Aibu to ask what normal healthy slim people eat?

[Toofrigginfat]

Have name changed.

Things have reached an all time low, found myself sobbing in the bathroom about to stick my fingers down my throat, luckily - I suppose - interrupted by the cries of 'mummyyyyyy' from two bickering children.

I am SO fat and SO depressed about it. I have tried WW, SW. Watched programme last week about dieting industry and it has put me off doing anything commercial/faddy. After failing to be able to stick to anything for the past 20 years my weight is now at an all time high of 11st 10 (I'm 5ft 2) and I have lost all concept of what a healthy balanced diet consists of.

What do normal, slim people eat? And if I eat that way, will I lose weight too? Just bought a juicer, husband and I keen to get into that.

Help. Please.

[zippingitup]

I have lost 10 kilos in the last year and I can tell you from personal experience what has helped me:

• Planned eating. Breakfast, lunch and dinner at specific times, and ONE emergency snack inbetween for when you feel most weak during the day. If you know you always have that one snack in the bank, it does not give you that crazy feeling of needing something now or make you feel like you've failed or lost control when you eat it.
  

• Fill up with fruit for breakfast, salad for lunch and vegetables at dinner to make you full, alongside a very small lean protein.
  

• Banish all carbs (that includes potatoes, parsnips, starchy vegetables) except choose one thing that you really, really like (eg ice cream) and use it as your emergency snack twice a weak. That way you're never depriving yourself.
  

• Do some weight lifting. It pushes your metabolic rate up without making you have the kind of hunger that you have after cardiovascular training.

[WaitressRose]

some of you sound underweight. And I'm not saying that because I'm jealous - honest!

[HarumScarum]

I am underweight! At least I am by the usual measurements and BMI. However when I measured my body fat on my brother's fancy scales it came out slap bang in the middle of the healthy range so I'm not too worried. Some people just are smaller framed, you know.

[fossil971]

This has been a really interesting thread. What a lot of the normal-weight/slim people are listing as their usual eating "I never diet I just eat xxx" IS what an overweight person with bad eating habits (like me I hasten to add) would call a diet. If a diet is basically having to plan and calorie count what to eat, so that you can re-learn what a normal and health diet should be, which is sustainable long term. If you call that a diet, and it feels like it to start with, then yes to stay slim you need to be "on a diet" for the rest of your life. If you call it, changing your eating style to a more healthy one - then brilliant.

The other thing I noticed is the lack of "diet" foods in the slim people's lifestyle. No weight watchers low calorie "chocolate brownie" bars or that kind of stuff. In fact HarumScarum eats Full Fat Yoghurt

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

fossil I eat full fat yoghurt too. They just taste creamier and nicer. The low fat stuff I found sickly sweet.

waitressrose comment can't be aimed at me I'm guessing. A BMI of 20 isn't underweight.

[GinOnTwoWheels]

Yes, Fossil, to lack of diet food consumption by slim people. People who are always on a diet and never seem to lose any weight, or those that yoyo, often seem to eat all 'diet' products, which are usually full of utter shite (sugar, artificial ingredients).

This is such a shame that we have been brainwashed over the last 40/50 years that this is how to eat as these products are not healthy, tasty or satisfying.

We need to eat small portions of natural foods and pretend that diet coke, fat free yogurts and 'good for you' shite doesn't exist. Meat/veg/eggs/fish/nuts/avocadoes/dairy are good. I firmly believe that low carb is the way to go and the general principles of BIWI's bootcamp/harcombe/John Briffa are the way to go. It saddens me when people obsess over calories and choose the low calorie full of sugar and shite option and avoid healthy fats like avocadoes and nuts. Or people prepare a lovely healthy salad and then drown it in 'good for you' they should really be strung up for producing this crap dressing.

Also the 80/20 rule, its what you do most of the time that counts, the odd piece of cake or whatever doesn't 'ruin everything', but the overall way of eating should be 'natural non processed, very little in the way of wheat and sugar', but having a small portion once or twice a week is fine.

