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.

Here's mine:

Shreddies
Green tea
penguin, biscuit, cake at break
cheese spread sandwich , more cake lunch
salmon, couscous, veg for tea
chocolate

weekends involve more alcohol and cake.

I do Zumba once a week and gym when I can. size 12 and 5'9. I've always been slim, but after 2 kids and nearing mid 30s I do need to watch the cake intake.

I'm a size 6-8. Never dieted. Mostly eat what I want.

A typical day for me is
Weetabix (2)
Sandwich or similar. On work days I also have salad, crisps, fruit and cereal bar but at home I don't often bother, just have some cucumber and tomatoes or something
Snack of chocolate/cake/ biscuit
Dinner

Dinners are rarely processed. Often meat with veg/salad and no or v small portion of potatoes/rice/ pasta. Have a carb based dinner (pasta and sauce etc) once or maybe twice a week. Eat veggie a couple of times a week. Vegetables always take up the most space on my plate. Rarely have takeaways.

Snacks are snacks, not another meal. If I do have big snacks I don't usually want as much dinner. Same if I have cooked breakfast I won't have lunch or will just have something snacky. If I have big lunch I won't usually have another big meal in the evening but would have soup or cheese on toast or something.

I eat enough to satisfy myself and not feel hungry but not enough to feel stuffed (hate feeling too full).

I don't often have pudding and don't eat in the evenings after dinner.

I mostly drink water and tea (no sugar). I don't like squash. Alcohol a couple of times a week or not at all- and usually a drink or two not a bottle.

None of that is rules I have set myself and will sonetimes be different, it's just how I eat naturally most of the time

I would recommend Overeater's anonymous meetings, they sorted me right out without my ever having to diet. I am not only a lot slimmer but I'm a lot less occupied with food overall.

Happy to see you back OP. I really like threads of this nature as I believe you are asking exactly the right question.

I'm not thin myself sadly, nor do I have a particularly healthy relationship with food. I manage to keep myself just on the right side of my BMI by taking action when it creeps above 25, but I'd like to be slimmer.

My best friend is small and petite whereas I am taller, bigger build and curvy. Having spent a lot of time with her and her thin DH to me the key differences are:

• Portion size - both of them feel actively uncomfortable if there is too much food. When we were away they were doing the bbq one night and I had to supplement it as they were cooking 6 sausages and 6 small kebabs for 6 hungry people.
• Less treats round their house. Friend will share a dessert with me if out, in fact she is the one who usually instigates it, but when babysitting I notice that they have no nice biscuits or interesting sweeties.
• They take a lot of exercise in their daily life, cycling to work and walking with the children. She doesn't go to the gym due to a dodgy knee but plays tennis i.e. something she enjoys rather than it being a strict exercise thing.

Something interesting I have noticed about most of the naturally slim peoples responses - they completely mirror the 4 main principles of Paul McKennas I can make you slim - the eating slowly, eating what you want, stopping when you are full and only eating when you are hungry. I'd recommend you buy the book and CD and download it and listen to it on a daily basis. Even if it doesn't help so much with weight loss ( worked wonderfully for me once then bad habits crept back on plus sometimes I enjoy eating too much dammit) it's great for self image and self belief. Plus it only costs a tenner which is a darn sight less than a juicer.

Juicing is good to get in nutrients quickly and I think provided you put the emphasis on vegetables rather than fruit it wouldn't be too bad. I would suggest one a day as your limit and it should replace a meal or snack rather than supplement it as it will be calorie and nutrient dense.

I would echo what others have said here re portion sizes/eating less. I lost a stone and a half on WW a couple of years ago and what really struck me was how my portion sizes had just grown out of control. I was serving up the same size meals for me as my 6'4 dh!! The amount of pasta I was allowed on WW was, at first, unbelievably tiny but I am used to eating less now and feel far better for it.

