What do you think of people who are naturally slim?

dmt4641 wrote: »

kimny72 wrote: »

People who say "I'm not fat, I'm big-boned" are the same as people who insist they have slow metabolisms, undiagnosed medical conditions, and genetic pre-dispositions.

There is someone in my family like this. Always blames genetics, thyroid, etc. for weight. They have had tests run and nothing physically wrong. They were put on a stimulate/metabolism drug from doctor and lost weight due to loss in appetite, but gained weight back when came off the drug because no lifestyle changes were made. The real problem is they eat very calorie dense foods daily, hate vegetables and don't exercise enough to compensate. A lot of people in the family tip toe around it and feed into the victim attitude, which drives me crazy because it is not helping anything. This person also says things to me like, "you are so lucky that it is easy for your to lose weight." It is not any easier for me than it is for you, I get hungry sometimes and choose to eat chicken and salad instead of tasty pizza most days. I workout at the gym 4-5 days a week.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. Some people get annoyed by "naturally thin" people because they think it is not fair. Others get annoyed by people playing the victim that could be "naturally thin" if they just made different choices.

This is a good point that I want to expand upon. Aside from my highest weight of 190 pounds in high school, I have never ever went above 140 pounds. I have been between 111 and 140 pounds since the age of 19 and only get as high as 140 if my activity level drops. I'm talking to the point of never getting out of bed which only happened a few times in my life where I was dealing with a large amount of stress. Other than that, I sit around 115, even if I don't watch my intake too closely.

I'm 5'3" and 108 pounds now. People consider me naturally slim and make comments about what I probably do or don't eat or how much exercise I probably do each day to maintain my weight. They never believe I was ever 190 pounds. The only reason I was ever that weight is because even though I still didn't eat a lot, I ate calorie dense foods whenever I did. My mother didn't cook meals or send me to school with lunch, so lunch would be Skittles and M&M's from the vending machine or sausage biscuits from McDonald's because they were 2 for $1. Then when she'd get home from work, she didn't want to be bothered and throw money at us to order fast food. I'd be so hungry at that point it was easy to polish off a large pizza, supersize meal, or a Chinese food combo meal by myself. The only things stocked in the house were things like soda, ice cream, chips, etc. My mother has always been and probably always will be overweight due to her habits, denial, and excuses. Once I turned 18 and was able to take responsibility for my own food choices, I immediately went from 190 to 115 in a bit over one year. I even ate more frequently, but gravitated toward more nutrient dense and less calorie dense food and the weight came right off.

dragon_girl26 wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

gonetothedogs19 wrote: »

RachelElser wrote: »

Some people are naturally slim. My friend is just a little over 5 feet, 110 lbs soaking wet, near 40 years old with a kid. And I've seen what she eats. She's Italian and Sicilian so lots of pasta and she drinks regular soda. She also has great skin and looks 10 years younger then she is!

Yes, another naturally slim person.

But here come the comments - "she's really not eating as much as you think she is eating," or, "she's secretly running five miles a day and not telling you," or, "you don't know how much running around she has to do with that kid."

Denial, denial, denial that there are naturally slim people because they have fast metabolisms.

Metabolisms do vary, but not greatly given same size and body composition. Often people who eat a lot without gaining as much as expected simply aren't absorbing as much of what they eat as others. While metabolic rates don't vary greatly, guts do.

Right, plus, as already been established, "lots of" pasta means different things to different people. I've lost weight eating while still eating lots of pasta. My definition of lots of pasta has also changed over the years. Pasta in and of itself doesn't make overweight unless you consume too many calories.
Additionally, we can't glean from the original comment how this person eats the rest of the time when not with company, how active they are, etc... if she follows something like the Mediterranean diet, the basis for being able to eat that way is also to be as active as possible.

To look at this one offhand example and make the blanket statement "see, this person is naturally slim" without also having this info to examine is jumping the gun a bit.

Her mom makes the pasta. It's SO FREAKEN GOOD!! Way better then store bought. Although when she cooks she will use Barille or whatever is on sale. We worked nights at a hospital so we saw each other 12 hours a day for three years. We actually talked about her weight- not meanly or anything! She said she's always been little, and if she ever gets fat her relatives will throw a party to celebrate. She didn't gain anything extra when she had her baby and quickly lost it after he was born.

When I say she is naturally slim, I mean that she eats what she wants when she wants without measuring, worrying about calories, has no eating disorders and is slim.

RachelElser wrote: »

dragon_girl26 wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

gonetothedogs19 wrote: »

RachelElser wrote: »

Some people are naturally slim. My friend is just a little over 5 feet, 110 lbs soaking wet, near 40 years old with a kid. And I've seen what she eats. She's Italian and Sicilian so lots of pasta and she drinks regular soda. She also has great skin and looks 10 years younger then she is!

Yes, another naturally slim person.

But here come the comments - "she's really not eating as much as you think she is eating," or, "she's secretly running five miles a day and not telling you," or, "you don't know how much running around she has to do with that kid."

Denial, denial, denial that there are naturally slim people because they have fast metabolisms.