Another problem is that most 'eating out' food, whether restaurants, takeaways or lunch offerings the portions are far too large and too carb heavy. Slim people probably eat on the go less, or don't eat a full portion in one meal.

Also need to build activity into every day life. If you can, walk or cycle to school/work/shops. All of this adds up to way more activity than a couple of gym sessions/aerobics classes a week, especially if you are just going on the cross trainer for a bit while gawping at the TV, or swimming half a dozen really slow lengths before sitting in the jacuzzi . Many of the women I work with are constantly on diets and complaining about their weight but would never consider getting to work by any other method than car, even though a lot of them live about 2 miles or less away.

[CoTananat]

I only eat full fat yogurt, butter, double cream, whole milk, etc etc. Low fat food is horrible. It doesn't fill you up and it's full of sugar.

It's anecdotal, I know, but only the fat people I know eat those diet foods, those packaged things. I've always avoided them. If you look on the side of something like a Go Ahead, it's got much more sugar in it than a lovely fruited bun with butter and cream.

[HarumScarum]

Low fat food is horrible. It doesn't fill you up and it's full of sugar.

Hear hear.

I also agree with the carb thing. Interestingly, though I do eat some carbs with most meals, I think I have been on a self-chosen low carb thing throughout my life. I just don't really like them that much and will never choose eg potato over extra veg. I'd much rather have two kinds of vegetables (which will still contain some kind of carb and which I will drench in butter) than any kind of potato or pasta. I do like rice, though.

I've never had low fat anything, apart from I don't really enjoy full cream milk in tea so get semi-skimmed for that.

And I have normal blood pressure, cholesterol etc so my butter and fat guzzling ways can't be doing me too much harm.

[OneLittleToddleTerror]

Actually I have a fairly high carb diet. It's how traditional east asian eats. I saw this just hungry (a Japanese food blog) today. It's on whether Japanese food is healthy

www.justhungry.com/whats-so-healthy-about-japanese-food

It touches on the issue of our high refined carbs diet. But if you go to East Asia, you'll see how slim the average person is. That's why I really don't think carbs will make you fat. Whether it's a healthy way to eat ofc is a different thing.

Same with the traditional British diet. It has butter, full fat dairy and all sorts of fatty food. But it's generally accepted that the average person is a lot slimmer a couple of generation ago.

[HarumScarum]

Interesting article. I heartily agree with this:

It?s all about portion size and moderation. You can eat your cake and your ramen and your tonkatsu, as long as you don?t eat it all the time or in huge portions and you balance it out with other foods.

[fossil971]

Modern lifestyles don't always build in much exercise do they? I have a 25 mile commute to work - probably a bad choice of where to live, but I'm hardly going to cycle! I think we need to develop as a family a more regular active weekend - go walking or cycling nearly every weekend rather than just now and again.

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

I eat quite a lot of carbs too. For example so far today I have eaten 2 weetabix with full fat milk, a crusty roll with ham and butter, a handful of crisps, some green salad and a butterscotch and pecan muffin. Dinner will be leftover roast beef, mash and veg.

However I do think it's in the portions, I had ONE roll and a few crisps. I know a lot of people who would have two rolls and keep dipping into the crisps. Also I won't now eat again until dinner and will only drink water and maybe a cup of tea. And with dinner I'll have a small amount of potato with some meat and loads of veg.

This isn't me contrlling myself as it would be with someone dieting, it's just how I eat and is enough food for me not to feel hungry. If I felt hungry again I would eat.

[BsshBossh]

• I've lost 5 stones eating carbs and full fat everything, including butter, cream, ice cream. Only, I no longer eat big portions of these things, and my carbs tend to be brown (except for sushi, which I love and eat often).
  

• I used to eat until my stomach was full - often too full. Now I eat when I'm hungry and until I'm satisfied. I hate the feeling of being too full.
  

• I don't like spoiling my appetite by snacking, preferring to eat well at a main meal. A little bit of hunger is absolutely fine - in fact I like knowing that I'm allowing my digestion to complete its work and take a break.

[fascicle]

What do normal, slim people eat? And if I eat that way, will I lose weight too?

