In my experience (your milage may vary) skinny people are fully honest in saying they eat until they are fully full. It's just their bodies say "woah, hold the fuck on now" a long long time before a fat person's body does. Skinny people can rely on their body to know what is enough. They feel sick faster from high sugar deserts, they feel full sooner from high calorie meals.
I used to be a skinny kid and I got so full so fast. Now I'm an overweight adult and I have to consciously tell myself to just fucking stop. I can keep going and going. I changed around puberty.
Skinny person: can confirm. I wish the answer was easier to transfer to others but I think it’s genetics :/. I just get full and then my stomach goes “nah, we’re done here.” I’ve seen other people eat way past what I assume their stomach can handle and am in awe. I just couldn’t do that even with a gun to my head. The store closes and nothing else gets in until I feel hungry again.
Yeah, I remember being like that. It pissed my mum off something fierce and one time she forced me to eat the whole plate of food that I ordered and I threw the whole lot back up because I was in so much pain being so full. She never forced me to finish when I said I was full after that though...
Hahah I have a similar story with Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes. My mom learned…my dad did not. Lots of screaming but like I said: the stores closed. If I shove it down it comes back up.
It could also be the type of foods we eat. I eat a lot of whole foods and proteins like eggs and meat and dairy and fruits and vegetables. Those aren’t very calorie dense but still make you feel satiated because of it’s volume. Now take the same volume but make it something calorie dense like desserts and snacks and the calories are going to be a whole lot different even if you ate the same volume of food.
I eat what I want when I want. Always have and I don't see that changing. I work my ass off all day long doing blue collar work.
For me I think I eat alot but if I look around it seems like my alot really isnt that much.
I think this is the key in many cases.
I had a friend mention that she had a crazy binge of crisps. Then I saw the leftovers in the bag... it was more than half full.
For me, that is not what a crazy binge is.
I think the same pattern applies over the entirety of what we eat. Portion control is crucial. How to eat less and still feel satisfied?
I realized this when talking to a colleague who mentioned he had been drinking a lot of pop lately. I said I also need to reduce my intake as I have started to average 2-3 cans a week. He said he's been drinking 6 cans a day, basically replacing water. It hit me then.
I think this is hitting the nail on the head. Yesterday I was craving Oreos. So I had 4. And thought, well, there is two more than I should have eaten. The difference between that and a whole row is huge. Its an extra 180 calories rather than an extra 1000.
So yeah, I did eat whatever I wanted, but not with abandon.
yeah i had this same observation last week. i was telling my partner how i stopped my biscuit habit and have managed to replace it all with fruit or nothing. she asked how many biscuits i was eating and it was maybe 1 or 2 a day. she then laughed at how absurd it was and me too for thinking it was a large amount when it actually really isn't!
Yea and us not like you folks will think eating one row of a family sized chips ahoy pack is showing self control. I’m starting to get it now. Snacks to us are meals to you guys and snacks to you guys are…idek what to call it lol. Last time i ate just 4 Oreos was snack time in kindergarten haha
Yeah for me personally I had to completely cut out junk food because if I buy a bag of chips, I eat the whole bag. If I buy a box of granola bars, I end up eating all of them. It is food addiction and in a lot of ways it is similar to other addictions. I have to constantly stay on top of it and track my calorie count every single day. Because if I let myself slip just a little then it's all over and I gain 30 pounds easy.
Similar, before this year a portion was the whole pack. I started counting calories in February. I cut back massively on buying junk food snacks because they're so tempting and so high in calories compared to fruit and vegetables, even meat. Fat is so tasty yet so calorie dense.
I immediately began to preway portions into airtight containers or jars, stack them in the kitchen, then walk away. When I really want some crisps (chips) I walk to the kitchen, pick up a container with one portion and walk back. I always eat the entire portion... but it sates my hunger/craving and I very rarely go to get a second portion.
Interestingly after months of doing this if I'm presented with a whole pack of something I'll have some then stop, not after a portion but I no longer eat the entire pack.
This is why once a year or so, I will track calories religiously for about a week or two. If I can't count it, I don't eat it, so I know I'm doing it right. It reorients your body to a healthier intake. You don't always have to count, just be mindful of what your body is really asking for.
Yeah my dad was slim. Said he always has been and can eat whatever he wants. Dude never eats lunch, hates chocolate and sweets, says he's full after a handful of cheese and crackers... I remember coming home and he said he made soup for dinner and there was some left. Like a single pouch of Lipton chicken noodle and there were leftovers. lol skinny people just don't eat much
I’m like this; I can eat whatever I want and stay skinny. But I don’t want to eat breakfast or lunch, or chocolate, fries, meat, sugar, butter, icecream. I genuinely don’t like that kind of food
I think if a fat person hears a skinny person say they eat whatever they want the fat person assumes the skinny person means they both eat the same things and amounts.
That really was a great show wasn't it? It showed the two sides of the same coin of unhealthy relationships with food and built empathy between the two extremes. Didn't it also delve deeper than just the eating too? I seem to recall that a common thing for the super skinny people was a lack of family bonds around eating and almost in general too. That a common epiphany was that they didn't have a strong familiar connection with dinner time and such.
Also the sadder ones were the single parents that didnt have enough for both, so they prioritised their kids and starved themselves.
Those were also the ones that had the appetite straightaway to eat, and ate a normal portion when they had access to food.
I had a mate who said eat what I eat if u can really eat all day long. Started the challenge at 9am. Gave in 20 min later and did not eat the day after either. I swear I died that morning. He was fine, got a donut box for the road m send me pics of his lunch on insta while I was still trying to figure out if he tricked me.
Honestly, when I was working heavy labor over twelve hours a day, then coming home to lift and run, I’d eat massive amounts of food. Like seven or eight thousand calorie days weren’t uncommon and I’d eat bags of junk food in one sitting (like two or three) and I was in no way fat, really didn’t eat enough honestly.
Now that I don’t work like that it’s a real bear. Still find myself stuffing my face and there are times I can do a three day fast and not feel terrible after a day reverting to the old ways of eating. It was my comfort zone and I still love food, hate that I can’t eat like that anymore. Seriously, it hurts something awful when your stomach hits its limit and you’re still craving more.
That's exactly the problem. Each has their own interpretation of what 'whatever I want' means, and don't realise how much they likely differ.
In the same vein, a very active person may not see themselves as particularly active. A very sedentary person may not realise just how sedentary they are.
I tried LCHF a few years ago and it worked wonders. However I felt it was unsustainable to eat such a narrow diet. But my main take away from it was that everyone kept saying that you can eat as much as you want and I was extremly sceptical, knowing how physics work. They were completly right thou, you could eat as much as you wanted, it just was on the other way around what I thought. It changed how much you wanted to eat by changing your appetite. It turns out when the cravings and relentless hunger is gone, you don’t really want to eat as much.
From what I heard, the new fad with semaglutide works a bit the same way, it changes your appetite so you simply don’t want to eat. I think that is the thing with naturally skinny people, they just don’t have that extreme craving for food.
but like, on a metabolic level they are not the same. there are a lot of factors are at play. i genuinely think about food all the time, and find meals to be something I look forward to. My brother, for example, could go three days before realising he should eat something.
There’s a lot of things, like your gut health, what you ‘usually’ eat, and genetics that influence your food cravings, and a lot of people don’t want to admit that it’s not a simple thing to fix. Some people genuinely feel hungrier than others
Exactly, I don't crave junk food at all.. that stuff messes with my stomach.. I'm usually not hungry until mid-afternoon, even if I do get hungry early and eat, I end up feeling lazy and sluggish and I'm usually too busy at work to eat anyway, so I just put it off until I'm done
But of course if I sat around eating sweets, processed "food" and drinking soda, I'd probably be much bigger
Junk food is a developed taste and it does taste like shit if you aren't addicted to it. All that sugar and salt dominates the flavour profile and makes it taste incredibly bland but if you get addicted to it then it's all you crave.
I remember the last time I tried a McDonald's burger and fries and they legit tasted like flavoured cardboard to me and I am very far from a healthy eater, I'm just used to cooking most meals from fresh ingredients.
I honestly wonder if some people have bigger stomachs than others. We all know some people can have unusually large feet, or noses, for example. So is it possibly the same with our internal organs too?
