Is it possible to be a foodie and also be slim/ lose weight

[SeeooelllaaaCola]

Following from my post on another thread. I have only managed to lose weight for the first time by 'breaking up' with food. In the past I could take or leave chocolate and most cake, I ate probably ten bags of crisps per year, I never enjoyed fast food. My typical Sunday would be sourdough bread toasted, eggs and hot sauce, lunch would be an avocado wrap, snacks would be olives, dinner would be a roast dinner.
I now try to see food as fuel and choose foods that will fill me up but not use up much of my tiny calorie allowance. Taste rarely comes into it. I don't go until local businesses and browse the shelves for inspiration. I don't read recipe books. I don't (even when I could) travel to food markets and street food stalls. I feel like I've had to give up a side of myself, and a hobby, but I now fit into size 12 jeans. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it.

Anyone managed to combine a love of food with losing weight or maintaining a healthy weight? Please tell me how!

@Blubellsarebells I'm sorry but as that tv dietician points out, the body 'mistaking thirst for hunger' makes no evolutionary sense. Let's think of basic biology when we make these claims. If I'm hungry, I'm hungry. It can be noted though, that it is not just when I'm hungry that I eat.

Also, if you have issues around or a preoccupation with food, you might find that you can channel some of the foodism (for want of a better word) into cooking or baking. So picking out recipes, tracking down new ingredients, trying out new utensils and learning prepping / cooking methods. I feel like it redirects the urge to eat into something a bit more constructive that still involves food.

@squishee already do both. That's why I was a size 16 for years. I also worked in kitchens for years, tasting delicious creations and getting sent delicious free samples. It did not help with weightloss (funnily enough.)

Low carb high fat. Join us on bootcamp. I dont feel deprived at all and some great weight losses!
Eating fat is encouraged so you can still enjoy delicious cheese, butter even cream!

@Perfect28

Seems like there is a misnomer here that being a foodie and into food means being into unhealthy food. I think it's quite the opposite. I love fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts, flavour.

I dont think anyone I know would describe the OP as a foodie. Quite the opposite in fact. Im quite perplexed as the OPs decription of " thin" people as being miserable, food haters. Im slim, love food but would be 3 stone heavier if I lived on stodge. As for being angry looking in a bakery window I tend to think of pasta, buns,pastries etc as stodge, not part of my daily life at all.

The point is some people dont actually know what hunger is or feels like.
And also don't stop when they fill up.
Its basic biology that if you eat too much, when you're not hungry and dont stop when you're full, you will get fat.
It makes no evolutionary sense to eat until you get sick with diabetes and have a heart atrack but here we are.
As a society we have completly lost touch with whats normal or healthy.

@Blubellsarebells

The point is some people dont actually know what hunger is or feels like. And also don't stop when they fill up. Its basic biology that if you eat too much, when you're not hungry and dont stop when you're full, you will get fat. It makes no evolutionary sense to eat until you get sick with diabetes and have a heart atrack but here we are. As a society we have completly lost touch with whats normal or healthy.

It does make evolutionary sense in the feast/ famine days of the past. But we just have a feast mentality as high calorie, low nutrition food is cheap and freely available where it wouldnt have been in the past. The whole issue is immensely complex and maybe anger is start of change for the OP. However fat and happy/ skinny and miserable is not really fair nor unhelpful.

Helpful

The whole issue is immensely complex and maybe anger is start of change for the OP.

I agree. It was for me. Lifechanging. But that anger was at me though. Which not everyone can handle, I am aware of that.

But why would we believe that we were hungry rather than thirsty? That means in Hunter gatherer days we would go around ignoring water and die of thirst trying to hunt down a deer? It makes no sense!

I tend to think of pasta, buns,pastries etc as stodge, not part of my daily life at all.

I’m slim too and love pasta. I easily could eat it daily but I don’t, 1-2 times a week and love making my own sauces, can’t do jar sauces and for all the sugar, salt and calories in them, they taste bland and unsatisfying to me. Sometimes there isn’t any sauce just some veggies with a sprinkle of mozzarella or parmesan cheese with cracked pepper and a pinch of salt or just plain brown pasta.

