To ask why it is that it is accepted that people can be naturally thin, but not naturally fat?

[MrsShawnHatosy]

Just that really. It seems to me that if one can be true so can the other. But fat is seen as something blameworthy, always.

Appetite is one component but it’s also about activity in general.

I have always been slim but I never used to consider myself an active person, until I started going to the gym. As before that, the only activity I would get would be walking to the train station, walking to the shop during lunch at work, naturally getting about 15-20k steps in daily etc. I didn’t see that as exercise, to me being active was intentionally weight training/running etc.

However when I started working from home, I gained weight. My neat activity decreased where naturally I would only do 100 steps in a day, so I simply wasn’t burning calories like I used to. I didn’t realise that all the little movement I was doing throughout the day, supported my physique. It just didn’t register as activity as it was not something intentional.

Overall slim people are likely to have habits that support that, whether it’s choosing to walk more often, having a job where they’re on their feet more often, subconsciously having hobbies that are more active etc.

My mum was overweight for as long as I can remember. I look at photos and all her family - her parents lived through 2 world wars - were overweight. She and her brother looked overweight in childhood photos. They were born when rationing was in place, they didnt have a car so walked or cycled everywhere and it was well before upfs were a thing.....so yes I believe you can be naturally thin or naturally fat.
There was a post a few months ago about secrets of naturally thin people but having the right body type or genes is a good start!

Contrast to a work colleague who eats all types of food, never exercises, and has a bmi of 18. And guess what all her family are very slim/borderline underweight.

Of course this can be nature and nuture .....but I thought the whole concept of GL-Ps was that eat less/move more wasnt the fix for everyone....?

Natural is an interesting word. Implies a situation where all unnatural factors are removed and people end up with different shapes and sizes. I don’t think that’s possible. We have so much choice and so many other variable factors so unless you locked people in a facility and gave them the exact same food and exercise it’s hard to get the data.
There was an interesting study on the variables. People who use their brains more burn more fat! There are also well documented ethnic variables. But neither of those factors would account for a result that we call ‘fat’ without the person overeating. I don’t mean eating ‘too much’. Appetites vary. But ‘too much’ for their metabolism and lifestyle.

Absolutely, and I’ve seen plenty of comments on MN along the lines of “almost every woman I know who is over 40 and skinny is miserable and depriving themselves of food”.

My adult DS is very thin. He desperately wants to put on weight. He eats overr 4000 calories every day and has done for the last three years. He eats an incredibly healthy and varied diet, with all key food groups.. His similar aged and height brother eats 2500 calories and is a "normal" build. Both do similar amounts of sport and go to the gym. It cost us an absolute fortune when they were teens!

My dad is the same. And only in his 80s it's beginning to gain a little bit of chub (and I mean a tiny bit).

The madness of the 2020s is how diligent people are in creating entire narratives and justifications about being fat.

My Grandma was 5ft high and 5ft round. She cooked from scratch everyday and didn't eat crap. Her breakfast was Grapefruit and oats, lunch was salad from her garden in summer, soup in winter along with a slice of bread. Dinner was soup and whatever main she had made served on a side plate. She walked a mile twice a day. Never drank alcohol. never had a takeaway and never snacked, drank green tea yet she was obese.

There is also a lot of ED type attitude/borderline pro ana stuff on MN

I went from 186 to 138 in two years by finally being honest about myself and my eating habits. I drank and ate too much, and never worked out. I finally decided to get to a healthy weight because I was starting to have health problems. Best decision I ever made

At least you are honest! Although I guess people can be naturally ‘larger boned’ right… ie naturally broader … it’s not necessarily always fat and due to overeating?

Obviously there is a range in the shapes and sizes of human bodies. Bone structure and where fat is stored will play roles. You can have people the same height with very different weights and body compositions. But I don't think bodies that would be considered 'fat' as in very obviously very overweight are naturally occurring.

Interestingly, the NHS has an ad on TV at present in which it says to obese people "It's not your fault"!