Metabolisms do vary, but not greatly given same size and body composition. Often people who eat a lot without gaining as much as expected simply aren't absorbing as much of what they eat as others. While metabolic rates don't vary greatly, guts do.

Right, plus, as already been established, "lots of" pasta means different things to different people. I've lost weight eating while still eating lots of pasta. My definition of lots of pasta has also changed over the years. Pasta in and of itself doesn't make overweight unless you consume too many calories.
Additionally, we can't glean from the original comment how this person eats the rest of the time when not with company, how active they are, etc... if she follows something like the Mediterranean diet, the basis for being able to eat that way is also to be as active as possible.

To look at this one offhand example and make the blanket statement "see, this person is naturally slim" without also having this info to examine is jumping the gun a bit.

Her mom makes the pasta. It's SO FREAKEN GOOD!! Way better then store bought. Although when she cooks she will use Barille or whatever is on sale. We worked nights at a hospital so we saw each other 12 hours a day for three years. We actually talked about her weight- not meanly or anything! She said she's always been little, and if she ever gets fat her relatives will throw a party to celebrate. She didn't gain anything extra when she had her baby and quickly lost it after he was born.

When I say she is naturally slim, I mean that she eats what she wants when she wants without measuring, worrying about calories, has no eating disorders and is slim.

This would describe me for about 40 years including all my pregnancies (I did gain weight but quickly lost it without much effort). But, when I began to overeat I gained weight. If your friend begins to overeat, so will she.

gonetothedogs19 wrote: »

stevencloser wrote: »

gonetothedogs19 wrote: »

Whitezombiegirl wrote: »

gonetothedogs19 wrote: »

RachelElser wrote: »

Some people are naturally slim. My friend is just a little over 5 feet, 110 lbs soaking wet, near 40 years old with a kid. And I've seen what she eats. She's Italian and Sicilian so lots of pasta and she drinks regular soda. She also has great skin and looks 10 years younger then she is!

Yes, another naturally slim person.

But here come the comments - "she's really not eating as much as you think she is eating," or, "she's secretly running five miles a day and not telling you," or, "you don't know how much running around she has to do with that kid."

Denial, denial, denial that there are naturally slim people because they have fast metabolisms.

Metabolism is the conversion of energy stores into useable energy. Generally the body only converts energy as required - for growth, movement, repair etc.

A fast metabolism is what - converting more energy than required? Whats all that extra energy doing?

Maybe these people just have greater energy demands. Thats a different thing imo. Its still cico.

"It's still CICO."

Right. Two people of the same height and the same weight. One can eat 1,500 calories a day, do X amount of exercise and not gain weight. The other can eat 1,900 calories a day, do X amount of exercise, and not gain weight. Calories in, calories out. But the second person can eat more calories than the first person.

This is not rocket science.

Understanding that in probability, the further off the average you go in a normal distribution, it becomes exponentially less likely to find someone this applies to seems to be rocket science.

So in other words, every single one of us burns calories at the same rate. We are all different in so many ways, but when it comes to weight gain and weight loss, we are all the same.

Just put your height and weight in the calculator (apparently age does not matter), and assuming the same amount of exercise, you will have the exact same results if you eat the same number of calories. OK sure, if you say so.

You actually do realize that what you said has nothing to do with what he said, right? Just trolling? Because I can't believe you could have misunderstood so badly.

DebSozo wrote: »

My theory about "naturally slim" people is that they don't think much about food other than at meal times, don't get hungry between meals, don't stress eat, and don't eat for comfort. They eat to live, and enjoy large quantities of food on occasion with celebrations but don't overindulge every day. They are aware of body signals of satiety and often eat less for several days after a special night out where they eat more than their norm... etc etc...

For me this rings true. I struggled with my weight most of my life. I was hungry much of the time, constantly thinking about food, had crappy hunger signals. I never was a stress/comfort/boredom eater. When I switched up my diet from lower fat, higher fiber, to high fat, low carb three years ago I found that suddenly I wasn't hungry so much, didn't need to snack between meals, didn't think about food all the time, and could trust my hunger signals. I became a "naturally slim" person. People that haven't known me very long (less than three years, when I dropped the weight) assume I've never struggled with my weight, which is somewhat frustrating in its own right.

I do love seeing the look on the server's face when I order the largest steak available on the menu; even better is the look when they see that I've eaten every bite . I'm sure people witnessing that think I'm "lucky" to be so "naturally slim". What they don't know or see is that I only go out to eat maybe once a month and if I do eat a particularly large meal, I end up eating very little at (or skipping) the next two or three meals.

gonetothedogs19 wrote: »

Well, the good news is that this is my last post because I am getting nowhere.

When I was in my late teens and early 20's, I ate like a horse, out-ate my friends, and I was skin and bones (as were my father, uncle and first cousin when they were in their late teens and early 20's). And I even bought a product called "Weight-On" when I was in college. Didn't work.

I am not a freak of nature. There are millions of others like me. If you want to reject this undeniable fact of life, so be it if it makes you happy.

Did you see a doctor?

Also, it is true that someone basically adult sized who is still growing will need more calories. So what? I am not sure why this is meaningful to the thread topic.