How normal, thin people eat.
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guess i'll never be "thin", then. 1.5 slices of pizza is not/ should not be considered a meal.
This.
Out of curiosity, why couldn't 1.5 pieces of pizza be a meal?0 -
Very similar to my observations.I love to watch people eat. It's what I do everyday. Here's my observations of how naturally thin people eat.
1. They actually do eat less than you think. They may say oh I eat all the time. I'm always eating this and this or you may watch them eat a ton, but thats pretty much it for the day. I can bet they will not eat a full meal the rest of the day they will graze.
2. They arent food motivated. Put a piece of candy ontheir desk and it will sit there.
3. They move more. Watch your coworkers notice who sits,stands and walks. Thin people move more always
4. Their portions are small. I've never seen a thin person finish off a 12 inch subsandwhich, chips, cookie and soda. I've never seen a thin person eat more than 2 slices of pizza and maybe a small salad. There will always be leftovers on the plate.
5. They stop when they are full. Move on actually have to remind themselves to eat sometimes.
I know I'll never be naturally thin my brains not wired that way.
As soon as I noticed all these things, it really stuck to me & made me go, "HOW can I be like this, teach me your ways." Lol I realized I've been yoyo dieting and calorie counting for years. & although I won't completely dismiss everything I learned while counting calories (ie getting enough protein to feel fuller, trying to eat fiber-rich foods, planning meals ahead of time, etc), I really do want to break free of the shackles and truly be able to call my eating habits normal. I don't think its like a completely innate thing that some people can do & other's just can't. I think it's something that can be learned, & I'm going to try & do it.0 -
I think that the BMR number of 1200 is probably bull**** to begin with and that's why naturally thin people can eat below that. I think that BMR is lower than that for a lot of people. This is also why a lot of people on here have trouble eating above 1200 once they start eating healthy food. It's just not really their BMR.0
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Good food for thought, thanks for sharing ..0
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When I was your age, I was one of those naturally thin people. It doesn't always last.0
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This too! I have friends who will get the WORKS. A Volcano Burrito at Taco Bell, those things are huge. Four bites in, they're struggling. About halfway through they're offering me the rest & if I deny (which is rare), it's in the trash minutes later.Yeahh a lot of your points make sense!
But I swear.. some of the naturally thin people I know would eat at tdee or above, from my observation!!
Theres a girl at my office who on the face of it eats loads and should be huge. But from observing her (in a non-creepy way) I've realised that actually she picks at food. She'll order the highest calorie foods or get out a bag of crisps/chocolate, but she will never finish it. And that's how she stays at a nice healthy weight.
When I was younger & even more food obsessed, that kind of thing used to disgust me. I'd think, "how dare you throw away that perfectly good food?!" but now, it's intriguing to me, even motivating. I want to be able to do that too.0 -
Overeating and undereating is mental. For me anyway, I couldn't lose weight until I removed toxic people from my life.
Face your fears and what's eating you (pun intended), then you can move forward.0 -
I love this post! Thanks for sharing. My ultimate goal is not to be a certain weight or size, it is actually to be able eat and be physically active the way normal weight people eat and are active without obsessing about it ALL the time like I do now.0
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I don't want to be thin. I want to be healthy and strong...oooh and have a nice *kitten*.0
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Lots of good points. But I've been overweight my whole life. I don't have the hunger cues most people do. I only feel full if I eat waaay too much, so calorie counting is the only way I can know when to stop.
I see it as a life-long illness. If someone has diabetes, they have to take their medication every day to manage it. Well, I'm prone to obesity so I''ve accepted that for the rest of my life, I'm calorie counting.
This. I may not have to be as meticulous as I am now (and I'm no where near as meticulous/obsessive as some people), but I will always have to be mindful of what I'm eating.
Good post - it's always good to get some insights to be able to figure out what works for you.0 -
I was always thinnest of my friends in highschool and my habits were like this:
I would exercise 2 hours on most days - 1 hour being pretty light (PE) and one being heavy (karate).
I would eat 2nds and 3rds some days and some days I did not eat at all, or would not eat all the way up until dinner.
When I first went vegetarian I lost 10 lbs from snacking only on fruit and veggie.