I love my carbs and alternate between rolled oats, brown or black rice, brown pasta, and potatoes.

I tried low carb and I found myself hungry within 1.5 hours whereas if I have carbs I can go for 3+ before feeling hungry with the same portion sizes.

I feel the same. I love cookbooks and have over 100. I love baking bread and cakes. I love creme caramel, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, homemade ice cream, steak and chips, Yorkshire pudding. I love it all.

Mindful Chef has been a revelation to me. It is amazingly tasty food and has changed how I eat in terms of carbs. I got it at first to force me to eat fewer carbs, but I would choose it now for flavour.

@SeeooelllaaaCola

But why would we believe that we were hungry rather than thirsty? That means in Hunter gatherer days we would go around ignoring water and die of thirst trying to hunt down a deer? It makes no sense!

If water was no where near them consuming some foods which have water in them would save you? I actually think its more likely that signals are being misread.

Well our culture and relationship with food has moved on quite a bit since the hunter gatherer days, when people would eat seasonally in daylight hours and use lots of energy sourcing food.
That's the point.
We've lost touch with what our bodies need and whats healthy and the signals our bodies are giving us because processed ready to eat foods are always to hand.
We override the physical signals and give in to emotions.
Why do my friends kids say they're hungry when they're bored or tired?
It makes no sense to eat until you're sick but many many people are doing just that.

"Giles Yeo says that each person's body reacts differently to excess food, because evolution hasn't had time to develop a universal response, like the universal response to a drastically-reduced calorie intake (which is slowing metabolism to hold onto the remaining reserves...)

He also touches on the role of genetics and how it can also be observed in labradors (or "flabradors")"

So why are there more than double the obses people there were 20 years ago? People's metabolism didn't change in 20 years.

*Funkbus, I guess not - but lifestyles have become more sedentary as the availability of calorie-dense convenience and fast foods has increased. And there are more and more labour-saving devices - a pattern which is set to continue with robot vacs etc.

I used to get shaky hungry late morning. I now know this is a carb crash from my carb heavy breakfast and I can happily eat absolutely nothing whatsoever from 7pm - noon the next day and not hungry or shakey at all. If I have toast I am ravenous by 11am. Took me until 45 to learn this about myself. Lost 2 stone intermittent fasting and still eat lovely food just less of it and less often.

"*Funkbus, I guess not - but lifestyles have become more sedentary as the availability of calorie-dense convenience and fast foods has increased. And there are more and more labour-saving devices - a pattern which is set to continue with robot vacs etc."

Yeah, so what you're saying is it has nothing to do with metabolisms and everything to do with people not doing enough exercise while eating too much.

I’m slim (BMI 20) and still enjoy food. I just try to eat 3 meals a day with no snacking. It’s the snacking that gets everyone I think and where all those extra calories creep in. Sometimes for breakfast I just have a coffee as I’m in a rush for work or not hungry. Otherwise I have weetabix with oat milk, honey and chopped banana. Lunch is usually leftovers from last nights dinner then a full meal in the evening.

"Giles Yeo says that each person's body reacts differently to excess food, because evolution hasn't had time to develop a universal response,"
It looks to me that the universal response to excess food is to get fat.
Its not some big mystery.

@FunkBus

"*Funkbus, I guess not - but lifestyles have become more sedentary as the availability of calorie-dense convenience and fast foods has increased. And there are more and more labour-saving devices - a pattern which is set to continue with robot vacs etc."

Yeah, so what you're saying is it has nothing to do with metabolisms and everything to do with people not doing enough exercise while eating too much.

The issue is way more complex. A sedentary lifestyle leads to less myscle . Muscle leads to a higher metabolism I also think that yoyo dieting leads to a lower metabolism. If you go up and down rapidly the body reacts by lowering metabolism. If you lose weight steadily and build muscle through exercise you dont get that effect. I know women who barely eat anything and still cant lose weight.

I dont think anyone I know would describe the OP as a foodie.
Quite the opposite in fact.

I agree.

Being a foodie is much more likely to mean you are slim and healthy. You can enjoy your food, eat well, and be satisfied.

