naturally thin people
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Right. But some people naturally burn more than others.As mentioned, basically all "naturally thin" people are just not overeating calories vs what they burn.
Which most of those naturally thin people move a lot more than we think or eat less than you think. It's very common to under estimate your own calories and over estimate someone else.. it's part of human nature. If you saw my brother in law, you would think he is naturally skinny because he eats mcdonalds and cheesesteaks and drinks, but the fact is, he rarely eats breakfast, and when he does eat, it's generally a half of plate. Additionally, he walks a lot.
Again, I WAS one of those people and I live with one of those people. I know how much I moved and how much he moved.0 -
Before you hand out special snowflake buttons you might want to research some overfeeding studies...
Right. But some people naturally burn more than others.As mentioned, basically all "naturally thin" people are just not overeating calories vs what they burn.
Which most of those naturally thin people move a lot more than we think or eat less than you think. It's very common to under estimate your own calories and over estimate someone else.. it's part of human nature. If you saw my brother in law, you would think he is naturally skinny because he eats mcdonalds and cheesesteaks and drinks, but the fact is, he rarely eats breakfast, and when he does eat, it's generally a half of plate. Additionally, he walks a lot.
Again, I WAS one of those people and I live with one of those people. I know how much I moved and how much he moved.0 -
O and my x bff in high school, we were practically attached at the hip...so I know the only exercise she would get was the walk to school and back, which was 3 blocks and walking to each class. She would snack like crazy and wore a size 0. No she wasn't bulimic, yes she would eat high fat stuff, her mom was the same apparently. I was always with her, get ready for school at her house, hang out at school n go hang out at her house until i had to go home to sleep.0
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I believe in genetics and healthy eating habits, my boyfriends mom's side are all skinny as all hell and eat a crap ton. He's 6 foot and weighs 160(this is after he gained weight purposefully) and 28 years old, scarfs down anything he can gets his hands on. His twin is exactly the same! Their mom instilled good eating habits in them when they were young but now that they live on their own they eat not horribly but not as good as living at momma's.
Meanwhile myself, my both my parents are bigger set even their parents. When I stop working out and caring about what I eat for a week, you can SEE the difference on my stomach (first place I gain, always and yet the last I lose from...). When I was living at home our eating habits were horrible and my mom still eats the same way.0 -
I think it's a little true, I think it's genetics and hormones. I have several people in my immediate family who are all very thin yet eat a fair amount, and not always good choices. Granted we seem to also have had a tall gene thrown in as well, my middle son is 6"5 at 16 and the youngest isn't far behind at 14 both are very thin. My brother is the same, at 41 he is only just now starting to look a healthy weight rather than skinny, funnily enough he starting filling out a little when he changed his diet from crappy fast food daily to clean eating during the week and fast food on weekend.0
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Also, my x's aunt...this woman, she would rarely get off the couch, or out of bed, if she needed ANYTHING she would ask one of her 4 kids to get it for her, she would eat fast food at least once a day, and on occasion have it for all 3 meals and she still wore a size 4. I lived with her for a while so I saw she would drink regular Coke all day, eat chips, cookies n candy throughout the day and not lift a finger except to change the channel.0
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The people who are "naturally thin" are the ones that picked up good eating habits or eat less meals (consuming less calories overall). There really is no such thing as naturally thin as you can't be the law of thermodynamics. Now, genetics can determine BMR to a certain extend but it's not going to be much greater than few hundred points.
I disagree. I know people who can eat as much as they want of whatever they want and never gain. I used to be one of those people0 -
This brings to mind two of my best friends since childhood. Let's call one "L" and the other "H".
L is taller than me (shes like 6 foot I think) and she is so so so skinny and literally when we get together to watch movies, she will down an entire container of ice cream to herself and a whole bag of popcorn. Most meals are like that for her and everyone thinks she is just naturally skinny and all but she literally walks everywhere she needs to go even if its across town. The majority of her day is walking. and then she doesn't eat if she isn't eating with someone. Like if she's home alone she just doesn't get hungry. So she is actually getting her days calories in like one sitting and maybe not eating again until the next day in the evening and inbetween she is just walking.
H is about 5'8" and she is skinnier than L. Literally if she turned sideways and you put your hands on her stomach and back, the distance would be about a foot, maybe. Her bones stick out a lot. She is far from anorexic or naturally being skinny though. She is lactose intolerant and it gives her diarrhea when she eats it. So she makes sure to drink a cup of milk everyday and then she doesn't eat a lot at one sitting. Little tidbits all day.
That's just the people that I've been around close enough that I could really observe and it showed results that would probably work for about anyone. I don't believe people are just skinny because they just are unless the very few that have an overactive thyroid.
