To think that slim people have different habits re food and exercise

[WhatWillSantaBring]

I've been overweight most of my adult life, and find I put on weight very easily. BUT I also think I have had very unhealthy food habits - I think of food as treats, I avoid the scales, I eat when I'm not hungry, I always have the cake, emotional eating etc. I know all the things I do wrong (and that I'm sure a lot of overweight people do) but what I want to know is what do thin people do "right". i.e. what are the habits of people who are consistently a healthy weight (i.e. BMI of 20-25).

I've got some very petite friends who will do things like:

• weigh every day and take immediate action if their weight goes up by more than 5lbs;
• never accept a biscuit
• only drink one glass of wine (unless its a very special occasion when they may have two)
• never order themselves a dessert/ice cream etc (will just eat whatever their kids leave)

- exercise 5-6 days a week without fail, including Christmas Day

• never have seconds

If you're slender, and have maintained a healthy weight for years, what habits do you have that you think help you?

@LouJ85 how many days a week do you eat 2 packets of crisps and half a packet of biscuits in the morning ? What else did you eat that day ? Is that normal for you, do you eat this every day ? So do you eat breakfast and then two packets of crisps and half a packet of biscuits ( is that 3, 4 or 8 biscuits depending on how posh they are ?) lunch and an evening meal, pudding , additional snacks, alcohol ? Everyday ?

@CaveMum I agree about questioning the 2,000 calories for women thing , who on earth thought that up ? how long ago did they come up with that figure ?

GrumpyHoonMain
Graves disease is HYPERthyroid. Levothyroxine is for HYPOthyroid. Doesn't make sense you would be on it

@damnthatanxiety

GrumpyHoonMain Graves disease is HYPERthyroid. Levothyroxine is for HYPOthyroid. Doesn't make sense you would be on it

It is possible to be on "block and replace" therapy for some forms of hyperthyroidism. Carbimazole (the blocker) is quite hard to adjust the dose for, so it's actually easier to control levels by giving a very large dose to completely block the thyroid, then give levothyroxine to the correct amount to compensate.

Op, the best thing you can do is give up sugar and simple carbs, increase protein and take up weight training.

This is what makes the most difference. Give up counting calories

For instance right now I'm a little fiddly on gin, I've had a rough day, and I'm eating nuts rather than crisps. I will probably have some whole meal toast before bed. Maybe a mini baby bel.

@damnthatanxiety

GrumpyHoonMain Graves disease is HYPERthyroid. Levothyroxine is for HYPOthyroid. Doesn't make sense you would be on it

You should tell that to my thyroid or endocrinologist. Maybe offer him a lecture as you seem to know more about the thyroid than he does

For instance right now I'm a little fiddly on gin, I've had a rough day, and I'm eating nuts rather than crisps. I will probably have some whole meal toast before bed. Maybe a mini baby bel.

Yes agreed that levo is for hypothyroidism. I have just laid nine out on my bed side table ready to take tomorrow.

Hyper is when the body produces too much of the thyroid hormone. Levo is replacement thyroid hormone because hypothyroidism is where the body isn’t producing enough.

In fact - too much levo causes hyperthyroidism!!

* It can also occur when too much replacement thyroxine (levothyroxine) is taken as a treatment for an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism).*

So would be very dangerous for someone with hyperthyroidism to be on levo

YANBU. They eat less and move more. I was slim for many years and then I was 'healthy weight' (ie high end of BMI) for years. In my slim days I ate very little and moved a lot. In my high end BMI days I moved a lot less and ate more. Then I got overweight, moved far less and ate far more. I'm now trying to move more and eat less and predict weight loss.

Ive just been to the cinema and had a big bag of share crisps. Spoiler alert: i didnt share. BUT I had a salad for dinner and a corn on the cob for lunch. One slice of wholemeal toast (homemade bread) For breakfast. So the calories ive saved are now being well spent on alcohol.

But for Graves - absolutely possible to be taking levo and whomever says it’s not - needs to bother to research

@Atadaddicted

Yes agreed that levo is for hypothyroidism. I have just laid nine out on my bed side table ready to take tomorrow.

Hyper is when the body produces too much of the thyroid hormone. Levo is replacement thyroid hormone because hypothyroidism is where the body isn’t producing enough.

In fact - too much levo causes hyperthyroidism!!

* It can also occur when too much replacement thyroxine (levothyroxine) is taken as a treatment for an underactive thyroid (hypothyroidism).*

So would be very dangerous for someone with hyperthyroidism to be on levo

Once again - some people who have hyperthyroidism do take levothyroxine as part of block and replace therapy.

"Block and replace: You continue taking CMZ, usually 20-40mg daily, or PTU, usually 200-400mg daily, to stop your thyroid gland producing thyroid hormone; and start taking levothyroxine (usually 50-150mcg daily) to replace the thyroid hormone your body would normally produce. Block and replace must not be used in pregnancy as the high doses of antithyroid drugs cross the placenta and can cause the baby to develop an underactive thyroid."

www.btf-thyroid.org/antithyroid-drug-therapy-to-treat-hyperthyroidismleaflet

(Seriously, why do people feel the need to correct posters when they tell them which drugs they're taking?)

@GrumpyHoonMain

Presumably you’re in levo because your Graves’ disease has resulted in your Thyroid being very seriously damaged or destroyed due to other treatment at some point?

