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.

I used to work with a lady in her 50s who was a size 8/10 , slim.

She never exercised and ate at least 3 bars of chocolate a day. On top of sandwich’s for lunch, didn’t calorie count for dinner.

I am slim mainly because of genes. I have a relatively ok diet and don't eat massive portions but I have whatever type of food I want and snack regularly on chocolate, biscuits, cake, crisps etc. I don't do much exercise. I have larger friends than me who eat more carefully, they just have different body shapes and slower metabolism. I also have other friends who are larger because they eat and drink more.

Weight can be a lifestyle choice but luck of the draw genetically can also be a big factor.

Yes yes, another thread about how disciplined and pious slim people are and how the rest of us mere mortals are slovenly pigs. Yawn.

It does depend on boat type too though. I have a friend who eats more than I eat but finds it hard to gain weight. I lived with her for 2 years so I know how much she eats and she never works out.
Me on the other hand, I'm short and I restrict calories and workout a lot and I mean a lot...I'm toned but I'm bulky looking still. And nothing and I mean nothing I do will get rid of my post partum belly.
I'm now nearly 40 so who the fuck cares..I exercise for my mental health not to be slim

I absolutely agree op. My eyes were open a few years ago after my first proper girlfriend holiday. My friends were all larger than me and I thought it was down to my cycling everywhere and my moving around a lot as I can eat and drink a lot.
However, it became clear that they ate whenever they felt even the tiniest bit hungry and never drank water. For example, 1 hour after a massive fry up at breakfast, they would all be hungry and head for the chippy.To be clear - I never deny hunger, but sometimes it's not really hunger at all but dehydration - drink water, wait a few minutes to see if you still feel hungry. They never did this and ate lots of food constantly and we moved at a snails pace.
Oh and they never had a shit for the entire holiday .

@Emeraldshamrock

You're really generalising there. People with small appetites and small stomachs don't feel hard done by for eating less food it is a myth it is simply they don't have to diet as they don't over eat.

Hmmm, I’m over weight, I eat less than 1.5k calories a day 5 days a week, and I run daily burning 700 kcals. Plus very active - Fitbit gives me 260 plus active mins per day. I don’t often feel hungry. I’m not however thin, or a size 10. I’m not in starvation mode, and I don’t eat more than 2.5k calories on the other 2 days. If I ever eat more I gain weight really fast, and I’ve had long periods of a different lifestyle where I was gaining not loosing. My thyroid is fine by the way. Some fatties don’t over eat and some thinnies don’t undereat.

Done of these comments make me so cross.

The vast majority of slim people I know, whose eating habits I've witnessed, don't watch what they eat. They eat what they want (as I do). The difference is they don't over eat.

Also, I don't eat breakfast because I'm never hungry before midday. Yet I've had loads of women who when they find that out, say "Oh you skip breakfast?"

No I don't 'skip' breakfast, I just don't eat it and haven't since I was about 9 years old.

That's like telling a tee total person they're 'skipping alcohol', or a vegetarian that they're 'skipping meat'.

I just think it is really sad that people are so obsessed with their weight !!

I’m also about the same height at 5ft 2.5”. I have been a size 8 or 10 all my teen and adult life. For many years I ate whatever and whenever I liked but that is itself is misleading as perhaps my ‘whatever and whenever I liked’ is controlled or less than someone’s else view of the same thing?

If I did add a few lbs I lost them as soon as I tried by doing very little.

I have a very sweet tooth so the quantity of food I ate was probably moderate when I look back but my refined sugar intake was huge.

Now, at 48 loosing those few additional lbs takes work but it’s certainly not joyless. I’m still a size 10 but I have had to amend and change the way I eat (less) and move (more) and reduce refined sugar considerably.

It’s worth it for me, reduced impact on joints, heart, etc will be the long term win for me. Definitely don’t feel that my life is too short for that investment.

Of course, that’s my view for me. Each to their own!

@Grandmi

I just think it is really sad that people are so obsessed with their weight !!

Par for the course really when 64% of UK adults are overweight/obese and we're in the middle of a pandemic, where catching Covid can be much more of a problem for overweight people.

Not to mention children born to 2 overweight parents being far more likely to grow up overweight themselves.

It's a bit like being sad that people are obsessed with giving up smoking.

My stats yesterday, I ate poached egg x2 on muffin with spinach, one skinny cappuccino, 1 pint beer, 6 crackers, cheese and grapes. Rest was water and black coffee. That’s not a high calorie diet, I’m conscious of my choices but I’m overweight. We are not all one size fits all. I’m not fat because I ‘overeat’ - my body doesn’t work the same way others does.

This thread is SO goady! The humble bragging is ridiculous. Also OP, stop acting like you think you're massive because you're an "untoned" size 10.

So true. The slimmest people I know eat like birds.

