Why are slim people slim?
Hungry_Shopgirl
Posts: 329 Member
Just saw this ~40 min vid on youtube that asks and answers that question following two slim individuals with hidden cameras for a week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoRh5-gCCrc
I found it super interesting! Especially because neither of them are what I would consider really into fitness or nutrition. They both have what I see as some bad habits (for example, he eats his meals in front of the computer or TV screen, she doesn't "workout" at all).
But basically they have a high NEAT, sleep well, don't drink their calories, self-regulate over the course of the week (if they have a higher calorie day they eat less the next), among other things.
Bottom line is their CI = CO. And it's refreshing to see that in practice in "real lives".
Watch it and tell me what you think!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoRh5-gCCrcI found it super interesting! Especially because neither of them are what I would consider really into fitness or nutrition. They both have what I see as some bad habits (for example, he eats his meals in front of the computer or TV screen, she doesn't "workout" at all).
But basically they have a high NEAT, sleep well, don't drink their calories, self-regulate over the course of the week (if they have a higher calorie day they eat less the next), among other things.
Bottom line is their CI = CO. And it's refreshing to see that in practice in "real lives".
Watch it and tell me what you think!
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Replies
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Super interesting, pretty much what I would expect really. They are unconsciously active, do not really snack and really follow their instincts regarding hunger.3
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I watched this before. I'm a curious person so I watched and asked people that I know that always have been slim about their habits and lifestyle.
From what I see/hear a lot of slim people some eat one medium sized meal a day (probably undereating, but satisfied). They could be really active either with an a job where they are on their feet all day or they walk everywhere.
Others have a high NEAT. They fidget a lot, have a hard time sitting still and always moving around.
Some take a long time to eat a meal and don't finish it or simply don't get excited about food at all. Eating just for sustenance for the most part.
The most mind-blowing thing I noticed was the concept of stopping eating before they got full.
Now years into maintenance I completely get it and live this way myself, but in the past to see someone stop eating leaving yummy, good food on their plates was something I could not wrap my head around.20 -
Took me 2 years to get "slim."
I just ordered a 2nd beer at lunch for no good reason and am not going to finish it.
LOL!
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Omg, I found this myself yesterday, wanted to post, you beat me to it
Common advice, like "eat breakfast, lots of greens, low fat, healthy snacks" are simply not what keeps slim people slim! The video sums up what I have learnt over the last few years, and experienced myself - a happy, relaxed, trusting attitude makes it easy to be active enough and not eat too much. Resentment, anxiety, envy, impatience, all-or-nothing mindset, restraint, on the other hand, just lead to disinhibition. Slim people eat what they want, but they don't eat all the time, and they don't eat too much over time. I particularly enjoyed the part where they demonstrated (and explained) the difference between snack and meal, and eating sitting down and standing up. 10 -
thanks for sharing I always love watching documentaries on this type of thing! So interesting. I like to show these to my friends who insist every skinny person just has a “super fast metabolism”.3
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When I don't sleep enough, my hunger is at its worst! The video is right about that!6
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I do know one guy who either has some weird biological thing going on or has days or part of the day where he offsets what I see. He eats big double patty burgers with large fries, full sugar sodas all day long and when we have a big lunch for some celebration or whatever paid for by the company, he wolfs down apps, has a big meal and dessert. People are always asking him how he stays so thin and he just shrugs his shoulders and says "lucky, I guess". He is fairly active.2
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CarvedTones wrote: »I do know one guy who either has some weird biological thing going on or has days or part of the day where he offsets what I see. He eats big double patty burgers with large fries, full sugar sodas all day long and when we have a big lunch for some celebration or whatever paid for by the company, he wolfs down apps, has a big meal and dessert. People are always asking him how he stays so thin and he just shrugs his shoulders and says "lucky, I guess". He is fairly active.
There is some research that talks about active people partitioning nutrients better.5 -
I only know 3 kinds of slim people: 1) those who work hard at it every day, like me 2) those who are hyper active; "busybodies" and/or too anxious to overeat 3) those who are on their way to not being slim anymore and it's not showing yet.13
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ANYONE can stay slim as long as they aren't over consuming more than they need.
