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?

My bmi is around 20 and I'm a size 8, I used to be really into exercise I ran marathons and went to the gym lots. Since having children I just don't have time for all that anymore but surprisingly I weigh exactly the same and I'm the same clothes size.

I enjoy food and I don't restrict anything, if I fancied a cake I'd have a cake, if I want a wine/gin I'll have that too. I think the fact that nothing is off-limits to me means that I don't go out and overeat. I eat generally quite healthy ish but I enjoy a takeaway every other weekend and if I want to have a dessert I will. One thing I don't do though is eating for the sake of it, I eat regular meals and would only have a snack if I was actually hungry.

I don't do anything special I just eat normal, not over or under eating and I never restrict. I hope I stay this size as I enjoy my food!

Forgot to add that I drink one can of coke daily (in the morning) but don’t drink tea/coffee or any other drink other than water (wine & champagne a few times a week)..

I am naturally slim but not thin (size 8) because I don't think much about food or what I weigh.

• I weigh myself about once a year and I have been the same weight throughout my adult life when not pregnant. I put on about 2 stone in eat pregnancy before returning to that weight.
• I am not a fussy eater and at home I eat a lot of salad and vegetables, but I also eat a balanced diet including full fat milk in my tea and on my porridge, meat, eggs, cheese etc.
• I eat biscuits, cakes, pudding etc when the occasion fits but I don't think to eat them when it is just me at home.
• I do not snack between meals. As such I only really eat crisps when they are offered to me or when we have people round for dinner.
• I don't do much organised exercise but I am active. I walk the dog every day, I do a fair amount of gardening, a lot of housework, I did a yoga class once a week before lockdown, I cycle recreationally with the kids but not seriously and I sail dinghies etc. I don't enjoy running and I am no good at ball sports like tennis.
• I could do with doing some sort of tummy exercises as I have noticed that while my weight and clothing size have not changed I feel less toned since lockdown and I think this partly that you need to make more effort once you are the wrong side of 40.

Size 8-10
I do a kind of 16:8, but more “accidentally” as I don’t like eating in the morning, never have
I don’t weigh myself, ever
Like wine, have a couple of glasses maybe 3-4 nights a week
Enjoy treats
The main things I’ve noticed about myself myself vs friends who struggle with their weight are:
I am v active and a complete fidget, although I don’t do structured exercise
I eat smaller portions, I get full quicker and often can’t fit in dessert if we’re out. I’ll only eat 1/2 of a takeaway (save the rest for the next day) and if we have dominos, I’ll eat maybe half of what others do.

Yes they do but I think your examples are quite extreme, I don't do any of those things to the extent you describe but I've always been size 8-12

pigoons, it’s really common for women to put in weight/find it harder to shift weight in their 40s as they go into menopause.

Have a look at Cynthia Thurlow’s TEDx talks, they’re really interesting and inspired me to try Intermittant Fasting.

Talk 1 (Talk about menopause)

Talk 2 (Talk on intermittant fasting)

The only time I was ever fat was when I was taking mirtazapine. Didn't change a thing I ate, even though I was ravenous all the time, and put on 2st. No idea how. Shame, it worked great, but it put me into the overweight category so I came off it. A lot of medics will tell you it's a reasonable trade off but I mean, really? Especially now we see what's happened to many obese people who contract C19? I refused to stay on it for this reason. Being obese or overweight has serious health ramifications.

BMI 18.
I do not restrict anything (and therefore never go insane and binge)
I eat healthy meals but eat dark chocolate and wine every day
Very naturally fidgety and walk lots
Some friends once added up my daily calorie intake because the refused to belive I could eat what I wanted and maintain my weight. It came to just less than 2000 and they were shocked. I believe healthy meals naturally leave space for some daily indulgence
My only rules are that Ii do not eat anything 'fake or low fat. I would never dream of using margarine or frying 'sprays'
I also detest feeling very full and can't understand how some people like it

When I was slender I smoked. That probably helped a lot as I ate less because I smoked instead and never ate puddings or sweets because I never wanted them.

Was very slim up to the menopause, partly due to being very sporty.

Piled on quite a lot post menopause, then got gall stones and had to go on a very low fat diet and the weight just dropped off.

So, sadly, for me, the trick is no chocolate, no cake, no biscuits, cheese only in tiny quantities as a "flavouring" on other things, no bacon butties, no fish and chips.

As someone way back on page one said, it's a miserable prospect - but if it stops me ending up in hospital for a week in extreme pain.

Slim, only recently owned weighing scales (to weigh kittens for flea treatment) I used to weigh myself at SIL's using her scales whenever we visited. Drink at the weekend (sometimes in the week during locdown), if I snack it's a couple of biscuits with a cuppa -two at the most, I stop eating when I am full and always have breakfast. I do have a bad habit of crisps in the evening which I'm trying to break. I recently noticed my trousers were feeling a bit snug over lockdown and have had to cut back (midweek drinking!) and do a bit of regular exercise at home. I would normally do the school run twice a day a few times a week and our Saturdays often included walking somewhere for the majority or the day - I've always been active walking where I can. That had stopped and I really noticed it.

Keto vegetarian diet, very low carb, weigh every day on MyZone scale, exercise 3-5 times a week using a MyZone belt, one main meal a day, no snacks except nuts, nothing sweet except berries and cream, lots of wine , lost 7 kg since the end of January.

