naturally thin people

As mentioned, basically all "naturally thin" people are just not overeating calories vs what they burn.

Right. But some people naturally burn more than others.

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.

Before you hand out special snowflake buttons you might want to research some overfeeding studies...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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!!

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.

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")

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.