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Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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kommodevaran wrote: »Omg, I found this myself yesterday, wanted to post, you beat me to it Common advice, like "eat breakfast, lots of greens, low fat, healthy snacks" are simply not what keeps slim people slim! The video sums up what I have learnt over the last few years, and experienced myself - a happy, relaxed, trusting attitude makes it easy to be active enough and not eat too much. Resentment, anxiety, envy, impatience, all-or-nothing mindset, restraint, on the other hand, just lead to disinhibition. Slim people eat what they want, but they don't eat all the time, and they don't eat too much over time. I particularly enjoyed the part where they demonstrated (and explained) the difference between snack and meal, and eating sitting down and standing up.
Exactly! Watching this vid makes me think that the advice given to a lot of obese people is to basically become fitness and nutrition buffs, when these "naturally slim" people aren't that at all. They have these small habits ingrained that add up over time.5 -
singingflutelady wrote: »
Thank you for adding that. The only slim chronically ill people I know were slim premorbid, but it is important to acknowledge this as a separate reason.3 -
singingflutelady wrote: »
Thank you for adding that. The only slim chronically ill people I know were slim premorbid, but it is important to acknowledge this as a separate reason.
I'm a chronically ill underweight (18.4 and dropping) person. My "normal" weigh is around 20.5. I get so many comments about how great I look and how lucky I am to be thin because it's awesome to be starving to death.26 -
singingflutelady wrote: »singingflutelady wrote: »
Thank you for adding that. The only slim chronically ill people I know were slim premorbid, but it is important to acknowledge this as a separate reason.
I'm a chronically ill underweight (18.4 and dropping) person. My "normal" weigh is around 20.5. I get so many comments about how great I look and how lucky I am to be thin because it's awesome to be starving to death.
I used to work with the elderly. The best way we put weight on them was add fat and sugar. Basically a SAD.2 -
psychod787 wrote: »singingflutelady wrote: »singingflutelady wrote: »
Thank you for adding that. The only slim chronically ill people I know were slim premorbid, but it is important to acknowledge this as a separate reason.
I'm a chronically ill underweight (18.4 and dropping) person. My "normal" weigh is around 20.5. I get so many comments about how great I look and how lucky I am to be thin because it's awesome to be starving to death.
I used to work with the elderly. The best way we put weight on them was add fat and sugar. Basically a SAD.
I'm low fat because of gastroparesis (fat slows down gastric emptying so makes gastroparesis worse) and sugar above a certain level doesn't agree with my GI tract. It's oh so fun.10 -
some of us care about and enjoy food more than others. period. For those who can take it or leave it.. they are natually skinny. It;s a dead end tryng to relate to them.
understand yourself...modify your behavior to get the result you want. a food lover can never honestly change their behavior to a person who doesn't care much about food.
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Points will be deducted from those who comment based on the title without having actually read the post or seen the video.13
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I think it's the opposite. Watch the video! I have experience with being and thinking like an overweight person, and being and thinking like a normal weight person, so I can relate to everybody in it. Slim people pick and choose their favorites, or rather, favorite. Look at the tiny packs of cookies - cupcakes isn't something he usually eats, and he eats ONE cupcake. They can eat a lot on occasion, but not too much over time, and they will rather pass up eating opportunities if there's nothing they want. They aren't always ready to eat, and don't think too much of it.elisa123gal wrote: »some of us care about and enjoy food more than others. period. For those who can take it or leave it.. they are natually skinny. It;s a dead end tryng to relate to them.
understand yourself...modify your behavior to get the result you want. a food lover can never honestly change their behavior to a person who doesn't care much about food.
Overweight people try hard to limit themselves around food they like, but will eat much as possible of whatever, as long as it's cheap or free and nobody's looking, whenever their resolve weakens, and it does frequently, because so much mental energy is spent avoiding taste and enjoyment and berating themselves and possibly envying others. Overweight people are always ready to eat because they're not sure when the next opportinity arises. Rationally, of course they know they can eat as much as they want at any time, and that that's actually part of the problem, but the other part of the problem is that most food decisions are made irrationally. Not "derangedly", but based on emotions, not just the physical need for nutrition. A diet mentality is self-imposed food scarcity. Lots of advice fails because this isn't taken into consideration.15 -
No real mystery, if you open your eyes.CarvedTones wrote: »I do know one guy who either has some weird biological thing going on or has days or part of the day where he offsets what I see. He eats big double patty burgers with large fries, full sugar sodas all day long and when we have a big lunch for some celebration or whatever paid for by the company, he wolfs down apps, has a big meal and dessert. People are always asking him how he stays so thin and he just shrugs his shoulders and says "lucky, I guess". He is fairly active.5 -
What does this even mean? If you take up all the nutrition in food, you'd weigh more, not less.psychod787 wrote: »There is some research that talks about active people partitioning nutrients better.1 -
https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/calorie-partitioning-part-1.html/
Its lyle McDonald talking about insulin sensitivity. I was speaking of leanness btw.
