I know this sounds like a weird question, but I'm really curious. I guess I could answer it myself, to a point. Up until I was a teenager, I really didn't eat that much, and I ran around a lot. My family used to joke that I didn't belong to them because everyone else with the exception of one cousin has weight problems. Then came puberty, and I slowly gained and started using food for emotional comfort, and here I am in this group....

Anyway, I'm trying to eat healthy for life, not just for losing weight. Now I'm wondering how people who are a "normal" weight eat day to day. When I was working (not I"m a student) most of my co-workers who were thin ate take out and fast food/crap for lunch. I don't know what they did the rest of the day or if they exercised, but I saw them eating junk day after day. Yet their weight didn't change. When I grocery shop, I notice a lot of slim people have a lot of junk/processed food in their cart. How do they eat this way and stay thin? Can it really all be genetics???

I have one very slim friend who eats like a truck driver and stays thin. Other friends do somewhat watch what they eat, but eat plenty when we get together and go out.


I've seen books on "eating like a thin person" but haven't read any of them yet.

Thoughts?

Thanks!
Sherry

I have a sister who at 26 can still put away an entire cake or box of cookies in one sitting, lives entirely off of cheese and carbs and weighs 110 lbs.

The genetics fairy must have smiled on her.

Now that I no longer drink soda, I eat healthier than the majority of people I know. I also know that I've been less active for many years out of a fear of people seeing the fat chick exercising. Now I realize what a huge disservice I did to myself, and I'm changing my exercise habits.

I think that if I got to the point where I could have the active lifestyle that I crave, I wouldn't mind too much the exact weight my body settles on.

Yea. I don't know how much you can actually learn from the way thin people eat. I have one sister who is super thin, but she just doesn't like food. She doesn't exercise but she is fit.

My aunt is stick thin, and she seriously works out about four hours a day (she's a fitness fanatic and a swimmer). She eats only vegetables and pasta and drinks hot water. Her daughter, my stick-thin thirteen-year-old cousin, is bulimic, and is in counseling now for her bulimia. That's how all the super thin girls in her group and in her class stay thin.

My mom is thin. She does South Beach diet and jogs three miles on the treadmill a couple times a week.

Yea, I have no idea. I think it's just finding your own personal balance? They seem awfully aware when they gain weight (unlike me... I gained 30 pounds without paying attention after I stopped breastfeeding). So they splurge, cut back, splurge, cut back.

I would guess this is an individual thing but in my experience it seems that the skinny people who eat junk food simply do not eat that much period. Most of my family is overweight but my daughter is not. She does eat junk food but very small servings. For example, she is quite happy with one cookie. No way can I do that. I have to simply not eat them at all else I will eat at least five at one time. I noticed that with the kids friends too. We always buy junk for the kids when they have friends over but the skinny ones just eat a little bit.

It's portions. I live with a "thin" person--that is, she is normal weight and has been all her life. I've watched her eat. Here's how it goes:

- She eats s-l-o-w-l-y. I've never seen anyone take so much time with their food!

- She will eat ten Doritos and be done with them. She doesn't keep eating just 'cause they are in the house.

- Her idea of a yummy lunch is a quarter cup of chicken salad on one piece of whole grain bread with some pickles. She is not "dieting"--this is what she wants to eat, and she's satisfied with it.

- I watched her eat popcorn. She takes one kernel at a time and bites off part of it, and then eats the rest. Unlike myself, who grabs a handful and tries to stuff it all in my mouth.

- When she wants a sweet snack, it's often something like fresh strawberries or blueberries with yogurt, and maybe a piece of cornbread or corn muffin. She eats ice cream when she feels like it, but she doesn't eat the whole container just 'cause it's there.

- If she orders food or cooks food that she doesn't like, she won't eat it just because it's there. If she likes it and it's too much, she takes it home. And, she doesn't always eat it just because she takes it home! Often she throws it out!

Jay

Hi,

Thanks for your responses. They're very interesting!

Take care,
Sherry

I am begining to believe that people who eat what seems to be anything they want and are still thin just don't think about it. Food has never really been an issue. They never got any particular joy out of it. They have not had many of those moments where you think, "Oh my gosh! A burrito from Chipotle sounds sooo fricken good right now!" and then can't wait ot get off of work to pick one up. I think, maybe to those types, eating is just something that they have to do to live. They feel satisfied and then they move on. Simply put: food was just never that big of a deal.

I wish I had been blessed with that trait!!!

I agree -- thin people have no other feelings about food other than it's fuel to keep them going. Sure, a snickers bar tastes good but a bite or two is enough. They know that food is not a friend, lover, listener, or hobby. It has a purpose, it's not a comfort.

damn those skinny people! hehhehe

Having been a "skinny person" for about 5 years, I agree -- you "eat to live not live to eat" -- I ate when I was hungry, which sometimes didn't include 3 meals a day, maybe two meals and a snack at night. I ate what I craved, not around what I craved and I exercised because I enjoyed it, it wasn't a chore.

DH has never had a weight problem. He will eat a serving of something if he is hungry, less than a serving or nothing if he is not. He willl eat a fry or two and throw the rest away without thinking twice. He can have a bite of cookie and not finish it. He never grazes off the kids' plates. He rides his bike miles and miles to school. He runs and lifts weights. He sometimes forgets to eat.

There is no food obsession for him. I think there is barely a food awareness. I have to consciously and purposefully not clean my plate. I have to be aware so that I am not on autopilot. It is truly a different food reality for each of us.

I think that you might be equating "thin" with "healthy" and those two things aren't always true.

One of my closest friends is very slim. She's got a natural dancer's figure, very slim, small boobs, narrow hips, legs that go all the way up to *there*. Up until last year she was very out of shape, ate utter and complete crap all the time (Mt. Dew for breakfast, Chick-fil-a for lunch, etc.), and always had skin problems. But she had a figure you'd really envy - and clothes always looked FABULOUS on her because of her build.

