To let you into a secret about being slim.....

[Yellow1793]

I’m 5’2” and an untoned size 10. Over the last year or so (lockdown excluded) I’ve spent extended amounts of time with 4 different female friends, who are all taller, slimmer and considerably more toned than me. Aside from the fact that they all exercise at least 5 times a week, they also eat like birds. Their lifestyle revolves around making healthy choices, every single day, and I’m beginning to wonder if you do this consistently if you just stop feeling hungry. One of them regularly skips lunch. Another never has more than 2 glasses of alcohol in one sitting. Another always eats about 30% less than I do.....last time I was with her she had a small pasta portion for her lunch whilst serving me 3x the amount of pasta she had AND 2 sausages. No wonder she is tiny. None of them calorie count or talk about diets because their lifestyle choice is one big diet. I’d love to have their discipline.

Marking to read later.

@wagtailred I take it you aren't 5'1"

@alittleprivacy no im not. 5ft 6 But it really highlights how clothes size and bmi tell you very little about whats going to walk into a room.

Hmm this is a massive generalisation. I'm tall and a size 8 and I don't deprive myself of anything, don't do much exercise aside from waking. I just eat a balanced diet with a mixture of food

It’s really not hard. You learn to like what’s good for your body and dislike what isn’t. I’m
5.4 and if I put weight on it goes on my tummy so I can’t afford to, simple as that. I enjoy how it feels to put clothes on and they fit and look good. Everyone feels different entry and some people are happy to be big but it is a choice

I used to have a great metabolism. I don’t anymore and am subsequently HUGE and very flabby compared to my regular, long-term weight and body shape. Those years of no exercise and eating the ‘wrong’ foods are definitely behind me (as lockdown has shown!!).
On a calorie-controlled eating plan and trying to exercise for the first time in my life. It is HARD but will be worth it when I can walk around again without my thighs touching and I fit back into my clothes properly.

SandySix

I have really noticed how different two sisters can be. My eldest eats masses and is often starving. She probably eats 2500 calories a day and is slim. My youngest isn’t interested in eating and eats about 1250 calories a day at a guess yet is far chunkier than her sister. Metabolisms aren’t fair and equal!
This with bells on!
My 2nd and youngest are the slimmest - both tall and lean and eat the most, by quite a margin. My eldest eats very little and my 3rd even less - they are much bigger all over.
If my eldest ate what my youngest eats, he would be huge. It’s just luck if the draw genes. But it is easier to stay slim that to get slim because slim people don’t have a natural tendency to hold weight.

I feel you and for me life is too short as I live to eat so I will always be worrying about my weight unless I get some self control..... which I don't see happening any time soon.

Absolutely agree
Slim people often make a point of eating the cake but forget to tell you that lunch will be skipped because of it !!

I also think having a family to cook for makes me eat when I don’t necessarily feel hungry enough. I’m slim but there are often times I’m not hungry but cook the family meal and have wanted to model good habits and sit down at the table together to eat. When we were just a couple is often not eat in the evening or just have some crackers with cheese.

My DD has a friend that is super slender(age16) and her parents are quite overweight. Her sister (age 12)is very chunky but they eat the same.

Bollocks to that! I'm between a 6-8 and in my 30s. Always have been. A joke that I can and will eat anything. I'd hate to be judged that I'm slim because I'm obsessed with food just like anyone who is overweight would hate be judged that they eat too much crap. Our bodies behave differently with food and metabolism. I'm lucky.

@threesecrets how many kids have you had? Your still quite young to be fair some people don’t start having kids till 40+

I calorie count but I have so called cheat days. I cycle everywhere and go to the gym when I can. Am a solid size 10 at 5ft 5 and I can't imagine being skinny.

I exercise a lot, daily. I don’t drink alcohol or fizzy drinks, eat v healthily with one treat meal and one cake per week. I’m 5”6, size 10, weigh about 9 1/2. All great. BUT. I have a friend who does no exercise, drinks at least a bottle of wine a day and is half my size. Don’t know what she eats (probably nothing given the booze consumption) but she weighs 7st and is only slightly less tall. Or maybe just great metabolism. I thought that was unfair but now she’s started going out with a multi millionaire who’s showering her with expensive gifts! Some people are very lucky, others - most of us - are just normal.

If I ate take away nearly every day, fatty, processed meals, then probably Id be twice the size I am now. I eat healthily, very healthily, my partner and I are very strict around the house when it comes to healthy food. Its only me and him (not for long though) but we plan out our meals week before and make sure we eat lean meat, lots of vegetables, pulses, millet, buckwheat, oats, fruit, fish, brown rice, etc. We dont each fried stuff like chips, crisps, chicken wings, etc. We treat ourselves from now and then... If you make it a lifestyle and a habit, its not hard at all. :)

@bananabread8
Only one but my mum is the same. She's 60 but could pass for 15 years younger.

