Slim people -what’s your secret?

[Bettyboop82]

Just as the title says really... do you think it’s your metabolism, lifestyle, activity levels or attitude to food? I’m not one for dieting and don’t have a massive amount to lose (maybe a stone) But would like to make long term changes tiny biscuit and toast fuelled life!

I started getting heavier. I finally had enough and started logging everything I eat on My Fitness Pal. Educating myself about calories has been life changing. I’ve lost nearly 3 stone and am slimmer than I have ever been.
Those 5 chocolate digestives I mindlessly dunked in my coffee and shovelled in..... more calories than a small ham roll and a packet of crisps-which I would still need to eat because the biscuits didn’t fill me up!
That shop bought sandwich...... more calories than a carefully portioned roast dinner.
Just understanding how many calories are in that huge blob of butter on toast actually have, and how much it contributes towards exceeding my daily calorie intake, has meant I changed the way I eat. The realisation that 2000 calories is way too much for most women was an eye opener too.

tdeecalculator.net/

I now regularly weigh myself and start reining it in if the scales creep up. I still eat crisps or chocolate when I feel like it but I keep within my daily calorie target by having a smaller jacket potato or one less roastie.

Portion control and not keeping snacks in the house.

Constant vigilance. Logging on MFP. Eating anything but counting like a demon. Not cutting out food groups. No fads.

I'm not even particularly slim. .

It's harder when you're older. And 2k calories daily is waaaay too much for many women. 1400 hundred maintenance for me; 1200 to lose very slowly.

I’m also not a fan of dieting - I find the focus on food and whether you’ve been ‘good’ or ‘bad’ counterproductive. And calorie counting is this in extremis (although it is good to know roughly how calorific different meals/snacks are).

I’ve been the same weight my adult life and put it down to mainly home cooked food, not too much, low-ish carb most of the time, and regular exercise: find something you enjoy and keep doing it. For me that’s variously been running, bootcamp, gym (classes, or treadmill + weights), and now fast walking for an hour or two most days). Small tweaks to your lifestyle and you’ll shed the extra stone over a few weeks OP, and likely keep it off. Boring but true!

I like vegetables and I like cooking. I think that makes a huge difference. Meals are based around veg with measured carbs. The times I’ve been larger it’s been when I’ve been relying on oven food and take aways.

I aim to eat well 80% of the time and not worry about the rest. Exercise also makes a big difference to my body, especially weights. I don’t drink much either.

I e never been on a diet either. I eat proper meals and proper amounts at those meals. That way food is not a focus at times that aren't meal times.

I was always slim until I worked from home. Size 6 with zero struggle. Now I'm an 8-10 and whilst not large I'm short so it shows.
I have realised my life is very sedentary now, sit at desk between 7-8 and stay there until 6 each day, other than walking to the kettle and loo that's it, I'm tired and in bed by 9 and drinking most nights.
The last 2 weeks I've cut the week time drinking and already noticing a flatter tummy.
I know that just half hour on the cross trainer will help as that was the equivalent of me walking to work.
I think some people are naturally slim, but even those people can get complacent and my struggles with weight will never be the same as someone who needs to calorie control as mine is more drink and lack of moving than food.
In terms of food, I think I eat alot. Pan au chocolate for a early morning snack, then cereal around 10, lunch is usually toast or a sandwich, 3ish I'll nibble on some biscuits, large evening meal, followed by a chocolate bar and a couple of gins or wine.

I don't think it's just calories. I think it's a combo of things. I don't have the answer for adults. I do think growing up being shamed about food and told to clear plate when not hungry as a kid leads to an override of the ability to stop when full as an adult. We're designed to want sugar also. I think food is a tough one because you can't just give it up, like cigarettes, so the cold turkey thing is not possible! Assess overall eating habits, try and pinpoint the reasons for them, replace biscuits with nuts, don't feel like you have to have 'breakfast food' - you can eat a dinner type meal or have a handful of nuts or some chicken or a plate of veg... whatever you like. Breakfast foods tend to be really carby and set you on a sugar train, getting repeated hunger pangs through the day. It depends what your mornings are like (rushing about to leave in a stress spikes cortisol which makes you hungrier and want more sugary foods) - again, nuts are great. If you get bored, pre empt that with interesting non sugary snacks dotted about. Car, kitchen in usual biscuit place, office desk. Keep hydrated. I am not great at all these things. The best shape I was in was during a vegan period, but I also gained in another vegan period and the difference was I ate a lot of fresh veg the first time. Veg contains inulin (google). It's also hard to eat too much kale 😆 I'm probs at my heaviest right now which shows that knowledge is not always enough. If you can do something physical that you love that gives you an endorphin boost, that can reset your thinking a bit too. I used to do BJJ but my joints aren't playing any more. Climbing great too. Look after your joints, is my other big piece of advice. Especially if it's hard to lose weight.

Both my parents were/are skinny (getting paunches now they’re 60+). My mother’s side of the family are all tiny as well.
We’re not in excellent health, however, and a thorough checkup would probably declare me unfit.

I need to work at it but I don’t obsess over it.