If I went to a restaurant I would always make myself save half or more so I could enjoy it more than once.
But now I feel like I cant eat without finishing my plate.
I eat for all that exercise, but without doing it for years.
Maybe the bad habits caught up with me
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When I'm not feeling emotional, 1.5 slices is honestly plenty for me, but I'm emotional, so I often eat more.guess i'll never be "thin", then. 1.5 slices of pizza is not/ should not be considered a meal.
This.0 -
Skinny people eat less calories over the span of a day/week/month/etc. Its been proven time and time again.0
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My husband summed it up... some people are just hungry all the time..others are not. Naturally thin people are not hungry that is why they stop and throw half a burger away or forget to eat.
I have to say... I rarely if ever feel full and satisfied. Only after eating a big piece of red meat. other than that... I am hungry all the time. My husband is the same. I feel like my eating life is like jumping from one river stone to another trying to get across the rushing water without falling in and getting wet. I think all day about my meals..the calories...what to eat for a snack..how many calories will I have left. Omgsh.. time to close out.. "I made it for the day!" then i go to bed hungry...wake up ...log in..and start planning my food for the day.0 -
Great Post. My husband and I are dieting together.. He is trying the "thin" observations noted and has been successful in some gradual weight loss. Calorie Counting does not fit his personality. I on the other hand am using MFP religiously to not only track calories but other nutrition which is helping me to feel healthy.
Although it would be nice to think we could all just live like skinny people....some reports suggest otherwise....especially in the beginning of ones weight loss journey,
Leptin and ghrelin seem to be two hormones all abuzz which point to the fact that obesity actually supresses these hunger satisfaction hormones.
As I have moved out of obesity and into the 'overweight" category...I feel that my metabolism is finally starting to kick in despite the thryoid condition I have. Myabe there is some truth to whole hormone obesity relationship?
Hopefully..once I reach my goal weight...I can relax a bit on the calorie counting...but its gonna be another 6 months or so of hard but enjoyable work.0 -
I wouldn't be able to eat that now, let alone before I started having babies.
Actually, yeah people did say that. The thing is it was mainly other skinny people, they'd also comment that I was a fast eater.Before you were watching your intake did you feel like you were eating a ton? Did other people comment that they couldnt believe that you could stay skinny with the way you ate?
But I never really thought I ate a ton, I'd eat 1 or 2 meals a day(3 if I was particularly active) but I'd eat moderate/big meals if I was to eat. I was always more concerned with the quality of the food I was/am eating honestly, too few vegetables, too much fast food.
Always curious about how a thin person thinks when it comes to food. Define what would be a moderate/big meal today. I'll give you my definition of a large spaghetti meal at olive garden restaraunt l as an example. I no longer eat like this, but this was very typical for me 3 cups pasta, 3 cups of sauce, grated parmesan cheese, 5 medium egg size meatballs, two large salad servings, 4 breadsticks, alfredo dipping sauce, fried appetizer lasagna rolls, dessert, 4 refills on a berry drink. Would your meals be comprable to this? Sorry for all the questions but I have theories about why people are fat vs skinny.0 -
this will get criticism I'm sure- but thank you.
Coming from someone who is recovered from an eating disorder, I really think this is a wonderful way to look at a healthy body image. Often times people may get sucked into obsessive tracking. Balancing macros, weighing food, tracking sticks of gum etc... with more work comes more results and it can be a slippery slope. I wish I would have had this take on getting healthy back in high school. I love my body now, and I respect it. That being said, I DONT want to cause myself that much stress tracking and weighing and being a slave to a scale. Through therapy I have replaced my habits and gotten to a point in my life where I am okay with 'doing my own thing' eating only until I am full etc. It would take far to much to explain how I got to this point, but believe me it did not happen over night. or weeks. or months. I just learned to let go somehow. but before that, there was just a big yo yo of being disgusted about weight put on after treatment, starting an obsessive track and workout program, and feeling like a failure if I missed just one thing or forgot to track something... the stress and anguish I was put through did nothing to help me, it only lead to failure faster were I was happy until I realized I put on about 5 lbs and the cycle started again. eating more, doing me, and loving myself has had such a better outcome for my sanity, health, and weight loss.0 -
I think you've made some good, valid, observations. Naturally thin people have learned (or never lost in the first place) the ability to eat instinctively and eat when they're hungry, stop eating when they're full, and just enjoy food for its own sake without attaching any morals to it ("good" food, "bad" food, etc) and so don't suffer from guilt, don't use food to soothe emotions etc....
