Naturally thin people...what do you eat in a day?

245

Replies

  • Well my boyfriend is super skinny, eats fast food almost every day and has a desk job. He eats plenty of peanut butter sandwiches and he's always hungry, thus, eating often. When he's home, he doesn't get much activity. The way he eats makes me raise my eyebrows and wonder how he stays so thin. So I am a firm believer that there are naturally thin people out there. I may only have one person to base this on, but jeez he eats so bad (and so much).

    Genetics have a big part of determining the way you are. You can overcome it, but some of us have to work much harder than others.

    Edit: I'm not saying that once he's older it won't catch up with him! But his mom is super thin as well, so I wonder...
  • ROBOTFOOD
    ROBOTFOOD Posts: 5,527 Member
    I eat whatever I want. And yes, I was still a stick before I started distance running. 2011, I was 118lbs at 5' 11''. Back then, I ate pizza and drank 2 liters of coke daily. Feel free to browse my diary. It's not the healthiest. Add me too.
  • BusyRaeNOTBusty
    BusyRaeNOTBusty Posts: 7,166 Member
    I didn't mean to offend anyone. I meant to say I assume not many naturally thin are on here because their proper habits keep them from having to do all the counting of calories but it seems I was wrong. My bad! Thanks for all the responses. This has been eye opening and very helpful!

    I think you are looking for someone to say "Ive never been fat, I eat 2 bananas a day to keep thin" and that's just not going to happen. I've never been significantly overweight. Maybe 10-20lbs (maybe 30 just post babies). I don't know exactly what proper habits are. I've always tried to be aware of how things add up even when not actively counting calories, I don't stuff myself, I try to stay active, eat fruits and veggies, etc. But I also eat cheetos, pizza and oreos.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    I agree, they don't exist. They seem to, and I thought they did for quite a long time. Then I started really paying attention to the whole lifestyle package for these "naturall" thin or "lucky" folks and noticed that their eating habits are just different than mine and/or they're way more active than I am/was.

    My mother, for instance, is like one of the previous poster's Mom. She eats a lot of ice cream (we joke she's addicted) but manages to stay thin. This is because she also stays fairly active and eats very lightly most of the rest of the time. She's also careful to monitor her weight and will reign in any extra snacking if she sees she's up more than a few pounds.

    My two best friends have always been slim. One likes to eat a lot like me but she also exercises quite a bit so it balances out. The other is a grazer - she seems to eat all the time but doesn't tend to eat a lot at one sitting and she's also fairly active.

    I could give several other examples. Like that cousin you only see on holidays who is thin but seems to always be stuffing his/her face. They can do that because they workout like crazy and/or most of the time they eat much less. They're just taking advantage of the holiday food like the rest of us. :)

    So we make assumptions and excuses for why they're different than we are. The truth is, no one can deny the calories in/calories out thing. If you eat less than you burn, you lose. If you eat about the same as you burn, you maintain. And if you eat more than you burn, you gain. Because science.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    I'm naturally fit and have an open diary, however, I'm currently in a cut. Just add 400-600 calories of the same food/bowl of ice cream to my current diary (or scroll back a couple of weeks to a maintenance break) for a "normal" day.

    ETA: And there will be no one who "eats whatever they want" but also has a food diary. The act of keeping the diary itself affects food choices.

    That said, nowhere did OP say "eats whatever they want". Someone else interjected that requirement.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Well my boyfriend is super skinny, eats fast food almost every day and has a desk job. He eats plenty of peanut butter sandwiches and he's always hungry, thus, eating often. When he's home, he doesn't get much activity. The way he eats makes me raise my eyebrows and wonder how he stays so thin. So I am a firm believer that there are naturally thin people out there. I may only have one person to base this on, but jeez he eats so bad (and so much).

    Genetics have a big part of determining the way you are. You can overcome it, but some of us have to work much harder than others.

    Edit: I'm not saying that once he's older it won't catch up with him! But his mom is super thin as well, so I wonder...