Kind of like when I had to stop referring to myself as "big-boned" and making excuses about my thyroid or hormones causing my problems.0 -
Interesting topic. I think body weight is influenced by genetics, diet, and lifestyle. While we know a great deal of things about the human body I'd argue that this is so much more left to be discovered. Things such as thyroid conditions are areas where I could see significant knowledge gains down the line.0
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I used to be like that. I was the kid at the birthday party who always wanted more food, an extra slice of cake, six pancakes even if my stomach was stuffed, and all that stuff. And yet growing up I was referred to as a stick or a twig because I was so skinny.
So sure I stuffed my face and it was okay, but the key to it was what happened the next day. The next day I skipped breakfast because I didn't feel like it and then completely forgot about lunch. So I was sort of following a modern diet plan without even knowing it. I ate like a beast one day then the next I probably managed about 600 calories.
I hate to think of what I did to my system back then....
My eating habits didn't really become a problem until I started to eat more consistently and I didn't know when enough was enough.0 -
My son is this way. He's now 20 & is a little bigger than me now. I can fit into his jeans, his shirts & still have plenty of room. But he eats like a horse (actually he eats like a Labrador) and does not put on more weight.
I am a bit like that now, but that's through doing more exercise & fasting.0 -
Kids and teenagers and even some young adults can eat and eat and eat because they are growing. But, when you stop growing it needs to shift in some way (even if you don't realize it has shifted).0
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is there anybody who can eat a lot & still not gain weight?
Yes, but she has irritible bowel and doesn't properly absorb food/nutrients in her digestive tract... So, I hardly think that counts.0 -
my best friend! always eating out, has 2 kids as thin as a stick. her mother is the same way they never gain weight. to top if off they don't exercise. I am just jealous jealous jealous!!0
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is there anybody who can eat a lot & still not gain weight?
Yes, but she has irritible bowel and doesn't properly absorb food/nutrients in her digestive tract... So, I hardly think that counts.
I wonder how quickly food passes through you does matter. I'm of the "no special snowflakes" mind but I've known young men who while they may not have IBS (or at least it's undiagnosed) their food seems to pass through them in record time, and they have trouble keeping weight on.
I have an exotic pet (a ferret, which is a mustelid, not a rodent) that eats a LOT more of a percent of his body weight than my dogs but also poops a LOT more. He eats and poops every few hours, 24 hours a day. An advantage of a very fast digestive system is they can eat decaying meat in the wild and not get sick. Nothing is with them more than a few hours, including outside bacteria that would make the rest of us sick. He must 'waste' a lot of calories.0 -
When I was a teenager, I ate like a pig (quality and quantity), I moved a lot less, and my weight stayed constant at 125 pounds. I did not pick at my food or eat slowly and if I was sitting, I was eating. I do not think that I am a special snowflake or that I defied the laws of thermodynamics, but obviously, my TDEE was quite high. And it had to be due to genetics, because I was quite sedentary as a teen. Unless extreme TV watching is a sport.
My "set point" stepladdered through my 20s (125 to 130 to 135 and so on), even though I worked out and ate a little healthier. From late 2011 to the beginning of this year, I stopped working out altogether, didn't eat nearly as much as I did as a teen, and the result was a 30 pound weight gain. Now, I'm eating less, exercising regularly, and the weight is coming off slowly. If I could go back 10-15 years, I would tell my younger self not to take my body's energy needs for granted because it wouldn't always be that way.0 -
Once again, when you're young and growing you're burning more calories for your mass than a mature adult. how much more would, I imagine, vary drastically from kid to kid dependent on how fast they are growing at the time and how much LBM vs fat they're putting on.
Looking at my best friend through middle school and high school you'd have thought she was 'naturally thin' compared to me. We were active about the same amount - very. Lots of tree climbing, horse riding, outdoor activities, esp. swimming. But she ate at least double what I did and stayed thinner. As an example, I'd eat one or two pancakes with syrup, and she'd eat a stack of five slathered with jam and coated with powdered sugar. And she ate like this all the time. I know, because we were practically joined at the hip. Seems impossible, right?
Well, in that period of time, I grew from ~4' 8" to 5' 1" in fits and starts (saved the last couple of inches for college). She grew from ~4' 9" to 5' 10" in a pretty linear way. So, not only was she growing much faster, she also had a larger total and lean body mass to sustain.
On the other hand, the situation was reversed in college. I ate more than it seemed like I should have been because I was still growing. I actually lost the freshman 15, and put on another 2" in height.0 -
To an outside observer, the difference between "eat whatever they want" and "have to watch what they eat" aren't necessarily aligned with "eating a lot of calories" and "eating a few calories", respectively. Consistently 300-500 daily calories difference can be imperceptible *even to the person doing the eating* unless (and sometimes even if) they log and can mean the difference between being a "not obese" weight and being "obese". (500 daily calories is 50 pounds in one year...(and yes, ignoring the increase in TDEE from just being heavier, so it eventually levels off...but it's still "not obese" vs. "obese")0
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in for later0
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I have disagree with just about everyone that said that "its just because they dont eat as much". Genetics plays the BIGGEST part in it.