So what controls insulin sensitivity? As always, a host of factors. One is simply genetic, folks can vary 10 fold in their sensitivity to insulin. Another is diet. Diets high in carbohydrates (especially highly refined carbohydrates), saturated fats and low in fiber tend to impair insulin sensitivity. Diets with lowered carbohydrates (or less refined sources), healthier fats (fish oils, monounsaturated fats like olive oil) and higher fiber intakes invariably improve insulin sensitivity.
Another major factor is activity which influences insulin sensitivity in a number of ways. The first is that muscular contraction itself improves insulin sensitivity, facilitating glucose uptake into the cell. Glycogen depletion (remember this, it’s important) improves insulin sensitivity as well.
So what else controls the P-ratio. As it turns out, the primary predictor of P-ratio during over- and under-feeding is bodyfat percentage. The more bodyfat you carry, the more fat you tend to lose when you diet (meaning less muscle) and the leaner you are, the less fat you tend to lose (meaning more muscle). The same goes in reverse: naturally lean (but NOT folks who have dieted to lean) individuals tend to gain more muscle and less fat when they overfeed and fatter individuals tend to gain more fat and less muscle when they overfeed.1 -
I will admit to not watching the video but just reading the comments. If it is talking about slim people who have been slim all their lives, it's interesting but not really applicable to most of us. I think once you get on the diet bandwagon you ruin the intuitive relationship with food. I know I did when I was 15. And have yo yo'd every since.
Some folks who have been maintaining for years can get back there but many like me will probably never get there. Yes - we can form better habits and I have seen my activity levels increase in general in maintenance but I am sad to say,I am still obsessed with food and the scale and probably always will be.11 -
SummerSkier wrote: »I will admit to not watching the video but just reading the comments. If it is talking about slim people who have been slim all their lives, it's interesting but not really applicable to most of us. I think once you get on the diet bandwagon you ruin the intuitive relationship with food. I know I did when I was 15. And have yo yo'd every since.
Some folks who have been maintaining for years can get back there but many like me will probably never get there. Yes - we can form better habits and I have seen my activity levels increase in general in maintenance but I am sad to say,I am still obsessed with food and the scale and probably always will be.
I'd encourage you to watch the video. Yes, these people have been slim all their lives, which means that a lot of the behaviors that keep their CI = CO are unconscious. But just because we don't do these things unconsciously doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it. We don't do it automatically but we can learn to do it, which means it can become a habit.5 -
Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »SummerSkier wrote: »I will admit to not watching the video but just reading the comments. If it is talking about slim people who have been slim all their lives, it's interesting but not really applicable to most of us. I think once you get on the diet bandwagon you ruin the intuitive relationship with food. I know I did when I was 15. And have yo yo'd every since.
Some folks who have been maintaining for years can get back there but many like me will probably never get there. Yes - we can form better habits and I have seen my activity levels increase in general in maintenance but I am sad to say,I am still obsessed with food and the scale and probably always will be.
I'd encourage you to watch the video. Yes, these people have been slim all their lives, which means that a lot of the behaviors that keep their CI = CO are unconscious. But just because we don't do these things unconsciously doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it. We don't do it automatically but we can learn to do it, which means it can become a habit.
I completely agree. It's entirely possible to mimic these behaviors. For example, I may not reduce my food intake unconsciously after a heavy day, but I can do it consciously. I may not move a lot without noticing throughout the day, but I can move deliberately.6 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »SummerSkier wrote: »I will admit to not watching the video but just reading the comments. If it is talking about slim people who have been slim all their lives, it's interesting but not really applicable to most of us. I think once you get on the diet bandwagon you ruin the intuitive relationship with food. I know I did when I was 15. And have yo yo'd every since.