I’m low BMI, been same weight for years though it does change slightly now and again (By 2kg either side of what my norm is!) due to a health condition BUT I eat like a horse..all day every day and never change so I genuinely can’t comprehend why people assume those of us that are slim do all of what you say above to maintain our weight :(

I read lots of references to "treats" from overweight people or people who have to be conscious of their weight. I think it's another factor in different mind sets. I've always been slim and if I want something sweet / a plate of cheese etc I'll eat it - I don't consider it a treat or "naughty" because I'm an adult and not utterly ridiculous.

I’ve recently watched a few episodes of supersize v super skinny. The skinny ones often say they eat lots but when their calories are added up they are always underrating. Similarly the supersize ones often say they don’t understand why they are as big as they are but they are often eating between 2 and 5 times the calories they need each day.
I think people in general are not good at estimating their calories so they think they’re eating what they should be and that leads them to believe they have a slow or fast metabolism.

I’m vegan now and that’s made me look at exactly what I’m eating so that I’m getting all the nutrients I need. I used to think I ate about 1500 calories most days, but it was actually more like 2000. It’s easily done.

@TheMurk

Yes. This is it. But we aren’t allowed to say it out loud.

Slim people eat less and exercise more. Even people who naturally tend toward slimness, eat less and exercise more.

The slim people I know are all taller (I’m also 5ft 2 but more a 16) which helps. But if we sit for a coffee they will have a green tea, I have a latte with 4 sugars.

If they have a bit of cake with their tea, it really will be a bit of cake and it will be the only cake like thing they eat all week. Meanwhile I’ve sneaked a couple of chocolate buttons down my throat just after having three custard creams for breakfast- and then I’ll have the whole cake with my coffee.

People who are slim do not eat huge amounts of bad food. Or even huge amounts of good food. They just eat small amounts of mostly healthy stuff and have the very occasional treat.

I treat myself at breakfast lunch and dinner and also in between - and that’s the difference.

As To why - I’m not really sure.

Some of them eat less and exercise more. Some don’t. I used to be a newsagent. I would watch skinny girl come in, buy 4 chocolate bars, and promptly eat 3 whilst enjoying the attention of every straight lad in the area, and the bigger girl guiltily buying one, and before she’s even opened it the same lads have looked at her with scorn and made ‘fatty’ comments. All. The. Time. And it’s the same in the workplace. There’s the skinny cos she never eats type. There’s the skinny and she never stops type. There’s the always fighting her weight and just about managing type. There’s the always fighting her wright and losing type. And the don’t care/ can’t do it type. All skinny women are not healthy. All bigger women are not gluttons. Please stop perpetuating this myth.

All skinny women are not healthy. All bigger women are not gluttons. Please stop perpetuating this myth

Agree totally

I think a lot of people have lost the ability to see what is normal with food consumption based on the days when food was fuel. They’ve lost touch with knowing their bodies, their minds have taken precedence over their bodies rather than balancing mind body and spirit.

What’s normal varies person by person, if you’re overweight (except for very limited circumstances) you are not eating the right fuel to fuel your body. Whether that be type of food/calories etc. It is up to each one of us to pay attention to what we are eating to find what it right for us. One person might need 1200 calories but a mix of protein and carbs and another might need 2000 calories but mainly protein. We need to stop criticising people who need less or more. I don’t eat much, but I love the food I do eat because I can feel it fueling my body, if I bake a cake a taste of the cake does me, I don’t need to eat a full slice, it would prob leave me feeling bloated
And high on sugar. Some thin slices of cheese gives me the same taste as lashings of cheese sauce and some protein. I fill up on veg, and protein and carbs are very much limited to what my body needs. It’s not joyless because looking after my body gives me joy. I believe I have a responsibility to house my soul in the most looked after body I can provide.

I do agree with general movement though. 45 min in the gym will not compensate for sitting on your arse for the rest of the day. I think slimmerFitter people are more conscious of their movement- I do standing press-ups against the counter whilst the kettle boils, always use the upstairs loo,if I see a weed in the garden I pull it up. It’s the constant movt that helps.

Sweet heart your perfectly proportioned. Size 10, for your height is healthy. Eat, enjoy and enlighten (the superslim how to live life with content and fulfilment - no need to starve yourself.) 😊

For me the more I eat the more I want, the less I eat the less I want.