Why are some people prone to being chubby?

[Scarlet2906]

I don't believe any person is naturally obese without consuming a massive amount of calories either through food, drink or both but I do believe that I am naturally prone to being mildly overweight. I am currently 2st overweight.

I have been thin in the past but only when I was barely eating anything all day. I have to go on a huge calorie deficit to lose even a small amount of weight.

I honestly don't eat any more than people that are an healthy weight and regularly go to bed hungry. I also have a job that must burn a lot of calories as I am on my feet all day and on top of that I walk a lot every week. I regularly walk 2 miles home from work.

Are you the same? Do you think that I might have a problem with my thyroid?

That looks like a really interesting programme, @Bjorkdidit

Every thin person I know doesn't eat much. They have the occasional big meal but overall they eat very little and don't snack as much as other people.

I am because my diet is dog shit. I grew up in a house where ultra processed foods were in abundance, and my mother only eats peas and carrots so never cooked any different for us. I didn't try broccoli or cauliflower until I was a teenager, and even then my mum made comments and sick noises. While I eat much better now im far from perfect, and I'm still trying to introduce more variety of fruit and veg into my daily meals. I want my daughter to eat better, which is why im trying so hard to change.

My teeth are also shit because of it. Ive learned about dental hygenie and so for the last 15 years have really looked after them, but the damage was done.

Neglectful parents. Fuck you right up in many ways!

It's genetic. I'm tall and thin. My wife is short and fat. We have two daughters. One is tall and thin, the other is short and fat. We all eat the same stuff, none of us over indulge with food. We are all healthy and play sports.

Generally people who are tall can have more calories without gaining weight, therefore if you are all eating the same and equally as active this makes sense that the shorter people are overweight.

Here is an interesting study that shows that metabolism doesn't decline until you reach about 60 years old.
Putting in weight in middle age is mostly because you become less active but eat the same as before.

This sounds fascinating, @PissPotPourri - since a gut imbalance left me very, very ill a few years ago I'm really interested in this topic. Any chance you remember the name?

Surprising findings about metabolism and age

We eat the same food, not the same amount of food. It's genetic.

If this is the case, why is it such a recent and increasing phenomenon? The number of overweight people has increased dramatically in the last 20/30/40 years.

Exactly. My friends who are very short hardly eat anything. When I used to go round to theirs for supper I'd have to have a sandwich first before going and I was normal weight then.

Now I'm overweight but not obese. If I did more incidental movement and cut out occasional unhealthy snacks I'd easily be a healthy weight. I don't kid myself it's my slow metabolism. When I was younger I snacked less and walked everywhere so I'm not surprised I was thin then. Also when I ate with my husband I put on more weight as I ate his portion sizes. Now I realise I need much smaller portions and don't get any hungrier.

I do think some people have genetic/biological factors but I think far more people kid themselves about what they eat. I remember I worked with a quite severely obese woman who was always complaining about why she couldn't lose weight as she only ate salads for lunch etc. But it turned out she had a packet of biscuits in her drawer that she ate throughout the morning.

I also watched that.

My dads obese and hardly eats but if he has 5 slices of cheese on toast for breakfast he eats 4 standing up in the kitchen and they don’t count apparently so he’ll say I only had a slice of cheese on toast this morning.

When dh was borderline with his thyroid his weight was increasing but his intake of food was minimal, his legs felt like lead and he had headaches that painkillers did nothing for, he would sleep 7pm to 6am and wake tired. When he started levothyroxone his headaches went and the weight dropped off him but it took 8 years to get diagnosed because drs aren’t great.

I have a set of cousins who naturally look like 90s-era Kate Moss. They all live on coffee or full sugar coke during the daytime and then have a really nice cut of meat or fish at night with small sides of veg.

It isn't intentional (genuinely, they don't seem bothered about their appearances at all), they just aren't hungry in the day. They wouldn't have something sweet unless it was a birthday or special occasion. It's like fasting is in their blood.

I think height plays a massive role. I think an inch in height equates to a lot more calories than we think. Also all the 'thin but eat fry ups' I know have all also been tall.

I think there are genetics/individual metabolism at play, but the more I read about gut biome, and have discussions with friends about what foods do/don't work for them, the more I believe that we as individuals have certain diets that work for us. For example, a friend works really well on a Mediterranean diet. I work well on a slightly more protein heavy diet with more carbs.

