Spent the weekend with slim people and I now see why I'm overweight

[ChristmasTreeLight]

After having spent the weekend with slim people, it appears that they:

a) don't need as much food to feel full,
I couldn't believe that after X amount of food, they were full - I could have happily carried on eating.

b) can go much longer between meals without eating,
At one point in the afternoon, I was ready to gnaw my arm off, I asked if anyone wanted to stop for a snack (thinking they'd be starving) but no, they were happy to keep going

c) don't crave sweet stuff in the way I do.
I I need sweet things as pudding, I was almost desperate for some chocolate, whereas again they just did not seem to feel that urge.

I am a size 14 and they are 8-10 and now I can see why. It's led me to wonder is it something innate, something physical? Are you just born like that, not to have the appetite or the sweet tooth? Am I simply fighting a losing battle in the vain dream of being a size 10 one day?

That said i have a massive sweet tooth and could eat an entire dessert menu to myself. Im always craving sugar.

Today I had a crust of toasted seedy bread(I don't eat butter/spread,) with a few slivers of cheese at about 9am. Then I had 10 almonds and an apple at 1. We had a sort of roast dinner at 5.30(skin on cubed potatoes in olive oil) with lots of veg. I have just had a cup of tea and am very full. I won't eat again until 7am.

Just realised I haven’t eaten since Friday lunch at work. It’s been a busy weekend, I might have some soup but im not hungry

I think I would feel shaky and faint if I did this- is that because I crave sugar I wonder?

'I think I would feel shaky and faint if I did this- is that because I crave sugar I wonder?'

No. I don't crave sugar at all but couldn't do this. Don't think it's normal to go 48 hours without food, tbh.

I have lost 2 stones this year just by sticking to lunch and dinner - and only have a treat after a long walk. And I stick to 10k steps a day. I eat what I like at those meals, but I cannot eat the same amount as before, I get too full. I used to have a massive roast dinner and half a Victoria sponge to follow! My DH has done the same and has also lost 2 stones. The thought of eating chocolate repulses now me - I could eat those family boxes of malteser or a box of Cadbury chocolate fingers after meals before. I used to polish off a pack of Mr Kipling's French Fancies - and feel a bit sick afterwards. I just cannot contemplate doing that now. It was habit, pure and simple. Break the habit and it becomes a habit to stop eating when you are full. I feel so much better. I am coming back to life, I felt half dead before. It sounds dramatic, but true. I still want to lose a stone but I am just letting it happen in the same natural way the first 2 stone departed.

There was a programme on Channel 4 a month or two ago called “The Truth About Slim People”, they followed 2 slim people (a man and a woman) and observed all the food they ate and their exercise over a week.

Neither was doing any one major thing to stay slim, it was lots of small things like walking to work or not snacking between meals.

It’s worth a watch if you can: www.channel4.com/programmes/the-truth-about-slim-people/episode-guide/

I have never eaten much. I don't have much of an appetite.
Its just the way I am. Although saying that is asking for a punch in the face apparently

Portions are huge now and its deemed polite/best value to finish everything. I stop when I don't want anymore.
Its all habit isn't it? I have a terrible sugar habit now but I didn't have much sweet stuff for years and years. Once I started it sort of snowballed.
Slim people can have rubbish willpower too.

They say if you feel hungry you should drink a glass or two of water first and wait ten minutes. Our brains are bad at telling the difference between hunger and thirst so quite often all we need to satisfy that “feeling” is a drink.

"She would say 'why are you so slim and we eat the same' i didn't want to be rude. But to me it was obvious. I was almost a foot taller"

I once shared a house with two girls who piled up their plates with Sunday lunch type meals. They'd say they didn't understand why they were fat.To me it was obvious that they were eating portions meant for 6ft tall men.
That's another MN taboo - you're supposed to be in denial about women needing less food than men.

I am overweight. I am genuinely genuinely quite frightened of going hungry though. I react instantly to any feelings of hunger, partly because I do get quite faint and shaky if I go too long without food. I am trying to increase my exercise but I know I also need to control my portions. I feel like low carbon and high fat will be the only way to avoid the gnawing hunger but I'm so scared of the carb-withdrawal period.

You should feel shaky if you don't eat for almost 3 days. That's a form of disordered eating, just as much as compulsive eating is. A healthy approach to diet recognises the necessity to fuel our bodies.

It's similar to societal thinking on being poor at maths, or poor at literacy. One is shameful; the other almost a badge of pride. Similarly we have no cultural penalty for failing to eat for days, whereas the shame associated with compulsively eating for a similar period would mean most would deny doing so.

A healthy attitude to food doesn't encompass denial, either. (They are two sides of the same disordered coin.) Just balance.

redpriest wow that's an outstanding achievement!