YABU to think that there is an answer to your question

"normal healthy slim people" eat a whole variety of things

The juice you've made sounds lovely and healthy. Yes, definitely better than a big bowl of cereal! Maybe try and steer away from the high sugar containing fruits such as grapes, use more of the spinach, cucumber etc. To fill you up properly you should add some protein like eggs, with your juice, not in it!

The rest of your meals sound great.

I would try and reduce your carbs for one meal a day, either breakfast or dinner (not sure if anyone has suggested that).

Best of luck, there is some really good information here.

I have been slim most of my life, and have generally eaten a lot of food, but it is pretty much all savoury, including lots of veg, and we always cook from scratch. I am also a massive fidget.

However I put on weight in the past 3 years (hitting 40) so I tried a low carb diet at the start of this year. It worked well for me as I didn't have to feel hungry. I hate feeling hungry. I would say eat a big bowl of soup and try cutting out the bread instead.

Also the secret is this... (In my experience anyway) thin healthy people don't get hungry outside of meal times and don't get unhealthy food cravings.

I am slimmish and one thing I have never done is eaten a whole pack of biscuits/tub of ice cream/box of chocolates in one go. If I have a bit of chocolate I'll have a fun-size bar and that's enough for me. I think if you find that there is a time of day or trigger for a large consumption of treats, eg you sit down to watch Eastenders and immediately crave chocolate, then try to think of a way around it, to follow that example - stop watching Eastenders (I went cold turkey on it years ago - never looked back) or record it and watch it when you are ironing or cooking or something. Just an example . . . I have noticed that I "need" a certain snack whenever I come in. I never used to. I am trying to think of a way I can knock this one on the head.

I know quite a few women who are always dieting and often seem quite low about their weight, but they mention that they "just love baking" - I don't bake very much as someone has to eat it all!

Isn't that the point though trills? Normal healthy thin people do eat a whole range of things. They don't eat only lettuce, or do faddy diets or refuse to ever eat a mars bar. Nor do they (usually) eat only junk (and if they do I would dispute the 'healthy' part).

This thread won't give the op a magical diet to eat that will make the weight fall off but it might give her some ideas for long term eating (not dieting)

All in moderation, so yes of course a juice every day or two is ok. I drink a small glass of juice with breakfast, which is muesli or mixed with weetabix, or porridge. I wouldn't think of buying crunchy nut cornflakes! Thats a ridiculous comparison. Tasty yes, because they're as sugary as a pudding, healthy or filling, no. A problem with juice is it's not filling, so you'll be hungry mid-morning. Low GI foods like porridge are filling for so much longer.

I agree with the advice to have some protein with your juice so it keeps you going for long. An egg doesn't have many cals but will fill you up.

I have almost always been slimmish (not skinny by any means). I listen to my body and ask myself if I really want X when it pops into my mind. If I am trying to lose weight, I ask if I really want it now or whether I could have it tomorrow. If I really, really want it, I have it (because if I don't I will eat 3 other things trying to scratch the itch and have more calories overall). If I don't, I leave it. Often by tomorrow I will have forgotten all about it.

A few years ago I put on a bit of weight (about three quarters of a stone) from too much work travel and dinners at my desk. I used weightlossresources (similar to MFP but imo better, but you do have to pay for it) to calorie count it off. I lost a pound a week and the weight stayed off until I started pesky fertility treatment and all the drugs, a short pregnancy and a mc have meant it has crept back on. I will wlr it off again if the fertility treatment doesn't work.

Another tip I would give is to walk everywhere. I enjoy walking - it's my thinking time. I'm in London and always keep a pair of flats in my bag to stick on for anything over a few mins' walk. People are sometimes amazed that I arrive at places earlier than they managed on public transport.

i'm 5'2", size 8 for the last 20 years or so (bit bigger in my early 20s).

i weigh myself every day, weight is usually between 8.4-8.6. as soon as it hits 8.7 i know i'm overeating and cut back immediately til it drops. it's much easier to lose one or two lbs than to weigh yourself once a month and discover you're a stone overweight.

my mother is obese and all the female side of the family were overweight so i have to watch it carefully, plus i have an underactive thyroid which makes it hard to control weight.

no white pasta/bread/rice, and only very limited amounts of wholemeal (maximum 60g of pasta for a main meal... the usual rec'd serving size on packets is 100g). no potatoes.

smaller portion sizes.

i rarely eat dessert.

and work out on MFP how many calories you actually need as you'll be surprised. i eat 1200-1400 a day - if i use them wisely i don't get hungry at all.

