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Naturally thin
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Nykkismommy21 wrote: »It has to do with their metabolism, and how fast they can get rid of their food. I can give an example. My ex, the father of my children tall and naturally thin yet muscular. Eats and poops within a few hours after he eats. Sorry if TMI. Just being honest. When my sister n law was younger she was adorably chubby ,like in her pre teen years, she ended up getting scarlett fever, she got through that ,after that for some reason her metabolism got turned up.She eats and poops within a few hours after eating. My other ex, the same thing,naturally thin ,eats and poops right away.their bodies process food very quickly and get rid of it.. Me, im always constipated, and I unlike them ,who eat steak,and chips and junk foods, eat fruit ,veggies, drink water,no soda,and poop every other day if im lucky. But then again, im on a medication that leaves me constipated all the time.Anyway thats been my experience. They arent the only ones like this that I know of. But yeah,metabolism is truly like a furnace it burns and stays burning so long as your giving it something to burn, if you give it the wrong things id imagine it to be a nasty ,smokey smelly toxic fire.(sorry i was imagine a fire burning plastic or Styrofoam, kinda like the junky foods,versus clean wood ,orvhealthy foods ) anyway, rambling now. That's my little input .lol. Have a great day.
Digestion and metabolism are not the same thing. Also they are not pooping out the same food they ate in 4 hours unless they have an ileostomy or shortened digestive system. I guess all people with ileostomies should be super thin.11 -
singingflutelady wrote: »Nykkismommy21 wrote: »It has to do with their metabolism, and how fast they can get rid of their food. I can give an example. My ex, the father of my children tall and naturally thin yet muscular. Eats and poops within a few hours after he eats. Sorry if TMI. Just being honest. When my sister n law was younger she was adorably chubby ,like in her pre teen years, she ended up getting scarlett fever, she got through that ,after that for some reason her metabolism got turned up.She eats and poops within a few hours after eating. My other ex, the same thing,naturally thin ,eats and poops right away.their bodies process food very quickly and get rid of it.. Me, im always constipated, and I unlike them ,who eat steak,and chips and junk foods, eat fruit ,veggies, drink water,no soda,and poop every other day if im lucky. But then again, im on a medication that leaves me constipated all the time.Anyway thats been my experience. They arent the only ones like this that I know of. But yeah,metabolism is truly like a furnace it burns and stays burning so long as your giving it something to burn, if you give it the wrong things id imagine it to be a nasty ,smokey smelly toxic fire.(sorry i was imagine a fire burning plastic or Styrofoam, kinda like the junky foods,versus clean wood ,orvhealthy foods ) anyway, rambling now. That's my little input .lol. Have a great day.
Digestion and metabolism are not the same thing. Also they are not pooping out the same food they ate in 4 hours unless they have an ileostomy or shortened digestive system. I guess all people with ileostomies should be super thin.GemstoneofHeart wrote: »Biker_SuzCO wrote: »I have two very thin friends. Think bony and almost nobody fat. Both of them eat much more than me and drink a ton. They don't seem to gain weight as I would. Their moms are also very thin so I think there's a genetic component to it. The women in my family are not fat, but none are lean either much like me.
Are you with them 24/7? It seems as though the friends I have that are very thin and still go out and eat a lot with others tend to restrict later to make up for it. I have a very thin friend that had a Starbucks mocha, breakfast sandwich, and Taco Bell for lunch frequently. She never ate dinner.
I don't see how people can do that. I can't skip a SINGLE meal. Actually, I used to when I was younger, but now that I'm older (31) if I skip a meal it's like my blood sugar drops to insane levels and I start feeling hangry, tired/exhausted, somewhat queasy, shaky, etc. It just isn't worth it to me. I do usually take around 1-3 hours to eat in the morning after waking up though. Anyone else the same way?0 -
Sounds like me, but I am 3" taller. But while I wasn't in any organized sports, I was very active. My high school was a big old school and it wasn't unusual to have one class at one end and then have to get to the other end. I loved to hike, ride my bike, rollerblade, dance and so on.Well, I don't know what to think. For most of my life (until I was in my late 30s) I was naturally thin. I've always had a very large appetite. I've never been into physical stuff or sports either.
According to my mother, I've always had a big appetite. When I was 8 years old we used to go to this one steak house once a month. I started get adult meals then and eating a full-size prime rib, baked potato and salad bar. Soda? Yes please.
In high school, I used to stop at our local dairy store and buy a pint of chocolate chip ice cream and eat an entire pint probably 3 nights a week. All while have 3 meals a day, snacks in between if I wanted.
When I graduated high school I was 5'7" and 105 lbs. This went on for years. But around age 30, I was 130 lbs. Had 2 kids, landed at 140 pounds. It's been in my late 40s and 50s that I recently saw a rapid climb in weight quickly getting up to 160 lbs. Now I feel like I gain like most people do. But I didn't before and my eating habits were unbridled. I wasn't eating less or anything. I can't explain it.
