Is it REALLY possible for people to be naturally thin and never gain weight?

gabrielleelliott90

Right, I used to be quite thin, but then my diet crept up with me, I gained it. Luckily, now I am at a healthy weight range. I never dreamt of that happening to me, but it's all fine now I'm thin again. I have a friend who is literally skin and bone, naturally. Her mum is quite thin also. I think she does eat, but she is so thin. I'm pretty sure it runs in her family. However is it possible to have a body that never gains weight no matter what it consumes? I know some people can eat heaps of pizza etc and never gain any fat, have a really good body. Do you really believe they can always stay like this? is it possible to have a body like this forever?

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Lorleee

I think some people do have genetics on their side in terms of the rate of weight gain. But that doesn't mean they can eat chocolate cake for every meal and not have any type of healthy consequences.

AliceDark

People who are "naturally" thin just naturally don't eat more than they burn. Either they eat less or they burn more than other people. You may see them eat larger meals on occasion, but it's being balanced out somewhere.

wilsoncl6

Some peoples metabolism just runs faster for longer because of genetics. However, this state is not permanent and will eventually catch up with her with age. I'm pretty sure she just isn't eating a whole lot or is just eating very healthy. I used to be the same until I hit about 25, couldn't gain weight no matter how hard I tried or what I ate but I was doing a lot of cardio too.

jrline

It is all about the calories out vs calories in some people may have a slightly higher metabolism

fobs13

__drmerc__ wrote: »

She eats less that's all, no magic

This. I never worried about weight in my 20s,30s as used to eat small portions,get full easily and was very active. Married life and slowing down and eating more is why the lbs crept up on me. Any friends I have who are slim its obvious to see why they are.

libbydoodle11

All of my naturally thin friends gain weight. They don't wait until it becomes more than five or six pounds at a time before they start doing something about it.

TimothyFish

I ate with some "naturally thin" friends one time. They put very little on their plates and were complaining about being stuffed before they cleaned their plates. I do think that some people naturally burn more calories than others and some people just don't enjoy eating as heavily as other people. But as someone pointed out, wouldn't it be better to burn calories more efficiently? Sure, that means you can't eat everything in sight, but it would also mean that your food bill would be lower if you only ate what you needed.

The_Enginerd

Those people who seem to eats heaps of bad food but never gain weight actually don't eat all that much. If you actually followed them all day, you would see they eat only a lot at gatherings where you see them, and they may have nothing else that day.

"Naturally thin" people don't have some special metabolism, they just self regulate well, or work harder at it than you realize, or are very active.

sllm1

Naturally thin people don't tend obsess about food. They naturally eat less. They don't worry about getting hungry.

SonicDeathMonkey80

She has magical discipline!

lorib642

Some people have higher metabolisms but I also bet your friend is more active, eats less than you think.

v70t5m

There was an interesting weight study done and televised on PBS? several years back ... the researchers studied several "naturally thin (NT)" individuals. These NTs were placed on a high calorie diet, I believe it was 5000 calories a day. Most of them had a very difficult problem meeting that goal (as you can imagine).

They did gain weight, but less than hypothesized based on their caloric intake.

Once they were off the high calorie diet, every single last one of them lost the extra weight in a short period of time.

Granted, most of the NTs in this study were younger 20 somethings. Their metabolism will slow with age. However, if caloric intake is moderated to account for this, yes, some people can be naturally thin for their entire lives.

redversustheblue

I used to think this until I had a roommate who was very thin. She was teeny tiny and I thought she could eat whatever she wanted--and she often did. She ate mcdonalds and Sonic with me, and bought oreos and nutter butters all the time and she was so thin! Then I really started to pay attention, and yeah she bought a package of nutter butters, but it would take her nearly a month to finish the package. She ate a couple of them and that was it for the day. She ordered a smaller meal at Mcdonalds and didn't eat a whole lot the rest of the day....no magic, just that she wasn't throwing back the volume of food I was. Eye opening.

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ana3067

redversustheblue wrote: »

I used to think this until I had a roommate who was very thin. She was teeny tiny and I thought she could eat whatever she wanted--and she often did. She ate mcdonalds and Sonic with me, and bought oreos and nutter butters all the time and she was so thin! Then I really started to pay attention, and yeah she bought a package of nutter butters, but it would take her nearly a month to finish the package. She ate a couple of them and that was it for the day. She ordered a smaller meal at Mcdonalds and didn't eat a whole lot the rest of the day....no magic, just that she wasn't throwing back the volume of food I was. Eye opening.

my dad is really slim. I made burgers recently, they were like... 3in circumference? Not that big. He cut one in half and ate that for dinner, whereas I'll have 2 lol.
My cousin, she also barely eats much and also dances. Can't understand how someoen would be active and not eat much, although she doesn't really have any significant muscle to preserve so I guess I can see why it's not her priority lol

stevencloser

Technically it is possible if you can't properly digest what you're eating and basically poop it out without taking in the nutrients, so the calories in part of the equation never goes up all that much even though you ate far more calories than that. Stuff like that is really rare though and I'd rather put my money into the "they eat less than they think" basket.

cwolfman13

"Naturally" thin people simply consume energy at an appropriate level for their stats and activity level.