I speak as somewhat was a fat child, teenager and young adult. I took myself in hand in my mid 30s and lost over 4 stone to get well within healthy BMI and I'm still there, 30 years later. It takes a lot of willpower, but what I haven't done since my mid 30s is eat the shedloads of carbs and sugar I used to eat!

I think it's better to view it as naturally healthy.

Being underweight or overweight isn't healthy and nothing is natural about either state.

i lost half my body weight when DH died - simply because I could barely keep food down. I ate very little - the weight fell off.

I’m still very slim now - because over time my stomach shrunk, and now I still can’t eat much.

Weight gain usually involves too much consumption - although excercise can lessen the gain, and medication can cause metabolic changes. 🤷‍♀️

I suppose it depends what you mean by 'fat'. People who are obese probably are over-eating or have underlying medical issues going on....but of course, there are different body types. I am naturally pear shaped and have been everything from the lowest end of a healthy BMI to slightly overweight. In all these instances, I still have a big bum and chubby thighs 😖 - it's been the case since I was a child, pretty much.

I have a completely different body type to my friend who is apple shaped with big boobs, or another who is willowy/straight up and down.

I think you are right in a sense that whatever body type is fashionable is deemed to be 'acceptable' - and some of us simply are more prone to being overweight than others. It's body types and we are all different.

I've always been bigger. My parents excused as it as being stocky/big boned when the truth is I was allowed to overeat as a child and as an adult have struggled to stop. The latest TV campaign "Obesity is a disease" is absolute horseshit. People are fat because they eat too much, ffs.

I've lost 5 stone over the last 3 or 4 years because type 2 diabetes bit me on the arse, I'm now on barely any medication and have to really watch what I'm eating. No one to blame other than myself.

I've often thought the same re war like you say. It's really unfortunate that all these conditions you hear about that mean people are overweight despite hardly eating anything never seem to be present in PoWs, shipwreck survivors or in lands struck by famine, when it would actually be quite useful.

So can fat never be their natural weight?

Is that add from the NHS??

I thought it must be from a weight loss company.

If we all ate the same an exercised the same there would still be a high level of body diversity. I think that’s a better way of thinking about it rather than fat or thin. It’s a shame that some groups of people can’t accept that no matter what there will be a diversity of body shapes and sizes.

There is kk such thing as naturally thin or naturally fat.

If you eat less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. If you eat more than you burn, you will gain weight.

If you eat your maintenance calories, you will maintain weight.

It’s no more complicated than that. No matter what level of metal gymnastics people use to explain it away.

Now, willpower to eat more or less (usually less) than you need is a different thing. It’s a psychological thing.

I look back at old photos and all the women on my mums side were bigger. My mum, her mum, her grandmother.

I also noted that my mums grandfather was a baker and owned a bakery.

Cake. 🤣

So much bollocks, so little time.

YANBU. Even the natural differences in fat distribution between men and women aren't really accepted. Most women have tried to make their bodies more like the bodies of teenage boys and that seems to be a trend that is gaining popularity again.

Even if being thin or fat means something is "going wrong somewhere" as a previous poster said, that doesn't make it unnatural. We don't say "she needs to wear glasses so something's obviously gone wrong somewhere and it's not natural". People have all kinds of "natural" differences but being fat is obsessed over like nothing else.

Having said that, I think most people would settle at a similar weight if they all ate and moved identically. Not everyone, though, and there would be a wide range of body shapes.

You can be genetically predisposed to weight gain. I think scientists have found several so-called 'fat genes' but you still have control.

A naturally aka genetically predisposed to be thin person can choose to consume thousands of extra calories every day and gain weight. A naturally aka genetically predisposed to be fat person can restrict their calories to their body's calorie deficit requirement for fat loss.

Something being harder does not mean it's impossible.

Thats just the facts.

Judging anyone because of their body or giving a moral value to one over the other makes someone a twat.