I find diets are as much about my state of mind as the food I eat. As soon as you have one day of eating less/healthier food you'll start to FEEL better - like you've achieved something. Do it for 2 day and you'll feel better still - then keep the momentum going.

There's no worse feeling than after you've eaten a load of shit AGAIN that day & you feel you'll never be slim because you're such a failure! All it takes is that successful first day to give you a boost. Look after your mind, not just your body. Good luck.

Btw, I'm sure these points have been made but:

Slim people are not necessarily healthy. They can eat small portions of terrible diets, not exercise and be heart attacks waiting to happen. Far better a slightly plump, healthy, fit person than a skinny one living on junk, cigarettes, coffee and alcohol!

Exercise does so much more than burn calories. It regulates your metabolism, energises you and gives you a healthy appetite - so hunger when food is really needed. Also, you can't eat while you're exercising. If there's a time of day when you'd normally sit down and snack, that's a great time to get out and exercise instead.

But, beware of the hunger pangs that follow low to medium intensity exercise. If I swim for 40 mins, I feel great, relaxed and hungry - to a degree that is far greater than the number of calories burnt. High intensity exercise has the opposite effect, so if I run a half marathon my appetite is suppressed afterwards but I'm really hungry the next day.

I'm 5ft 2 and have normally held a BMI of 22-23. Currently higher as I'm gently shedding the baby weight from 4mths ago- aiming for about 1lb per week.

I can't scoff whatever I want without consequnces, I will gain weight if I get excessive, but have made small adjustments now and then to stop it being a long term trend and bring it back to my comfort zone.

My comfort zone is a range of about half a stone as weight naturally varies.
I don't let myself get ravenous or stuffed to bloated.
I'm not afraid to leave food on my plate. My mother once commented that it's highly unusual for my plate to be clear- it amused her that it's usually a small amount, just a couple of mouthfuls. I won't eat fatty bits of meat, and I won't make myself uncomfortable because it's there. Maybe that's why I sustain a healthier weight than my mother.
I don't go near the chocolate/crisp/ready meal/ junky food aisles in te supermarket. If it's in the house, I will eat it. If it's not there, I'll rarely miss it.
I'll share desserts. I like a sweet taste, but I don't need a full slab of mega tipple chocolate cake after a meal. I don't have dessert at home.
I rarely drink alcohol. Prior to getting married, a "no alchol at home month" was a good way of easing off a few pounds.
I enjoy excercise. If I'm not active enough, I stop sleeping. If it's local, I'll walk. It bemuses me to see neighbours driving off for 10 mins to the local shops. Gentle exercise isn't particularly about calorie and fat burning, but is good for the metabolism and circulation.
The chippie is the only takeaway we use (normally walked to). I find pizzas, chinese and indian takeaways too greasy to be enjoyable.

I eat a range of everything. Nothing is forbidden, but some things are rare treats and normally out of the house. I think the portion size is key. Smaller plates are useful if that's not a natural thing to control. My grandma's plates from the 70s are much smaller than the standard ones today, and suspect that's influential in more people gaining surplus weight.

Good luck! If you find a way that is enjoyable, and gentle, it is easy to sustain as a lifestyle long term, and that's the bit that works, and why "diets" fail in the long term.

Thought of something else, I don't do "diet"/ low fat/ low sugar. Main reason, I don't like the taste, and they are not filling. It seems that they mess the metabolism around. If I'm out and have a Coke, it's proper red label. It's not great for me, but at least I'm aware that I've just consumed a shed load of sugar.
I'll often have yoghurt as part of breakfast. Low fat yoghurts will have me reaching for a mid-morning snack. A creamier yoghurt will keep me going until lunchtime.