The worst mistake is replacing what you have decided is "bad food' by total rubbish, artificial sweeteners, "low fat", diet.
Learn to drink water when you are thirsty, to eat food you enjoy in the right proportion and forget the need for a "cheat day". It's food, not a reward, a treat, something to do when you are bored.

I’m slim and absolutely adore food and alcohol. Anything sugary, carby and unhealthy particularly!

I think it’s half genetics and half subconscious control.

For instance I’ve never eaten 3 meals a day, I don’t understand how people can eat 3 meals a day and stay slim unless they are doing a lot of hardcore exercise each day (e.g a 10 mile run per day or something)

Breakfast for me is 2 slices of toast with a cup of tea.

I don’t eat lunch, never have. About 3pm I have a cup of tea and a few biscuits to dunk in it (that’s my lunch)

Dinner will be about 6/7pm and will be whatever we fancy, usually a pasta dish of some sort or a curry/ stew (in the winter anyway, tends to me more Mediterranean veg and fish etc in the summer)

And that’s about it. I’d say 2 weeknights I’ll have a glass of wine after dinner or a packet of crisps if I’m still hungry after dinner but that’s rare.

The weekends are the same but I’ll definitely have some treats (chocolate/ cakes/ a takeaway/ get a bit drunk so 3-4 glasses of wine if I fancy it) I definitely put a bit of weight on over the weekend (well I don’t know that for definite as o don’t weigh myself but I imagine I must do) but I imagine I lose it all again by Tuesday.

It helps that I’m an active person I think and always have been. I have dogs that need walking and a horse that needs riding. I average 13,000 steps a day during the week and about 8000 at weekends.

Basically I just don’t let myself get fat? I mean it would be nice to eat lunch but I know if I did I’d put on weight and because I’ve never eaten it, my body doesn’t crave it.

As human beings, we’re so sedentary now compared to 100 years ago when people walked everywhere and there wasn’t chocolate/fast food etc readily available all the time. I don’t know how we can expect to be slim with the lives we live nowadays if we’re eating 3 meals a day. We don’t need 3 meals a day, feel light headed if you don’t? That feeling will pass once your body adjusts. If you’re going to have a treat (say a Chinese takeaway on a Saturday night) eat a low key breakfast and skip lunch, that way you can eat the Chinese without feeling guilty. Had a bar of chocolate one evening? Just don’t for the next 3 days, you need to balance it out.

I’m a massive foodie (I took a sabbatical and trained as a chef level of foodie) - I’ve struggled with weight my whole life but successfully lost 2 stone before lockdown (and kept it off). I’ve just started the process of getting another stone off. My issue wasn’t what I ate but binge eating though- and emotional eating. I’ve had counselling which was massively helpful and she even said, I need to keep doing the “foodie activities” I love or food becomes the enemy. I was making various sourdough things at the time. I still bake a lot.

If you couldn’t be a foodie and lose weight- I couldn’t do it. In order to be satisfied by food and not want to keep eating beyond fullness it has to taste good. I think it’s absolutely possible. I focus on portion size of good food and losing slow and steady. I set myself a calorie target that allows a 0.5kg/1lb per week loss - 1450 calories for me. It’s not so low that I feel deprived. I don’t eat low fat products either. I just had a delicious sandwich with various deli meats, cheese, gherkin and salad. I ate it slowly and I didn’t have any extras with it. Swapped my old usual mayo for salad cream. I’ve actually found it really important that I love what I eat! I’d never stick to it otherwise.

This morning I had porridge, for my afternoon snack I’m really looking forward to a small portion of apple crumb cake I made yesterday. Tonight I have a hankering for a burger and I’ll use an Aldi 5% one, with mushrooms and Roquefort. I’ll come in around 1450 cals for the day.

At the weekends I’ll take a walk to balance out a tasty treat. I use a lot of Ottolenghi recipes - the veg focused ones typically- and reduce the olive oil. I can still eat a lot of the recipes that way! You can do it!

I suppose what I want is validation that slim people work really really hard at staying slim and if they don't they are genetically predisposed to not put on weight

I think for me it's both.

I have a small bone structure and have always been slender.

I love food and eating but I have taught myself to eat and enjoy foods that are not calorie dense. I literally never put anything in my mouth without considering the calorie content. It's a thousand small decisions every day.