I’m not particularly slim but have always stayed a healthy weight without dieting - in fact the biggest problem I’ve had was when breastfeeding both times I lost more weight than I was comfortable with.
I think it’s mainly down to being lucky enough not to have a sweet tooth. I don’t snack and only have desserts to be polite but eat portions of pasta etc that would definitely earn me a raised eyebrow of disapproval from many on here. I don’t eat meat, and do love things like roast veg, curries with lentils & chickpeas, salad with proper dressing. Diet’s a bit more carb-heavy now I’m eating with the family all the time though.
Oh and I drink more regularly than I should and walk on average about 3 miles a day during normal school term as we don’t have a car, but don’t do any other exercise.

Oh and I've never really been fussed on puddings. I like cream cakes, carrot cake, Victoria sponge, sticky toffee pudding and thats about it.

Keto is low carb, high (good )fats and protein. Aged 58, BMI 22.4 and slimmer than I've been in many years.

My naturally slim dp bought 2 big burgers and 2 nice rolls to have with blue cheese when I was going out one night.

As I was leaving he was cooking 1 burger and said he'd have the other later if he was still hungry.

I'd have cooked both just because I'd bought 2.

I'm overweight - figures!

I eat to live not live to eat, I am not constantly thinking about food or when the next meal is.

I rarely snack and certainly not three times a day.

I don't deny myself anything, if I want cake, biscuits or sweets I have them but I don't eat huge amounts of them if I do have them.

If I am not hungry at dinnertime I either won't eat or maybe just have something small and light. I won't have a meal just because the clock says it's it is dinnertime.

I stop eating before I am full because I cannot stand that overstuffed feeling of eating too much.

I don't eat huge portions, I am put off by a plate piled high.

I am always moving about, I don't do any formal exercise as such.

I hardly ever weigh myself I use how I look and how my clothes fit as a guide.

I don't eat 'fake', low fat, or 'light' stuff and am wary of anything with a chemical ingredients list as long as your arm.

One thing I noticed my slim BIL does is that he will have whatever he fancies but will eat it slowly and really relish it. For example he has a pack of M&S extremely choclately biscuits in his home office and he will have one with a cup of tea but will take an age to eat it and really enjoy it. He says that having a second one just would not be the same; it wouldn't have that "treat" feeling. I, on the other hand, could scarf down the whole pack and not even notice the taste.(But I am working on that).

I have always been slim. I love food but try to make sure at least half of my meal is veg or salad.
I keep active and never eat of the go and don't have fizzy drinks. I eat cake or biscuits but one or two, not half the packet.
I don't ring or go to the gym or run but I am active generally.
Maintaining a healthy weight is just not rocket science. For the vast majority of people who are too heavy, the solution is eat less, move more. It's finding the will power to change bad habits that is difficult.

BMI of 19. Been a healthy BMI for about 4 years since losing 2 stone.

3 reasons I think I've kept it off:

1. I can't eat when stressed, and I get stressed out easily so I do naturally skip the odd meal here and there, I might have one or two days each week where I only eat 1 or 2 meals.

If I tended to over-eat as a way to deal with stress, I think I'd be overweight instead.

1. I can't have dairy or gluten, and alcohol doesn't agree with me so when I do drink, I only have a little bit, so that rules out an awful lot of treats.

1. I keep regular track of the nutrients I'm consuming in a sort of nutrient/calorie tracker. I don't do it every day but at least once per week. It is helpful to keep me on track and realistic with what I actually need to eat per day.

I think a great deal of poor eating habits are instilled in childhood. Three regular meals a day is totally unnecessary unless you suffer from low blood sugar or other issue. A woman I knew was incredibly slim: she told me she only ever ate when she felt properly hungry, no set meal times etc. I would say that many (not all!) of us don’t experience proper hunger before embarking on our next snack/meal. I think that naturally slim people either don’t think about food much or they have iron self control.

Back in the day, when people walked miles to work, then big evening meals were probably the main source of energy.

I stand by earlier genetics comments but then I got thinking and I had a heavy weekend on many beers and much food and since then in addition to climbing Monday and Tuesday I've eaten a small bowl of spaghetti carbonara for dinner on Monday and a small piece of potato omelette for lunch on Tuesday. I haven't eaten today and didn't have dinner on Tuesday.

It's weird because I love food, but being hungry is absolutely no bother, in fact I enjoy it quite alot

After lockdown for the very first time in my life I have/had a little pinchable bit of fat around my middle (gone now) but I was helping someone who doesn't have structure to their diet (elderly with dementia) and was eating with them. Like I said I really enjoy food but eating to a structure rather than just eating what I wanted when I wanted very much doesn't suit me

My weight is very important to me and whilst I think most of my shape comes from genetics I do also subconsciously manage my intake, but it's very subconscious.

Having now realised I haven't eaten for 30 hours I am now ravenous but I could quite easily wait until tomorrow

@pigoons

I also take offence to some of the comments that people could get up at 6am and go for a run if they really want to. I have problems with my joints which means that yes 10 years ago I could do high-impact exercise but now because of the deterioration in my condition I cannot do this any more. Yoga is OK, weights etc but not the cardio so it is much harder to lose weight. Please think before you tar everyone with the same brush

Weights (heavy weights) are way better for losing weight than cardio.

" I’ve always been the same, maybe a fast metabolism? Not been exercising."

More likely you just don't overeat even if you don't eat healthily.

I only eat real food as well. I don't eat anything that is heavy on artificial ingredients like fizzy drinks. I make a lot of things from scratch myself.