OP, I hope you are feeling better about yourself. I think what you have suggested is absolutely the way forward. I've been slim for almost all of my life, but I've had a few minor blips (due to changes in situation/lifestyle), where I've essentially re-learnt 'normal' eating habits to get back on track. I object to conventional dieting because I think it's often hard, too restrictive, not practical in the long-term and invites rebellion. Making and gradually implementing your own realistic guidelines seems more practical and lasting, although it may take longer than a conventional diet to lose weight (which I think is not a bad thing).

Assuming that they eat a broadly healthy diet, I'd say it's not so much what slim people eat, but how they eat. From my experience and observations, slim, healthy people manage to self-regulate their eating without too much thought (in contrast to people on a diet who ar required to spend a lot of time thinking about what they 'should' and 'shouldn't' eat).

Changing eating habits does involve some thought, application and reinforcement at the start, but after a while, this should become second nature. I'd say the main thing that people with healthy eating habits do is to eat modest amounts incrementally until they feel they've eaten enough, rather than overfilling and possibly bingeing. If I eat more than usual for whatever reason, like others have said, I'll either wait longer before I eat again and/or eat less at the next sitting. I won't feel guilty that I ate more in the first place, because it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

I exercise (cardiovascular) several times a week for half an hour or so. This is hugely important to me and it annoys me when people (experts, even) downplay the importance of exercise in weight loss or weight management. Setting aside calories burnt, for me exercise is therapeutic and an opportunity to think through things and put them into perspective. It also gives me a feeling of mental and physical strength and wellbeing, as well as feeling in tune with my body, and appreciating what it can do. I always feel better after I've exercised, even if I didn't feel like doing it in the first place. I do think if your mind is generally in a good place, and you have different outlets such as exercise to take your mind off/put into perspective life issues, then that reduces the likelihood of food being consumed for emotional reasons.

I also think the idea of 'NEAT' (Non-exercise activity thermogenesis) - energy expended through activities that aren't planned exercise or necessary bodily functions ? is important, and likely to be a difference between those who are slim and those who aren't. While some people seem to move very little, others are constantly busy/moving around/twitching. The people I know who can't keep still are all slim.

Good luck with whatever changes you make, OP. And if things get tough again, please come back here or talk to someone.

[milk]

They seem to eat the same, just less of it.

HTH.

[foodgfood]

Hey OP. I just wan't to add by tuppence. I've been a dietitian for 12 years. I just want to say that 'healthy' comes in different shapes and sizes. Being skinny certainly doesn't make you healthy.

If you are unhappy, then you CAN change. It's not easy, so when you are feeling stronger psychologically, perhaps that is the time to make a plan. Try to see this as a really positive step, not one to be sad about. It WILL take a long time, but think of where you want to be in a year, or even five years.

There are a million and one ways of losing weight, and it can be extremely confusing. If you can slowly learn to love good nutritious food that 'feeds' your body, that is a good place to start.

If you want a starting point of what a healthy balanced diet looks like, here is a link to my website where I have written a fair few pieces on the practicalities of healthy eating and the psychological aspect (trying not to shamelessly plug the website, I make zero £ from it)
Losing weight article
Psychological aspects of weight loss

Hope these may be of some help, and I hope I haven't been patronising or insensitive. x

[theoriginalandbestrookie]

Just dipped into your blog foodgood - it's very informative.

[foodgfood]

Thanks theoriginal, nice to have the feedback

[Talkinpeace]

LOSING WEIGHT WITH A DIET

As an adult a person has a pattern of eating (method z) that results in them being overweight (at size a)
They go on a diet restricting calories all the time (method y) until they get down to "target weight" (size b) and then they come "off the diet" and rapidly return eating as per method z and hence size a

But actually "diet" just means "what you eat"
So you need to eat the right amount to stay stable at size b for ever (method x).
By chance, if you are starting from size a eating method x you will lose weight.
But because method x is nice : healthy meals, no excessive restriction, it becomes the new normal and you stay at size b for the rest of your life

If you see what I mean

[BigDomsWife]

Sorry I meant trained for/ran a marathon a year after I had DD !