I started to gain weight when a congenital deformity caught up and I started to lose mobility.
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This thread is interesting to me because I wonder the same thing. My moms entire side of the family is heavy and my dads side is entirely thin people. Did these two households just learn completely different eating habits?
I was thin until I was 25. I went from 140lb to 280lbs. I swear all I do is think about food.0 -
GemstoneofHeart wrote: »Biker_SuzCO wrote: »I have two very thin friends. Think bony and almost nobody fat. Both of them eat much more than me and drink a ton. They don't seem to gain weight as I would. Their moms are also very thin so I think there's a genetic component to it. The women in my family are not fat, but none are lean either much like me.
Are you with them 24/7? It seems as though the friends I have that are very thin and still go out and eat a lot with others tend to restrict later to make up for it. I have a very thin friend that had a Starbucks mocha, breakfast sandwich, and Taco Bell for lunch frequently. She never ate dinner.
I've spent lots of weekends and week long vacations with them. They eat and drink whatever they want--not unhealthy fast food, but maybe a whole container of chocolate almonds and 3 craft beers after dinner...they remain just as skinny as ever even as we get older.
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Biker_SuzCO wrote: »GemstoneofHeart wrote: »Biker_SuzCO wrote: »I have two very thin friends. Think bony and almost nobody fat. Both of them eat much more than me and drink a ton. They don't seem to gain weight as I would. Their moms are also very thin so I think there's a genetic component to it. The women in my family are not fat, but none are lean either much like me.
Are you with them 24/7? It seems as though the friends I have that are very thin and still go out and eat a lot with others tend to restrict later to make up for it. I have a very thin friend that had a Starbucks mocha, breakfast sandwich, and Taco Bell for lunch frequently. She never ate dinner.
I've spent lots of weekends and week long vacations with them. They eat and drink whatever they want--not unhealthy fast food, but maybe a whole container of chocolate almonds and 3 craft beers after dinner...they remain just as skinny as ever even as we get older.
I eat and drink whatever I want on weekends and vacations too. It has very little to do with how I eat the rest of the time.19 -
There was a very interesting show for awhile about this exact thing. I can't remember the name, but they would track everything two friends ate, one of them overweight that said they ate very little and didn't understand how they were overweight and one who was very thin and thought they ate all the time. Tested their metabolism as well. Without fail the metabolism of the overweight friend was actually higher, and the intake of the thin person was always well under what they thought they ate while the overweight friends calorie count (even when they wrote it down and tracked) was much higher than they thought.7
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Another characteristic of 'naturally thin' people is they tend to be active even when sedentary - they wriggle, fidget, and make hundreds of small movements while the overweight person sitting next to them is completely still. Start watching your 'naturally thin' friends while they're watching TV - How many times do they change position? Do they wave their arms about when they talk? Are they jiggling their foot? Do they get up often to make tea or grab something? Over the course of a day, 'naturally thin' people unconsciously burn hundreds of extra calories over 'naturally heavy' people, and can therefore eat the same amounts of food as an overweight person without gaining weight themselves.7
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I suspect many "naturally thin" people put a lot of effort into maintaining, but they don't say anything about it so people don't recognize or give them "credit " for all the effort.11
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My mom is one of these "thin" people . She's 5'8 and the MOST she ever weight was 140 lbs when she was 9 MONTHS PREGNANT WITH ME. Seriously. Ugh. Anyhow - she has horrible eating habits. Eats a full 4 large calorie dense meals a day, and will sit down afterwards and eat a whole bag of chips. She did this my entire life. So I don't think for her it's an eating habits thing. That being said - I think she has what I call nervous energy. She literally never sits still. Is up at like 5:30 am and will *maybe* sit down at like 10/11pm on to watch a half hour tv. And she had a fairly physical job house cleaning all day. So I think with her she just burns a butt tonne of calories .
Mind you - her brother is the same, as was her dad and I don't think any of them had similar eating habits or lifestyle habits. And other people in the family obviously struggle with their weight more , and especially gain it in certain areas etc. So I think there is some merit in there being differences in how people gain/lose weight. I read a few places that it's closely I linked to different hormones and the levels that people have. Maybe that's why certain programs (keto, IF, many small meals, etc) work more effectively for some people - it just works with their particular hormonal makeup better than others. (This isn't debating CI/CO btw. But hunger signals, satiation , cravings , are all altered by various hormones. So if a particular program agrees works well with or perhaps balances your particular hormone makeup, then it would be easier to stick within your calorie goal ?)
Edit for clarity3 -
I've been called "naturally thin" ... but there was nothing "natural" about it.
