Do naturally thin people actually think different?

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.

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

janejellyroll wrote: »

DX2JX2 wrote: »

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

I'm not sure how you define "naturally thin," but I know plenty of people in the normal weight range who don't seem to employ any specific strategies to manage their weight and they still have favorite foods, things they prefer to eat, and foods that bring up emotional reactions or memories for them, etc.

Obviously we can never get inside someone else's head, but I don't think it's accurate to say that these people don't care about food as anything but nourishment.

I agree with this. I was thin for most of my adult life and got called 'naturally thin' a lot. But I wasn't. I loved food as much then as now. I chose not to overeat. It was sometimes a struggle but I wanted to be thin. Just like now.

I do know what I consider to be naturally thin people. Those people who don't think about food except when hungry. That stop eating when full. That just naturally don't overeat. That was never me, even when I was thin.

I think it's true for some thin people, sure. But I think there are also "naturally thin" people who do think about food as something other than nourishment, whether it's having favorite foods, disliking certain foods, or having emotional attachments to certain types of foods.

My husband, for example, has never been overweight and doesn't employ any specific weight control strategies (unless he's been actively misleading me for fifteen years, which is always possible, I suppose). But he loves chocolate and has some every single day. He is very particular about his coffee and the type of milk that goes into it. He gets visibly excited about certain meals. His thoughts about food as easily as emotional and attached as mine, the difference is that he is "naturally" satisfied with much smaller portions than would satisfy me.

I think people can exist all across this spectrum, that's all I'm saying.

I've been considered "naturally thin" for most of my life, and I've never been medically considered overweight. I do think there is something to there being a natural mindset that might predispose someone to be in a certain weight range. My mother points out all of the time that she is sure I'll never be overweight because I recognize when I've went over my personally acceptable 5 pound weight fluctuation (in either direction) so I immediately start making changes before it "gets out of control." I do consciously make decisions for healthier eating, and I do workout consistently, so I wouldn't say I'm naturally a size 2 but I will say it does come easier to me to recognize when I'm slipping and do something about it. I absolutely love good food, but I'd rather be hungry than eat bad (as in not tasty) food.

Some people have a mindset/attitude toward food of "eating to live", rather than "living to eat". Some people desire food because it looks/tastes/sounds good, while others look at food as fuel. My goal is to see food as fuel