Amen sister! For us any excuse is good enough.

I honestly think people get different feelings from eating. For some of us it's a real orgasmic pleasure. I know some people love to drink or take pills, for me I hate the feeling of either one, can't imagine doing it for pleasure.

For the decades that I was thin, I don't remember thinking about food except when it was time to eat a meal. I think the real downside of dieting is thinking about it all the time, what should I shop for, how should I cook it, when do I get to eat again, how many calories, how many calories burned, blah blah blah blah. For many (women especially) it's a fulltime occupation.

My daughter (age 24) is a naturally thin person and always has been. It is not what they eat; it is HOW/WHY they eat. She only eats when hungry and only until she is full. Even as a small child, if there was one bite of food on her plate, she didn't eat it. I notice that I will eat it just to clean my plate. When she and her brother were young and we would go out to eat, she would get something like a hamburger and just hand over the rest to her brother when she felt full. She does it subconsiously and she does not have an attitude about some foods being "good" and some "bad." Also, she has never thought of food as a reward. When she is sad, she doesn't think "ice cream." I don't know why she is wired that way. My son could put away 15 slices of pizza even though he was stuffed long before #15.

Interesting post. I know I eat sometimes just to have the taste in my mouth. I think that is why sugarfree gum is a great weight loss tool.

I think there's as much variation between thin folks as there are between overweight folks when it comes to food and exercise habits. Two people can have identical habits and still end up with different outcomes.

My father was slim all of his life, and he always smugly told my mother and I that we "just had to eat less," not realizing how difficult that was. He did have an active job, but even so his metabolism was insanely high. He ate constantly. His evening snack was about 2 to 3 cups of icecream or a sleeve of Oreo cookies with milk. His snacks often contained more calories than my mother or I would eat for the whole day. It bit him in the butt at retirement though, because he was less active. He gained like 40 lbs in just a few months (all in his middle - he looked about 8 months pregnant). He thought dieting was going to be a snap (after all, he told us all of our lives how easy it was), but soon he was griping about how little he was eating, and how little he was losing. He gave up his evening snack and he thought the weight would just fall off - it didn't.

He did lose most of his weight, but he's still amazed at how much he has to struggle to do it, and how he has to struggle to keep it off.

I had a friend in college with a hummingbird's metabolism. On the surface, she seemed like a couch potato (she didn't do any active exercise like sports, running, or even walking except to class), but if you watched carefully, she was always figiting, and I suspect that played a role in her metabolism.

I think there are some habits that help or hinder a healthy weight, but I don't think there's a "secret" to be found. I think it's always a case by case issue. You have to play the cards you were dealt.

I don't know about the first part, but the second part is easy. Some of us are overweight and do not want our kids to end up that way, so we teach them better habits than we were taught. I was obese not so long ago, and am now overweight, but as lazy as I've been with my own weight issues over the years, I know that I did not want my kids to have to deal with it, so I taught them better, and now we're a family of an overweight mom with two thin, strong, fit kids.

Good for you! I love that you have taught your kids habits that will better their lives in so many ways! :carrot:

Haha yeah, I couldn't help but notice. My ex lived in Canada for a while and picked it up and it never went away so I'd tease him about it :P.


I agree. Well said.



I think this is interesting too, and I have a similar problem.

I feel less inclined to overeat when I have a lot of food in the house because I come from a household where everyone eats everyone else's food and if you don't get there first, you don't get any or your special treat food is gone. I think alot of my overeating is a result of competition for food. It drives me crazy when I buy something special for myself or I'm rationing something, and someone eats it. If no one touched my food, and I knew it would be there when I'm ready to eat it, I don't think I'd feel this urgency to eat it before someone else does.

I am one of those persons that never had a problem with my weight until my middle 20's when I started to gain a few pounds every year. The key to the way I eat is to have breakfast every day, no matter what, and then I can easily pass all the snacks that are handed to me in the morning at work or at school before. The second key for me is to try not to skip any meal. I can easily pass all the tempting snacks I see around but when it comes to dinner time I eat and if you see me eating you can probably think that I eat a lot but I still follow the rules that I made to maintain my weight.

I live in a mediterranean country. My experience is that we enjoy eating at family gatherings on Sundays for lunch. This day we eat more than usual. It is a homemade meal that we spent the whole morning preparing. We also serve apart from the main dish salads, fresh fruits and red wine. We normally have a coffee after the meal with some cakes bought from the bakery. For dinner on Sunday we eat some salad and fruit and a yogurt.

During the weeks, we normally have lunch at home at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon which can be some kind of veggie stew (lentils, chickpeas, beans or gazpacho in summer), some pasta, rice... Lunch is our bigger meal of the day and to have an idea if you go to a restaurant at lunch to eat the menu of the day you get 2 dishes, first: soup, salad, or similar, second: some meat or fish with potatoes or veggies and the portions are ok for one person, we don't ask for a container to eat the rest at home as the portions aren't big.

For dinner we have some salad, fruit and a yogurt, we normally eat dinner late at 9 or 10 as you are still quite full from lunch.

I know there are different ways of eating. For me as a never really overweight person I had to cut my daily dessert in lunch in my middle 20's to get back to the 120's which is the weight I have maintained longer and I feel good in and I also had to get back to exercise that I stopped doing because of a lesion.

Carly! Thanks for your reply, it seems that naturally thin people all share the common fact that they eat in moderation! My fiance' is the same way, he can go all day without eating, and then he has a big dinner, and he only eats when he's hungry. It just blows my mind! I suppose the question I should be asking is, why, when, and where did my relationship with food become an obsession in a negative way?

carpediem - If you had to guess, how many calories do you eat a day?

ChubbyBun - I share the same "treat food" scenario. My ex used to eat all the food and of course never gain an ounce, but I felt I had to rush to eat it just so I can enjoy it.

Laureedee - Awesome response! I plan on raising my lil one the same way! I hope she never develops that unhealthy relationship with food! I've got to make sure I put her in extra curricular activities too! ;)

kaplods - Thank you for the response. I find it interesting how even those that seem "immune" to the weight gain bug can have it catch up to them eventually.

charmtime - See? That's the relationship I need to have, and want my kids to have with food. Too bad I'm not obsessed with vegetables. :P It sure would make things a lot easier!


**Ladies! Thanks for all the wonderful responses! One thing is for sure, we have recognized our problem, and we are doing something about it. I'm glad I got some insight on my question, and I'm even more glad I wasn't the only one who was curious about it! ( I still get a little nervous asking questions! ) Hopefully in time, I can completely change my perspective on how I see, and treat food. I mean, I've come SO FAR, and I don't want to go back. Thanks again!