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.

What does having crisps with a drink do to their nutritional value/snack status?

Strange question, but I'll humour you.

I seriously doubt the nutritional value of crisp changes with the context of their consumption nor, as far as I'm concerned, do they become snacks when consumed with a drink, they remain an unnecessary, but tasty, treat.

A quick glance at the snack aisle in a supermarket would give you a fair idea of how the general population view snacks.

OFGS! How can anyone have a proper discussion with someone who pretends they've never met anyone who has a cupboard with crisps and biscuits etc. in it? Pathetic! And just shows you're not here to help anyone, you're just here to gloat and revel in your own virtuosity.

I've certainly had the popcorn out for at least the last 10 pages of this thread. I wonder if MN would do a popcorn emoticon, do go with the gin and wine.

Oooh I have a snack cupboard too! Crisps, chocolate , nuts, tinned fruit, cereal bars, soreen etc. Cant get to it as have a sleeping baby on me!!

Interesting comment on the menopause earlier- I eat what I like and stay slim( walk a lot and run after kids but hate gym) my mum was the same till 55 then really piled on weight- she tells me to make the most of it till then!!!

She doesn't diet though- she eats anything still but much smaller amounts. She keeps busy if she gets hungry. Makes sense- I eat loads more if I'm at home.

* How would I know what a large part of the population does? How do you? I only have experience of my family and friends*

@PhoneLock

So you don’t read newspapers? Watch TV? You’re not aware of any brands Of crisps, popcorn etc... presumably selling millions of these items to people every year?

Do you live (with your family and friends) down a hole?

PerpetuallyUnderwhelmed ah the voice of the unknowingly fortunate. Have you heard of 'white privilege'? Because you are displaying what can be described as 'slim privilege'. You smugly explain that you stick to 2000 cal a day and the reason others carry excess fat is because they are gluttons who eat crap. Oh Pet, poor ignorant you....

Some of us live on WAY less that 2000cal a day and can't actually fathom how you can actually shove 2000 cal into your gob each day. I am not overweight but I can tell you that if I were to stuff my face with 2000cal daily, I would be enormous. I work out 6 days a week and eat between 1200 and 1600 a day. I am tones and athletic. I am not skinny nor am I fat. I am a big size 10/small size 12.

Go shovel some of your virtuosity down you won't you.

Everyone has heard of a snack cupboard/draw/box etc even if they don't personally have one. Pathetic to try to appear better than others by declaring you don't understand what it is.

Everyone has heard of a snack cupboard/draw/box etc even if they don't personally have one. Pathetic to try to appear better than others by declaring you don't understand what it is.

Oh for goodness sake! I am not trying to be better than anybody else. If that has even entered your head, you must be suffering from some form of inferiority complex.

Get help.

Just own it phonelock, you said something a bit dumb.

I'm delgada in my prada and yet I know what a snack cupboard is. Even though I don't snack. Even though most people call a cupboard a 'press' where I live, I can figure it out

My step daughter stayed with us recently and noted the extreme weight loss of an actress in a sit com. She was so impressed, like the actress had cured cancer or come back from the dead.

I'm delgada in my prada and yet I know what a snack cupboard is. Even though I don't snack. Even though most people call a cupboard a 'press' where I live, I can figure it out

Given the number of responses since I asked the question, you would have to be really stupid not to have.

I always knew though stop arguing. This is a ridiculous hill to die on.

I'm assuming Phonelock is winding us all up. I mean a snack cupboard is a cupboard in which snacks are stored. This is not genius level detection. If someone referred to a drinks cupboard or a linen cupboard you'd figure it out. If all your snacks generally live in the fridge, you'd reason that other people have snacks that do not require refrigeration.

Well I would.

I'm not trying to wind anyone up nor, as far as I am aware, arguing over anything. A snack to me is a small meal. To some other people, the definition of a snack is different. I accept that.

I love food...cooking it, reading about it, watching programmes about it and eating it. I'm fat but dh kids and I dont care.

The problem is women are being recommended to eat 2000 calories which is a lot of calories for any woman who's shorter than 5ft6. The average height woman would need to workout vigorously for at least an hour a day if you're eating the recommended 2000 calories a day.

The 2000 calorie recommendation is what the 'average' woman needs. The problem with this is that because it is an average it stands to reason that by the law of averages about 50% of women will need less than 2000 and 50% will need more. I'm sure there will be lots of women out there eating around 2000 calories and more, but equally lots of women will not be able to eat 2000 calories. It all depends on height, weight, activity levels, metabolism, age, etc. For the vast majority it still comes down to the basic rule that if you eat more calories than you expend then you will put weight on.

Did anyone watch the new Michael Moseley programme on Tuesday? It was quite interesting. It was interesting that they were challenging the convention that weight loss should be slow to be successful, and instead doing a rapid weight loss program to kick-start the diets and the metabolism.

The problem with this is that because it is an average it stands to reason that by the law of averages about 50% of women will need less than 2000 and 50% will need more.

No, it doesn't. You wouldn't use the modal average for something like calories so we can discount that. You could use the mean average but then whether you have 50% above and 50% below really depends on the shape of the bell curve you'd get if plotted on a graph and the length of the tail. If you used median average you'd get your 50/50 split but even then you'd probably get a good proportion in the middle who needed that many.

So an average does mean you will get some below and some above, but how many and how useful it is as a count will depend on the extent of the individual variation.

Here are a few things I've learned, the more you eat, the more you want. If you have a lot of sugary/processed/high carb foods, the body craves them and it's more likely to become a cycle of eating not great food that doesnt make you feel good but your body craves.

Another thing I've realised. Many of us who are always hungry are because of the amount of Gherlin in our stomachs. For years I've been a slave to food. Always hungry, can never eat enough food and obviously my weight has ballooned.
I had a gastric sleeve just under two weeks ago, and I've not felt hungry at all since. I woke up and it was like a switch had been flipped and I was no longer interested in food.

Good luck @Rumbletumbleinmytummy

I don’t snack other than a dry oatcake now and then. I’m still overweight.

fitfolk.com/2000-calories-a-day-women/

Ok, I understand that my explanation was a crude and simplified version of what average means. This website is interesting, and although the study seems to use only a small sample of women, it shows that only 20% of women need less than 2000 calories to maintain. I'm not sure it takes into account that many of them might already be overweight- and therefore need more calories as it takes more calories to maintain a higher body-weight than a healthy one, but it's interesting. I also guess if you took very young women out of the equation it would look quite different as well.

I do suspect a lot of women consume more calories in a day than they estimate though. Also, calorie intake has to be taken into account over a longer period- it's no good saying I only eat 1500 calories a day, if that's what you eat Monday to Friday, but on Saturday you have a take-away and a bottle of wine and consume 3000, and on Sunday you have a fried breakfast and a roast dinner, or you go out for a meal and eat three full courses.