I had a roomate in college who was a huge eater. We would go to McD's because she was starving where I would watch her eat 3 fish sandwiches and 2 super sized orders of fries and then end up in the cafeteria a couple of hours later and she would eat most of her supper. She drank liters of mountain dew and chocolate milk everyday. By 8:00-9:00 PM she would order a large pizza with extra cheese and eat all but a few pieces. I always wondered where she got the money to eat like she did. The weird thing was she put a lot of salt on everything including the pizza. When we moved into an apartment she would go through one of those blue boxes of salt about every other week. She still looks the same at age 59. She was probably a size two and 5'7". I always told her she had a tapeworm but I would guess a high metabolism. She never worked out. I wonder if the salt had anything to do with it.
From the anecdotal evidence category - my daughter has to exercise to get her weight up enough that her doctor doesn't fuss at her. Now at 30 she is more careful about food but that's about health not weight. When she was younger DD ate what she wanted and never gave it a second thought. I always brought her dad in to Dr. appointments just so we could skip the anorexia questions. He wore 30 x 36 jeans, very hard to find. When he isn't feeling well and doesn't eat he looks skeletal within a few days. The rest of the time he eats breads, nuts and nut butters, cheeses, etc without ever giving it a thought. That whole family tends to be very thin until late in life and even then they just develop little bellies. They have terrible eating habits and other than DD none of them are exercisers.
I think there are two different types of "naturally thin" people we're talking about here:
1) People who stay thin without having to make any *conscious* effort or think about their food choices. These are the people who eat half a cookie and throw the rest away because they just aren't hungry anymore.
2) People who have super metabolisms and stay thin despite eating massive quantities of food.
I think category 1 is by far more common than category 2.
Tour de France riders burn an average of 5,900 cals per day, and a max of 9,000 cals per day.
They can't quite eat enough to keep up with that, which is why by the end of the race they look like starvation cases.
This has nothing to do with "naturally thin" people, because Tour riders are definitely unnatural--but it gives a perspective on calorie burn. Kaplods' father did not burn any 8,000 calories just from the work of his delivery job.
There are naturally skinny people. I had a co-worker once and we actually turn WW around for her so she can gain weight. She had many health problems because of being too thin. We made up a points range for her to reach and she starting poaching fish in butter and deed frying a lot of veggies and she finally gained weight. She had a harder time gaining weight than me losing weight. But she felt better and lots of her problems disappeared.
My sister is a size 0-2 ( not vanity sizes either!) she is 48 years old and ALWAYS ate whatever she darned well pleased. and she is not a rabid exerciser or health food addict...sigh...
Adding to the anecdotes:
-that thin girl who has cookies and french fries everyday for lunch? She runs miles every day and exercises like mad (I've seen her on the weight machines; she is as strong as most guys)
-that other thin girl who eats cookies and french fries for lunch? She throws up in the bathroom 10 minutes later
And that girl who is 5'11'' and size 00 with her clothes needing tailoring to fit better? That one who has thighs smaller than your arms? She has Marfan's.
I think that naturally thin + healthy people may have faster metabolisms, while others have different taste buds.
I also believe that being heavy/curvy/not-skinny is was less important than being healthy. If being thin means that I will lose sleep, hair, energy... it's not gonna happen.
I think they do exist. There was that documentary "Why are Thin People Not Fat". Now most of the participants were young and all of them gained some weight (which they promptly lost a couple weeks after), but there was one participant (a skinny Asian guy) that gained only about 3% of his body weight eating twice as many calories than he usually did in 4 weeks w/no physical activity (they kept a pedometer to count their steps). But he looked exactly the same even with the slight weight gain. What they noticed was not only did his resting metabolic rate greatly increase, but a lot of the weight he did gain turned into muscle, not fat. In other words, his body actively tried to keep him the same size even with an increase in calories.
It's also been theorized that some people will start to become "jittery" like start tapping their feet or moving their legs unconsciously if they increase their calories because the body is trying to use the extra energy to maintain their "natural" weight.
So in some instances, I think some people's bodies will actively try to keep them thin, even if they consciously increase their calories and are inactive. Their body will find a way to burn the extra calories.
I think I might be losing this one. I guess maybe my definition of "naturally thin" is a little different. I think I was talking more about the notion that someone could do no form of exercise and eat 2000+ cals a day and still stay thin. Whether or not the effort to exercise or portion control is deliberate or not doesn't matter to me, something is still being done to make those types of "naturally thin" people thin.
I'm totally with you here. Before I lost my weight, I tended to assume all thin people were that way because they were lucky. I didn't think I ate all that bad and made assumptions that thin people could eat junk food, fast food etc just as often as I did and stay thin AND I thought they were genetically pre-dispositioned to like working out, and that just wasn't me lol. I've now realized the error of my ways
Most people who are thin absolutely have to do something to consume on average fewer calories than people who are fat. That doesn't mean they can't eat take out and desserts, but they still have to do something to make the average calories they eat few enough to keep the pounds off. And yes, I do think it's easier for some people to say no to extra food for various reasons (their brain tells them they're full sooner, or have a healthy outlook on food etc)
I have not done a scientific study on each person that exists on the world, but I would say if people exist who truly can eat an excess number of calories and not burn them off but still stay thin exist (without having a medical condition), they are truly rare, and do not represent the majority of thin people
Last edited by pinkflower; 04-17-2011 at 07:16 PM.
My sister is a size 0-2 ( not vanity sizes either!) she is 48 years old and ALWAYS ate whatever she darned well pleased. and she is not a rabid exerciser or health food addict...sigh...
