day. I am OUT on a run for 2 hours, but actually running for less than that. There's a LOT of standing staring and sniffing.

It was raining too.

I’m pretty slim - have just read this thread and realised that I haven’t eaten today yet. I’ve been running, walked the dogs, done change res and am now in town. I think left to my own devices I don’t think of food except as fuel. I like eating out - but that’s the occasion not the food I think.

I also like to exercise and I’m generally running around very busy.

If I’m stressed or depressed I stop eating.

I can’t contemplate spending vast amounts on Xmas food - it’s just one day!!

I’m not excessively thin - a size 10, and sometimes an 8 - I have a boyfriend and he loves eating out and cooking so I have to eat.

And I do indulge in wine from time to time

Oh I definitely spend vast amounts of food for things like Xmas, I'm a feeder. I'm hosting this year, there are eight of us, and there will be more luxury food than Marks and Sparks and Waitrose combined. 🤣

I’m 5’3” and a size 6-8. I love thinking about / talking about / making / eating food. I love sweet things and carby things, but I also love fruit and veg. I think part of it is portion size; so I’ll have a fun size mars bar, or a two finger kit kat, rather than a whole big one. I also think it’s luck and metabolism and good genes (my mum was really petite up until the menopause, and none of the women in my family were big that I knew of). I occasionally comfort eat, but would more likely lose my appetite. And without TMI stress can set off my IBS, so I lose weight that way.

I am slim( ish ) and I nearly always turn down offers of biscuits/cakes (unless it’s a pudding or going out etc). I don’t have sugar in my tea. If I eat a lot one day I will naturally eat less the next. If I have a big lunch I won’t be able to eat dinner. I walk everywhere as don’t drive , this does help .

I am 40. 3 DC and have been roughly the same size/weigh (slim) all my adult life.
I do like food and eat what I want, but rarely snack (it never crosses my mind)

From seeing at work what others consider a portion size I don't eat as much. For example someone I know would have a huge portion of macaroni, chips and garlic bread. It would never occur to me to have chips and macaroni. Garlic bread occasionally.
If I am not hungry I don't eat.
Tomorrow I'm going to a world buffet place for DC3 Birthday so I'll have a slice of toast in the morning, the meal and that will be it all day.

Always been slim (painfully so as a teenager/young adult). The difference between me and bigger people is that my appetite is much smaller. It is really unpleasant for me to eat too much and my heart sinks when I have a huge plate of food put in front of me as I know I can’t eat it all. I can however murder a whole packet of liquorice so there are some things that surpass my appetite 😝

I naturally gravitate towards whole foods as I was brought up basically on weetabix, porridge and fruit for breakfast and meat & three veg for dinner. Only milk and water to drink - my mum is a dentist and refused to have squash or juice in the house.

We rarely ate pasta or rice, and food was very plain as my parents are terrible cooks! We had takeaway once a week which was almost always pizza, maybe Chinese. It sounds horrendously boring, but my siblings & I all turned out to be adventurous eaters and good cooks. I’m grateful that my parents brought me up this way.

Late to the party, but I have a BMI of 22 and am very sporty. But think about food all the time. I’m obsessed! I could easily be enormous, but channel that energy into enjoying the food I do eat, preparing good food and doing sport, so I can eat more food. Quality not quantity!

Read Paul Mckenna's book "I can make you thin". His book sums up the way slim people think in my opinion.
There are only 4 rules:
1.You ONLY eat when you feel hungry (rather than out f habit, boredom etc)
2.You stop eating immediately, the moment you feel full (so many of us eat because we are bored, angry, emotional, sad etc) If we all just stopped eating the moment we stopped feeling hungry its actually shocking how little we would actually eat.

1. You eat slowly, chewing your food carefully and properly (no gobbling it down, you taste and savour every bite)
2. Nothing is forbidden. No food is banned or forbidden because if you follow the rules above, everything will be in moderation anyway.

Naturally slim people do the above automatically I think.

I honestly don’t think naturally slim people all do that. We all manage our weight differently. There are very few people who are that disinterested in food.

I adore food. But I like real and good food and therefore if I overindulge, it is still ok good stuff. I’m mid-40s now and frustratingly have noticed my metabolism is slowing a little despite my active life. I am forcing myself to watch portion sizes and if I have cake, I share it.

My motivation is primarily health. Middle fat is extremely bad for you.

If someone is really struggling to lose weight then it could be thyroid related. Get a full thyroid screen (you might need to go private)

Overweight, but was slim most if adult life. Think exactly the same.

