Naturally thin habits

[cheesysitwots]

Naturally thin people… if you had to contribute your naturally healthy weight to 3 things.. what would they be? Eg eating same things, walking everywhere etc

Is this a poem?

Also to add to my previous post I would rather be strong and healthy than “skinny” - that’s my aim here in my 50’s. I’m just not a skinny build. And I’m honestly fine with that.

This is exactly how Mounjaro makes me feel.

Things like not eating at certain times to me, isn’t necessarily the trait of someone who’s naturally slim but someone who watches their weight.
I can snack and eat whenever I want. I wouldn’t even think about the timings. That sounds more like dieting to me.

Your posts are interesting but not what OP is asking. It doesn’t seem like you are naturally thin.
I am strong and healthy and very slim.

Smaller portions.
Only one snack in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Not drinking much alcohol

3 things that contribute to being “naturally thin” …
1 genetics
2 genetics
3 genetics

anything else mentioned here is not about about being naturally thin!

Of course genetics contributes towards someone's body type.

What other factors do you think contribute towards being naturally thin?

Behaviour. Behaviour is not entirely genetic.

Genetics and behaviour (nature/nurture) explain why someone has a certain body type. Behaviour can be internal or external. Then there are diseases (and other things) which are a combination.

Only eat when hungry

Only snack on healthy things - dark chocolate etc

Only treat myself if it’s really a treat and good quality

This is going to contradict what some people understand about healthy eating patterns , but I don’t eat at set meal times. I only eat when I’m hungry. Like a PP, sometimes I have breakfast and sometimes I don’t.

Usually, only eating when I’m hungry, turns out most often to mean eating a in the late morning and roundabout 3, 4 or 5 o’clock in the afternoon. For preference, it will be a bit later, but I sometimes go to a yoga class that starts at 6 or 7 o’clock: I cannot sleep well on a full stomach and if I try to, then I feel sick into the next morning. I do sometimes have a small something, oatcakes perhaps, in the early evening if there’s a gap to fill that might keep me hungry at night but that’s very rare.

It would be very difficult to eat like this if I lived with other people and had to feed children, but I still think that I’d try to do what suited me and fit around the others.

I used to think I was 'naturally thin'. I always ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted, and as much as I wanted. It would never have crossed my mind to miss a meal intentionally because I'd had other food, or cut back one day to make up for eating a lot on a previous day.

I am now overweight and have realised that when I was 'naturally thin' actually I just didn't want to eat as much or as often. I was always busy doing something more interesting than eating so just wouldn't think about food if I wasn't hungry. Even if I was hungry, I was often eating quickly before doing something more interesting so didn't want to hang around to have second helpings/desert etc. I lived alone so didn't have loads of food in the house and would never feel I wanted to make the effort to go out an buy snacks at night and it just wouldn't have occurred to me when shopping to buy loads of snacks. This meant snacks and desserts were unusual for me, meals were smaller and I never ate out of boredom/habit.
Whereas now I have a kitchen full of food readily available, there's always a big full meal made every evening and food has become almost like a hobby/reward. I am still busy all the time but it's rarely with things that are exciting (eg. now collecting DC from activities rather than nights out) and I reward myself with food. So unsurprisingly, even though now I am more conscious of the need to watch what I eat, I end up eating far more calories every day that I ever did when I was 'naturally thin' and could eat what I wanted.

I don’t know if I am ‘naturally thin’ but I have never been overweight. Not thin but not fat either over my lifetime.

I always maximise NEAT. I walk everywhere, never use lifts or escalators always stairs and don’t sit for too long. This is partly natural inclination but also a rule I’ve always had. There are studies that show that ‘naturally thin’ people respond to overeating by increasing general activity whereas overweight people don’t

Cook fresh food from scratch. I do eat cakes and biscuits or whatever I like but largely only ones I have cooked myself. In general I don’t eat crappy poor quality food like McDonalds or a Twix and I don’t drink carbonated drinks as I do not enjoy those things. I do try to always get my 5 a day fruit and veg as there is evidence for a lot of benefits from that.

I find it fairly easy to skip meals and I often don’t eat lunch if I am busy or CBA to make something. I have never done this as a tactic but I guess I have often ‘fasted’ to some degree. I would probably not eat lunch if I was going out for dinner because I wouldn’t want to feel too full to enjoy the dinner.

I count myself lucky to have been brought up by parents who cooked from scratch and indeed grew their own food a lot so I never developed a taste for fast food or processed food. I have tried to bring my DC up similarly because I do believe these foods are kind of addictive and best avoided. Obviously genetics are some of it but early environment and choices really can’t be discounted.

I disagree. I am hopeless at things that require self control.

I fall into the "naturally thin" group. My family always ate pretty small portions, with lots of veg. I genuinely eat what I want but stop when I am full. If I drink a latte I will eat less at my next meal because it fills me up.

If stressed my reaction is to feel unable to eat.

I have put on some weight since menopause, accepted my change in body shape by buying larger clothes (now a healthier weight that I used to be) and I am now proactively exercising to increase my fitness to feel good.

I only think about food when hungry or planning meals.

I think (as someone who's previously had an ED) a lot of these habits sound more like controlling what/when you eat rather than being naturally thin. I think most naturally thin people are genetically so.
Of course some people have bigger appetites than others, and some people will be more active than others by habit or choice but im not fully convinced that people who are eating 1 meal a day of mostly vegetables, and walking 30k steps are "naturally" thin or doing that to stay thin IYSWIM.

I have a colleague who is naturally thin. There is almost nothing she doesnt eat. All her family are naturally thin. She eats slowly, so probably doesnt eat huge amounts but does almost no exercise. Conversely my mum was naturally fairly fat. All her family were, ive seen pictures of her and her brother, when they were young children (in the 1950s) and they look chubby/overweight. They didnt grow up on upfs, didnt own a car, walked or cycled everywhere...and yet she was overweight for most of her life.