Then last year she and I joined a gym together and quite honestly, she found it harder going than I did. Eating healthy was such a foreign concept to her because she'd never NEEDED to eat healthy before. She could eat crap and still stay slim. And the idea of getting in shape and building some muscle - really rocked her world.

On the other hand, I'm very inclined to disagree with this as well:
My mother, as I mentioned in another thread, was always very slim and did it by eating healthily and exercising (but also had a natural, genetic lean towards that kind of tall, slim, athletic figure). She LOVED food. We travelled a lot when I was growing up and her favorite things to do were to go out and find local restaurants that weren't on the tourist trap routes and try regional foods. She loved to cook and always bought cookbooks from wherever we went and tried making the same dishes at home. She taught me to bake (and made homemade fudge that was to die for, complete with the arm-numbing beat-it-until-it's-stiff routine - no food processor for her!). She looooooooved food.

But she also didn't let it rule her. She was satisfied with one piece of fudge, eaten slowly. She loved a cup of creamy rich soup and then had something grilled for her main course. She would eat a salad and grilled shrimp for dinner w/out dressing so she could have mint icecream for dessert. She just knew when to balance her food and how to indulge herself so that she could enjoy food and still stay slim. I wish I'd learned more from her earlier, than from my father who would eat huge plates of things deep fried and covered in gravy - as though he were still growing up on a farm.

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All of this to say that I think generalizations about "what thin people do" or what motivates them or any of that is just going to be wrong. Generalizations don't work. People are all different and different people eat and think about food differently.

FWIW

My husband is 6'5 and weighs about 195.. he eats and eats and eats and never puts on a pound.. for instance.. breakfast he has 5 cups of coffee with 3tsps of sugar in each one, 2 fried eggs, 3 slices of bacon, baked beans, fried bread, and likes it all cooked in lard.. for lunch at work i make him 4 huge sandwiches.. ham, reg mayo, lettuce, tomato, the works.. he also eats 2-3 candy bars while at work and drinks 1 liter of coke... then dinner is a full meal, whatever i make, he eats like 5 times what i do as well as what i leave on my plate ( my eyes are always bigger than my stomach.. which i cant imagine looking at me lol)... he does work a very physical job... 10-12 hours a day, and that plus genetics must be why he stays so thin.. when he gets upset or stressed he actually Loses weight even tho his eating habits hadnt changed.. i just dont get it... but he is a dear.. never eats his candy bars at home.. only at work where i cant be tempted lol

Since I started paying attention to what I've been eating, I've actually spent a lot of time watching naturally thin friends and family eat as well. It fascinates me because I think there is just something different in their heads than mine when it comes to food.

The naturally thin will have a piece of bread at dinner. I used to sit there and wonder if anybody would notice that I'm about to take my fourth piece. The naturally thin will split dessert and not even finish their half. I used to split dessert with my husband and then actually watch to make sure he didn't go over the imaginary center line.

My husband will leave three french fries on the plate because he's full. Too full to finish three more fries??? How is that possible? But that is what he does.

My birdlike Sister in Law picks at her food like she thinks it is going to bite back.

It's easy to dismiss generalities as just that, but overall I think that naturally thin people (not those using ED's to remain thin), relate differently to food than I do. Why, I don't know.

That's interesting! That's actually one of the things I've noticed about myself as my eating habits have changed .. is that *I* relate differently to food. And it's certainly not because I'm naturally thin!

I actually commented about it to my husband the other day: We went thru McDonalds drive through (I wanted a diet coke, he got a burger and fries) and he offered me some of his fries. I had 3 or 4 of them and that was enough. They tasted *good* and I really enjoyed them, but after those 4, I really felt sated and actually they were a little greasy for me. He commented that I've NEVER not eaten a full bag of fries before.

And even at home when I cheat, a "cheat" is now 1 graham cracker with some peanut butter on it - not an entire packet of graham crackers. And it's not that I'm restricting myself or forcing myself to stop. I just don't WANT another graham cracker. One is plenty.

I find that if I really listen to my body, it tells me when I'm done. And I've found that I actually enjoy these foods more if I have only a little of them. Of course there are still things that just cannot CANNOT be in my house because no matter what my body tells me, my mouth will continue to eat them - sour cream and onion Lay's chips are one.

But for the most part, I just don't have the desire to stuff myself on bad foods any more. Gotta say, it sure feels good to be able to look at a bag of McD's fries and say "no thanks!"

I was thin (well, healthy... 5'7 and 135-140) until I was about 22. In college I remember I never binged. NEVER. I think I started binging after I had kids. ANyway, in college, I was thin. I would get up and IF I had time for breakfast it was a cup of cream of wheat, cooked in water, with a little maple syrup stirred in. Then I didn't get to eat again until lunchtime. Lunch was almost always one packet of Ramen (it was 5 cents, and hey, it worked...). I hardly ever had anything else except maybe a big dill pickle with a smear of peanut butter on it!

Dinner was whatever we could throw together. If we ordred a pepperoni pizza I got ONE slice. If we went out, (rarely) I got a half sub with everything on it. I did not drink soda. Heck I barely drank anything. I walked everywhere (no car, no bike). My best friend and I would occasionally scrape together some change and go racing down to the vending machine to get a pack of Peanut butter cups, and we would each get one, it is was like HEAVEN.

I think I started getting fat when I started knowing how to cook. Baking. That's it. Had to be the home baked bread slathered with butter that did me in.

Now, sadly, if there is a box of Oreos, I want them all. If there is a bag of 100-calorie chocolates, I want them ALL. I eat them all. So I just don't buy them.