Why are slim people slim?

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  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    Also, they have few things they really love.. he loves shortbread cookies, she loves cheese. Bit of those and they are satisfied.

    I love all the things.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    robingmurphy wrote: »
    One thing I've come to realize is a difference between me and a naturally slim person (and I think this documentary reinforces this) is that when confronted with the question "Could I or should I eat?" my answer is pretty much always YES! whereas an easily slim person often answers no, and only yes in limited circumstances. For me, I think: Hm, I'm bored ... maybe I should eat! Hm, there's a bit left but I'm not hungry any more, should I finish it - always yes! Hm, should I eat something now just in case I get a little hungry later? yes! Many easily slim people say no in those situations. I have to consciously teach myself to say no unless my body needs more fuel.

    That would be me as well. I need to make a conscious decision not to eat because I can eat pretty much whenever I have the opportunity. Hunger plays only a tiny part in my default eating decisions. There is no real "I don't feel like it" when it comes to food. I mean, I may not feel like eating something, but eat it anyway because it's there. I had to teach myself not to eat by default and to make my eating decisions count.

    Yup, me too. Without tracking and the discipline to meter out the calories so I will have enough left late in the day, I would get right back where I started. I am hopeful that with time it will get more natural. I am done for the day and will have no trouble getting to sleep; I am not truly hungry. but I could go down to the kitchen and polish off a quart of ice cream if I let myself.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,168 Member
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    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    No one has mentioned their digestive biome possibly being more diverse? Not something to be considered on here.

    It's been a while since I watched the video (it came up in another thread a few months back), but I believe there was some discussion of microbiome.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Fuzzipeg wrote: »
    No one has mentioned their digestive biome possibly being more diverse? Not something to be considered on here.

    It's been a while since I watched the video (it came up in another thread a few months back), but I believe there was some discussion of microbiome.

    Yep.
  • AudreyJDuke
    AudreyJDuke Posts: 1,092 Member
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    Great habits from childhood.
  • CarvedTones
    CarvedTones Posts: 2,340 Member
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    AudreyJDuke wrote: »
    Great habits from childhood.

    I was skinny until about age 30, except for one period of a few months when I was 25. A lot of people didn't have weight problems until adulthood.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    CarvedTones wrote: »
    AudreyJDuke wrote: »
    Great habits from childhood.

    I was skinny until about age 30, except for one period of a few months when I was 25. A lot of people didn't have weight problems until adulthood.

    Typically that's when your activity goes down though. Your eating habits usually don't change dramatically after 30.
  • hesn92
    hesn92 Posts: 5,967 Member
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    robingmurphy wrote: »
    One thing I've come to realize is a difference between me and a naturally slim person (and I think this documentary reinforces this) is that when confronted with the question "Could I or should I eat?" my answer is pretty much always YES! whereas an easily slim person often answers no, and only yes in limited circumstances. For me, I think: Hm, I'm bored ... maybe I should eat! Hm, there's a bit left but I'm not hungry any more, should I finish it - always yes! Hm, should I eat something now just in case I get a little hungry later? yes! Many easily slim people say no in those situations. I have to consciously teach myself to say no unless my body needs more fuel.
    I know, why does it have to be so hard? My son is 10 and when it comes to food he could take it or leave it. Sometimes he will choose to skip dinner. Skip dinner! I’m like how the hell can you skip dinner? I’d DIE lol
  • HoneyBadger302
    HoneyBadger302 Posts: 1,974 Member
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    Honestly, for me, it was just activity level. I have ALWAYS loved food, all food, and eaten a TON of food. All the things, all the time! Weight was never a big concern, if I was getting up a few extra pounds, just cut back on the fast food.

    When it started to go downhill was the transition to a desk job. My (at that time) 30+ years of eating habits didn't change, but my activity level sure did. A few injuries that broke me of my habits of fidgeting all the time didn't help - the little bit of activity I was getting went away.

    I've been working on relearning to fidget again - comes pretty naturally, but still have to think about sometimes. Nothing to be done about the desk job, but making working out a priority is important. I also consciously try to be sure I'm up and moving from my desk regularly. Still a pretty low overall step count in a day though (3200/day average the past week as an example - NOT including gym time).