Sort of doesn't help but habits formed as a kid in 70s and 80s. People in general just didn't used to eat as much, and my mum cooked lots of healthy food, and there was never enough money for ready meals even when they started to be a thing.
Kind of continued like that at uni. Again, no money. Couldn't afford take aways. And then I guess even once I had a career and money, it was just normal to never have snacks in the house so there was never anything to eat that wasn't 'proper' food.
Now I've hit my 50s, and dh and teen dc have cupboards full of chocolate and crisps, and I've finally fallen into the trap of mindless eating. And I'm putting on weight.
It's hard in this society, but I think the first thing is only to have proper, good food in the house. (Veg, eggs, pulses, a bit of meat. Not anything massively expensive. Just stuff with actual nutrients)

I agree behaviour is important. I eat healthily, have tried lots of different diets/fasting etc over the past 35 years. I tend to have good “behaviour” in my normal diet - no junk food, not much alcohol. But im either on a diet and constantly hungry, or im putting on weight, i have no in between. I’ve had to diet on and off all my life and by diet I mean continue to eat healthy food but at portion sizes that make me consistently hungry - to the point that it makes me depressed and I struggle to focus on tasks. There’s nothing that feels “natural” about the behaviour I need to be slim

Exactly this.

Plus: no food issues such as prohibited or restricted foods; no thinking about food or fighting cravings. Mostly eating moderately but not faddy healthy foods (in small portions, at mealtimes). But if I feel a craving for a bar of chocolate or a cake I will eat it and really enjoy it. Cannot be a daily habit though, and I'll offset. So, if I eat a big slab of cake at lunch, I would have something light and healthy for dinner.

I only know two people who I’m a 100% convinced are naturally thin. The others I don’t know well enough to say for certain (and a couple I think are sadly likely hiding disordered eating). The naturally thin ones are a close friend and rather annoingly, my mother. 😁

In both cases, I think it’s a combination of theee things: genes, walking everywhere and loving all food. My maternal grandfather was very skinny all his life and I think my mom inherited his metabolism. Nobody in my friend’s family is overweight and they are also all quite tall with narrow build. Both my mom and friend love cakes, ice cream etc., but also seem to love vegetables just as much. My mom can happily eat a plate of different vegetables with a little oil and salt for lunch / afternoon snack. I think this helps to balance overall calorie intake.

However, it should also be said that my mom was diagnosed with an overactive thyroid in her late fifties, which may partlu explain not gaining weight in middle age. She may have had it for years before being diagnosed and starting medication. I think in general never having been overweight in the first place may help with maintainig a healthy weight later in life.

No alcohol or only occasional alcohol makes a massive difference to me. It's not just the booze calories, it's that it makes me more careless. I snack more without thinking if I'm driving. I am more likely to have a second helping of dinner etc. And if I have a bit of a hangover I need crisps.

Keep busy. I eat out of boredom.

Stay out of the kitchen as much as possible.

My DP and I are both overweight. Well, technically obese, if you got by the outdated BMI calculation. Neither of us has an off-switch and have long forgotten the cues for knowing when we are truly hungry and comfortably full, which we both reckon is down to growing up in the 80s and being part of the 'clear-your-plate-there-are-starving-children-in-Africa' Live Aid generation. I developed an ED in my late teens/twenties that still plagues me now – eating so much that I'd feel uncomfortable and then make myself sick.

We both vowed that we would never force our DD to clear her plate, or withhold pudding until she ate her dinner. Now a teen, she has such a healthy relationship with food. She eats when she's hungry and stops when she's full. It's a marvel to watch, frankly! Some days she'll be hungry enough to wolf down a pizza the size of a dustbin lid, the next she'll go most of the day without eating bar a light breakfast, a few snacks, and a small bowl of pasta for dinner with veg. We would never dream of making her eat if she's just not hungry. As other PP have said, it's basically unconscious intermittent fasting.

My daughter is someone who just doesn’t gain weight. She can eat loads and loads it doesn’t make a difference. She eats until she’s had enough. She doesn’t feel bad if she leaves something on her plate. She has a fast metabolism and if she goes too long without eating she becomes hypoglycaemic and loses weight quickly if she doesn’t eat enough. I’m the opposite sadly.

Mounjaro

So interesting. I'm super slim, 44kg, BMI 17. 5ft 4". I have no food noise whatsoever, it literally doesn't register, no reward system, feel full in an instant, can't eat lots. People on here saying about all the walking, cooking from scratch etc, they're ways of keeping slim, I'm literally just like it with zero effort. I don't like it though, I'm not happy with the way I look but after 5 decades it's never going to change, been through the menopause, no different...! I'm a walking Wegovy thing

I’m not particularly ‘thin’ but my mum is, and I have noticed she has small portions, she literally never stops moving… ever (actually quite annoying sometimes, but she’s so helpful and productive, I’ll allow it 😂) and she doesn’t snack or have ‘treats’. She also doesn’t really drink alcohol.

For me it’s very hard now I used to be very thin and then moved out and the freedom to eat what I want meant that I did. I now just don’t buy high calorie foods unless I account for them in my daily/weekly calories. Husband asked for some chocolate on the food shop I purposefully brought his favourites that I hate. Ive never been someone to eat big portions which has helped. I often skip breakfast due to busy mornings with baby and we have brunch out after baby classes then only a snack until dinner. I also order a kids portion at brunch which is plenty for me. It’s a great deal you can pick 5 breakfast items of your choice. I also don’t drink alcohol and have a terrible popcorn crisp and Coke Zero habit but choose bag of popcorn which is 44 calories and things like quavers or pombears