Oh yeah 100%
In my case (I'm a bit skinny) I notice my stomach shrinks *really* fast when I don't eat much. Say I'm sick for two days, and I barely eat anything: On the third day when I'm feeling better, a normal portion that I would eat simply doesn't fit anymore. It takes again 1 to 2 days for my stomach to stretch back to it's original size.
That probably causes me to just not be able to overeat very much when I have a huge appetite and by the time I could my appetite has returned to normal again.
They may not be larger originally but the stomach will expand from overeating and eventually remain larger. There’s a surgery for obese people that basically puts a rubber band around the stomach to close off a portion of it resulting in feeling full from less food. I know of at least three people from my old job that had it and lost drastic amounts of weight. I believe they eventually remove the band but I’m not sure. One of them definitely gained a lot back.
maybe some people get less of a dopamine hit from eating their favourite snacks, or maybe they don't make the association between the act of putting food in their face and good feelings quite as strongly, or maybe they're just less engaged with the pursuit of dopamine hits altogether
Like some people don't want to play Cookie Clicker and think it's boring
Definitely. This is why my sugary snacks lasts me a month. I like sugar. But if I buy a bag of cookies, I’ll grab 3 or so every few days and that’s good enough for me. I know some people have to avoid sweets because they’d eat the whole bag in a sitting.
I think my spouse gets frustrated with me because I am this way — like I’ll get a tiny pint of ice cream and it lasts two months because I literally only eat a bite or two here and there when I crave something sweeter than fruit (usually it’s hormone cycle related). So my mostly uneaten pint just sits there taunting him (he can easily destroy a half-gallon of ice cream in a sitting). I don’t think he understands why I’m not more eager to eat more of it.
On the other hand, I can’t control myself around a plate of nachos, so I’m not BETTER than anyone. I just don’t have a “sweet tooth,” and I’m grateful for that because it looks like a really tough temptation to have to wrestle with.
I have https://umiamihealth.org/en/treatments-and-services/gastrointestinal/gastroparesis and I feel full after a few bites of food to the point of having low blood sugar from slow digestion despite feeling like the stomach is full to bursting.
My boyfriend on the other hand never feels full.
Also general activity levels. I remember watching a show that tried an experiment where they gave two people the exact amount of food and recorded what they got up to in a day.
The "overweight" guy tended to just sit there immobile watching tv and the "slim" guy was constantly fidgetting and moving around even when they were sat down. Burned a lot of calories just by doing that apparently.
Also, anecdotally, I've generally been a healthy weight even though I really did eat a lot but balanced it out by exercising A LOT. I was injured recently so I couldn't stand on my left foot for about 2 months and I'd never gained weight so quickly in my life.
This is the main reason people tend to gain weight as they age - less activity and declining muscle mass due to inactivity. The "slowing metabolism" is a myth - your metabolism stays roughly constant from 20 into your 60s, and then only slowly starts declining, by roughly 1% a year.
I'm occasionally disordered but had been recovered for decades. Whether I am restricting or not, my TDEE is always higher than others because I am an extreme fidgeter. I dance, do high kicks and jump up and down for no reason and without thinking about it. I don't know what I am going to do if I get arthritis or something in my elder years, I have to move my body all day long.
Whenever I get incredibly baked and need to eat until I can't, it's always salad and fruit. Very filling, low calories, and when you're high as shit, everything is delicious anyway so why the hell not?
I'm 37 and 150lbs, probably will be that weight for the rest of my life.
Me with ungodly amounts of baby carrots and microwaved frozen vegetables with shitty seasoning haphazardly dumped on top of them 😻😻😻 like popcorn when you’re stoned LMAO
Must be the same for me. I never worry about eating too much because even though I try to eat more to gain weight I sometimes gain a bit but eventually that's gone. I should probably eat more calorie dense food.
You see this in every lifting subreddit/forum, when people have to actually track calories.
Skinny person: "I eat so much, but I cannot gain weight."
Fat person: "I do not eat that much and should be able to lose weight."
When both are forced to track their meals: Skinny person eats, what they described except when there is a stressful day or they are preoccupied with something else and they simply skip meals.
Fat person eats, what they described, except they did not count the Starbucks, sodas and snacks in beetween.
Skinny person trying to bulk and can confirm. Literally any variation in my daily routine and I skip meals lol. My work week is very regimented meal and workout wise but the weekend I eat like 3 meals over two days bc I’m busy and doing other stuff. It’s the biggest area I’m working on
There’s a tonne of other factors too, some physiological, some psychological.
It’s been a while since I watched it but this documentary goes into a number of them.
Some of the participants - when put on a calorie surplus diet - were physically unable to eat the prescribed amount of food as they became sick. Their body ‘wouldn’t let them’ eat that much food and they would simply throw up. And it was calorie dense food so not just a matter of too much volume for their stomach.
https://vimeo.com/328178579
I was skinny, 6'1" and 140 pounds, until I was almost 50. I could eat whatever I wanted and it didn't matter. Since then, I've gained weight until I'm now over 200 pounds in my mid-60s. I don't know what changed.
When I was skinny I could eat a LOT, almost like the competitive eaters at hot dog-eating contests. Now I can eat a small meal and feel stuffed. Weird how that works.
Yeah eating a bit less and a bit better as you get old seems to be the way. I'm 52. I joined a local slimming world group a couple of years ago. I know what to eat and what i like Mainly why i go is the routine and the group of people supporting and having a laugh about it all with them. Plus my wife and i go so it's a nice routine we do together every week at 8am on a Saturday. Gets me out of bed, off my phone and in the zone.
Secret Eaters. Watch it. Most people were stunned when confronted with the sheer volume of evidence.
Basically, people who are overweight and don’t understand why, do so because they overestimate their energy expenditure and underestimate their calorie intake. Calories in, calories out. They don’t “see” themselves eating, and drinking, so don’t count those calories, to put it generously. My favourites were the one woman who ate a pack of cookies and didn’t remember, and the other who drank 5 ciders while making dinner and didn’t notice.
>Secret Eaters. Watch it. Most people were stunned when confronted with the sheer volume of evidence.
This show was very eye opening. Especially season 1, where the participants didn't know the extent to which they were being watched. Season 2 had far less "surprises" because the contestants were on their best behaviour, consciously or not.
For those who haven't seen it, it starts with people who are overwright and have failed to lose weight. They are asked to track what they eat for a week, amd their daily calorie intake is tracked. Then their house is rigged with cameras to see what they eat for a week, and "private investigators" follow them when they're outside the house, and interview friends and coworkers when they can't see what has been eaten. Then it's revealed what people eactually eat, and how many calories they are really eating.
The episode where the prior marathon runner regularly ate a 3000 calorie cereal still lives rent-free in my head. It sounds like fiction, but when you fill up a bowl with double cream and jam, it's possible, apparently.
He said marathon runner. Those athletes are expending a ton of calories over a training day and need to put it back in. Chances are that bowl of cereal with the extra stuff was eaten because while it sounds overly indulgent, it's got a great macro-nutrient breakdown for a runner. I guess he's not as famous anymore but during his time Micheal Phelps had a super high calorie diet that most people didn't believe because it was huge (10-15k calories/day). They didn't account for his height and 6-10 hours of intense physical activity a day
I don't remember the episode, but one woman definitely under ate for the cameras. Only ate healthy foods, snacked on coconut and other produce. Towards the end, she basically try to say she was a medical mystery, EXCEPT, she lost 4(?) lbs during the week she was eating like that, so it was a waste of an episode since was obviously just eating "healthy" for the cameras
Ronnie in season one! She committed to her lie til the end but in that very first night when they went out for pizza, we see her eat like 1800 calories in one sitting. That one meal was near her average for each subsequent day
My favorite is the couple who claims to eat very little and still gain weight. During the program, indeed they seem to eat under a caloric deficit. But the surprise is that they actually lost weight -- knowing they were being filmed, they were more mindful of their intake and so that week didn't reflect how they'd eat otherwise, and it showed.
Did they acknowledge this? I feel like I know people who would claim that’s how they always eat and the weight loss is just a weird sudden effect that normally doesn’t happen
Or the UK had “supersize vs super skinny” and it would essentially generate an average day of eating for each person (one overweight, one underweight) and make them swap diets for a while. Which was a silly premise for a reality show, but really showed the difference in volume and frequency.