this can be relearned though, I've been successfully maintaining my weight without tracking my food intake for a while now. I track my intake if I'm cutting or bulking, because if I don't track, I eat at around TDEE (I must be, if my weight is stable) and it takes effort to eat either less or more than TDEE. I don't attach moral values to food, although I do focus on nourishing my body well, i.e. eating good quality healthy foods for the most part, but I don't deny myself anything. If it's not that nutritious or not that healthy I'll just eat it in smaller quantities and less often. I don't have forbidden foods or forbidden food groups.
I think the best way to relearn this, is to track your nutrition, either for fat loss or maintenance, and after a while you just instinctively know how much food you need to feel satisfied but not over-full, and that there will always be more food later, or the next morning. So if while tracking food, I'd eaten my calories for the day, I'd think about what I'd have for breakfast the next day.
One of my biggest NSVs was one time I went into the corner shop, and they had mars ice cream bars, and I fancied one, but without even making an effort thought to myself "not today, I can have one any other day" - I realised I'd spent most of my life in a mindset of "must eat this forbidden food now, I'll never get another chance", due to being conditioned previously into thinking that those foods are rare treats that only come around once in a while. They're not. They always have them in the corner shop, I can buy one any time I like. So I don't *have to* eat one now. And it's the same with leftover food in restaurants. If the restaurant food comes in huge portions, I'll eat about half and take the rest of it home. While I'm doing that, I'm thinking how nice it'll be to eat the same food for lunch the next day, and how I'm getting 2 meals for the price of one. In the past I would have been thinking about how I'm "not allowed to" eat the rest of the food now, which would have made me want to eat all of it. How you think about food, and the availability of food, changes how you behave around food. I suppose it's a survival instinct... if you think you're not going to have a chance to eat a particularly desired food again for a long time (or not be allowed to), you'll want to eat all of what you have right now.
I really like this post, but there's one thing I'm going to add. Part of that learning process is Pavlovian. When people feel a lot of emotional attachment to food, that emotion becomes a proverbial bell. It doesn't matter if you eat out of stress, depression, guilt, or morality. In the end, all you've done is create a trigger for your body to become hungry. For all of the people who are talking about losing the ability to feel hunger properly, this is why. You've broken your natural pattern, or “instinct” as neandermagnon put it. Ironically, this also applies to the inverse side of things. If you neglect to eat, or simply forget because you're too busy, you end up training your body -not- to feel hungry. Both of these situations are dangerous.
Now, most people who go to school or have a regular job end up with very set meals throughout the day. These same people are the ones who only get hungry during “mealtimes”. They've taught themselves to live in a pattern and eventually their bodies respond to this. It's not an intricate science or special genetics. Just simple learning. It does take work, but anyone can simulate these results if they find a trigger and supply the reward. Time is a nice easy trigger, and recording meals on MFP can really help to plan that out. Pay attention to -what- you eat each meal. How many calories are in there? How complex are the nutrients? With a bit of theory and tracking, you can estimate how long it takes to digest something and about when you should be getting hungry later. “Instinct” is more apparent when grazing randomly throughout the day, but it can be simulated well enough by eating properly at similar intervals.
Also, “thin” people are not exempt to this idea. Life has just provided them with different lessons. Yes, there can be some genetics in play, but even Asians are able reach 300 pounds. It's not a rule for genetics to decide everything, it's an exception. Also, as a side note, metabolism is flexible. It can be slowed or sped up very easily. A lot of people on MFP seem to think that if they're born with, or simply have, a slow metabolism they'll never be able eat properly, but that really isn't true. The body will work as hard as it needs to. If you feed it small bursts of food often, it will speed up to get everything done before the next intake. If you have long intervals between large meals, it will slow down to sustain itself during those periods of starvation. Food needs to provide energy until the next meal and your body adjusts to make sure that happens.0 -
Let's aspire to be normal!