    Part of this is the fact that he's male...as a 5'10" male, even sedentary with my desk job and no deliberate exercise I can maintain on 2400 calories or so pretty easily...which leaves a lot of room for fast food, PB&Js, and plenty of snacking. People still think I eat a lot of food now...I don't particularly think so...I take in around 2800 calories to maintain and I do exercise but not to an excess and I have a desk job.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
    "Naturally thin people" eat a certain number of calories that keeps them within their TDEE range, so they do not gain weight. It's not WHAT they are eating, it is HOW MUCH they are eating, in relation to how much their body needs to maintain that weight.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    Well, there are people whose tastes and appetites and hunger mechanisms are naturally tuned such that they literally can and do, "eat what they want, as much of it as they want, whenever they want" and don't become overweight.

    But you aren't going to achieve that by copying their eating habits.
  • ndrec
    ndrec Posts: 31 Member
    It's a fallacy. They SEEM like they eat whatever. But, if you follow them around all day for a week, you'll find that 1) they never ever snack. When they eat, they eat, but they don't eat a lot in a day. They might eat one big meal, and then the other meals are small or they skip them. For instance, maybe no brekky, a huge lunch with people at work, no snacks all day, then they go home and have a small nibble for dinner and that's it. You really don't know unless you are with them all day and night for at least several days.

    While there might be a few cases of this, it's not that common, and I think mostly it's BS. It is CICO and that's all it is. They only SEEM like they eat whatever they want, but they don't eat a lot of calories at the end of the day.

    not true. I eat 3 meals and snack in between and am usually around 1600-1800 calories a day.

    You completely missed my point.

    I'm not sure you even understand what this thread is about.

    seeing that I am naturally thin and I responded to the OP accordingly, I'd say I actually do know what this thread is about.

    Not if you're tracking calories. She is asking about people that seeminly eat whatever they want with reckless abandon and stay skinny. To which, I call BS. There is probably no one in this world like that, and if there is, they might have a medical issue they need looked at. Just like someone that eats 500 calories a day and is huge. If you take it the opposite way, no one would argue that it's normal, and they would say, "go see a doctor". No one "eats whatever they want" and stays skinny. People that seem naturally thin have a good hungry/full meter and they usually don't eat as much as people think.

    but, she asked for open diaries that she could copy..... I was tracking to make sure I was eating enough food. Now that I know how many calories my meals are, I no longer track.

    But, you don't eat whatever you want. That's my point. People that are "naturally thin" don't eat whatever they want. That way of thinking is flawed.

    ok, not crazy amounts, no. I do eat what I want, just in moderation. I used to, however eat any and everything and never weighed more than 135 pounds.

    thank you. I know. That's exactly my point. Fat people think that skinny people "eat whatever they want". It's a very skewed view of the issue. They don't "eat whatever they want". It's very modified and they stop when full. Fat people don't stop. But, it's confusing to someone that doesn't have moderation as an option.

    I'm one of those too. But, I learned something. When I hung out with my fat friends, I couldn't believe how much they would eat. Maybe in HS or so, I stayed with a friend for about 3 or 4 days. I couldn't wait to get out of that house. The amount of food they ate just blew my mind. I was so happy to get home and just get back to my normal eating. But, in my own world view, "I ate whatever I wanted", but when you compare that with someone who is overweight, you will see that the two points of view are very different.

    i completely agree as i was that skinny "eat whatever" guy before i turned 22 and got friends with same patterns. Yes, i ate whatever i wanted but those were really modest amounts of food. i never snacked and there were times when i would work on something and completely forget to eat.
    my parents and some of my friends are like that also. if you were to ask "naturally thin" people wheather they would like to eat something and they are not that hungry whey would rather choose not to eat because they are not bothered with food. i was that way. i couldn't care less about food, i didn't have favourite foods which i couldn't turn down even if i was full.

