Why are slim people slim?

24

Replies

  • xbowhunter
    xbowhunter Posts: 1,309 Member
    Very interesting.

    Me.
    Ages
    0 to 15 underweight because I really didn't care about food & only ate when I needed to.
    15 to 35 overweight after meeting my Italian wife & eating too much high Carb Italian foods.
    35 to 49 Yoyo dieted from obese back to normal weight several times & didn't really know why.

    Fast forward to today. Since January of this year did my research & studied the science behind Macro's and foods to completely remove from my diet because frankly they will kill me some-day.
    Bingo it's like a light switch went on.
    Now I'm back to a normal BMI level & completely understand how I did it & how to maintain it.

    Knowledge is power!!
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    edited May 2018
    I’d like to watch this video sometime when I’m not working :( I find it interesting how people maintain a healthy weight without trying.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    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.

    Yup!

    Case in point: I was on vacation Tuesday and Wednesday last week. I ate *more* than TDEE on both days.

    Thursday, Friday, Saturday? I actually wasn't all that hungry, and ate under TDEE, by about the same amount that I was over.

    My moving weight average? I've lost 1.2 pounds from last Tuesday until today. And that's *with* having cyclical water weight right now.
  • collectingblues
    collectingblues Posts: 2,541 Member
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    Very interesting.

    Me.
    Ages
    0 to 15 underweight because I really didn't care about food & only ate when I needed to.
    15 to 35 overweight after meeting my Italian wife & eating too much high Carb Italian foods.
    35 to 49 Yoyo dieted from obese back to normal weight several times & didn't really know why.

    Fast forward to today. Since January of this year did my research & studied the science behind Macro's and foods to completely remove from my diet because frankly they will kill me some-day.
    Bingo it's like a light switch went on.
    Now I'm back to a normal BMI level & completely understand how I did it & how to maintain it.

    Knowledge is power!!

    Murderous foods... Yikes! I hope my loaf of bread doesn't kill me in my sleep :neutral:

    I mean, some loafs make really awesome baseball bats. A little doughy in the middle, but a good sharp crust can do some damage.
  • serindipte
    serindipte Posts: 1,557 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    serindipte wrote: »
    I'd be curious to see how they were raised. I bet they weren't pushed to be members of the 'clean plate club' or warned about starving kids in Asia/Africa. If I had to hazard a guess, their parents were likely active people, as well and family gatherings likely revolved more around interacting and games in the yard than stuffing their faces..

    Maybe. Who knows.

    I've been "naturally" lean most of my life. I was definitely a member of the "clean your plate club" but my parents never gave me huge plates of food...mostly it was the veggies sitting there that kept me in my chair longer than need be. We pretty much had 3 squares per day and snacking was and is still minimal. Family gatherings definitely involved food...back yard cookouts at my grandpa's or uncle's house were a pretty common Sunday thing...yes, we played games, but we definitely ate.

    Activity wise, we walked the dog regularly as a family, but outside of that my parents weren't particularly active and they were overweight for most of my life. I was active in that I played a lot outside and rode bikes and skateboarded and was involved in competitive athletics from 2nd grade through my senior year in high school.

    I remained very active throughout my 20s...I didn't own a car for much of that time so I walked or biked most places...even when I did have a car, it was usually more convenient for me to walk or bike to university from my apartment than to try to find parking.

    My friends and I were pretty avid weekend hikers...we loved getting into the mountains and smoking weed and enjoying nature. I also worked retail, waited tables, and worked a few summers doing landscape construction.

    All an all, I was pretty active and never gave a thought about food...hungry, then eat. I graduated when I was 30 and took a desk job...that's when my weight crept on. It was pretty slow though...about 50 Lbs over the course of 8 years.



    Thanks for the insight :smile:
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    mulecanter wrote: »
    My cousin is naturally thin. It's because he talks so much he can't finish his meals and he burns so many calories flapping his jaw.

    This will be my 10 year old as an adult.
  • mom23mangos
    mom23mangos Posts: 3,069 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    serindipte wrote: »
    I'd be curious to see how they were raised. I bet they weren't pushed to be members of the 'clean plate club' or warned about starving kids in Asia/Africa. If I had to hazard a guess, their parents were likely active people, as well and family gatherings likely revolved more around interacting and games in the yard than stuffing their faces..

