Do naturally thin people actually think different?

I have a “naturally” thin friend and she eats more sweets then I do though I think she’s better about portion control over all and not overdoing it regularly. She eats out and gets fried foods, sweets, etc all the time but she eats much more sparsely at home.

There is no such thing as "naturally thin".

I absolutely do think this is true. I have a friend who is "naturally thin" and I was always so jealous of her. I couldn't figure out why she was so thin, even though she had an absolutely terrible diet (some days literally nothing but Hot Cheetos and beer, I kid you not)

We spent an afternoon one day lounging on the couch watching a movie, and I brought out a big chocolate bar to share. She had two pieces, and by the end of the movie, the bar was gone. I had mindlessly eaten the rest of it myself. It was a really interesting insight into our differing satiety levels. Some people naturally have a stronger "enough" signal that goes off when eating. She does, I clearly don't. Lol.

I don't think there are naturally thin people. Anyone can gain weight if they eat or drink enough calories.
Just like overweight people don't think the same, thin people don't all think the same.

There are people who are good at maintaining a certain weight for years by eating lower calorie foods most of the time. It might be a taste preference or a choice to eat lighter.
There are people who eat less. It might be due to stress/anxiety, illness or medication, low money, someone else portioning their food, habit or culture.
There are people who are fairly active and thus compensate for higher calorie foods or large portions that they enjoy.

Thought doesn't have much to do with some of those things. If conditions change those thin people could gain weight.

Much like @cwolfman13 I was always "naturally thin" - right up until I got the "professional" job that had me working long hours and sitting on my butt the vast majority of the day. Prior to that, I never really struggled with my weight - a few pounds here and there, but a little calorie counting and it would go away.

After the majority of my days became "sedentary" I piled on a fair bit of weight.

I haven't thought about food any differently before or after. If anything, I was just never worried about it when I was "thin" but it was REALLY obvious that my weight had to do with my activity levels over the course of a day as opposed to my eating habits.

It became pretty obvious that unless I wanted to start eating like a bird (and not care about my physical abilities to do things, compete in my sport, or just in general feel good about what my body could do), that I would just have to make fitness a priority, just like work. It would have to be THAT important to me, regardless of whether I "felt like it" or not.

So, that's where I'm at. Putting in some serious gym sessions, and eventually my body will catch back up, but it's going to take some time. I still have to watch food more than I did then, because of sitting around all day...but dang it, I like to eat, so the workouts at least allow me to consume some "real meals."

Two of my best friends have been very thin their entire lives, they are both in their fifties. Both eat about one meal a day. Neither cook or plan events around food. They don't eat when emotional or stressed. And I've never seen either of them eat a lot, although one does sleep binge at times. Neither exercises, but both keep constantly busy.

Then there's me. Currently about 30 pounds overweight. I start thinking about food when I wake. I plan meals, events around meals, and even participate in cooking contests. I care what goes into my body and exercise.

This is just my +1 and probably means nothing, but I do find it interesting.

Yes - naturally thin people don't tend to care about food as anything but nourishment. There's zero emotional attachment to it.

CattOfTheGarage wrote: »

All the "naturally thin" people I know (my husband and all my in-laws) genuinely don't want food if they're not hungry. That's the main difference I notice.

They also get antsy when they have eaten a lot, and want to get up and go for a long walk or something. It's not necessarily the same day, might be the following day, but it happens. They also eat less on following days.

It's not a difference in how they and I *think*. They barely think about it at all. It's a difference in feelings and reactions.

This is interesting and makes me think about my two cats. One is naturally thin (he doesn't eat every time I put out food but only if hungry, I am sure I could have food out all the time and he would not overeat, he's very active), and one is not (I have to struggle to keep him from being obese, he loves food, he is not all that active now).

One difference I notice is that my thin (actually just normal weight for a cat of his size) cat has hungry days and not hungry days. My other cat loves food, begs for food, watches for food, and if he gets his tail accidentally stepped on he runs to the bowl -- we joke he's an emotional eater. My thinner cat also will usually get super active soon after eating, whereas my other does not. My vet said that it can be really hard to get cats to lose weight (which I experienced), because they tend to reduce activity if you reduce food. I bet that varies too, or the ones that would not react so extremely are the ones who don't need to lose.

I think a few things make me prone to gaining weight if I don't watch it, but for humans it's hard to sort out how much they are "natural" vs. learned.

I don't feel compelled to be active. I like it and tend to be in shape when I am consistently active, but it's really easy for me to also just be sedentary for days. I know people who can't stand that, or respond to stress by feeling like they need to go work it off physically. I know mentally I'll feel better if I go run or something and generally do, but I don't feel like I need to move around.

I'm not super fidgity either. I have more natural movement when I'm in shape, true, but from an early age (I was praised for it as a kid), I've been able to sit really sit and would sit and calmly read when cousins were running around being wild.

I definitely mindlessly eat and use food as boredom or stress relief or emotional numbing. My sister actively does things that keep her thin; I don't think she's more "naturally thin" than me, necessarily, but she does not have this tendency or learned behavior or whatever. I don't get being too sad or stressed to eat, I eat more.

I don't have strong hunger or satiety cues. In a way this is helpful -- I am good about eating only to a planned schedule and can skip meals if I need to. But it also means I don't have a strong impetus against eating way too much, and rarely feel like I couldn't eat more. I control eating by mind, not body. Again, I do think this is something different -- I generally don't feel like a need to eat, but I also will always want to eat if something tasty is available.

I enjoy food and trying new things, it's a hobby. I think this has the least to do with "naturally thin" as many foodies are far thinner than many people who aren't interested in or adventurous with food at all, but I do know people (a former SO of my sister, for example) who just aren't that interested in food or eating. (He was quite thin. If she didn't make dinner he'd often just have some rice for dinner or something like that.) This is another thing that can be helpful in that it means I like to cook and can come up with tasty low cal things, but it's again something where I really have to use my mind, and not rely on just inclinations.

DX2JX2 wrote: »

Yes - naturally thin people don't tend to care about food as anything but nourishment. There's zero emotional attachment to it.

That seems like a massive generalization. Maybe you could say that thinner people are less likely to self-medicate with food, but to say they don't care about food as anything but nourishment? No way. I know lots of thin people who love food, work in the food industry, and so on. They just eat fewer or equal to the number of calories they burn. Sometimes without thinking about it, sometimes with effort.