Some folks who have been maintaining for years can get back there but many like me will probably never get there. Yes - we can form better habits and I have seen my activity levels increase in general in maintenance but I am sad to say,I am still obsessed with food and the scale and probably always will be.
I'd encourage you to watch the video. Yes, these people have been slim all their lives, which means that a lot of the behaviors that keep their CI = CO are unconscious. But just because we don't do these things unconsciously doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it. We don't do it automatically but we can learn to do it, which means it can become a habit.
I completely agree. It's entirely possible to mimic these behaviors. For example, I may not reduce my food intake unconsciously after a heavy day, but I can do it consciously. I may not move a lot without noticing throughout the day, but I can move deliberately.
It would be nice if I could flip the switch so I had to remind myself to eat instead of having to remind myself to limit portions, don't graze on chips and what not that are out at parties/gatherings, etc. I would rather have to make an adjustment if I notice I am getting too thin instead of watching for too much gained.7 -
CarvedTones wrote: »amusedmonkey wrote: »Hungry_Shopgirl wrote: »SummerSkier wrote: »I will admit to not watching the video but just reading the comments. If it is talking about slim people who have been slim all their lives, it's interesting but not really applicable to most of us. I think once you get on the diet bandwagon you ruin the intuitive relationship with food. I know I did when I was 15. And have yo yo'd every since.
Some folks who have been maintaining for years can get back there but many like me will probably never get there. Yes - we can form better habits and I have seen my activity levels increase in general in maintenance but I am sad to say,I am still obsessed with food and the scale and probably always will be.
I'd encourage you to watch the video. Yes, these people have been slim all their lives, which means that a lot of the behaviors that keep their CI = CO are unconscious. But just because we don't do these things unconsciously doesn't mean we can't learn anything from it. We don't do it automatically but we can learn to do it, which means it can become a habit.
I completely agree. It's entirely possible to mimic these behaviors. For example, I may not reduce my food intake unconsciously after a heavy day, but I can do it consciously. I may not move a lot without noticing throughout the day, but I can move deliberately.
It would be nice if I could flip the switch so I had to remind myself to eat instead of having to remind myself to limit portions, don't graze on chips and what not that are out at parties/gatherings, etc. I would rather have to make an adjustment if I notice I am getting too thin instead of watching for too much gained.
Yeah, that would be nice, but for some of us (or at least for me), it's simply not in the cards. I don't like what ifs. It is what it is, so I'll make the best out of what I have and be happy doing it. I feel like "achievement unlocked" every time I manage to discover a new working strategy to add to my arsenal.8 -
Genetics, mostly. The naturally fit people I know have never 'dieted' a single day in their lifetime.
I no longer believe in diets of any kind. Dieting in the teenage years precedes destructive eating behaviors in the adult years. It can lead to a lifetime of being on a diet and then eating it all back. Rebounding with every pound plus friends.
There's no such thing as the finish line with your overall health and wellbeing. Positive behaviors after a lifetime of dieting are not difficult to adopt. Just practice, practice, practice until they become your skills in your wheelhouse.
When you have the equipment you need, new cognitive behaviors..they will give you confidence. Naturally fit people can be consistent or inconsistent with their life choices. They remain at their original factory settings without dieting.
Reverse dieting is my goal. I want to return to my original factory settings. Back to the time when dieting was the last thing on my mind and my weight was always stable. My internal cues were naturally working without getting stuck in the numbers.11 -
Genetics, mostly. The naturally fit people I know have never 'dieted' a single day in their lifetime.
^This. I watched the video and read all of the comments.
I truly feel genetics enters into this to a certain extent. Also different metabolisms?
Whether they are in tune with their actual bodily needs or just "eat to live" instead of "live to eat", and naturally know when to quit.
All I know for sure is that it seems sometimes that all I have to do is look at something and gain weight.
I know that my husband (normal weight) eats at least 5 times as much as I do and never gains. (43 years married) Doesn't seem fair, but that is the way it is.
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I believe that dieting and overrestriction in youth is the number one destroyer of a naturally healthy metabolism.
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