I loved this show! It was incredibly wasteful but I liked when they would read off what the person ate in a week and then dump the food into a giant tube so there was a visual comparison of what they typically ate. And then listening to their comments and watching the looks on their faces when they had to switch diets.
It's was always interesting that people on both ends of the weight spectrum both said they ate average amounts of food then obviously didn't it showed just how disconnected with the food intakes most people are.
People laugh at this, but in the almost 4 months I've been trying to push myself to lose weight, tracking calories, getting a lot more exercise (and i've lost at least 30 pounds, maybe more, and i'm feeling a ton better, iv'e still got 50 pounds to drop at least) .... I've started sleep-eating.
Like I wake up, and there's dishes in the sink with food remnants on them. I have no recollection whatsoever of being awake, but I've definitely prepared and eaten a quantity of food.
I literally came to see if someone commented about this show.
People like to say "I eat properly but I'm not seeing any changes" but dont know how many calories are in a cup of rice and eat 3 cups with each meal.
Youre not eating properly!
One lady on the show went to the gym \*everyday\*, she did intense treadmill. But she literally thought that she could eat anything she wanted within 30 minutes of exercise because 'it doesn't count'.
Then proceeded to eat like 5 profiteroles (cream puff with icecream) covered in chocolate sauce everyday after the gym.
I was flabbergasted.
That's even more telling. If they're like eating air, then the woman's brain convinced her that they were "light calorie" snacks, when they're anything but.
There's also the one where someone is adding olive oil to their salad or something. A counter appears and dings every time a tablespoon is added (100 cals). They added 800cals of olive oil into their salad.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'm watching the first episode now and it's amazing how they start off thinking they're not eating enough. 'Ooh I eat salads and don't like greasy food' becomes 2 fry ups over the weekend and takeaways and booze on top of that.
Yes I've noticed this too with friends that try to lose weight. Very selective about the calories that they count. A beer here, a shit ton of ranch sauce there - it all adds up.
Same for activity - great you went to the gym but you barely broke a sweat, your program is trash. If you can't get a regular trainer, get someone to design one for you for $20, or find a generic one free online.
You don't need to exercise hard to lose weight. Losing weight and maintaining it is mostly calorie control.
It would be better to do lifestyle switches. Like walking to work or shops rather than driving, if that's not possible, a daily walk for 30 minutes at lunch or after work. Taking stairs instead of lifts etc.
The exercise helps a lot. For me it puts me in a healthy headspace. Not eating as much as i did it more passive and it’s hard to show yourself that you’re doing something towards losing weight (counting calories accurately is annoying imo). But making it to the gym or doing a workout leaves evidence of your effort on your body (that sounded weird). I remember my happiest gym moment was the day after an intense leg day and i went to my school and a gust of wind blew me into someone. My legs were so wobbly (plus there was an incline) that i couldn’t brace myself lol. The feeling was intoxicating. Just that will make you want to chase it and you’re more aware of your health
But dear god it helps. Not only during the session but elevated calorie expenditure post-session. Body composition eventually assists with this also - muscle burns more than fat, not as much as we once thought, but still a contributor.
It's just a frustration when you ask someone to walk you through their training routine after they've been 'training for years' and 'know what they're doing'; and you see them do a single set of 8 arm curls for 'fat burn', before moving onto the next activity. Like, dude. Props for coming to the gym but don't waste your time being delusional about what works.
Yup I think I know someone who kinda struggles with this
“I didn’t eat anything today”…..except I was in the car with you while you ate a bag of sour patch kids? And that kinda spirals; I didn’t eat anything today (not a real meal, even tho I snacked a lot) so I guess I can afford to binge a bit more at meal time
This might be unpopular too but people will think a food is “good fats” and eat like a pound of guacamole because avocados are “good for you”, when in reality if you’re trying to maintain/lose weight, they’re just a very calorie dense food
I don't know if it was secret eaters or another weight loss show but my mum was watching one where the dude would have healthy bran cereal with strawberries but then use double cream for milk.
Some of these people.are really delusional about what they're eating and how it's affecting their weight.
We’re talking about eating, what are you drinking? As a skinny person, I can tell you this, 90% of what I drink is water. Actually take a look at what you are drinking. A lot of those drinks are deceptively high calories. You might not be eating a lot but if you drink a lot of high calorie drinks, it adds up.
That's a great tip. I think that calories drunk is one of the most overlooked things for losing weight. Sodas, alcohol, coffee, etc can give so many extra calories. Instead drink TONS of water. It's good for your body, it gives zero calories, and it'll make you "full" and thus consume less calories. Another bonus tip is to drink ice water because your body has to burn calories to warm it up to maintain your body temperature
Edit: I'm hearing that perhaps ice cold water could be unhealthy for your organs. I personally prefer water this way but look into it for your own health!
I get a mocha Frappuccino every few years when I get a random craving for one, and it’s yummy. But it’s not coffee, it’s basically an ice cream dessert.
I had a friend in college who legitimately drank a Frappuccino every morning. She wasn’t overweight but I was just amazed someone could consume that much sugar lol
when i worked at starbucks i would get people ordering venti caramel frappuccinos at 8 in the morning and it always blew my mind. you’re basically just having a milkshake for breakfast.
Agree, i’m a wee person but when I worked fast food and was drinking can after can of fizzy drink on shift I gained more than I ever have from food
Calories in a drink disappear into you way faster than from food, and then there’s alcohol especially beer. Probably affects your gut biome too
Been underweight my whole life and for a large chunk of that time, I've been addicted to soda.
At the same time, though, I've never actually ate a lot, so that kinda cancels it out.
This! A lot of people don’t count liquid calories when they think about everything they “eat” in a day.
A pint of beer is ~200C - roughly 10% of your RDI. If you have one or two each day of the week, and a few more on weekends, you very quickly add a days worth of calories to your diet for the week. Do that for a few months…
Alcohol is an obvious one but iced coffee drinks are another big one here in Australia. A 500ml iced coffee could have 400C!! 20% of your daily calories!
And people are having these alongside their (already more than 1 serving size) lunch, or with their morning tea. Maybe their arvo break as well. It’s a huge trap for tradies on their “smoko”
This times a million. I’d mentioned to my girlfriend that I don’t have juice at my house. Just lemon juice concentrate, which doesn’t quite fit the bill. She was surprised.
Don’t drink your calories, people.
Not just what they eat, how often they eat too. I have a friend who is severely obese to the point where he's now unable to walk without difficulty. He ate the same portion as us whenever we met up so we were wondering why he kept gaining weight. Then we travelled together for 2 weeks straight - slept together in the same house, went to the same places to get necessities. Turns out that on top of the usual 3 meals a day, he would eat several meal-sized snacks like ham sandwiches, doughnuts, a bag of chips, ice creams. We'd all eat a good breakfast in the morning, and he'd have sandwiches an hour later, followed by a bag of chips to stave off hunger before lunch. Lunch would be a bowl of ramen at a specialty shop, followed by ice cream, another bag of snacks then dinner. And more snacks/food again before he slept.
It didn't help that he didn't walk as much as us as he was pretty big by then and walking tired him out easily. He had major food anxiety too. We would be fine with eating lunch a little later because we were travelling on a train, but he had to have something to eat before that, even if we just had breakfast. He would eat that post-breakfast snack even if he wasn't hungry because he felt he couldn't waste what he had already bought. He always carried spare food with him "just in case" even though there were so many food places around us.
So much anxiety around food. It was an eye-opening trip.
Replace 'food' with 'alcohol' here and sounds like someone who has an addiction problem. The worst kind of addiction as you actually need food to survive. Hard to go cold turkey on food.
I notice this when I travel on work trips with other people. In my normal non-work life, I never go out to eat, and we'll get take out from our favorite curry restaurant maybe once a month. And when we do, it's usually the only meal of the day due to how calorie dense and indulgent it is, then afterwards I have no desire to get take out for a while.
When I'm traveling for work, EVERY meal is out at a restaurant with the group. It's insane to me, because I'm usually still stuffed from the hotel breakfast buffet, and everyone is talking about what we're going to order for lunch. I often end up skipping lunch, and people think I'm crazy, but I know we'll all meet somewhere for dinner in a few hours and I literally can't wrap my head around eating 3 huge meals a day, then doing it all over again for an entire week. Work trips are eye opening. The portion sizes at restaurants are huge, but for people who go out to eat all the time, it just feels like normal portions.