....my worst nightmare.....
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This skinny Asian girl I know more than DOUBLED her body weight when she was pregnant! She weighed 220 lbs with 1 week to go, which looked HYSTERICAL on 5'4" frame. Her doctor said it was fine, since she was scrawny to begin with, and everybody just watched her pack on the pounds, because she ate tons of food.
It gets better - she wasn't eating junk food - she got that huge eating stuff she craved: whole milk, Chinese food (the unhealthy kind) and lots of Girl Scout Cookies. You should have seen how fast pasta disappeared into this girl's FACE! She was super-embarrassed when people asked if she was having twins, starting when she was only 4.5 months pregnant!!!
Hahahahahahahaha...!!!
I see that girl every day. In the mirror.
It's nice to see some positive comments and thoughts that don't make assumptions about groups of people and don't put targets on the backs of others. EVERYONE has health/food issues - no one is immune. NOBODY is born with the ability to run a marathon - they practice, condition, train; they sweat, nurse blisters and struggle with self-doubt. At the end of the day, it's the runner vs. the road.
I would like to think that in the MFP community, we're focused on cheering for each other. Doesn't that sound better than 'jeering at the other'...?
@AngieChimpanzee - You're a lovely young woman who writes very compelling posts. I look forward to you leading positive discussions and sharing your insights!
Best to all,
K0 -
My boyfriend is very thin and when he talks about it he says, "I have a very fast metabolism" or "I eat whatever I want, I just don't gain"
Well, I've been with him 3 1/2 years now, and I can tell you, his metabolism is the same as any other man his age and size. He definitely eats a LOT when he sits down to have a meal, but that's maybe 2-3 times a week. He'll eat food I cook, so I've been cooking as much as I can stand, and he'll gain weight if I keep it up. But during the day? He barely touches calories for breakfast. He has 200 calories of smoothie and a coffee before he goes to work. He often does not eat lunch til 1 or 2, then sometimes it's small, and sometimes it's big.
For dinner? He will outright forget about eating if he had a 2 pm lunch that was pretty big. So those 1000 calories he had at lunch? Combine them with the 200 he had at breakfast and that's all he had all day. That's what I net while dieting, and his job involves plenty of physical labor, so he's definitely not eating what he should.
But he IS eating absolutely whatever he wants. Whatever he wants to eat just doesn't add up to very much.0 -
This is exactly what I've observed with my thin friends.0
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Early on in our relationship my husband and I were talking about food and eating. At 59 he is the same size he was in high school - size 32 jeans. He commented...Why would you eat if you aren't hungry. My immediate reply - What does hunger have to do with eating? I am definitely an emotional eater. Working on that and staying away from foods that would trigger a binge. Breaking long long held habits.0
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BUMP - for future reference.0
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Great information! Thanks for sharing.0
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I don't know about this. I'm probably what you'd call "naturally thin" but I'm obsessed with food and enjoy a good binge every now and then. And obviously I count calories, although that's a relatively recent development. I think it has more to do with being active and eating high-quality foods that you really enjoy.0
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Makes me think about what we also teach our children. I know for my first one I never let her be done with dinner until she finished her plate and now as a teenager she has emotional attachments as you described to food. This time around when my little one says I'm ok mom as I try to feed her just one more spoon, I just stop and let her go. I was taught by my parents that throwing away food is disrespectful, so as a mom I felt guilty when my little one didn't finish her last bite and I would finish it so I don't have to see thrown ..0
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They only eat when they're hungry & they know when to stop.
I appreciate your reflection and the time you took to write it. I can't say I agree with everything you said... and unfortunately, a lot of "normal" and "thin" people aren't healthy people.
But I do agree with the quoted statement. Listening to our body cues is something I know I have to work on.
My best to you!0 -
A lot of it is metabolism. My brother would eat 3 whoppers and a bag of doritos for dinner and was 6'5" and had a 28" waist, he was so super skinny all of his bones were sticking out everywhere. I would eat healthy and always had a weight problem. "SIGH"0
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Well written!!
And agree with all... Many of times I’ve been a 4-6 pizza slice kind of girl too... lol
It’s an entire change in our mindset, that’s not an easy transition..
But, we will get there.0
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