If I also exercised lots, I ate more. When I exercised less, I would eat less.
I've been following the CICO principle since I was about 16 or 17 years old because it made sense.
So if people at work saw me having 2 or 3 dessert choices at a morning tea ... well, chances are I would be going for a brisk walk at lunch and a bicycle ride after work and so I would figure I could afford the 2 or 3 dessert choices that day.
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ContraryMaryMary wrote: »Another characteristic of 'naturally thin' people is they tend to be active even when sedentary - they wriggle, fidget, and make hundreds of small movements while the overweight person sitting next to them is completely still. Start watching your 'naturally thin' friends while they're watching TV - How many times do they change position? Do they wave their arms about when they talk? Are they jiggling their foot? Do they get up often to make tea or grab something? Over the course of a day, 'naturally thin' people unconsciously burn hundreds of extra calories over 'naturally heavy' people, and can therefore eat the same amounts of food as an overweight person without gaining weight themselves.
Yes ...
I cannot sit and watch TV for hours on end. I hear people at work saying that they curled up on the sofa under a blanket and binge-watched some program for 4 or 5 hours on a Saturday. Nope ... can't do it. I get bored too easily.
I will, of course, watch TV, but I'm up just about every commercial break to do the laundry, clean the kitchen, tidy the bathroom or whatever. I'm up and down making cups of tea ... and then going to the toilet. Something about the light outside will catch my fancy so I'll go grab my camera and take photos of the flowers in that light. Or I'm studying and will be organising my papers and moving my books and computer around.
At work, I'm up and down to the toilet, kitchen, photocopier, stairs etc. all day long.
I don't count any of that in my calorie count ... I don't count those steps or anything. I figure they're just bonus steps. If I happen to have something a little higher in calories on occasion ... chances are my bonus steps will cover it.
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I was "naturally thin" and never had to think about what I ate. Back then I was pretty active (I walked a lot and generally had a lot going on). I also tended to miss meals because I was busy. I also hated being full and stopped eating when I was pleasantly comfortable. These days I'm not well so I'm pretty sedentary and I do a lot less. I was eating a similar amount but I'm not burning it as much. I'm also a lot less likely to skip meals because I'm not nearly as busy. So now I'm overweight and having to think about kilojoules. (I still hate being full so that helps a bit.)1
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I was a thin child, a chubby adolescent, and of and off overweight adult. Now I'm again a naturally thin person.
My eating habits, how, why and how much I move, and my attitudes towards food and eating, exercise and body weight and shape, has changed through the years, along with my weight.
As a child, food just was. For the most part, it was a necessary evil, something that interfered with work or play. My parents always encouraged/pressured me to eat more at meals. Snacks and treats were rare and to be treated with awe. As I got older, I started to sneak. Food fright started to afflict me, and I kept on overeating food in addition to junk. I have never been a fan of exercise, but now I hated how my body felt, and deliberately avoided movement. Funnily enough, holidays and resturants had me eat like a normal person - I would eat just what I needed of anything I wanted. A few times I lost weight through dieting, but regained because I had just learnt to lose weight, not to maintain normal weight.
At 43, I decided, again, that I'd had it, and set out to tighten up and lose weight. Luckily, I was exposed to many "new" ideas, at once, and in a way that made me change how I looked at a lot of things. I realized that being able to eat so much didn't mean I was a freak, my need for good taste didn't make me a glutton, I don't have to exercise, I don't have to say yes to every offering of food, getting hungry isn't dangerous, and lots of other small and big things that were part self-evident, part mindblowing.
My body works the same way it always have. I'm normal weight now because I eat, move and think like a normal weight person.3 -
I have an honest question that I am not able to find an answer I trust online and I am really curious. Could part of the reason some people seem to be "naturally thin" be because their bodies process calories differently?
I know for a fact that overeating put me where I am, I am not questioning that but I have always questioned if they do process calories differently and burn slightly more.
For an example: if me and a "naturally thin" person both ate a chicken sandwich that has 1000 calories in it and my body absorbed 950 calories of it could the other person possibly absorb 800?
Sometimes yes. Most often though these people will also be sick a lot because if they aren't fully absorbing the calories then they also aren't fully absorbing nutrients, which can lead to poor health.
But more often it's because they don't overeat. Either because they simply don't enjoy food as much or because they want to stay thin. People used to call me naturally thin. And I guess I was. I purposely did not overeat which, naturally, made me thin.
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Observe people you deem to be naturally thin and I think you'll see that they properly moderate calories, rather than process them differently. They are able to walk away from the plate when satisfied, not stuffed.