Like a pet the older we get the less food we need, reason older people put on lots of weight.

I’ve not seen older people that are overweight, people 70+ that I see are all healthy weight tbh

I’ve not seen older people that are overweight, people 70+ that I see are all healthy weight tbh

Natural selection?

Mind you MIL is 80+ and certainly not slim.

You are joking, right? Half the people I see in Nursing homes are overweight.

Many people who are very overweight in their 70s have poor health so they are not out and about very much. I can think of some I know who are pretty much confined to their home , they only go out when a relative takes them.

They have have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems and arthritis. One has COAD from years of smoking and another has continence issues because of her weight so she’s embarrassed to go out.

One lady has one joint replacement and is waiting for a second one , she walks with a lot of difficulty with a stick. One is in a wheelchair after two knee replacements.

I only know three obese people of retirement age who lead full and actives lives. They are all tall men who have big bellies. Two of them are on a shit loads of meds which seem to keep them well. One had a heart bypass 10 years ago but has recovered well.

I freely admit this is just people I know. So yes, anecdote and not data.

@Calledyoulastnightfromglasgow
^I honestly don’t think naturally slim people all do that. We all manage our weight differently. There are very few people who are that disinterested in food.

I adore food. But I like real and good food and therefore if I overindulge, it is still ok good stuff. I’m mid-40s now and frustratingly have noticed my metabolism is slowing a little despite my active life. I am forcing myself to watch portion sizes and if I have cake, I share it.

My motivation is primarily health. Middle fat is extremely bad for you.

If someone is really struggling to lose weight then it could be thyroid related. Get a full thyroid screen (you might need to go private)^

Firstly, I disagree. Responding to your body's natural hunger cues is NOT being "disinterested" in food. On the contrary, its actually listening to your body, eating when hungry and stopping eating when full. This is a brain mechanism called "cognitive restraint". I never said slim people were "disinterested" in food- I simply said they stop eating when full and only eat when they feel hungry. Thats not restricting or obsessing or being disinterested at all. Its actually the opposite of denying yourself food.

Sure, thyroid issues can be a problem for some people but MOST people who are overweight are not so because of thyroid issues. I qualified as a personal trainer in 2016 and I ask people to write food diaries. Let me tell you that 99% of people who keep food diaries DRASTICALLY underestimate the amount of calories they are actually consuming. This has been proven by studies over and over again. People eat for a myriad of reasons and hunger is often the last on the list. People eat because they are bored, because they are sad, because its a way of nurturing themselves, because perhaps their mother expressed love through food so its a way to go back to the old ways of comforting yourself.
The problem is, if you regularly ignore the signals fromm your brain that tell you you are full, you become desensitised to it and stop noticing it.

Weight loss principles are actually very simple, but unfortunately, that doesnt mean they are "easy". Knowing something and putting it into practice are two very different things.

I do think portions are a bit crazy these days; I often take half the meal home when I eat out. And theres way more snacks around than even when I was a kid (90s), the snack food industry must be worth a bomb.

Avoidingwork, not joking I just don’t see them, though the answers here explain why - if they’re house bound or in nursing homes that’ll be why I’m not seeing them

There are very few people who are that disinterested in food.

Sorry to be an absolute twat of a pedant...

But the word is 'uninterested', not 'disinterested'.

I struggle a bit with my weight, I can rein it in and keep it there if I try and don't eat too many Wotsits but what I'm noticing is that a lot of people seem to be eating their favourite things in greater volumes that are taking up a higher ratio of their plate, ie. multiple burgers with multiple sides and little or no greenery instead of one burger with one side and a salad.

My husband eats (and wants) a lot of meat, doesn't like 'too much veg' so his plate is half carbs and almost half meat with 'garnish' if he must. It's so much more calorific and if I would eat like that I would put on weight. It's just as well that he's active.

I do think portions are a bit crazy these days

I'm just back from holiday in a European country where you could tell the Brits and Americans before they opened their mouths because they were the only overweight people. The food portions in restaurants were noticeably smaller than in the UK.

People are often amazed by how much food I can eat (I'm 8 stone 10 now, and 5'6). At a recent carvery, people were saying 'how can you clear your plate?'

I don't eat potatoes. I don't LIKE potatoes. So my portions tend to be more meat and veg than theirs. I watch people load up their plates with chips or roasties and then complain that they can't eat another bite, and stare at me with my empty plate and my normal weight body and just roll their eyes.

I don't like rice, pasta or bread much either. It's a help.