    Maybe. Who knows.

    I've been "naturally" lean most of my life. I was definitely a member of the "clean your plate club" but my parents never gave me huge plates of food...mostly it was the veggies sitting there that kept me in my chair longer than need be. We pretty much had 3 squares per day and snacking was and is still minimal. Family gatherings definitely involved food...back yard cookouts at my grandpa's or uncle's house were a pretty common Sunday thing...yes, we played games, but we definitely ate.

    Activity wise, we walked the dog regularly as a family, but outside of that my parents weren't particularly active and they were overweight for most of my life. I was active in that I played a lot outside and rode bikes and skateboarded and was involved in competitive athletics from 2nd grade through my senior year in high school.

    I remained very active throughout my 20s...I didn't own a car for much of that time so I walked or biked most places...even when I did have a car, it was usually more convenient for me to walk or bike to university from my apartment than to try to find parking.

    My friends and I were pretty avid weekend hikers...we loved getting into the mountains and smoking weed and enjoying nature. I also worked retail, waited tables, and worked a few summers doing landscape construction.

    All an all, I was pretty active and never gave a thought about food...hungry, then eat. I graduated when I was 30 and took a desk job...that's when my weight crept on. It was pretty slow though...about 50 Lbs over the course of 8 years.



    I could have written this exact same post except it was the meat that kept me at the dinner table for hours after everyone left. And my mom limited all candy to Saturday mornings. If I got a sucker from the bank, I had to put it in the candy jar. Then on Saturday mornings I could get the candy jar down and eat candy while watching cartoons. I think that's a reason I ate so much junk food when I became an adult. My activity level just allowed it to not be a problem. The desk job did me in.
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
    I would chime in here with a few things (and not sure that people are going to like this.....not too worried about that...coming from a good, healthy place):

    1. Mindset
    2. Self-discipline
    3. Ownership
    4. Honesty

    The topic is about naturally thin people who don't really put that sort of effort into it, not how people manage to maintain. Your list is conscious things people need to do to maintain. These people do it unconsciously,

    Dang it....missed that boat! Please excuse the rant!
  • ekim2016
    ekim2016 Posts: 1,198 Member
    I was always so slim until I hit 45 ish.. then it began....
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
    I was slim to 25, then had one balloon up about 40# and lose it quickly event, then was fit but technically 8-15# overweight until mid to late 30s. Since age 40 I have been slightly overweight at best but usually more than slightly with weights that put me in the 28-33 BMI range. Now at age 59, I have now been below 25 on BMI for almost 3 months for the first time in over 30 years. A more sedentary lifestyle is a big part of it, but I also had trouble with binge eating which I never had when I was younger. That was definitely correlated to episodes of bipolar depression, a diagnosis I refused to accept for a long time. My weight loss and (so far) successful maintenance correlates with accepting the diagnosis and getting proper treatment.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,966 Member
    I agree with others that activity plays a huge role, not exercise but just moving in general. I never had a problem with my weight, until I got a desk job. And I wore a fit bit regularly for a while and I noticed that on days where I got a lot of steps, it gave me a LOT more calories. moving a lot makes a big difference.
  • MadisonMolly2017
    MadisonMolly2017 Posts: 11,157 Member
    xbowhunter wrote: »
    Very interesting.

    Me.
    Ages
    0 to 15 underweight because I really didn't care about food & only ate when I needed to.
    15 to 35 overweight after meeting my Italian wife & eating too much high Carb Italian foods.
    35 to 49 Yoyo dieted from obese back to normal weight several times & didn't really know why.

    Fast forward to today. Since January of this year did my research & studied the science behind Macro's and foods to completely remove from my diet because frankly they will kill me some-day.
    Bingo it's like a light switch went on.
    Now I'm back to a normal BMI level & completely understand how I did it & how to maintain it.

    Knowledge is power!!

    @xbowhunter
    I’d love to know more about what you removed from your diet. I am taking a similar approach. Would be interesting to share our findings.
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