This isn't always true unless you are with them 24/7. I was thin for most of my adult life. When others saw me eat they would often remark on how thin I was when I ate so much. Even though I told them I didn't always eat that way, they would still comment about how lucky I was to be naturally thin. At parties, gatherings, etc. I usually go all out and don't give calories a thought. Always have. It's a special occasion! But depending on how much I overindulged I would diet for a few days after or maybe even fast the next day. I was purposely thin.4 -
Need2Exerc1se wrote: »I have an honest question that I am not able to find an answer I trust online and I am really curious. Could part of the reason some people seem to be "naturally thin" be because their bodies process calories differently?
I know for a fact that overeating put me where I am, I am not questioning that but I have always questioned if they do process calories differently and burn slightly more.
For an example: if me and a "naturally thin" person both ate a chicken sandwich that has 1000 calories in it and my body absorbed 950 calories of it could the other person possibly absorb 800?
Sometimes yes. Most often though these people will also be sick a lot because if they aren't fully absorbing the calories then they also aren't fully absorbing nutrients, which can lead to poor health.
But more often it's because they don't overeat. Either because they simply don't enjoy food as much or because they want to stay thin. People used to call me naturally thin. And I guess I was. I purposely did not overeat which, naturally, made me thin.
And this is precisely why I like to read entire threads before replying. The bolded is nearly word for word what I was going to say.
So, yes, theoretically it's possible that some people don't absorb/process all the nutrients properly. That's not a good thing, though.4 -
Nykkismommy21 wrote: »nutmegoreo wrote: »Nykkismommy21 wrote: »It has to do with their metabolism, and how fast they can get rid of their food. I can give an example. My ex, the father of my children tall and naturally thin yet muscular. Eats and poops within a few hours after he eats. Sorry if TMI. Just being honest. When my sister n law was younger she was adorably chubby ,like in her pre teen years, she ended up getting scarlett fever, she got through that ,after that for some reason her metabolism got turned up.She eats and poops within a few hours after eating. My other ex, the same thing,naturally thin ,eats and poops right away.their bodies process food very quickly and get rid of it.. Me, im always constipated, and I unlike them ,who eat steak,and chips and junk foods, eat fruit ,veggies, drink water,no soda,and poop every other day if im lucky. But then again, im on a medication that leaves me constipated all the time.Anyway thats been my experience. They arent the only ones like this that I know of. But yeah,metabolism is truly like a furnace it burns and stays burning so long as your giving it something to burn, if you give it the wrong things id imagine it to be a nasty ,smokey smelly toxic fire.(sorry i was imagine a fire burning plastic or Styrofoam, kinda like the junky foods,versus clean wood ,orvhealthy foods ) anyway, rambling now. That's my little input .lol. Have a great day.
You know that it's a different meal that they are moving out a few hours later, right? Not the same one they just ate. Maybe look up some information on digestive transit time. It might change your theory here.
It really doesn't matter what meal they're moving the point is they're constantly moving it. They go several times a day.
Its the type of foods we eat which helps us go to loo more often.. junk food definately would stop me from going, but I only eat it occasionally... so, I eat and poop too lol .... but then again, now I am one of those 'thin' people *shrugs*
(edit to add, I am not naturally thin, I have to work darn hard to stay like this, but I'm in year 4 of maintenance)3 -
My Dad will be 65 on Friday. He just retired this year and previously worked as a car salesman for the last 40 years. He's 6'4" and I don't believe he's ever been over 200 lbs his whole life. He'll gain some weight in the winter when he's not as active, but in the summer it just comes off naturally. He eats 3 squares a day, but doesn't eat any veggies or fruits. He eats dessert, he drinks w, but he smokes and drinks beer every day. I truly believe that thin people just move more.
He's just as active now as he was in his 20's. I think the only thing he doesn't do now that he did then was run regularly. He's constantly outside mowing grass, garden improvements, house improvements, etc in the summer. He doesn't stop all day other than to eat. He'll stop around 8pm and watch TV until bed.
Now, my Mom and I aren't as active naturally and struggle keeping our weight stable. We aren't overweight now but have been in the past. We've never been obese. I think our heighest BMI has been 28.
I see that if I keep moving, my weight stabalizes. If I start being lazy, I eat more and my weight goes up.
There is no such thing as "naturally thin" people.2 -
I'm very skeptical of personal anecdotes supporting or refuting a broad claim like 'some people are naturally thin'. These experiences say a lot about the individuals involved, but are they more broadly applicable? (especially if the anecdotes are about genetically related individuals).
Personally, I expect the truth of the matter is much more complex. My opinion is that genetics, activity level, personal happiness, good and healthy eating habits, personal experience of not being able to afford food in the individual's past, societal norms, etc all play a part in how much an individual differs (+-) from normal weight.
Starting at CICO and then figuring out your particular variables that can be manipulated for the better is all you can do. And what is true for you might not be true for the next person. And what is true and works for 'Betty' might not work for 'Veronica' IMHO.2
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