Two thirds of adults in England are obese or overweight. It would make as much sense to ask what is different about the other one third.

[H0TK]

This was a comment I read elsewhere. I thought it was an interesting comment.

Rather than wondering what is wrong with overweight people and why they eat like they do. What is different about the people who are not overweight?

Talking to people on mounjaro, they feel like on mounjaro like I feel like all the time.

They talk about how they don't 'think about food all the time' anymore. I don't think about food all the time, I'm not constantly looking to the next meal, I can have a cupboard full of chocolate and not eat it all week then have a bit as a treat on a Friday night without it being a massive challenge.

I read Ed Gamble's book Glutton, and he thinks and feels about food in a way that is totally alien to me, it was really interesting.

I think this is quite a simplistic view. The science has moved way beyond this. It's now widely accepted that it's down to hormonal responses. Some people's hunger cues don't switch off. They can see this in a lab.

It's just not as simple as they're greedy and thus they eat more.

None of those apply to me, apart from "lack the willpower" which is the point I was making. Why do some people have the "willpower" and others don't. Assuming that otherwise they are functional adults, as I am, in other areas of their lives.

It doesn’t matter how much willpower you have, you’re always battling it.

@Screamingabdabz But that's the point - and I'm not judging anyone, I've just lost three stone and am trying to maintain that. It is always a battle and therefore you do need a level of willpower.

I have the willpower right now because I want to be slimmer than I was and I don't to have to go through gaining a load of weight again just to have to lose it. It's so hard losing weight. That gives me willpower.

But it's not fucking easy. I think about every single piece of food that goes in my mouth. I have the willpower to stop myself overeating, I can live with hunger pangs, I might still think about food 24/7 - and on the outside it might look like I am doing a good of maintaining easily enough, but it's a bloody massive effort.

I think that this is a very wise post.
I have been v. overweight, and have had EDs and have been severely underweight. I love food and find it very comforting and pleasurable. I think about it a lot. In all honesty, it's one of the great loves of my life.
I have accepted that, in order to maintain a healthy weight, I am going to need to be on a diet for the rest of my life. I have tried to reframe it by not calling it a diet, saying it's a "healthy lifestyle", "new habits", "wellness", all that stuff, but the truth is, it always feels like I'm missing out on something really pleasurable, and I always crave more food, and more fatty, carb-heavy food. It is a diet, and yes, I'm slim, but I love the sensual, textural, flavourful quality of mashed potatoes and oozing cheese and silky chocolate, and I miss those things, and I miss feeling full.

I'm not one of these people who thinks that fat people can be healthy as mostly this is not true. But not all thin people are healthy either.

For me, I have no interest in food, just can't get excited about at all.

I eat when I'm hungry and that's it, usually just one meal a day and not a huge amount.

Literally noone has said that - sounds like your own insecurity.

I don't think it's always as simplistic as "they eat less". Genetics absolutely have a part in this. My husband's BMI never budges from 23. He eats more than me, moves less and I've been overweight (technically obese) my whole life. He had three jam doughnuts as a snack yesterday ffs. I doubt he's spent more than 5 minutes thinking about his weight - there is nothing he does or doesn't do that keeps him slim - for him at least, it's sheer luck and genetics.

I think there are some slim people who have got there through willpower.

I also think there are a great many slim people who never really think about food and therefore don't need willpower and self-control to the same extent.

I think this question is really about the second type of slim person. It's fascinating and I do believe drugs like ozempic etc will help many overweight people to experience this. I have constant food noise.

I bet a large proportion of that not overweight third are either older or young. So what they are doing right can’t really be replicated by the rest of us

Nobody's actually said that though have they? Maybe i missed it.

They're just talking about why they think they're slim.

There are lots of reasons why people are fat ranging from "they're greedy" to "they have a health condition". It's an interesting question posed by the op.

I suppose there’s a mix of things. Personally, I’m a) vain and b) enjoy an active lifestyle which is made easier by being very slim rather than lugging extra weight about for a half marathon. I don’t think being fat looks good or feels good and so I don’t want to be fat. I don’t find it particularly difficult to decide not to have a second helping of lunch or to decide to be a bit hungry for a few hours in anticipation of the nice dinner I’m going out for that evening in the pursuit of that goal.

And once realising that being a bit hungry sometimes is actually perfectly healthy and normal and not something that needs to be immediately and constantly satiated with a snack; and not having any cravings for particular foods because you just don’t eat them, that becomes a fairly easy lifestyle to continue with long term.

@noblegiraffe I used to have a take-it-or-leave-it attitude to food like you. In peri meno, from then on, ravenous hunger at odd times kicked in. Can’t be defeated, a ‘broken thermostat, inevitable weight gain.