I plan to be in a similar position in two years time. 7 stone lighter, that is.

Nothing worth having comes easy eh. Absofrickinglutely nothing. Time I fully accepted this and get my arse in gear .....

I've been out with slim friends and had completely the opposite experience: if I ate like them, I'd be the size of a house! Perhaps I just know people with colossal appetites, but I eat one meal a day (veg heavy) and am still huge - I've always needed plenty of exercise to stay slim (several hours per day) and I'm not doing it at the moment, hence being a porker.

I'm a size 8 with a BMI of 19 which often goes lower (then I don't feel good and strong). It's true I don't crave sweets, but I crave salty things. I don't drink more than two glasses of wine a week. I love food but I feel satisfied and full very quickly. I was a poor student in New York for three years (a 1 dollar pizza slice for lunch) and my stomach shrunk. My stomach has never returned to normal size. I was at a dinner party yesterday and I was the only one who could not have seconds of the delicious food. I just couldn't.
So not everyone refuses food to stay slim whilst thinking how much they'd like to have it, or because they don't enjoy food. Some people eat less because they truly don't want more, or can't fit more. People have different appetites, different metabolisms, and you can definitely shrink your stomach.
The sugar thing is very personal. My DS never liked sweets as a child, he will refuse cake and chocolate but will empty the olive pot and finish the humus like a shot.

I'm slim and size 8-10 and I eat chocolate every day. I don't often eat lunch though because of my work hours, I just graze throughout the day then have dinner when I get home. I couldn't eat a 3 course meal in one go, I tend to eat little and often.

If you eat too much sugar then you will be hungry more, fact.

Building my son physically suffers hunger pangs most of the day. We find chewing-gum really helps. It seems to confuse messages to the brain, plus provide sensory feedback. I don't know if that will work on someone without additional needs, but could be worth a try? Can't harm, after all. And making eg bread good quality brown, so some of the intake is fibre as well as the whole being lower GI/higher in nutrition, could be worth a shot? Nuts, too, can sate hunger well as they are fatty, but also full of nutrients.

Starving yourself is not the answer. Altering patterns is, I think.

That's another MN taboo - you're supposed to be in denial about women needing less food than men

I need more food than lots of men. I am tall and broad and active and i breastfeed. I need way more than 5ft 8in office working men i know. I read a thing saying some sandwich was 600 calories - which is half the daily allowance of a woman. It pissed me right off. No it isn't. Everyone is different and this idea that women - any women only need 1200 is annoying and why twat men make comments when i'm eating, despite me being slim.

These later posts are depressing me. I regularly walk 12000 steps a day, 5-6 miles, including two one hour walks and yet no weight loss. I've stopped having breakfast before I walk DDog as I'm hungry when we get back and had a second one. Food and mental health are linked and I need to break that link but don't know how too plus I know dh wants me to lose weight and I don't feel like doing it for him which stops me doing it for me.

The important point of this - and almost all - food threads
is that eating habits come from the head
not the tummy

if you are overweight, you have at least 30,000 calories in store
my BMI is 21 but I carry 12 pounds of fat around my hips at 3000 calories per pound
so WILL NOT faint / bodily suffer from a gap in meals

I’m on a thread about what you have eaten today.

I’ve been accused of “boasting” and making things up.

Nope, I just don’t enjoy crisps, chocolate or junk food.

That seems so alien to some that they get nasty about it.

@MrsKoala 1,200 is the calorie allowance for a female who wants to lose weight!!

To maintain its more like 1500-1800 (height depending and lifestyle) if breastfeeding add more calories to that!

If anyone wants to go sugar-free to kick the habit I can highly recommend trying the Whole 30 diet. It’s 30 days with no sugar, no dairy and no wheat - very similar to the Caveman/Paleo diet.

I did it last summer and lost 11lbs in 30 days. Since then I’ve had DC #2 and piled on 3 stone during my pregnancy. I’ve lost half of it now (DS 7.5 months) but need to shift the remainder.

I’m told it’s even harder to lose weight when sleep deprived as your body likes to hang on to the fat stores for extra energy, at least that’s my excuse for now

I think to much is made about eating breakfast before we leave the house in the morning.

I don’t eat until around 10-11am and then at lunch time have a coffee and an apple

Then dinner in the evening

We as a nation are obsessed with eating theee meals, when actually a snack of carrots or apples would be far better than a large sandwich and packet of crisps

I just went onto my online shop that I ordered yesterday (but can still amend for a week or so) and there are multipacks of WOTSITS on it. For me! shock I don't even remember searching for them and adding them... SIX packets of six. I've taken them off now because I have zero control with these.

There's another good rule. Never ever do a food shop (online or in store) when you are hungry. Always try to have a meal first.