I recently had a terrible cold that lasted weeks and weeks. For about four days of it I had no sense of taste or smell at all. I have had colds before when I hadn't been able to tell the baby's nappy was dirty but I never have had anything like this where I couldn't taste a thing.

One evening we had pizza. I only had two slices. DH asked me if I didn't like it, but the reason I stopped was because I couldn't taste it, and two slices was enough to stop me feeling hungry. I was shocked as, if I could have tasted, it I know I would have "felt" hungry enough to have eaten almost a whole pizza on my own and felt hard done by if forced to stop.

It made me realise that I am not always as "hungry" as I think I am. My hunger is more a matter of "ooh that tastes nice, I want some more," than an actual physical need for food in my stomach.

(I lost about 4 lbs because of that loss of smell/taste, yet I hated it and was really worried in case it never came back and I couldn't enjoy food ever again.)

Agree with the portion sizes. Those recommended portion sizes on packets of cereal that a lot of people say is too little, is just about right for me. I can't see why anybody would want to eat any more than that.
Actually I think cereal is a bad breakfast choice. I normally eat protein for breakfast and a yoghurt. So a boiled egg plus smoked salmon or ham with a yoghurt. Or a huge fruit salad with yoghurt and lots of cashew nuts.

I could never eat a full bar of chocolate (not a slab I mean a bar of kit kat etc), unless I have PMT.

I dish up about 1/3 of the carb portion for myself that I serve up for DH.

Hardly any processed foods. No fruit juices.

Although i have never been more than a tiny bit overweight I did lose a lot for my wedding, and have now most of the weight I put on with DS. What worked for me was thinking about calories as if they were money. So you want as much nutrition and and to be filled as you can for your calorie budget. Exercise earns you "money" you can spend on treats, but ultimately you are trying to save up for something you really want, i.e a slimmer size.

This analogy probably only works if you are careful with money though.

One little portion control tip, weigh your breakfast cereal, or choose something like shredded wheat that is a set portion. Because when you look on the box and it says 200 calories per 45g portion, that is not a huge bowl. I was eating at least double that before I started weighing it.

Fitting exercise in with small children is not always easy, but for me when I started exercising regularly the weight just fell away.

The apps are good because when you realise how many calories your 30 minute walk has burnt (never as much as you'd like, it puts you off eating a biscuit which would just undo all the work. I like endomondo for walking, running etc.

lottiegarbanzo I swam a lot at one time and found that too - I'd burn off a few hundred calories and eat like a horse all evening!

I've just finished reading 'running like a girl' and it has lots of very useful things to say about getting into exercise. One thing that is very noticeable in these responses is that the naturally slim people eat small amounts (actually, they must just be normal portions but I've lost track of what is normal) and very little processed food. They also don't eat much sweet stuff - I have noticed that if I eat less sugar I crave less sugar and if I eat fewer carbs I crave fewer carbs. There is also an emphasis on nuts and seeds. Food seems to be much more as a fuel.

It's fashionable these days to say that you can't lose weight by exercise alone - however I have always found exercise the most efficient way to control my weight. I eat what I want, within reason, but I exercise 5-6 times a week (combination of running, other cardio and weights) and I think my BMI is 21, last time I checked. I'm 5 foot 10 and weigh about 10 1/2 stone (I don't have scales in the house).

I do all the things you're not supposed to do - after breakfast, which is usually an enormous bowl of granola, I graze during the day instead of eating a proper lunch. Dinner often involves pasta, white rice, or generous helpings of some form of potato. I cook with butter sometimes and I spread it generously on my toast.

Health-wise, my only real concessions are that I limit processed meat or red meat to once a week at most, and to have plenty of green/fresh veg with meals. I suppose there's also things like, I wouldn't have macaroni cheese every day! And there's always fruit in the house. I also don't tend to have chocolates or biscuits in the house, and when I do I'm not often hungry for them - but I won't begrudge myself them either.