I think the narrative of 'it's genetics' is dangerous, as it means people don't look closely enough at their learned eating habits from parents/childhood, or what they actually eat day to day, and might be sat there feeling like there's nothing they could do to change it, or that they are eating less and it's not working and that's causing frustration. People say 'overweight people know why they are overweight' and to a certain extent that's true, but I actually think that's not the whole story in a lot of cases, and not through any fault of the individual, upbringing plays a massive part.
A friend eats lots of veg, as in loads - she's got the most varied diet of anyone I know. Her parents are also overweight. She has struggled with her weight for years, and had dropped crisps, chocolate, snacking, UPF (for the most part) all the usual suspects - but its only this year when she moved in with her partner that they picked up on something - the amount she pours out for pasta and rice was almost double the recommended amounts. She eats (healthy) stuff on (lots of) toast for breakfast every day. Now you might be thinking - I do that and I'm a healthy weight - but she had no idea that her portions were too big, as that's how her parents ate. She reduced them to normal portion sizes, and the weight that she thought was genetic, that she was predisposed to - dropped off. I wonder how many people have habits like that. I myself, a few years ago, would have told you I ate healthy and didn't eat a lot but was still carrying extra weight - I wasn't eating nearly enough fruit and veg, and while I skipped breakfast I ate far more than I needed at lunch and dinner. I think psychology behind eating, and more knowledge of what a healthy day to day diet looks like, down to the ingredients and amounts (and diets that fit in with people's busy lives and budgets) is key to transforming our relationship with food.

Aside from medical conditions like thyroid issues, certain medications for cancer or otherwise and of course absolutely devastating conditions like lipodema, which I’ve seen the devastation of in friends and family, it is as simple as how much we consume for the majority of us, the rest of the arguments back and forth are just people making excuses because we don’t want to face the reality that something like weight gain is our fault, we just want quick fixes and to blame others. I’m about 11 stone now, but got to 15 and it was all through excess calories.

Sure.

I’m 59 when I was at primary school there was only one child ( a girl) who was overweight…..and by todays standards it wasn’t really significantly overweight…..we ate 3 meals a day…very little processed food…..very few snacks ( my dad bought me a chocolate bar every Friday when he got paid) …..we didn’t eat out ( wasn’t a thing and we couldn’t have afforded it anyway)….we walked or cycled to school ( we didn’t have a car) …..I played out morning to evening during the holidays …..cycling…..running games…footballl……life styles have changed.
I do think there is some small part that genetics plays…..all the females in our side of family are pear shaped……we are all a healthy weight from my mum down to my GDs …,,,none of us eat a perfect diet.

Yeah, it's simply because someone who is taller compared to someone shorter if both have the exact same body fat % will be heavier and therefore expend more calories simply staying alive. It's rarely factored in though, so many people chose an arbitrary number of calories that they've read somewhere is the right amount and stick to those. People should calculate their BMR and make sure to adjust it as they gain/lose weight; its not an exact science but is more accurate than a random number.

I struggle to buy into that; I'm 48 and I have never been as physically active in life as I am now. I am ridiculously physically active and have really built muscle in the last year or two. Diet could be better but was much worse in my twenties and thirties. But I cannot shift a pound.

Portion size is a huge factor. If people weighed their pasta, cereal, whatever, they’d be shocked at what the recommended portion size (or what the portion size is for the calories stated) looks like.

I think we’ve also forgotten that it’s okay to be a bit hungry sometimes. It’s normal to be hungry for an hour or two before your next meal, and it doesn’t mean you need to star our hunger with snacks.

I was always considered (by others) ‘naturally thin’. I put on 10kg 2020-22. Moving less, eating just a bit too much over a period of time, because stuck at home with food and drink as only treats. It’s been hard to get it back off, but not complicated. Move more again, watch my calorie intake.

Processed food can mess up how people experience hunger and also food is cheaper so people eat more.

Processed food and sugar.
It's very hard to get fat eating whole foods.
Sadly even meat is now pumped full of hormones and grain fed so it's very difficult to emulate a natural diet of the past.

The game is rigged. We're all addicted to calorie dense 'food like substances'.

We wouldn't have survived as a species if we were morbidly obese hunters would we.

I think it can be down to factors such as appetite. I noticed as a kid that I seemed to eat a lot more than other people, including adults, simply because I never felt full! It used to amaze me that people could eat half a portion of chips and then stop because they were full. I never had that feeling that I was full, that I should stop.
I remember being at a bbq when I was about 10 and going up for my 6th burger in a bun. The man cooking them said "My God, you eat like a horse! I could never eat 6 burgers". But I was still hungry!
Unsurprisingly, with my insatiable appetite I was always a bit plumper than my friends. It wasn't until my 40s that my appetite started to reduce. I can still eat loads in one sitting, but I do actually start to feel full now and know when to stop.

I agree with you.

When I was in primary school in the 60s there were no overweight children.

However an American boy joined our class, so I was probably around 6-8 and he really stood out as didn’t look like all of the rest of us. I dare say that wouldn’t be the case now.