My mother-in-law is 49 yrs old (way past the point when her metabolism should have slowed down), does not exercise at all, and eats between 2000 and 2500 cals a day. She should be putting on weight, correct? In a 2 week time span she lost 2 lbs, going from 98 to 96 lbs. She is 5'0".
My husband is the same way. He is 5'9" and he has never been over 155lb, and the only reason he go up to that, was because he was in Marine Corps boot camp and he was a "Double Rat" meaning he got double rations everytime the ate. He is currently under 135lbs.
Our son, is only 2 and is in the less than 3 percentile, meaning he is smaller than 97% of all kids his age. We are currently struggling to put weight on him, and short of hidding fishing weights in his diaper, I dont know what else to do.
So, any suggestions or insight into how 3 generations could have such low weight and BMI and it NOT be genetic, I would love to hear them.
Well, my mother is 62, 5'3, and doesn't exercise at all either. She eats around the same amount. She's not "naturally thin" - she does gain a few pounds when she eats more than that, and she loses weight when she eats less. She is a teacher,so she's standing up all day. When she comes home she moves around a LOT. She hardly ever sits down to relax, she's constantly in motion, and because of that her TDEE is a lot higher than most women her age and build. My dad is 63, 5'5, retired, and goes to the gym 3x a week. He eats a lot less than she does and maintains at a much higher weight. It's not because his BMR is that different, it's because he doesn't move NEARLY as much as my mom does, even counting the exercise.
All of my cousins are what you would call "naturally thin" size zero/XXS and I used to think they could eat whatever they wanted. They eat junk food all the time and have been underweight since childhood. They don't exercise either. But after paying close attention I realized that they just don't eat that much food. I mean they're probably consuming like 1400 calories a day, kind of thing. They eat cake and sweets every day but most of the time they're subbing a slice of cake for lunch or dinner. There really is no such thing as people who can eat more than their TDEE and not gain weight. If you force-fed them above their TDEE for a while, they'd gain weight.0 -
is there anybody who can eat a lot & still not gain weight?
Yes, but she has irritible bowel and doesn't properly absorb food/nutrients in her digestive tract... So, I hardly think that counts.
If you have a tapeworm, that is entirely possible as well.
Also, darkly, people with widespread cancer also are burning a lot of calories as those cells divide.
moon moon0 -
The people who are "naturally thin" are the ones that picked up good eating habits or eat less meals (consuming less calories overall). There really is no such thing as naturally thin as you can't be the law of thermodynamics. Now, genetics can determine BMR to a certain extend but it's not going to be much greater than few hundred points.
I disagree. I know people who can eat as much as they want of whatever they want and never gain. I used to be one of those people
because "as much of whatever they want" is still less than their/your TDEE
i don't understand why this is so hard for people to understand0 -
So what you're actually saying is that as you age your metabolic rate slows?I'm not saying that. I'm saying that my metabolism at the time allowed me to burn massive amounts of calories with little effort. It has since changed.
Of course you will gain/not lose if you eat more than you burn or the same amount that you burn. I'm saying I was burning a lot of calories without trying, thus it was pretty much impossible at that time to out-eat my metabolism.
My fiance looks just like his mother, who is also tiny. She actually has hypothyroid. His daughter is 5'6" and weighs 90 pounds.
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition0 -
I'm naturally pretty skinny, but I have fatty deposits as well
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I recently started to eat more healthy and working out: I really want to get fitter!0 -
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I always assumed that my dad was naturally thin (as was the rest of his family) but once I really paid attention to his habits, I noticed he never eats very much at one time. The man eats nothing but chocolate and fried food but he eats really small portions. He will take a bite of a brownie and put the rest away. It seems like he is always eating but it's always just a few bites.0
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I hope I can work hard enough to be naturally thin one day...0
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Everyone is not exactly the same, i weigh more than i have ever weighed but much less than many, many people. I do believe my body efficiency or my metabolism is a little better than most.
The funny thing is, from time to time, people who are overweight give me " eating" advice.
Yes, i'd like to be smaller/thinner but am and always have been within my normal BMI -- unlike in other areas, here people don't ask the experts.
The first thing i would tell someone is, "don't eat if you're not hungry".
The world is a different place for those of us who have never been overweight.0 -
Interesting topic. I think body weight is influenced by genetics, diet, and lifestyle. While we know a great deal of things about the human body I'd argue that this is so much more left to be discovered. Things such as thyroid conditions are areas where I could see significant knowledge gains down the line.
^^Good post.0 -
Everyone is not exactly the same, i weigh more than i have ever weighed but much less than many, many people. I do believe my body efficiency or my metabolism is a little better than most.
The funny thing is, from time to time, people who are overweight give me " eating" advice.
Yes, i'd like to be smaller/thinner but am and always have been within my normal BMI -- unlike in other areas, here people don't ask the experts.
The first thing i would tell someone is, "don't eat if you're not hungry".
The world is a different place for those of us who have never been overweight.
Yeah, I do agree that this could be true. Our metabolism may be higher because we never had an extreme calorie restriction (or not in a very long time or not for a long period of time).0
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