@frumpety - I wouldn't say it's an every day habit, but it's frequent. I'd say at least 3 days out of 7 maybe?? Yes I still eat meals as normal but as I've said a few times, I do eat relatively small portions of actual meals because I feel full quickly. I'm a grazer - little and often. But regardless a large proportion of my diet consists of high calorie sugary crap. I also eat good stuff, but I'd say the balance is more towards the crap end. Reading this back I honestly have no idea how I'm a size 8. Nervous energy, maybe? Who knows ...

@frumpety something else I hadn't thought of previously- I suffer intermittently with IBS, and when it's bad, it's bad. That can make me stop eating sooner than I otherwise would due to awful stomach cramps. At one point everything I ate made my tummy cramp and so I just ate when I could, whatever I could manage. Maybe that contributes to my weight staying low, as when that flares up I'm lucky if I manage 1000 calories for the day ...

I am slim size 8-10. I think your post is a little extreme in what your friends do. I go through phases where I eat more chocolate than usual. I weight myself regularly and Will probably take action after a few pounds up. I then watch what I eat and exercise. I follow a mixture of the 5:2 diet and 16:8 diet and with (not excessive) amounts of exercise I easily drop back down.

I don’t think you need to always refuse a biscuit. Everything in balance. Even when I’m on my diet phases I always have a cheat day with a takeaway. It’s just discipline. When I’m back at my goal weight, I wouldn’t turn down a biscuit, just watch what you eat and don’t stuff my face.

@speakout thanks that sounds like a great solution for lockdown. Will try it (if I can get clear of the kids for long enough)

I was doing 2x weights a week but now am just doing lots of stairs and lots of baby lifting... so I have great arms and legs and the rest is definitely a bit wibbly 😆

@LouJ85 thank you do you mind me asking what would constitute a small portion of a meal ? I know that one of my biggest issues is my portion sizes.

This might sound difficult. But not thinking about food. And most definately not associating food with emotion. Pleasure, yes. Emotion, no. Probably an extremely hard habit to break. Exercise cos it's healthy (not with primary purpose to lose weight. And only that. Exercise has many benefits). And getting into good eating habits that don't involve you thinking you're depriving yourself of what you really want. But realise these might be hardwired bad habits that take time to change?

I thinks there’s lots of misconceptions about the habits of overweight people. Currently I’m trying to lose a stone to get back to a healthy BMI. It’s not easy.

So many people think overweight people are constantly eating and never hungry or don’t know what ‘real’ hunger is. While I’ll readily admit to having a sweet tooth and mostly eating the wrong foods I’m regularly hungry. Often ravenously so. I just don’t understand how others can only eat one or two meals a day or forget to eat lunch to to not being hungry. I’d be feeling wobbly from not eating if I did that.

Far from drinking litres of wine and gin I only drink a couple of times a month. The only other calories I drink is a small takeaway coffee a few times a week with one sugar.

Is it genetics? Are our brains wired differently? Who knows.

I’ve actually been on the other extreme as I was a skinny child, teenager and twenty something. I don’t even look chubby in baby photos! I remember legitimately being able to eat whatever I wanted and never put on weight.

I'm overweight and obviously have some bad habits. I am often amazed at how my teenaged daughter listens to her body and doesn't seem to have picked up my bad habits.

Examples:

She eats one bite of very lovely homemade cake, then says she will put it away to have later. It's very nice, she says, and she's looking forward to it, but she has realised she isn't in the mood for it just now.

She eats all except the last bite of cake, then stops, saying she has had enough. I manage to keep quiet, but inwardly think, "Enough? But there's more cake on your plate! And it isn't as if you couldn't manage it - it's only one bite!" or "But now it will either go to waste, or you will have to go to the trouble of wrapping it up to save for later. Why not just eat it?"

She is not at all swayed by the idea that something might go to waste if she doesn't eat it. To her, eating something she doesn't want is wasteful.

We're in town and I offer to take her for ice cream. She loves ice cream, but still says no if she isn't hungry enough - even though it may be weeks before the opportunity is there again.

She doesn't feel the need to eat something just to be polite or show gratitude to the person who made it for her. She will try a bite if DH has prepared it and urges her to do so, but she won't actually eat the whole portion just to oblige him. I can see that it upsets her to disappoint him - she isn't some surly uncaring teenager - but she clearly feels it is almost impossible to eat when you don't want food, so she doesn't.

I try to pay attention and be inspired by her, rather than just baffled by her!

@bluetongue I find when I my diet was carb based, I’d get that ravenous wobbly hunger too. I’ve realised I can’t eat bread, porridge or cereals for breakfast as I got wobbly a couple of hours later.
It’s linked to insulin levels. I think some people are just more insulin sensitive than others and those people tend to put weight on more easily.
Dr Jason Fung talks about this a lot. His YouTube videos are excellent.

I think of food as treats, I avoid the scales, I eat when I'm not hungry, I always have the cake, emotional eating etc

I'm in my 40s, BMI 20-21, and I do all of these things. I would describe myself as "skinny fat" however, I have a lot of flab for my size and think my natural healthy weight should be about a stone less than it is. I probably have a lot of fat around my organs...

I don't do much exercise either (go through phases when I do a bit, then times when I'm really sedentary).

The one thing I DO do is try to eat a fair bit of fruit and veg

@Saracen
Are you sure about that with your daughter? That doesn’t sound at all right to me. It sounds like disordered eating.