I love food and alcohol and could never restrict myself totally. I eat low calorie balanced food mon-fri and run 5k twice a week. At the weekend I might still have a light breakfast & lunch, but have a take away on Saturday and a roast on Sunday and have a few glasses of wine.

I used to gorge on chocolate and crisps when I was heavier. I’ve not eaten chocolate for months and now really don’t crave it but it was hard at first. I still eat crisps but not every day and walkers baked over McCoy’s for instance.

It takes time but as I got lighter and my waistline reappeared and clothes felt and looked better it’s given me a real buzz and the motivation not to go back to bad habits.

I am not particularly slim, but I think it's obvious what the secret is. Low carb, no snacks, lots of veg and low calories foods. They will have maybe one bit of 'junk' food a week, whereas others will have this everyday. It's just hard to have the willpower.

I am not particularly slim, but I think it's obvious what the secret is. Low carb, no snacks, lots of veg and low calories foods.

I don’t think that’s obvious. Low carb doesn’t work for me (no energy and I love carbs) and snacks can be fine if you’re not eating too many of the wrong thing.

There isn’t one answer to this question. Different things will work for different people.

2000 calories is totally fine unless you're tiny. No one is going to be happy on 1200 calories it just causes a binging culture, i lose on average 2lb a week on 2100 calories and I'm not particularly large

Up until my early 30s it was my metabolism. I could eat anything (within reason) and stay slim. I ate loads.

Then in my 30s my metabolism tanked, I was diagnosed hypothyroid, I put on a stone or two.

Now I stay slim mainly by eating less.

I don’t count calories, I don’t avoid any particular food (I try to go easy on sugar, bread and alcohol but they are not forbidden by any means). I just eat far less food overall than I used to.

I skip breakfast and have a pretty small lunch, then I have a snack about 5pm and a decent dinner.

I think it makes sense to work out what you find particularly difficult to change and work with that. Don’t fight your nature. So for example I’m not really hungry in the morning so it’s easy for me to skip breakfast - much easier for me than cutting out that 5pm snack.

I also try not to have too much in the way of biscuits and other unhealthy snack foods in the house, as I will eat them if they are there...

Dieting makes you fat. Once you get on the diet seesaw you're doomed to keep yo-yo-ing unless you stop it and eat proper amounts of proper food (veg, meat, eggs, dairy, good fats and avoid processed crap, sugar and white carbs) until your brain and body realise you've stopped repeatedly trying to starve them, so they can stop frantically trying to make you eat more and slowing your metabolism to cling onto every calorie they can.

I just read "Why We Eat Too Much" by Dr Andrew Jenkinson (a bariatric surgeon). It's very enlightening. SavoyCabbage has it right - eat proper filling meals made out of proper food.

Pregnant at the mo but just before then noticed I was putting weight on. I was always waifish but whilst only a 10 looked fat as I'm 5 ft 3 so quite small. After this baby I need to sort it out. I have pcos too and have noticed as I've got older I struggle more

Thanks everyone, some good sensible advice here.

For me I think knowing that some foods are so bad like full of sugar of deep fried makes me feel so disgusting afterwards it puts me off eating it whereas if am an amazing salad I feel so good and I can have more and not feel guilty

I very rarely snack. No scales but if my belt is getting tight I watch what I'm eating. Other than that I try to avoid anything with sugar. Not never any cake but it's a treat in the sense that it's a once a week or once a fortnight treat.

I've had 3 scrambled eggs

Leek, potato and cauliflower soup for lunch (2 big bowls)

2 apples

Chilli and rice for supper

I'm a size 8-10 and 5'5

That's about a normal day for me

I’m slim and I eat LOADS of white carbs.

Lots of exercise (run 30-40 miles a week), ride lots of horses, walk everywhere.
I love beer but don’t drink in the week
I don’t snack ever.

I think it's a combination of factors:

• knowing, roughly, the calorie content of foods

• being physically active every day, and not sitting still for long periods

• not eating calorie-rich snacks

• knowing that it's normal and healthy to feel a bit hungry for part of the day

• having the willpower to resist calorie-rich foods when you're eating out or in other people's houses. Being out and about doesn't make fattening food any the less fattening

• eating a couple of very low calorie main meals every week

@YerAWizardHarry 1200 for me to lose and I'm 5ft 10
That's everything tracked and weighed. Damn thyroid!

2000 is fine if you’re active. The problem is so many people are sedentary and that’s bad in ways other than the effects on the waistline. If you exercise daily, you can get away with quite a lot food-wise. If you don’t, you have to stick to quite a rigid limit. People always talk about how people didn’t use to eat so much in the 60s and 70s but actually average calorie consumption hasn’t changed so much since then. Not all fat people sit there stuffing their faces on a daily basis and people in the past used to eat high carb and high fat meals. The real difference is the amount of daily activity, which explains why so many people are overweight despite constantly trying to eat low calorie. The inactive body is totally unforgiving.

Get into the mind of a slim person. What do you think she thinks about? How does she run her life? How does she act around food. Then adopt those qualities for yourself now.

Being naturally slim (being in the body that feels right for you) is everything about mindset and little about food. Hope this helps