    Later on i started enjoying junk food and did a "see food" diet basicaly and by the time i turned 28 i was a skinny fat slob going to the plain fat department quickly. Think pizza, sandwiches, burgers and lasagne and alcohol. i am 6.0 and was 150 lbs when 22 and february last year i measured 198 lbs, so i reckoned i needed to do something about it.
    now i'm 156 and slowly gaining and lifting.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    Though there may not be many of you on here, I am just really curious to see the everyday diet of a naturally thin person. Does anyone have an open diary they'd be okay with me looking out or just copying and pasting a sample day?
    People who SEEM naturally thin just eat at their maintenance, and they know when they've had enough food.. If they ate over their TDEE they would gain weight just like anyone else.

    It's not about what you eat but how much.

    My diary is open, and I am maintaining my goal weight.
  • Kixshots
    Kixshots Posts: 74 Member
    I used to think my brothers were naturally thin, now that I have learned better habits and I have more knowledge , I notice that when they eat a huge plate of roast dinner or more than half of a dominoes pizza, that they haven't eaten breakfast or lunch ... and we live in wales now so there are incredibly steep hills everywhere which really take the breath out of you and they go out a lot ..

    In fact now that I've leaned out a lot, I actually think they undereat for 6ft tall young men xD (they are very skinny ) whereas when I was overweight I used to wonder why they were eating the same meals as me and weren't my size.... they were just eating less frequently and were much more active. and well.. they are tall dudes and I'm a short girl so yeaaa.
  • sjohnny
    sjohnny Posts: 56,142 Member
    Though there may not be many of you on here, I am just really curious to see the everyday diet of a naturally thin person. Does anyone have an open diary they'd be okay with me looking out or just copying and pasting a sample day?

    The three "c"s. Cocaine, Coffee, Cigarettes.
  • Cranquistador
    Cranquistador Posts: 39,744 Member
    Back in the day when I could claim this, my diet consisted of ice ceam, pizza, chicken wings, Little Debbie snacks and 3,000-plus calorie restaurant meals.

    I know people don't think it's possible to eat that much and be thin, but I did. I had no idea how many calories I was even eating back then because I didn't track and I ate smaller amounts of food (by volume) that was VERY calorie dense. And, no, I didn't exercise much at all.

    But when I turned 28, my metabolism decided to take a nosedive and now I eat a fraction of the calories and can't lose for trying. :-(
    how are you trying? Do you weigh and measure all of your food?
  • MrsG31
    MrsG31 Posts: 364 Member
    I was "naturally thin" growing up...heck, I'll say it, I was skinny. I ate whatever the heck I wanted. When I went on my first date with my now husband, my own father told him to take me someplace that served a lot for the cost because I ate like a horse! But I also.....

    -had been taking dance since I was 10 and was up to 5 classes a week in 8th grade
    -rode my bike all over town and later rode my gravity board all over town
    -took up swing dancing in my late teens/early 20's
    -I tend to be on the side of people who believe that metabolism's are real and do tend to slow down as you get older, and it usually occurs to women before men

    Then I grew up, got a desk job, drank lots of beer and stopped being active....and gained weight.
  • sjohnny
    sjohnny Posts: 56,142 Member
    Back in the day when I could claim this, my diet consisted of ice ceam, pizza, chicken wings, Little Debbie snacks and 3,000-plus calorie restaurant meals.

    I know people don't think it's possible to eat that much and be thin, but I did. I had no idea how many calories I was even eating back then because I didn't track and I ate smaller amounts of food (by volume) that was VERY calorie dense. And, no, I didn't exercise much at all.

    But when I turned 28, my metabolism decided to take a nosedive and now I eat a fraction of the calories and can't lose for trying. :-(

    Are you weighing and measuring all your food?
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    It's a fallacy. They SEEM like they eat whatever. But, if you follow them around all day for a week, you'll find that 1) they never ever snack. When they eat, they eat, but they don't eat a lot in a day. They might eat one big meal, and then the other meals are small or they skip them. For instance, maybe no brekky, a huge lunch with people at work, no snacks all day, then they go home and have a small nibble for dinner and that's it. You really don't know unless you are with them all day and night for at least several days.

    While there might be a few cases of this, it's not that common, and I think mostly it's BS. It is CICO and that's all it is. They only SEEM like they eat whatever they want, but they don't eat a lot of calories at the end of the day.

    not true. I eat 3 meals and snack in between and am usually around 1600-1800 calories a day.