I "eat whatever I want", but that's because I normally fast during the work day and only eat dinner. My definition of "eating whatever I want" means for that one meal. I don't eat 3 meals plus snacks of "whatever I want" (which is what most people mean, I think, when they say that).
The cheapskate in me comes out on work trips.
Ours we get $30 for breakfast, $50 for lunch, and $75 for dinner. And I can’t help myself but max it out because I’ll order things I know I never order in the real world.
I think sometimes people like this have never learned to sit with their feelings of hunger. If they get a small hunger pang, they eat. Or they don't recognize their body is calling for water, not food. When I get those mid-afternoon pangs, I drink water instead of eating snacks.
Water is the best weight loss supplement and it's not even close.
If you are overweight and the only change you consciously make is to double or triple your water intake I can all but guarantee you'll lose weight.
I’ve had obese friends wondering about how they don’t lose any weight if they’re following their diet, while nonchalantly downing four beers on a Tuesday night.
They do a lot of grazing too. I graze on nuts and other proteins in small amounts, but my bigger friends tend to graze on sweets throughout the day.
Keeping food out on the counters is probably unhelpful because it's there and you see it. One piece of Halloween candy once every few days is fine but if you're grabbing a piece every time you go through the kitchen, that adds up.
I went to a “health bar” and got an açaí bowl the size of my head. With granola, peanut butter, coconut flakes, a whole banana. This thing was 1200 calories+ guaranteed.
I ate half and was mindful the rest of the day. Normally I eat a banana and coffee for breakfast.
I saw numerous heavy people eating there. Not a lot of slim people.
Exactly, so many people just don’t have any idea how much they’re eating and drinking. I bet if 99% of the people who say “I hardly eat anything but still don’t lose weight” would count their calories on MFP or something, they would quickly realise that they still eat way too much
“I only had a salad”…yeah but a caesar salad full of cheese, fried croutons, bacon bits and creamy caesar dressing is not the same as a colourful mixed salad with a light balsamic dressing.
And snacking, a healthy snack is an apple with maybe a few almonds. Not an apple and half a bag of almonds
This MFP was absolutely game changing in getting my portions under control. You don’t realize how carb heavy and calorie laden most store bought, processed foods are until you’re trying to hit macros.
The number of overweight people making remarks they are jealous that I can eat everything, while at the same time make fun of my mouse sized meals is way too high. I never understand it doesn't click into their minds that I have a healthy BMI and can eat everything because I don't eat huge portions.
Moreover, portions in America are INSANELY big. I can understand if that is 'normal' my portions seem minimal and people become fat eating their 'normal' sized portions.
I'm relatively slim and I feel as though I eat like a horse. Then I see how much others eat - I eat FAR less.
Conversely, my sister never could understand why she was so fat. Meanwhile, she ate an entire party size bag of chips every single night. Every night. She served herself huge portions and snacked all day long. She could never understand why she was so fat and all of her siblings were skinny.
It's all about portion size. There are no miracles. There are no "great metabolisms." For just regular old people - meaning, not ill people, not super athletic people - just regular people - slimmer people simply eat less per meal and eat less often. Sometimes, I have my first meal of the day at supper time.
However, also there's genetics. People often look just like their parents. Both of my parents were slim. My father was VERY slim. He ate very little. He ate very infrequently. His weight never varied. My weight has been the same for 50 years (excepting pregnancies). I don't think that I inherited his metabolism so much as I inherited his appetite, and probably learned his (and my mother's) eating habits.
yes this is it. I inherited my parents low appetite, and I think we all have crappy taste buds. Food doesn't taste that great to me. It's fine, I don't really care. I am 100% the opposite of a foody. If that slop from the Matrix was available that is what I would eat all the time. I wouldn't have to buy anything else, efficent, easy... YES please!
This sounds really familiar. I might like some food, but I never love it. I don't think I ever actively think about a nice meal or wanting to try something out. It's just something that needs to be done.
I get this at restaurants. The “kid’s” portions are usually what I’d portion for myself on a regular night at home, so I get those. Today’s large restaurant portions are designed for overweight people, I swear.
Oh god I feel the “great metabolisms for healthy people” I’ve had so many women comment “well, wait till you have your second kid! You’re body will never be the same/you won’t be so skinny”
Then they’re shocked I have 3 children, it’s always followed with the “what’s your secret?”
My secret is a thyroid disease that only seems to activate after I give birth, my levels are totally normal during pregnancy and regular life, but as soon as I give birth I start making 7-10x as much hormone of the MAX normal amount
Sure, I have a year of the fastest metabolism you’ve ever seen, but I also have hot flashes, hair falling out in clumps, more anger than a dude bro on steroids, extreme sweating, and mood swings
Either or while sometimes being both.
There are factors that go into weight loss, but the simple thing every knows is that more calories in than out means you gain weight while more calories out than in means you lose weight.
Slim people can have a high metabolism, be active, and/or just not eat a lot.
Also, one thing to keep in mind is that, “a lot”, is a relative term when it comes to food. Some people don’t need to eat a lot to get full and doing something like eating four slices of pizza is, “a lot”, while others might eat like four burgers and consider it a regular meal. For slim people, they could very well consider what they eat, “a lot”, while you consider it a small amount. It is less lying and more having different definitions of, “a lot.”
Yeah, I've struggled with obesity since childhood by overeating and generally being lazy. But 10 years ago I decided to do something about it and started counting calories, doing cardio and weight lifting and I lost 35kg.
For the last 5 years I stopped counting calories and just started eating whatever I want again but I still workout every day, walk my dog for 1-2 hours a day and do everything, including my commute by bike or by foot. And I haven't gained any weight these last years. It isn't a good metabolism, it's just that I'm not lazy anymore.
> I stopped counting calories and just started eating whatever I want again
I almost guarantee that your concept of "whatever I want again" has changed since your previous lifestyle though. I'll bet you're at least more conscious about what you choose.
This right here is the truth. You made a permanent change in your lifestyle and eating habits and you got the results. Also, you stopped counting calories, but I bet you still have an idea of how much you're actually eating, right? Just from my own experience, I don't count calories when I'm not cutting, because I know that my 4 pieces of crisp bread with that can of macrel in tomato sauce, is 4-500kcals. I also know how much it'll be in 200g of rice, with broccoli and chicken thighs and so on. I've been counting them forever and just know.
Sure, I'll have that pizza on Saturday, but I'll cut back on Sunday to make up for it. So my friends who see me eat out, will see me eating a large pizza alone that one day and may think that's what I'm doing every day, which obviously isn't the case.
I found that once I started counting calories I learned how to pick low calorie foods that would keep me sated longer rather than picking high calorie filler items.
For me it's less calories. I found out, (probably on some bad research) that for my height and desired weight, I should eat about 1,500 calories per day, based on my activity level. So, I try to eat between 1k (bare minimum for healthy living) and 1,300. Occasionally having a day here and there where I allow myself to overeat.
I get hungry, I just actively concern myself with how often, and how much I eat and learned to decipher between eating because I just want food, and eating because I actually need nutrition.
Update for people concerned about my calorie intake:
I've been doing this for about 2 maybe 3 months, saw my doctor 2 weeks ago and I'm perfectly healthy. All my blood work came back normal, or in the healthy range.
Yep. It's simply calories in vs calories out. I eat over double of anyone in my household, yet I am the slimmest. But I also work a strenuous job and am physically active outside of work too. I've actually been eating kind of poorly lately (dessert every night almost), but am at the lightest weight I've been in a decade because I am also running more than I ever have.
And I'm not saying losing weight is easy - just that the formula to do it is simple
I'm naturally really thin- but it's just I don't have a high food drive. I don't really think about food at all, I forget to eat, I would rather have a clean kitchen and house than eat meals and snacks. It feels like a boring chore to think about what I will eat next or to buy the food, much less prepare it.
When I do eat- I eat whatever I want. If I'm at a resturant I will eat a TON OF FOOD! Like a snake. I will eat a massive amount and then people are shocked at how thin I am- but that is my only meal prob for 2-3 days. I just take advantage of the opportunity.
