To wonder how she's not overweight?

[Dranktoomuchpepsi]

Slim! DFriend eats

Breakfast - Smoothie then Diet coke

Lunch - 2 piece chicken and chips with a drink.

Snack - maybe a chocolate bar.

That's it. Sometimes she will eat a bag of crisps to herself in the evening. I'm so jealous and she knows it I'm so baffled as to why she isn't overweight? She's a size 8/10 and looks great.

Drives everywhere so not really walking anything off. Will skip for 20 minutes 3 times a week but that's it. Again, I'm so envious

I think fried chicken is the least calorific of all the takeaways. Pizza is the worst. She’s not eating a lot of calories each day.

I disagree that she is 'massively undereating' because without portion sizes to see, no one knows.

Smoothies can be incredibly high in calories and depends on whether she has a tiny glassful or a tumbler of it.

Likewise a Mars bar is very high in cals, as are chicken and a pile of chips.

Not all women need 2000 cals a day- I eat far less than that as I'm older (60+) and not especially active. I probably eat around 1500 cals and would gain weight on the 'recommended' amount for a woman.

Having said all of that her diet is appalling with no fresh veg or fruit or fibre, or calcium.

'Hello osteoporosis' in later life is she doesn't change.

That’s not a lot at all. I can see that unless she was completely sedentary she would not get fat eating just one meal and a couple of snacks a day.

But if she misses dinner she is eating all her calories in one meal.

Looks like a sad diet tbh, not something I'd want to emulate. Is she one of these thin people with a lot of fat around her organs?

I'm like this - eat badly but not a whole lot. Skinny fat is probably a good term, as I'm sure my insides aren't thanking me!

Breaking news, people eating a small amount of calories don't get fat

You should measure your calorie intake over a week, so what is the issue here? Stop over-eating and you'll get slimmer.

I think it’s the syntax of your post that is confusing everyone.

You finish the sparse list of what she eats (which might not actually include the ‘maybe a’ chocolate bar’ making it even sparser) with ‘that’s it’ as if you know it’s not very much food.

However then say later in the day she’ll have a bag of crisps ‘to herself‘. I think you are suggesting that’s greedy but then... surely you’re aware she’s not eaten an evening meal and most people will eat a single bag of crisps by themselves.

It’s a head scratcher alright.

Well yeah she might be having 10 pints of smoothie and 8 plates of chips, but with realistic portion sizes (and we know she exercises at least three times a week) that’s nowhere near enough

Her weight may be fine but she’s probably very unhealthy inside. High salt and sugar, low vitamins, fruit/veg etc.

It’s called being ‘skinny fat’- a phrase used to describe people who look fit and healthy on the surface yet, due to a lack of exercise or poor diet, have a slew of health problems brewing beneath it.

Thanks Janaih, feeling slightly less unfit now.

She does exercise.

That’s not much food

You can eat junk food and still be slim. Surely you realise she's not eating many calories.

You have no idea what her diet is. You are not with her all the times, so your posts make absolutely no sense.

There's been several TV programmes, and probably some actual scientific experiments, that have proved that the people who 'never stop eating' or 'live on junk' but don't get fat simply don't eat very much. Like your friend.

And conversely the people who 'live on salad but can't lose weight' or 'only eat healthy food so can't understand why they're overweight' without exception either eat massive portions or 'forget' half of what they eat or drink.

Even if the chicken and chips is 1000 calories, plus 300 for the smoothie, 200 for the chocolate bar and another 200 for the massively gluttonous bag of crisps that she manages all by herself (good lass!) that's only 1700 calories per day, which is fine for most women.

You'd have to be very light and/or inactive to burn significantly less than that. I'm an average sized, slightly above average height woman and my TDEE is 2100 to 2300 calories per day. Plus she may also be a fidgeter rather than a total sloth.

When you're out, even if it's every week, what you see her eat is probably more or less all she eats for the day so it's only an extra drink, cake and beans over what she normally eats. Plus it's only once a week, what she does day to day is far more important.

A couple of my friends are size 6s. Eat absolute crap constantly and never put on a pound and never exercise. Some people are just like that

God, if I go like two days without veg I can't poo. Her bowels must be very unhappy 😂

Eat absolute crap constantly and never put on a pound

Thing is, they probably don't. They eat absolute crap when eating socially, but you don't know what they do or don't eat when they are alon.

If I ate like that I would be slimmer, starving but slimmer. Anyone I know who eats like that to remain slim had health problems and also looked older once they hit 40s. What age is your friend?

I think a lot of the reactions are because MN goes totally batshit around dieting / foods. Some things can only exist in extremes and dieting is one of them on this site.

People with big appetites will massively under estimate how much they eat in a day similarly, people with small appetites (like me), don't realise they're not eating much as for them, it's normal. That's why food diaries are so telling. If I don't eat in the evenings then the weight will fall off me.

She balances out a heavy lunch with virtually no breakfast or supper.

Her diet is v unhealthy but I can see why she’s not fat.

@Janaih I can skip for 20 mins without stopping with a weighted rope, I am not the fittest, nor the fattest but a size 12.. it's not too difficult once you start doing it.

That’s not that much food, especially if she doesn’t eat a meal in the evening. It’s not that healthy, but I wouldn’t expect her to be fat in it.