@Desperadododo

My stats yesterday, I ate poached egg x2 on muffin with spinach, one skinny cappuccino, 1 pint beer, 6 crackers, cheese and grapes. Rest was water and black coffee. That’s not a high calorie diet, I’m conscious of my choices but I’m overweight. We are not all one size fits all. I’m not fat because I ‘overeat’ - my body doesn’t work the same way others does.

If you're eating less calories than your body needs, or even the exact amount it needs and you're still overweight, you need to see a doctor.

I imagine that would point to a medical condition.

When I was first with DH he would scratch his head in bemusement at what I would not buy in the supermaket. Fizzy drinks, cereal, biscuits, cake, snacks, frozen and ready meals etc.
It is not that I make an effort not buy it or eat it - it is just that I don't even "see" it or notice it when I go to the shops. It is like I am blind to it. I never had it as a child, and I don't have that vocabulary if you like. I do not associate those things with food. It is like they are an entirely different category.
DH buys them. He spends the whole day eating/grazing on these snacks. A bit here, a bit there, and then he holds back when presented with a decent meal as he is "watching what he eats." So he sees actualy food as the probelm and these snack thing.
This is the way he was raised. He has the vocabulary, and he is the only one in the family with a weight problem. I feel badly for him. I also feel resentful of these companies being allowed to foist this stuff on us as if it was food.

I don't understand people who say life is too short to deprive yourself. It is perfectly possible to enjoy the food you want to and still be slim.

I'd like to think I'm slim. BMI of 21, yet still eat biscuits, cake, bit of pizza, I just make sure my calories for the rest of the day are adjusted, or I exercise to compensate.

Why is being a healthy weight something to be scoffed at? It is the same as people fat shaming! Let people chose the lifestyle and diet they want if they aren't affecting anybody else.

Some people are naturally slim at certain points in their lives- I was til about age 32/33, my second child. Before that, I really didn't think about food at all, I ate out a lot, lots of pizzas, nice food, always dessert, but I was busy, went clubbing/dancing reasonably regularly and the weight just stayed down. If I noticed my clothes were a bit tight, I'd have two days on Weetabix and it'd drop off again in no time.

Contrast to now, I'm on medication which is associated with weight gain, I'm more sedentary, and I'd have to drastically reduce calories probably for 6-9 months to lose a stone or two.

It was soooo easy being slim all that time, I really didn't appreciate it or how hard work it was for some people. I do now!

@WorraLiberty no medical condition. All reviewed and fine. Some people just don’t operate the same. I said upthread my ex consumed up to 6k calories a day and couldn’t put an ounce on. He’s 6ft and 10 stone. Not all people have the same metabolism. Doesn’t mean all thin people undereat and fat people overeat.

I think if you don’t exercise then you can only stay slim by eating very little.
My mum was obsessed with being slim. She did eat 3 meals but her potions were really tiny. She ate about as much at each meal as my kids ate at 10 months old. A one portion adult yoghurt would be 2 or 3 portions for her. If she has a sandwich it would be one piece of bread which she often wouldn’t finish. If she had a bigger meal in a pub, she wouldn’t eat anything else that day or the day after. Then she’s say things like she couldn’t put weight on even if she tried. She pretended she ate more than she did. I’ve seen it in other people as well.

I exercise as I want to be healthy but I also like food and alcohol. Being vegan makes keeping your weight down easier I’ve found although that wasn’t my reason for it.

How old are you and your friends OP? Because there comes a time you choose arse or face. I choose face and enjoy all the decadent things that keep it fat and wrinkle free.

portions were really tiny not potions. I wouldn’t be surprised if she made potions, she was a fucking witch. 🤣

MN is full of people dying to believe that all slim people starve themselves and exercise 5 days a week.

THIS

I’m very thin, rarely exercise, and while I don’t massively pig out I certainly don’t eat like a bird (pizza, pasta or curry for dinner most nights, tea with a couple of chocolate biscuits or a Twix every afternoon).

None of the really skinny people I know starve themselves or exercise all that much. It’s metabolism, genetics, and yes making sensible eating choices/not binging/not emotional eating.

@VictoriousSockPuppet

The skinny people I know all move a lot. Nervous tics, OCD, constantly getting up to move or tidy things or walk/cycle EVERYWHERE. Moving a lot, constantly helps too

Sounds like they have over active thyroids

I’m slim but I certainly don’t obsess over it. I don’t eat breakfast and tend not to eat until 2 or 3pm because I’m not hungry. So I am fasting 18 hours or so without thinking about it.

I don’t tend to eat processed carbs but only because I don’t like them much. I drink lots of wine when I fancy it but I exercise a lot.

I weigh myself every morning as I have done for 20 years. It’s more habit than anything else. I want to be a healthy weight and have a relatively healthy diet.

I don’t think I am disciplined or obsessed.

MN is full of people dying to believe that all slim people starve themselves and exercise 5 days a week.

Agreed. I believe it’s a coping mechanism that people use to feel better about their own size/diet. It’s like they can’t fathom that it’s possible for someone to be naturally slim without any additional effort - slim people must have an eating disorder etc