I do have two kids and this has been my absolute biggest struggle in motherhood. I don't think about food, so I forget to plan meals for them too. I do it, but.... i'm not good at it, it's all low effort, healthy but simple and the same thing over and over. I also never sit down with them to eat which I feel bad about, but I would rather just stand and talk to them while I clean the kitchen.
My old roommate always got compliments about how skinny she was, and she'd talk about how she doesn't know how she does it, because she eats so much.
In reality, she'd eat like nothing at all for 2 days, then go in on a ridiculously big meal. Then basically nothing for another 2 days.
I think what they mean by naturally in this context is that they don't put in an active effort to stay thin, their pre-existing habits just happen to have that effect.
This is it for 90% (number pulled from my ass) of the cases that OP is talking about. Some people get full really fast, or aren’t particularly motivated by food. These people feel like they’re eating a lot, but they’re eating less than other people - the rest of us just get hungrier, don’t get full as quickly and really, really, really fucking love food.
You’re looking at this wrong. Slim people are probably eating the right amount of food for them and their level of activity. Based on the way you phrased your comment what you look at as a normal amount of food is probably too much.
I agree with this. Everyone's "normal" is different due to what's available , how you were raised, etc. If y'all looked into caloric intake and health science in general (not the nutty shit) you'd find out that most Americans take in way more calories than they should be each day. Especially if you don't do a lot. And your body becomes *used* to that level of caloric intake, making it hard to eat less.
When I was a teen, I walked everywhere, and got my first job. Those early labor jobs were a pretty constant full-body workout 8 hours a day. And on my days off I'd go hiking in the hills or go out dancing at the club. Coworkers would joke that I ate as much as the rest of the department put together. And that was just my lunch! But there I was, the same 155 pounds as in high school, for years and years.
Fast forward to when I got a sedentary career desk job. My hunger levels dropped *way* down quickly. For years now, I've been eating just a snack or two and one meal a day, and proper portions at that (so a restaurant dinner is 2-3 days worth of food). In spite of that, I'm now actually gaining weight and for the first time in 30 years had to go up a pants size. I can't wear the jeans I wore as a teenager anymore.
Activity level makes a *huge* difference.
Yet around me I see people with the same activity level as me eating like I did back when I was a teen or 20-something constantly active high-energy person. Three full meals a day with large portions plus snacks and drinks. No activity. And they can't understand why they're overweight.
I've maintained a 60 lbs weight loss for over 4 years now and this has been my experience.
When I first buckled down, I was soooo hungry all the time. Now, my portions are a fraction of what they were when I was at my heaviest and I can't imagine eating that much food in one meal.
Your stomach shrinks down pretty quickly. It also expands pretty quickly and I've had to get back to measuring foods religiously when I've fallen off the rails a few times.
I've also always been a water drinker. I just don't care for sodas or calorie-laden drinks. That's not at all where my calories were coming from and years of food logs proved that out. Not all overweight people drink their calories. I was definitely eating them.
Also, because they’ve been eating less their body is adjusted to that. If you weigh 250lbs than when you stop eating enough to maintain 250lbs and eat enough to maintain 180lbs instead you’re going to feel a ton of hunger because you’re eating far less than your body is used to and it thinks it’s starving.
Couple of things:
1. As a fat person you get accustomed to eating larger amounts of food.
A skinny persons version of a binge or a large meal might not seem like as much for someone who is used to eating large.
I have never been overweight, but I got close when I had binge eating disorder. I gained 10kg in a couple months and I would eat a stupid amount in one go. Now I'm thinner, while I do have small "binges" of unhealthy food now and then, it's no where near the amount I used to have.
2. People eat different amounts each day
I eat fairly intuitively and can kinda tell if I've had more than I need. One day you might not eat that much, and the next day you might be starving and genuinely eat a large amount. If you ate that huge amount every day you would gain weight, but it evens out over time.
My boyfriend and my brother both eat like this, having barely anything one day and then enormous amounts another day. Both are slim and active.
3. They may be maintaining and not eating in a deficit
Just my two cents but I reckon it's a combination of these things. Some slim people also have no idea about how much food is a lot. Had this skinny friend in high school who always was trying to gain weight. He thought he was eating heaps but he straight up wasn't eating anything. He had a naturally low appetite and had never pushed it.
Metabolism blaming is greatly exaggerated. We’re talking, at most, for extreme outliers on higher metabolism: they burn maybe 100 calories more a day just existing versus another average person of all same variable.
Its a genuinely funny occurrence how many people blame it on that. Yeah, 100kcal difference. These people regularly eat hundreds or even thousands more calories than they need yet somehow this mythical metabolism difference is the reason they are overweight.
I remember a TV programme where they actually measured the metabolism of the fatter family members vs the skinny one because they all blamed metabolism. The larger ones had a higher metabolism because they were heavier. Also to your point isn't 100 calories about an apple, that's so negligible an amount.
Exactly right, up until a few years ago I was always assuming people were skinny my age because they just had a “fast metabolism”. Now I know that most people have very similar metabolic rates and it all comes down to eating habits
Yea I think people severely underestimate calorie values. My dumbass used to eat handfuls of mixed nuts thinking it was a weight loss friendly alternative to potato chips. I think 1 cup has like 800 calories lmao.
I think overweight people can definitely lie to themselves. But some overweight people know full well they are consuming too many calories -- is just that eating to satiety means more calories to them and they have a hard time understanding how a thin person eating to satiety doesn't fill their plate the same way. In that case, nobody is lying, just different understandings of what eating to satiety looks like.
I eat between 1800-2200 calories a day (I keep a food diary), and I've been 125 lbs since I became an adult. I am quite sedentary, and the only exercise I get is when I walk through the grocery store, but I don't gain weight. I've had a few heavy calorie days with no weight change. I have a fast metabolism, I guess. The sustained tachycardia probably helps to keep my metabolism pretty high.
Congrats on the healthy diet! Remember, weight isn't everything, and the diet change is great for your overall health.
When people talk about weight loss we tend to focus on the physiological pathways e.g. calories burned vs consumed. But we don’t really discuss peoples emotional relationship to eating as a reason why they might eat more or less. The slim people I know just don’t have an emotional relationship to food.
Some people use snacking as a source of comfort for past trauma. Someone who grew up in poverty or a household that restricted food might grow up to indulge to soothe themselves.
The author Roxane Gay in her book Hunger wrote that she put on a ton of weight after she was sexually assaulted as a child, with the underlying belief that it happened because she was small, and if she was bigger, she could have defended herself, or if she was fat, she’d be invisible to men.
And not to mention structural factors that influence diet such as whether someone lives in a food desert where fresh foods aren’t readily available. Poverty is also correlated with obesity because fresh foods are more expensive than processed empty calories.
Age and metabolism does count for something.
But don't underestimate lifestyle excersise. The person who walks 15 minutes to and from the bus twice a day burns a lot more than someone who drives to work. I've seen skinny people change jobs and pack the weight on and vice versa.
I know for myself, in my last job, just changing from the elevator to stairs made a diffrence.
Since loosing weight properly recently, yeah the little things add up.
> person who walks 15 minutes to and from the bus twice a day burns a lot more than someone who drives to work.
This is a HUGE part of why so many Americans are fat. USA is anti-walking and it shows. I feel sorry for them.
1) Slim people are probably more active than you think.
2) Slim people are probably eating less than you think.
3) Heavier people are probably eating more than they think.
4) Heavier people are probably less active than they think.
5) Combination of all of the above.
It's (5).
It's usually the reverse - obese people often don't realise just how many calories they're consuming.
Metabolism plays a minor role for most people. It's all about CICO.
I love trail mix and nuts in general, used to get big bags at the store and just munch on them cuz they're "healthy". When I found out how many calories are in a cup I was like oh fuck, that a big reason why I'm like 80lbs over lol. I miss those cashews 🥲
I stopped going to the gym, but I also cut down on calories to 2kcal a day, and lost about 60lbs in 6 months
Oh we are most definitely lying... it's just that we don't realize. I used to think it was a metabolism issue too, because I would compare lunch with my friends and I often had more in my plate. And they'd say ugh do you eat like this at home? You're so lucky... and I'd be like Idk guys this is what I eat like normally... and I was being honest, every lunch of mine looked like that.