    You completely missed my point.

    I'm not sure you even understand what this thread is about.

    seeing that I am naturally thin and I responded to the OP accordingly, I'd say I actually do know what this thread is about.

    Not if you're tracking calories. She is asking about people that seeminly eat whatever they want with reckless abandon and stay skinny. To which, I call BS. There is probably no one in this world like that, and if there is, they might have a medical issue they need looked at. Just like someone that eats 500 calories a day and is huge. If you take it the opposite way, no one would argue that it's normal, and they would say, "go see a doctor". No one "eats whatever they want" and stays skinny. People that seem naturally thin have a good hungry/full meter and they usually don't eat as much as people think.
    True. I always thought my younger brother was naturally thin. I told him this one day not long ago and he said he's not but simply burns the calories with an active job. He also doesn't eat breakfast, eats 2 meal a a day and a candy bar for a snack. He also stops the moment he's full. My mother and dad used to be the same way.
  • lizzyclatworthy
    lizzyclatworthy Posts: 296 Member
    After I read 'naturally thin, the skinny girl rules' I watched what my skinny best friend eats and how she eats. she stops when she is full. it's not something I have mastered even now so I can only have a certain amount on my plate. she wanted to go to an eat as much as you like buffet the other day, I just couldn't do it. (mostly because of access issues and a massive staircase) so we went somewhere I could order a reasonable meal.

    a few people have mentioned how helpful they found the book. I swear I am not on commission, I just found it helpful
  • DianaGabriela2013
    DianaGabriela2013 Posts: 108 Member
    Go to the gain weight forum and you will get different response.
    Everyone here seems in denial that there are people who can eat a lot and not gain weight.
    Did I meantion I was one of them? I think my metabolism changed after age 25 or so because my activity level did not.
    And I was not intune with when i was full. I ate A LOT, not really active person, I hate sports.
    So there are people out there who eat alot and dont gain. However you will NOT find them here. All your answers here will be biased, because everyone here does NOT have that problem, and lots people here can not see beyond there own experience or point of view.
  • LiftAllThePizzas
    LiftAllThePizzas Posts: 17,857 Member
    People that are "naturally thin" don't eat whatever they want. That way of thinking is flawed.
    I ate whatever I wanted, however much I wanted and up until my 30's was not overweight.

    People here seem to be using a different definition of "want" than the one I've been familiar with all my life.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    Go to the gain weight forum and you will get different response.
    Everyone here seems in denial that there are people who can eat a lot and not gain weight.
    Did I meantion I was one of them? I think my metabolism changed after age 25 or so because my activity level did not.
    And I was not intune with when i was full. I ate A LOT, not really active person, I hate sports.
    So there are people out there who eat alot and dont gain. However you will NOT find them here. All your answers here will be biased, because everyone here does NOT have that problem, and lots people here can not see beyond there own experience or point of view.

    I don't think anyone is denying that you can eat "a lot" and not gain weight...

    ...just as long as the "a lot" is less than or equal to TDEE.



    I maintain on 2700 calories net. To many people, that is "a lot"...but it's *my* TDEE (without additional exercise).
  • elisa123gal
    elisa123gal Posts: 4,324 Member
    the naturally "thin" people I've witnessed eat what they want..but they don't finish everything and often are not hungry all the time like the rest of us. haha. I've also noticed the few I know don't like mayonnaise, butter, and fats or fast food. the things that put weight on the rest of us.
  • jofjltncb6
    jofjltncb6 Posts: 34,415 Member
    the naturally "thin" people I've witnessed eat what they want..but they don't finish everything and often are not hungry all the time like the rest of us. haha. I've also noticed the few I know don't like mayonnaise, butter, and fats or fast food. the things that put weight on the rest of us.

    I eat *a lot* of butter and fats...and quite a bit of fast food...but it doesn't put weight on me (at least when I'm not trying to gain weight) because I keep the total calories at an appropriate amount.