My best friend is "naturally" thin...I used to think there was some magic to this...that he must have some kind of sped up metabolism or something and was just very lucky. When I started getting more into nutrition and fitness and learning portion control, etc...I started to notice that he generally took smaller servings than I did when we ate together...he rarely went back for seconds and I almost always did...he rarely finished what was on his plate when we were at a restaurant...I always did. I would have a soda with lunch and take advantage of free re-fills...he almost always had water or occasionally an iced tea. I snacked regularly throughout the day...he rarely snacked, etc, etc, etc.

To boot, my "naturally" thin buddy, while he doesn't go hit the gym or anything, he has regularly walked 3-5 miles per day since I've known him...so about 15 years. Before I got myself back into fitness, I would generally sit around drinking beer and smoking cigarettes while he was on those walks with his dog.

farfromthetree

They probably eat less than you think. Some people just have never had to utter the words "diet". They have that off switch to stop eating, which I lost years ago

Kalikel

Some people, yes.

I had a friend in high school that everyone thought was anorexic. She ate all the time. The doctor told her she had to gain five pounds and she ate as much candy and ice cream as she could. She didn't starve and she didn't barf it up. She ate tons of food.

She just has trouble staying in a normal weight range. Even when she was pregnant! She thought for sure she'd gain tons, but no. It was still a struggle.

She's spent her whole life eating and eating and having people make comments about her skinniness. It annoys her.

She's had tests. She's a doctor now and has read extensively on the subject, lol. There's just no explanation yet.

Being really thin is not the picnic everyone seems to think it is. The grass is always greener...

amberkhan75

I didn't read all of the comments so I apologize if I'm repeating something. If you look around you in a crowd of people, you will see so many different body types. Tall, short, slim, heavyset, 'skin-and-bones', athletic, pear-shaped, etc. Every BODY is different. That said, just because a person can eat whatever they want, doesn't mean they are healthy. Quite the contrary. Have you heard of skinny-fat? This is the visceral fat that accumulates around the organs. It's very dangerous and usually undected in these individuals.

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girlviernes

I think that we have natural healthy ranges and that those vary from person to person. Lots of adjustments happen to keep us in those ranges, which are quite slim for some and somewhat heavier for others. But for at least the majority of us it is fairly easy to go above the set range in the context of overeating.

Showcase_Brodown

gabrielleelliott90 wrote: »

However is it possible to have a body that never gains weight no matter what it consumes?

No.

I am one of those "naturally thin" people according to everyone I know, but I can testify that weight gain/loss for me works exactly like it does for everyone else. People may have seen me devour pizza that one time at an outing, but they have no idea what I'm eating or doing the rest of my life. The math all works out.

Lourdesong

I don't think so. I hear some thin people claim they "eat tons" and so forth, but I suspect their idea of eating tons is quite likely very different than my idea of it.

They also can seem to eat more and not gain because they aren't burdened by carrying weight that might force them to be more sedentary. More active lifestyles usually equates to a higher lean body mass, which then equates to a higher metabolism.

Unless someone has some genetic disease such as that it is next to impossible to build lean body mass, I don't see how thin people genetics is any more special than fat people's genetics.

gabrielleelliott90

Thanks for all your replies. Very interesting.

gabrielleelliott90

I mean when I was naturally thin, before the age of 19, I would drink a ton of water, which most likely filled me up, and I was eating less. At one point I was sleeping during the day, awake at night, and I guess that somehow stopped me eating that much. I'd eat heaps of crisps but all those wouldn't of been enough for maintaining weight.

ythannah

wilsoncl6 wrote: »

Some peoples metabolism just runs faster for longer because of genetics.

Yep. I'm living proof -- been underweight all my adult life, just like my dad. Although I've been slowly creeping toward normal weight with age, at a rate of about half a pound every two years.

And I don't eat less. In fact, I eat significantly more than most women my size/age. I eat as much as my 250 lb SO, sometimes even more. Nor do I do lots of cardio. I didn't start doing any regular exercise until a couple of years ago.

Chief_Rocka

NEAT

nogreenthumb

It could be possible for those people to eat all kinds of crap food and not gain an ounce, but in the end, is it really all that healthy?