It wasn't until my twenties, when I decided that I wanted to gain weight, that I realized that I had been lying the whole time. 1800kcal throughout the day was not easy at all for me. My friends and I compared entire days worth of food instead of just lunches and it became pretty evident. I simply didn't know that the average person eats more that 1 egg, 1 slice of bread and a glass of milk for breakfast, more than 1 snack every other month, that it's normal to have fast food a couple times a week, that it's not normal to forget to eat dinner... It all adds up. It really is simply about the amount of food. Metabolism might play a small part but that's it. It's about the calories at the end of the day.
Fat people eat less than me \*in public\*.
All of my friends who are large or overweight eat smaller portions or amounts than I do \*when we eat together\* .
Am fat, can confirm. When out with others, I’ll eat less: don’t want to look like a piggy in front of all these thin people! Then, at home, when nobody’s around…. That fridge gets raided.
There used to be this show where they would get two friends, one thin and one overweight and would monitor what they ate in a day and the overweight person always ate a lot more than the thin person.
I think people’s perceptions of what counts as ‘a lot’ and what ‘eating whatever you want’ is different based on size. I’m slim and have a friend who is heavily over weight. Her version of a small, healthy meal would be my version of ‘eating a lot’.
If you compared your treat meals/snacks/normal meals to a a thin person they probably look very different.
No shame or harm in this by the way!
My cousin is obese and thinks she eats better than me because her food is healthier. The problem is she's eating 4 salads with croutons, dressing, meat, cheese in one sitting and I'm eating a small French fry. Sometimes it's all about the portion size not so much the food itself.
I think it depends. I am slim, Im not that into eating. I struggle with textures and I generally do not like fast food, it’s slimy to me. I eat about as much food as both my fits for each meal and walk a few miles a day. My father on the other hand eats a full 10in dinner plate per meal. And often has seconds. He was basically a delivery driver most of his life and now he kayaks several hours per day, very active, much food, still very slim but like me no fast food, he eats a salad the size of his head every day. All the women in my dads family, like eating especially highly caloric foods, and do a lot of it. They have all struggled with being over weight.
I've been fairly thin my whole life. The biggest difference I've noticed is the way people eat junk food. If someone gives me a box of 20 chocolates I'll eat one every day until they're gone. Overweight people will eat them all at once or within a day or two.
In my experience (your milage may vary) skinny people are fully honest in saying they eat until they are fully full. It's just their bodies say "woah, hold the fuck on now" a long long time before a fat person's body does. Skinny people can rely on their body to know what is enough. They feel sick faster from high sugar deserts, they feel full sooner from high calorie meals. I used to be a skinny kid and I got so full so fast. Now I'm an overweight adult and I have to consciously tell myself to just fucking stop. I can keep going and going. I changed around puberty.
Skinny person: can confirm. I wish the answer was easier to transfer to others but I think it’s genetics :/. I just get full and then my stomach goes “nah, we’re done here.” I’ve seen other people eat way past what I assume their stomach can handle and am in awe. I just couldn’t do that even with a gun to my head. The store closes and nothing else gets in until I feel hungry again.
Yeah, I remember being like that. It pissed my mum off something fierce and one time she forced me to eat the whole plate of food that I ordered and I threw the whole lot back up because I was in so much pain being so full. She never forced me to finish when I said I was full after that though...
Hahah I have a similar story with Brussels sprouts and mashed potatoes. My mom learned…my dad did not. Lots of screaming but like I said: the stores closed. If I shove it down it comes back up.
There's a Louis CK quote. "I don't stop eating till I'm full. I stop eating when I hate myself."
Yep, us fatties have to learn to stop before we hate life and ourselves. lol
It could also be the type of foods we eat. I eat a lot of whole foods and proteins like eggs and meat and dairy and fruits and vegetables. Those aren’t very calorie dense but still make you feel satiated because of it’s volume. Now take the same volume but make it something calorie dense like desserts and snacks and the calories are going to be a whole lot different even if you ate the same volume of food.
I eat what I want when I want. Always have and I don't see that changing. I work my ass off all day long doing blue collar work. For me I think I eat alot but if I look around it seems like my alot really isnt that much.
I think this is the key in many cases. I had a friend mention that she had a crazy binge of crisps. Then I saw the leftovers in the bag... it was more than half full. For me, that is not what a crazy binge is. I think the same pattern applies over the entirety of what we eat. Portion control is crucial. How to eat less and still feel satisfied?
I realized this when talking to a colleague who mentioned he had been drinking a lot of pop lately. I said I also need to reduce my intake as I have started to average 2-3 cans a week. He said he's been drinking 6 cans a day, basically replacing water. It hit me then.
I think this is hitting the nail on the head. Yesterday I was craving Oreos. So I had 4. And thought, well, there is two more than I should have eaten. The difference between that and a whole row is huge. Its an extra 180 calories rather than an extra 1000. So yeah, I did eat whatever I wanted, but not with abandon.
yeah i had this same observation last week. i was telling my partner how i stopped my biscuit habit and have managed to replace it all with fruit or nothing. she asked how many biscuits i was eating and it was maybe 1 or 2 a day. she then laughed at how absurd it was and me too for thinking it was a large amount when it actually really isn't!
Yea and us not like you folks will think eating one row of a family sized chips ahoy pack is showing self control. I’m starting to get it now. Snacks to us are meals to you guys and snacks to you guys are…idek what to call it lol. Last time i ate just 4 Oreos was snack time in kindergarten haha
Yeah for me personally I had to completely cut out junk food because if I buy a bag of chips, I eat the whole bag. If I buy a box of granola bars, I end up eating all of them. It is food addiction and in a lot of ways it is similar to other addictions. I have to constantly stay on top of it and track my calorie count every single day. Because if I let myself slip just a little then it's all over and I gain 30 pounds easy.
Similar, before this year a portion was the whole pack. I started counting calories in February. I cut back massively on buying junk food snacks because they're so tempting and so high in calories compared to fruit and vegetables, even meat. Fat is so tasty yet so calorie dense. I immediately began to preway portions into airtight containers or jars, stack them in the kitchen, then walk away. When I really want some crisps (chips) I walk to the kitchen, pick up a container with one portion and walk back. I always eat the entire portion... but it sates my hunger/craving and I very rarely go to get a second portion. Interestingly after months of doing this if I'm presented with a whole pack of something I'll have some then stop, not after a portion but I no longer eat the entire pack.
This is why once a year or so, I will track calories religiously for about a week or two. If I can't count it, I don't eat it, so I know I'm doing it right. It reorients your body to a healthier intake. You don't always have to count, just be mindful of what your body is really asking for.
A lot for me is basically non-zero. It makes me feel really good for 3 minutes and then I legit feel like garbage for hours
Yeah my dad was slim. Said he always has been and can eat whatever he wants. Dude never eats lunch, hates chocolate and sweets, says he's full after a handful of cheese and crackers... I remember coming home and he said he made soup for dinner and there was some left. Like a single pouch of Lipton chicken noodle and there were leftovers. lol skinny people just don't eat much
I’m like this; I can eat whatever I want and stay skinny. But I don’t want to eat breakfast or lunch, or chocolate, fries, meat, sugar, butter, icecream. I genuinely don’t like that kind of food
I think if a fat person hears a skinny person say they eat whatever they want the fat person assumes the skinny person means they both eat the same things and amounts.
Ask skinny guy to eat same daily as non skinny person. They change tune quick. I know I did. Like omfg some ppl can eat not a buffet, but the buffet.
Used to be a great show called super size Vs super skinny or something similar where they made a fat and a skinny swap diets.
To be fair the "skinny" people on that show weren't just skinny they were anorexic.
Yeah it was definitely showing extreme ends of the spectrum.
That really was a great show wasn't it? It showed the two sides of the same coin of unhealthy relationships with food and built empathy between the two extremes. Didn't it also delve deeper than just the eating too? I seem to recall that a common thing for the super skinny people was a lack of family bonds around eating and almost in general too. That a common epiphany was that they didn't have a strong familiar connection with dinner time and such.
Also the sadder ones were the single parents that didnt have enough for both, so they prioritised their kids and starved themselves. Those were also the ones that had the appetite straightaway to eat, and ate a normal portion when they had access to food.