    TL;DR - I, for one, am not a member of your "rest of us" party.
  • This content has been removed.
  • idk... a bit of personal anecdotal evidence from me, i have a friend who is like 5'6 and ~150 and his diet will consists of things like a whole dozen of krispy kreme donuts, buffalo wild wings, candy, freaking anything a typical 21 y/o would want to eat and still has visible abs. Its pretty irritating when i have to cut on 1800 cals to see my abs. yeah sure this could be attributed to him having much more muscle than me thus a much higher tdee than me but idk a dozen krispy kreme donuts is a lot of calories.
  • MrsG31
    MrsG31 Posts: 364 Member
    Though there may not be many of you on here, I am just really curious to see the everyday diet of a naturally thin person. Does anyone have an open diary they'd be okay with me looking out or just copying and pasting a sample day?

    I am just gonna put my other 2 cents out there.... IN MY OPINION most people who consider themselves "naturally thin" are not going to be MFP members. (I am not counting the ED people on here trying to figure out how to not go over 500 cal a day!) People typically join MFP because they realize they need some help and accountability to get their health in gear, meet nutrition/macro requirements, lose weight/gain weight. If I still had the body and metabolism I did at 16 (cuz there are people who apparently do, even as they get older...but I am not one if them), I would not be on MFP. Because I would not see any reason to count the calories in the Burger King breakfast I had, the cheez its, the ramen noodles, the 4 slices of pizza, the ice cream, and real soda, not diet, that I consumed all day if my *kitten* still looked good in a bikini, ya know? People on MFP who look thin to you now have usually worked their arses of for it! I was working my *kitten* off at 16 too, with all the biking and such...just didn't realize it.
  • Morgaath
    Morgaath Posts: 679 Member
    Back in my early 20s I was 5'9" and 135lbs in the summer, 145lbs in the winter.
    My girlfriend was on a diet and counting calories, so she asked me to track what I ate for 3 days so she could eat what I ate.
    I was eating 4000-7000 cals per day, but I worked as a grass cutter, thought nothing of walking 3 miles to a friend's house and walking back that night. Most of my activities were very active as well.

    I quit being a grass cutter and became a truck driver. I gained 35lbs in 3 months without noticing it, assuming that the aches and pains was just my body not being used to sitting so much. One day I had a chance to take a shower in a room with a full mirror. GAH! I struggled to convince my body I no longer needed to eat everything in sight. I never did get back to being skinny.

    Funny think is, back in my skinny phase I signed up at a gym, got asked what my goal was: To get up to 180lbs.
    I now weigh 190. This is not what I had in mind!
  • lizzyclatworthy
    lizzyclatworthy Posts: 296 Member
    Human flesh.

    is it deeply worrying that you got hotter when you said this?
  • MyChocolateDiet
    MyChocolateDiet Posts: 22,281 Member
    when i was "naturally thin" i was very active. although if asked i only though i worked out occasionally and not anything too regular so it seemed as though i ate whatever i wanted.

    i did.

    but walking around college campus, lifting heavy things for my bulk grocery store job and being on my feet all day for jobs like bank teller and cocktail waitress burned a lot of calories.
  • jmv7117
    jmv7117 Posts: 891 Member
    I fall into that category having never been out of the healthy weight range for age and height but my diary is closed. My Mom used to say I didn't gain weight because I never sat still long enough. For the most part that is true and it helps I don't have a big appetite or much of a sweet tooth plus I've had stomach problems since birth so tend to under eat. I do think that genetics plays a large role in the natural weight tendencies. There are beyond skinny folks on my husband's side of the family - naturally tall, lean and skinny. It's the whole overall frame. His one aunt is that way as is his one sister. I swear you can see through them! One of our kids is just the same BUT like me is hyperactive. Before you ask, I joined MFP to help reach my fitness goals which includes tracking certain nutrients.
  • powerpuffgirl66
    powerpuffgirl66 Posts: 143 Member
    As many have mentioned, the more than likely case is that the friend who can eat anything, is really not eating as much as you think.

    The BBC did a documentary covering this very topic. Here's a link to that part of the documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSOCZZh1CC8