I've just replied to another post about willpower. I'm not really sure why some people lack it. I've definitly lacked it at times in my life, hence I put on weight.

Actually, I don't think it was lack of willpower, it was more like burying my head in the sand and just avoiding the scales and telling myself, it would be fine, you won't put much weight on....

But I've found that willpower now, mainly because losing weight is so hard - now I've lost the weight, I am digging deep. Doesn't mean I don't slip and fall into a pizza every now and again but I make sure that the following days are super healthy and lower calorie to make up for it.

I don't think willpower needs to be about saying no to everything that is bad - I think it needs to be about recognising that there has to be a balance, and I think if you allow yourself that balance or "treats" (hate to use that, as I believe in everything in moderation is okay, rather than having treats) I personally find it easier to have willpower the rest of the time.

But the complication there is that not everyone eats for the same reasons.

I don't eat a British diet and I very rarely eat UPF. That helps.

Partly genetic, and partly I grew up being sporty and then when older going to the gym was just the normal thing to do.
I think if either of these things aren’t true it’s got to be much harder for people.

No snacking

@ComtesseDeSpair I am similar. I like being thin, I like being able to have a wardrobe of lovely clothes that all look good and I can wear most things in a size 8 and know they will fit/look good. I then basically don't have to think about it for the rest of the day. I also feel physically great for being thin - I can run a lot, have a lot of energy, go to the gym, feel really good. This outweighs any need to overeat - the benefits to me of being slim are greater than a need to eat another portion!

Genes and a childhood diet of mostly lentils and veg helps.
That said menopause has made me put on weight in the wrong places.

2/3s of adults is the majority. It seems more like a systematic issue.

The average lifestyle isn’t set up for health.

I think very carefully about the food I buy for my family. We are fortunate to be have to have the money to afford it, the knowledge about food and the energy to actually do something about it.

I think the government need to step in tbh. Reform working practices, more leisure time, better regulation of food particular ultra processed foods.

I have toddlers and it’s crazy what people think appropriate food is for 1 and 3 year olds. People look at me like I’ve grown 2 heads and I’m being mean for saying no to squash, haribo, doughnuts and crisps!

What the last decade or so of obesity science has shown us, is that this is far more complex and involved than we were taught or ever thought possible.

e.g. the experiment in which the gut biome of two adult humans was extracted. They were identical twins with the exception that one was obese and one was a healthy weight. That biome was given to two mice who were then fed exactly the same food as each other. The mouse that had the 'fat twin; biome got fat. The other mouse did not. One mouse did not have mroe willpower than the other.

e.g. the understanding now of the variation in leptin and ghrelin responses across individuals and how those differences allign with weight.

e.g. the biological warfare that is ultra processed foods, with millions of dollars going into researching how to tweak these 'foods' to make your body demand more and more of them.

e.g. the WLD that are rebalancing hormones, and in doing so suddenly these 'lazy, greedy' people are making far different food choices. Not just the amount of food, but the types of food is being changed. And they are active more often even before the weight comes off, as inflamation is reduced and leaves them without everyday pain etc.

Many obese people have shown they have the willpower to lose several stones in thier lives. But there has to be a reason that these disciplined people 'suddenly' find they cannot maintain that loss. Less than 5% of people who lose significant weight keep it off for more than a year. When you see what weight loss does to leptin levels (10% of body weight loss, more than halves the leptin your body produces) and ghrelin (10% weight lost more than doubles ghrelin levels) you realise that significant weight loss triggers mechanisms in your body that significantly decrease who full/satiated you feel after food and significantly increase hunger levels. And that goes on for months, years after weight loss - even if you put the weight back on.

This stuff is multifactoral and is not about self-control anywhere near as much as was commonly thought 10-20 years ago. It bigger and more complicated than that.

Agree. Willpower, family etc doesn't explain why obesity has absolutely rocketed since the 80's. 60% of people in this country don't live in poverty, nor are they abuse survivors. It's something to do with the food environment. Food companies spend millions trying to invent foods that circumvent human appetite controls. Not to mention the constant availability of addictive fast food. I also think things like Deliveroo and Just Eat are to blame too. That if you fancy a KFC you dont have to think about getting into a car or waiting until you are near one, you just phone snd someone drops it round. The proportion of the average Continental European diet is made up of 18% UPF'S Ours is something like 80%.

This bemused me, healthy weight people are not one mass with a hive mind. They are individuals. People are posting like they are all the same

this group are a healthy weight for many reasons.

sporty
eating disorder
physical illness
will power
too poor to eat
stress
etc etc etc

so many reasons, but like overweight people , there is no one reason they are as they are. There are all different.

That's a very, very good point.