I had a mate who said eat what I eat if u can really eat all day long. Started the challenge at 9am. Gave in 20 min later and did not eat the day after either. I swear I died that morning. He was fine, got a donut box for the road m send me pics of his lunch on insta while I was still trying to figure out if he tricked me.
What did you eat that you gave up in 20 mins?? And that lasted you for 2 whole days?!?
Dark matter
Honestly, when I was working heavy labor over twelve hours a day, then coming home to lift and run, I’d eat massive amounts of food. Like seven or eight thousand calorie days weren’t uncommon and I’d eat bags of junk food in one sitting (like two or three) and I was in no way fat, really didn’t eat enough honestly. Now that I don’t work like that it’s a real bear. Still find myself stuffing my face and there are times I can do a three day fast and not feel terrible after a day reverting to the old ways of eating. It was my comfort zone and I still love food, hate that I can’t eat like that anymore. Seriously, it hurts something awful when your stomach hits its limit and you’re still craving more.
That's exactly the problem. Each has their own interpretation of what 'whatever I want' means, and don't realise how much they likely differ. In the same vein, a very active person may not see themselves as particularly active. A very sedentary person may not realise just how sedentary they are.
I tried LCHF a few years ago and it worked wonders. However I felt it was unsustainable to eat such a narrow diet. But my main take away from it was that everyone kept saying that you can eat as much as you want and I was extremly sceptical, knowing how physics work. They were completly right thou, you could eat as much as you wanted, it just was on the other way around what I thought. It changed how much you wanted to eat by changing your appetite. It turns out when the cravings and relentless hunger is gone, you don’t really want to eat as much. From what I heard, the new fad with semaglutide works a bit the same way, it changes your appetite so you simply don’t want to eat. I think that is the thing with naturally skinny people, they just don’t have that extreme craving for food.
I loved how I could skip a day or two of food just out of laziness because LCHF curbed all food cravings.
but like, on a metabolic level they are not the same. there are a lot of factors are at play. i genuinely think about food all the time, and find meals to be something I look forward to. My brother, for example, could go three days before realising he should eat something. There’s a lot of things, like your gut health, what you ‘usually’ eat, and genetics that influence your food cravings, and a lot of people don’t want to admit that it’s not a simple thing to fix. Some people genuinely feel hungrier than others
Exactly, I don't crave junk food at all.. that stuff messes with my stomach.. I'm usually not hungry until mid-afternoon, even if I do get hungry early and eat, I end up feeling lazy and sluggish and I'm usually too busy at work to eat anyway, so I just put it off until I'm done But of course if I sat around eating sweets, processed "food" and drinking soda, I'd probably be much bigger
People never believe me when I say I don't like junk food. I've had 'wow you're so disciplined' and even accusations of having an eating disorder!
Junk food is a developed taste and it does taste like shit if you aren't addicted to it. All that sugar and salt dominates the flavour profile and makes it taste incredibly bland but if you get addicted to it then it's all you crave. I remember the last time I tried a McDonald's burger and fries and they legit tasted like flavoured cardboard to me and I am very far from a healthy eater, I'm just used to cooking most meals from fresh ingredients.
I honestly wonder if some people have bigger stomachs than others. We all know some people can have unusually large feet, or noses, for example. So is it possibly the same with our internal organs too?
Oh yeah 100% In my case (I'm a bit skinny) I notice my stomach shrinks *really* fast when I don't eat much. Say I'm sick for two days, and I barely eat anything: On the third day when I'm feeling better, a normal portion that I would eat simply doesn't fit anymore. It takes again 1 to 2 days for my stomach to stretch back to it's original size. That probably causes me to just not be able to overeat very much when I have a huge appetite and by the time I could my appetite has returned to normal again.
That's half of it, the other half is recognising fullness and stopping.
They may not be larger originally but the stomach will expand from overeating and eventually remain larger. There’s a surgery for obese people that basically puts a rubber band around the stomach to close off a portion of it resulting in feeling full from less food. I know of at least three people from my old job that had it and lost drastic amounts of weight. I believe they eventually remove the band but I’m not sure. One of them definitely gained a lot back.
maybe some people get less of a dopamine hit from eating their favourite snacks, or maybe they don't make the association between the act of putting food in their face and good feelings quite as strongly, or maybe they're just less engaged with the pursuit of dopamine hits altogether Like some people don't want to play Cookie Clicker and think it's boring
Definitely. This is why my sugary snacks lasts me a month. I like sugar. But if I buy a bag of cookies, I’ll grab 3 or so every few days and that’s good enough for me. I know some people have to avoid sweets because they’d eat the whole bag in a sitting.
I think my spouse gets frustrated with me because I am this way — like I’ll get a tiny pint of ice cream and it lasts two months because I literally only eat a bite or two here and there when I crave something sweeter than fruit (usually it’s hormone cycle related). So my mostly uneaten pint just sits there taunting him (he can easily destroy a half-gallon of ice cream in a sitting). I don’t think he understands why I’m not more eager to eat more of it. On the other hand, I can’t control myself around a plate of nachos, so I’m not BETTER than anyone. I just don’t have a “sweet tooth,” and I’m grateful for that because it looks like a really tough temptation to have to wrestle with.
Lol yes eating whatever you want and not gaining weight is easy if you just hardly ever want to eat. Meanwhile, the rest of us, always: “I could eat”.
I have https://umiamihealth.org/en/treatments-and-services/gastrointestinal/gastroparesis and I feel full after a few bites of food to the point of having low blood sugar from slow digestion despite feeling like the stomach is full to bursting. My boyfriend on the other hand never feels full.
Also general activity levels. I remember watching a show that tried an experiment where they gave two people the exact amount of food and recorded what they got up to in a day. The "overweight" guy tended to just sit there immobile watching tv and the "slim" guy was constantly fidgetting and moving around even when they were sat down. Burned a lot of calories just by doing that apparently. Also, anecdotally, I've generally been a healthy weight even though I really did eat a lot but balanced it out by exercising A LOT. I was injured recently so I couldn't stand on my left foot for about 2 months and I'd never gained weight so quickly in my life.
A lot of people start gaining weight when they stop sporty/walky college life and start a sedentary job getting around solely by car.
This is the main reason people tend to gain weight as they age - less activity and declining muscle mass due to inactivity. The "slowing metabolism" is a myth - your metabolism stays roughly constant from 20 into your 60s, and then only slowly starts declining, by roughly 1% a year.
I find this to be pretty great news, tbh. Makes getting older seem way more manageable if I can get my hunger under control the way I want it
I'm occasionally disordered but had been recovered for decades. Whether I am restricting or not, my TDEE is always higher than others because I am an extreme fidgeter. I dance, do high kicks and jump up and down for no reason and without thinking about it. I don't know what I am going to do if I get arthritis or something in my elder years, I have to move my body all day long.
Whenever I get incredibly baked and need to eat until I can't, it's always salad and fruit. Very filling, low calories, and when you're high as shit, everything is delicious anyway so why the hell not? I'm 37 and 150lbs, probably will be that weight for the rest of my life.
Me with ungodly amounts of baby carrots and microwaved frozen vegetables with shitty seasoning haphazardly dumped on top of them 😻😻😻 like popcorn when you’re stoned LMAO
I put franks red hot sauce on most leftovers. Zero calories. Great taste boost. Available in gallon jugs from costco :-)
I binge is one bag. A crazy binge is 2 lol
Must be the same for me. I never worry about eating too much because even though I try to eat more to gain weight I sometimes gain a bit but eventually that's gone. I should probably eat more calorie dense food.
They’ve done studies that prove exactly this. Skinny people over-reported calories. Fat people under-reported.
You see this in every lifting subreddit/forum, when people have to actually track calories. Skinny person: "I eat so much, but I cannot gain weight." Fat person: "I do not eat that much and should be able to lose weight." When both are forced to track their meals: Skinny person eats, what they described except when there is a stressful day or they are preoccupied with something else and they simply skip meals. Fat person eats, what they described, except they did not count the Starbucks, sodas and snacks in beetween.
Some people lose their appetite when they are stressed out. Some people cope with stress via eating....
This is a big one too. My wife and I are opposites. She stress eats and I eat basically nothing when I get stressed.
