OK, those of you who are naturally slim!

[chipmonkey]

You people whe have lovely figures but are not always on a "diet"! What, in your opinion are you doing right, that we chubbier people are doing wrong?

I haven't got a lovely figure but I am 5 6 and 9.5 stone so qualify as slim. Quite flabby round the middle though. I am also one of those annoying people who is thinner post children than before (but body is worse generally with saggy tum).

I eat pretty healthily, don't eat meat and cook most from scratch. Three meals a day and little in between. But i do have a terrible weakness for chocolate and have a glass of wine most nights (more on some). I drink masses of water - 3 litres a day. And I walk a lot - at least an hour a day on a typical day and a lot of it up hills.

I have tried dieting once in my life (via mumsnet) and I found it just made me obsess totally about food. I have recently started running but it has made no difference to weight or body so far (not doing it often enough!)

I haven't got a lovely figure but I am 5 6 and 9.5 stone so qualify as slim. Quite flabby round the middle though. I am also one of those annoying people who is thinner post children than before (but body is worse generally with saggy tum).

I eat pretty healthily, don't eat meat and cook most from scratch. Three meals a day and little in between. But i do have a terrible weakness for chocolate and have a glass of wine most nights (more on some). I drink masses of water - 3 litres a day. And I walk a lot - at least an hour a day on a typical day and a lot of it up hills.

I have tried dieting once in my life (via mumsnet) and I found it just made me obsess totally about food. I have recently started running but it has made no difference to weight or body so far (not doing it often enough!)

Hi I'm naturally thin but think its partly to do with my genes, no females in my family are over 9st. I'm 5ft 6 and weigh 8st 9lb at the moment but I can go up and down a few pounds depending on the amount of food I eat. I do tend to eat at teatime until I'm full! I go to my local gym twice weekly and swim reguarly now too! This is what I eat in a typical day;
Breakfast: Cheerios, slice wholemeal toast, fresh orange juice.

11am piece of fruit

Lunch:Baked potatoe with cheese&coleslaw, yoghurt and a piece of fruit and large glass of water

Snack about 3.30pm pk of crisps or a piece of fruit

Dinner: Potatoes, meat and brocoli and carrots
large glass of water

I don't tend to eat after 9pm thats just one of my rules of not liking to go to bed with a full stomach, but saying that if there are times I am hungry about 8ish I have a banana on toast.

I don't cook on a sat evening so once the kids are in bed we usually have a chinese and I have some wine! Also if I fancy a bar of chocolate I have it, I maybe have about 2 bars a week, but sometimes I don't fancy it at all!

Oh forgot that I can't drive therefore I walk everywhere! I mean everywhere!

By the sounds of it I'm pretty much the same size as Gizmo - 5 ft 4in and a size 10 (sometimes an 8 on the bottom, sometimes a 12 on the top but this is due to broad shoulders rather than big boobs) although I am about a stone lighter. However this is not my genetic heritage. My parents are both overweight and my sisters are both significantly bigger than me.

But in my case I know that I eat a healthier diet than any of them and drink quite a bit less than my parents who are both quite heavy drinkers. Also I am married to DH who is one of the effortlessly thin (5 ft 10 in and about 10 stone). Much of Pollyanna's post about Paul McKenna applies to him apart from that he clears his plate in seconds, pointlessly because I make him sit at the table until DS with his snail tendencies has finished. Do wonder if DH rubs off on me. Also having to set an example to the kids help. Although there is always scope to sneak off and be naughty!

Nomedeplume, I am naturally thin as is everybody in my family. I have the same boney thin drawn look they have. However, I make things worse by not eating breakfast lunch and dinner. Usually only lunch and dinner and lunch is often about 3pm. If I am stressed, as I was during my last house move 4 months ago I CANNOT eat because the thought of eating makes me feel sick. I suppose I am the opposite of a comfort eater, a compfort starver perhaps. However thes periods are only for very stressed periods of my life, house moving is an example. My DH will vouch though, when I eat I eat large quantities and will eat anything.

Oh am by the way, my reply came because I went to eat which took nearly 2 hours to do because everytime I sat down to eat

the puppy peepeed or ran away down the lane (we live in the deepest darkest countryside)
the children fought
the children nagged
the plumber asked me something
or the builder asked me something.

That is what I mean by I never seem to have the time to do anything but eat on the run (which makes me ill) or wait until I can sit down.

Smoking and quitting smoking made no difference in my weight at all. I've been about the same size since I was 13.

But I don't like big portions, fried food, or creamy stuff. Yuk.

Lonelymum ,Paul McKenna also says in his book that if you are feeling hungry, try having a glass of water first - you can often confuse thirst and hunger apparently,

I am a naturally fat person too - I eat when i am stressed, depressed, bored - often when I'm not hungry. I rarely miss a meal and probably am naturally a less active person than a thin person. I also put on weight really easily - especially when I'm pregnant. a friend of mine who is naturally slim says she treats food as fuel, nothing more. she is also constantly moving.