This is my Mom exactly. She is 67, so quite a few years to go on there. She has never weighed more than 130 lbs. at 9 months pregnant. She is 5'3". She has never been athletic or cared much about organized exercise. She eats a healthy diet, and always has for all the years I've known her. However, she is not what I would think of as a "light eater".
She never cared for Coke/Pepsi, and wouldn't think of going through a drive-thru or stopping at a 7/11 for coffee, or anything like that. So, I can see why her weight stays constant. She weighs 108 lbs. and has for the past 40 years. I always wondered if her tastebuds were different from mine, because I could never believe that food really gives her no joy. That amazes me about anyone who gets no joy from food.
So I know there is this term "naturally thin" but really, I don't think those people exist. Maybe in men, because let's face it, guys are just a phenomenon in that department; but if you really think about the women you know that are "naturally thin" why are they thin? I'll bet you that 99% of them do things that somehow create a delibrit (sorry I can't spell right now) caloric equilibrium, but since that's all they've know it's their lifestyle. Here's my two favorites broken down, please add on since I don't have time to list them all.
The she eat's nothing but junk and doesn't gain weight - Yes, but did you know that she doesn't eat breakfast and only eats 1-2 meals a day that only add up to 1800-2000 cals, which for the average never been obese person is maintenance cals.
The she eat's all.the.time but doesn't gain weight - Sure, but she's eating small healthy meals all day, oh yeah and she exercises regularly.
My point is, that with the exception of a very small number there is no such thing as "naturally thin", everyone has to work at, just some people don't know they're doing work Us formally obese people, well I think we all know it's work and that's what makes it hard.
They do exist my oldest (19) daughter has always ate more than my husband and never gains an ounce. She is super tiny and does not exercise either. 5'4" and 92-95 pounds....I tell her someday it will catch up with you!
I have not done a scientific study on each person that exists on the world, but I would say if people exist who truly can eat an excess number of calories and not burn them off but still stay thin exist (without having a medical condition), they are truly rare, and do not represent the majority of thin people
By technical definition, this is always true. If a person eats an excess number of calories and stays thin, then they DID burn them off. Even if they did it sleeping, they somehow burned those extra calories.
But what did they do to burn them off? Did they "naturally" (without planning or conscious thought) react to over-indulgence with a "desire" to be more active?
I noticed in my brother and father, that after a large holiday meal, while everyone fought the urge to doze off as they sat and talked or watched tv, my brother wanted to go out and play (and my mother would always encourage him to be careful not to make himself sick, and sometimes he actually would. He'd be so active, that he'd actually throw up half of the over-large dinner).
My father on the other hand, would fall deeply asleep (so deeply, that we'd play practical jokes, like painting him with full makeup or covering his face in scotch tape), but within fifteen to thirty minutes he was raring' to go, and "DO SOMETHING."
Everyone else was sedated with food coma for hours.
I don't think it matters how common or rare ultra-fast or ultra-slow metabolisms are. It doesn't matter, because until there are safe and affordable ways to drastically alter metabolism, everyone has to deal with the metabolism they have, not anyone else's.
You can envy or pity others with a different metabolsim, but there's not a lot you can do about it. There are ways to mildy to moderately modify metabolism (for example, even at rest, muscle burns more calories than fat - so if you build muscle, you increase even your resting metabolism), but essentially you're stuck with what you've got.
I think the danger lies in assuming the existence of one-size-fits-all metabolisms (the idea that everyone who looks the same (height, age, weight, body build, activity level...), has the same metabolism.
It's dangerous because people start comparing their results to other people's results, and assign judgement and labels to themselves or others based on their results (or lack of results).
I know when I was younger, I was guilty of judging based on appearance and my assumption regarding average or normal metabolism. If a woman about my age and size claimed to be eating less and exercising more than I, I expected them to be losing more than I was. If they didn't I assumed they were lying or deluding themselves. I believed that metabolisms varied, but I never dreamed they could vary as much as I now possible.
I still sometimes can't believe how much my metabolism has changed. It doesn't seem possible to struggle to lose 1 lb on the calorie level on which I once lost 8, consistently. Even if I were comatose, the numbers don't seem to add up. But it is what it is.
And I think that's the most important message about metabolism (and many things in life):
Work with what you've got, and don't worry about what others have or have not.
Speaking as a girl who has a "freakishly fast metabolism" .. IT'S NOT ALL IT'S CRACKED UP TO BE. No matter WHAT I do, I can't alter the look of my body. I can eat whatever I want and do zero exercise, and my body will look THE SAME. Perhaps you think this is great and you're cursing the ground that I stand on.. but hear me out. My insides are probably killing me right now, because I'm not healthy. It's taught me that I don't have to work hard for things in life, which is a huge downfall in school as I figure "well, if I don't write this paper... it'll probably just write itself, no need to worry" .. news flash: I NEED TO WORRY. I envy those who can gain weight, because then they are more conscious of the things they eat and of their lifestyle. They therefore likely are way more motivated and successful in life!
I do think naturally thin people exist. I know people who eat anything they want and never gain an ounce, they may even want to gain but it never happens.
I used to wonder whether or not some women are naturally thin. I'd review everybody's eating and exercise habits, etc. etc. Then I realized that it doesn't really matter to me. What I need to study is what works for me to keep my self healthy. Once I dropped the comparisons and the '...poor me, I have to do x/y/z...', I started to appreciate my body for how it best works and started to see results.....