    Every person is different, and while some may self regulate food, that was never the case with me. If there was food, I was probably eating it. I just had a lot of activity that off set the appetite.
  • oat_bran
    oat_bran Posts: 370 Member
    edited June 2018
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    They both appear to be what is known as intuitive eaters. I live in a country where obesity is quite rare despite hyper-availability and hyper-palatability of food. Many if not most people around me appear to be normal weight intuitive eaters. My roommates and many of my friends are like that. Some of them may eat quite healthily. But others may eat a lot of unhealthy foods, they may eat at irregular times, they may snack, they are not necessarily active. But they autoregulate their intake intuitively. It's actually quite interesting to observe. They just know when to stop eating, even when there's still food on their plates. And If they have a big meal they may not be particularly hungry when the next one comes so they may just skip it or eat less. Or they may feel the need to go for a walk after a big meal. Or they decrease their intake over the next few days. And on days when they just lay in bed all day not doing much they, they also may not feel like eating much. And they do all that unconsciously. They're that in tune with their energy expenditure and intake.

    I always thought that this is how we are supposed to eat and auto-regulate our intake when food is not scarce and we are raised to listen to our hunger cues. But as someone who has struggled with eating disorders for most of my conscious life, I find the whole concept of intuitive eating quite fascinating. Like that guy in the video said, it's enough to overeat by only 100 calories a day to gain a pound in a month. So it's really fascinating that many people can maintain the same weight for years. I dream that one day I'll be able to do that, too, because the thought of having to count calories my whole life is daunting. Though from the accounts of many people here who have been maintaining for years, some people may never learn to eat intuitively and not gain weight.

    I think that auto-regulation is the main reason why they two people in the video are able to stay slim. The habits they have probably do play a role, but I won't be surprised that if they were to start eating more junk foods, take out, snack more or decrease their activity level, they'd still be able to intuitively regulate their intake to maintain an energy homeostasis.
  • comptonelizabeth
    comptonelizabeth Posts: 1,701 Member
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    I've always been thin and in fact cake to mfp to gain weight. I also have a chronic condition which limits what I can eat but I developed that around the age of 45 (am now 62)and was thin before that. I have now put on weight with the help of mfp which has given me a lot of insight into why I've never been able to gain.
    I don't eat when I'm not hungry. I will leave food on my plate - I stop eating when I feel full. If I've eaten a lot on one day I tend to eat less the following day. And, I am never still! Gaining weight has been hard because I've had to change some of those habits - eg carry on eating even when I feel full. And I'm not a grazer - I see friends tucking into big bags of crisps after eating a full meal and I might have a couple, if they're available, but I don't crave it and tend not to have stuff like that in the house.
    Like another poster above, I have people tell me I'm lucky to be able to eat what I like but the truth is I just don't feel the need to eat unless I'm actually hungry.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    nettiklive wrote: »
    lporter229 wrote: »
    Yeah, I agree that it's not just about food either. I don't think that inactive people truly realize how active some people are. Conversely, I don't think that active people realize how sedentary some people can be. And I am not talking about "exercise" activities like running, biking, lifting etc. I am talking about moving in general. Some people just move a lot more than others and it matters a lot.

    This is something I really have trouble wrapping my mind around. Because if you look at the estimated calorie burns from actual exercise, it's really not that much - 100-400 or so calories per session depending on activity for a small person like myself - and that's with cardio, sweating and panting your butt off and hating life, lol. The whole concept of you can't outrun a bad diet because it takes something like half an hour of running to burn off a banana (making this up but you know these types of estimates). So in light of that, it's really hard for me to understand how some extra walking, tapping your foot and twiddling your thumbs can really add up to all that much to make a difference. I always thought that this cliche advice like take the stairs and park further out was completely useless, maybe targeted at morbidly obese people as a start to get them to move at all, but not to keep someone stick thin with no effort...

    It just adds up... fast. 300 extra calories from 1 hour of exercise a day and that's one less pound you'll gain in 11 days... Really though, naturally slim people don't usually have a big appetite in the first place.

    My friend might eat a batch of cookies in 3 days but he often forgets to eat lunch, stays busy, and he gets his 10k steps a day. Another old friend made much smaller portions for lunch than I did etc... it's just cico.

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