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.

The vast majority of women would put on weight if they ate this much

How can you possibly know this?

@PhoneLock- well I just did that helathline calculator too and it said 2019 calories to maintain. I doubt it's that accurate- seeing as you are about 2 stone lighter than me and an inch shorter then I doubt we could eat the same calories. Because you are so slim to start with you will no doubt need to eat less than me to maintain.

Maybe it's the activity level that makes the difference. I put "Active lifestyle".

I put moderately active- whatever the definition of that is supposed to be I'm not sure.

The Michael Mosley fast 800 site has a good description of activity levels when you're working out your TDEE.

Here's his descriptions.

Activity levels*
Sedentary :
Little or no exercise. This level is for someone who does not or cannot incorporate exercise into their daily life (eg drives rather than walks, takes the lift rather than the stairs, has a desk job or restricted mobility).
Lightly active :
Light exercise or sports 1-3 days per week. This level would include people who incorporate walking and activity into their day to day activities but do not have an exercise regime at such or exercise or play sports fewer than three times a week.
Moderately active :
Moderate exercise or sports 3-5 days per week. This level is for people who exercise or play very active sports at least 30 minutes non-stop at a time at least three times a week, every week. This is the level for people who keep up a good fitness regime that fits into their daily life.
Very active :
Hard exercise or sports 6-7 days per week. This level would include serious non-professional athletes actively training for, eg, a triathlon that requires near daily hard exercise for at least an hour at a time.
Extremely active :
Very hard exercise or sports more than once every day and a physical job. This level is for people doing exercise multiple times per day, at least an hour at a time and with the type of physical job that requires top fitness. This level is not common – most non-professional athletes in serious training will be in the “Very active” level at most.

I just used the calculator and I need 2101 to maintain, I don't count calories and eat according to my appetite, it sounds about right.

There have been lots of threads about this recently.

Basically, some women are slim through tightly controlling diet and exercise.

Plenty of us eat lots and stay slim because what we’re eating is healthy most of the time.

This sums it up. However there's a lot of people out there who are so determined to argue that being slim is simultaneously some natural gift and something that is only achieved by excessive and unhealthy dieting. If it makes them feel better then they can keep telling themselves that 🤷‍♀️

I think that some people don't understand the levels of exercise that are needed to be healthy either. A pp said that she couldn't understand why she wasn't losing weight as she walked three miles a day. Three miles a day isn't even your 10k steps, which for me is around 5 miles, and probably burns off about 200 calories max. That's not exercise - that should just be your normal daily movement with exercise on top.

I disagree @Notadramallama. If you walk five miles every day then you would be getting the recommended about of exercise. Most people don't walk anything like 10.000 steps in their day to day lives which is why they need to take additional exercise to reach the 10,000 steps like going for a walk or a run. It's great if you can do additional exercise as well, that's great- but the recommended minimum is 10.000 steps, not 10,000 steps plus additional exercise.

Walking five miles also burns quite a lot more than 200 calories , especially if it's a brisk pace.

@FreekStar I said walking 3 miles burns off around 200 calories. I said walking less than 10k steps isn't exercise.

@FreekStar

*The vast majority of women would put on weight if they ate this much*

How can you possibly know this?

Seriously?
🥴🤷‍♀️🤣 You are still going with this?

2000 is the upper end of what most women can eat.

"Most" women arent very tall very young. They range.

My original statement was that i would be overweight - obese if i ate this much every day. I would be. I wouldnt be the only one.

I am 50 and short but i walk 107k in july apparently so not that inactive.

It seems to shock you that 2000 is not as normal as you thought it was. But if you are a healthy weight dont let it bother you!!!

Walking 5 miles would not give you the recommended about of daily exercise unless you are unfit - it would not be aerobically beneficial enough.

10,000 steps has no government recommended minimum, indeed 10,000 has no meaning anywhere other than advertising (and rightly, the calories burnt and work done is related to distance not number of steps) the government advice is a minimum of 150minutes of moderate intensity aerobic activity - the vast majority of any incidental steps you take will not be included in this. I cannot achieve moderate intensity aerobic activity whilst walking - unless it's a ludicrous "race walk" attempt. However the extra distance covered will still burn some calories, just not enough to get you out of doing the exercise too.

Anyone who only does incidental walking (and not deliberate walking for hours) would be unlikely to be anything but the least active level above sedentary in terms of calories burnt.

3 miles which what Nota said was 200calories is in the right ballpark for a 60kg person, the speed won't make a lot of difference at all (you'll burn more per minute going faster of course, but then you'll cover the distance sooner, going fast will likely have aerobic benefits distinct from calories burnt if you're less fit.)

2k steps can be as much as 1.5miles!).

Tall with long legs and sedentary job. Walk to work and back is just over 10,000 steps and it’s 4 miles in total. Fitbit and apple monitor say the same

I wear size 10 clothes - but the proper skinny/toned women I know either run marathons or eat very little.

Sounds sad and grim. But I'm fat so....

@Pumpkinnose

I wear size 10 clothes - but the proper skinny/toned women I know either run marathons or eat very little.

Do we? Whatever makes you feel better🙄

Yes the ones I know who maintain properly slim figures definitely control their food intake considerably. I wish I had the willpower!

@BeChuille- I give up- you obviously don't understand what average means!

@Pumpkinnose fair enough, I just hate the rhetoric that slim people must be starving themselves. I’ve put on weight during lockdown due to eating more than usual/less activity but I’m still slim. My body isn’t as muscular/defined but I still wear my normal size 6-8. I am in my 20s though so high metabolism etc.

Walking five miles also burns quite a lot more than 200 calories , especially if it's a brisk pace

Remember you have to subtract the calories you would burn anyway if you just sat on your bum instead.

@sirfredfredgeorge
According to the NHS brisk walking, riding a bike, dancing etc. are all forms of moderate exercise. So walking briskly for 5 or even 3 miles in addition to your normal day, every day, would easily add up to your 150minutes in a week. This is what the NHS recommends. You might feel you should do more- and it's going to be even better if you do, but that's your rule- not NHS recommendations.

@Pumpkinnose

Yes the ones I know who maintain properly slim figures definitely control their food intake considerably. I wish I had the willpower!

What do you mean by properly slim? A lot of women can look "properly slim", yet are flabby and have a high percentage of body fat, especially of constantly starving themselves.

www.healthline.com/nutrition/10000-steps-calories-burned#8

This website gives you some idea of the calories used walking- looks like walking at a good pace for 5 miles would burn quite a few calories for most people. It would certainly be enough to balance out slight excess calories for some people without them having to eat less and aid weight loss and increase tone and fitness.