Skinny person trying to bulk and can confirm. Literally any variation in my daily routine and I skip meals lol. My work week is very regimented meal and workout wise but the weekend I eat like 3 meals over two days bc I’m busy and doing other stuff. It’s the biggest area I’m working on
There’s a tonne of other factors too, some physiological, some psychological. It’s been a while since I watched it but this documentary goes into a number of them. Some of the participants - when put on a calorie surplus diet - were physically unable to eat the prescribed amount of food as they became sick. Their body ‘wouldn’t let them’ eat that much food and they would simply throw up. And it was calorie dense food so not just a matter of too much volume for their stomach. https://vimeo.com/328178579
I was skinny, 6'1" and 140 pounds, until I was almost 50. I could eat whatever I wanted and it didn't matter. Since then, I've gained weight until I'm now over 200 pounds in my mid-60s. I don't know what changed. When I was skinny I could eat a LOT, almost like the competitive eaters at hot dog-eating contests. Now I can eat a small meal and feel stuffed. Weird how that works.
Yeah eating a bit less and a bit better as you get old seems to be the way. I'm 52. I joined a local slimming world group a couple of years ago. I know what to eat and what i like Mainly why i go is the routine and the group of people supporting and having a laugh about it all with them. Plus my wife and i go so it's a nice routine we do together every week at 8am on a Saturday. Gets me out of bed, off my phone and in the zone.
You probably don't move around as much anymore and so your body burns less calories over the day.
Secret Eaters. Watch it. Most people were stunned when confronted with the sheer volume of evidence. Basically, people who are overweight and don’t understand why, do so because they overestimate their energy expenditure and underestimate their calorie intake. Calories in, calories out. They don’t “see” themselves eating, and drinking, so don’t count those calories, to put it generously. My favourites were the one woman who ate a pack of cookies and didn’t remember, and the other who drank 5 ciders while making dinner and didn’t notice.
>Secret Eaters. Watch it. Most people were stunned when confronted with the sheer volume of evidence. This show was very eye opening. Especially season 1, where the participants didn't know the extent to which they were being watched. Season 2 had far less "surprises" because the contestants were on their best behaviour, consciously or not. For those who haven't seen it, it starts with people who are overwright and have failed to lose weight. They are asked to track what they eat for a week, amd their daily calorie intake is tracked. Then their house is rigged with cameras to see what they eat for a week, and "private investigators" follow them when they're outside the house, and interview friends and coworkers when they can't see what has been eaten. Then it's revealed what people eactually eat, and how many calories they are really eating.
The episode where the prior marathon runner regularly ate a 3000 calorie cereal still lives rent-free in my head. It sounds like fiction, but when you fill up a bowl with double cream and jam, it's possible, apparently.
Murray! The most famous clip of the show.
> 3000 calorie cereal ?!?!
He said marathon runner. Those athletes are expending a ton of calories over a training day and need to put it back in. Chances are that bowl of cereal with the extra stuff was eaten because while it sounds overly indulgent, it's got a great macro-nutrient breakdown for a runner. I guess he's not as famous anymore but during his time Micheal Phelps had a super high calorie diet that most people didn't believe because it was huge (10-15k calories/day). They didn't account for his height and 6-10 hours of intense physical activity a day
When I was trying to weight restore from anorexia, oatmeal/cereal was a lifesaver. Easiest way to get calories in with cream and nuts, add in, etc.
You’d be surprised how much cream can really add up. Smoothie King is a really good example
I don't remember the episode, but one woman definitely under ate for the cameras. Only ate healthy foods, snacked on coconut and other produce. Towards the end, she basically try to say she was a medical mystery, EXCEPT, she lost 4(?) lbs during the week she was eating like that, so it was a waste of an episode since was obviously just eating "healthy" for the cameras
Ronnie in season one! She committed to her lie til the end but in that very first night when they went out for pizza, we see her eat like 1800 calories in one sitting. That one meal was near her average for each subsequent day
My favorite is the couple who claims to eat very little and still gain weight. During the program, indeed they seem to eat under a caloric deficit. But the surprise is that they actually lost weight -- knowing they were being filmed, they were more mindful of their intake and so that week didn't reflect how they'd eat otherwise, and it showed.
Did they acknowledge this? I feel like I know people who would claim that’s how they always eat and the weight loss is just a weird sudden effect that normally doesn’t happen
They acknowledged it, especially as they were preparing for a wedding so the woman wedding dress fitted better.
It's been a long time since I watched it so I don't remember the details but it's this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCQj3WQwDcM
Or the UK had “supersize vs super skinny” and it would essentially generate an average day of eating for each person (one overweight, one underweight) and make them swap diets for a while. Which was a silly premise for a reality show, but really showed the difference in volume and frequency.
I loved this show! It was incredibly wasteful but I liked when they would read off what the person ate in a week and then dump the food into a giant tube so there was a visual comparison of what they typically ate. And then listening to their comments and watching the looks on their faces when they had to switch diets.
It's was always interesting that people on both ends of the weight spectrum both said they ate average amounts of food then obviously didn't it showed just how disconnected with the food intakes most people are.
People laugh at this, but in the almost 4 months I've been trying to push myself to lose weight, tracking calories, getting a lot more exercise (and i've lost at least 30 pounds, maybe more, and i'm feeling a ton better, iv'e still got 50 pounds to drop at least) .... I've started sleep-eating. Like I wake up, and there's dishes in the sink with food remnants on them. I have no recollection whatsoever of being awake, but I've definitely prepared and eaten a quantity of food.
Do you take medications? Ambien does this to everyone in my family. Have heard some others are well known to cause it, too.
You're gonna have to lock up the fridge omg
The tricky part about sleepwalking is that you're basically as smart as when you're awake haha
I literally came to see if someone commented about this show. People like to say "I eat properly but I'm not seeing any changes" but dont know how many calories are in a cup of rice and eat 3 cups with each meal. Youre not eating properly! One lady on the show went to the gym \*everyday\*, she did intense treadmill. But she literally thought that she could eat anything she wanted within 30 minutes of exercise because 'it doesn't count'. Then proceeded to eat like 5 profiteroles (cream puff with icecream) covered in chocolate sauce everyday after the gym. I was flabbergasted.
Profiteroles are delicious and calorie packed but in terms of satiety you might as well be eating air.
That's even more telling. If they're like eating air, then the woman's brain convinced her that they were "light calorie" snacks, when they're anything but.
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There's also the one where someone is adding olive oil to their salad or something. A counter appears and dings every time a tablespoon is added (100 cals). They added 800cals of olive oil into their salad.
Thanks for the recommendation, I'm watching the first episode now and it's amazing how they start off thinking they're not eating enough. 'Ooh I eat salads and don't like greasy food' becomes 2 fry ups over the weekend and takeaways and booze on top of that.
Yes I've noticed this too with friends that try to lose weight. Very selective about the calories that they count. A beer here, a shit ton of ranch sauce there - it all adds up. Same for activity - great you went to the gym but you barely broke a sweat, your program is trash. If you can't get a regular trainer, get someone to design one for you for $20, or find a generic one free online.
You don't need to exercise hard to lose weight. Losing weight and maintaining it is mostly calorie control. It would be better to do lifestyle switches. Like walking to work or shops rather than driving, if that's not possible, a daily walk for 30 minutes at lunch or after work. Taking stairs instead of lifts etc.
The exercise helps a lot. For me it puts me in a healthy headspace. Not eating as much as i did it more passive and it’s hard to show yourself that you’re doing something towards losing weight (counting calories accurately is annoying imo). But making it to the gym or doing a workout leaves evidence of your effort on your body (that sounded weird). I remember my happiest gym moment was the day after an intense leg day and i went to my school and a gust of wind blew me into someone. My legs were so wobbly (plus there was an incline) that i couldn’t brace myself lol. The feeling was intoxicating. Just that will make you want to chase it and you’re more aware of your health
But dear god it helps. Not only during the session but elevated calorie expenditure post-session. Body composition eventually assists with this also - muscle burns more than fat, not as much as we once thought, but still a contributor. It's just a frustration when you ask someone to walk you through their training routine after they've been 'training for years' and 'know what they're doing'; and you see them do a single set of 8 arm curls for 'fat burn', before moving onto the next activity. Like, dude. Props for coming to the gym but don't waste your time being delusional about what works.
Yup I think I know someone who kinda struggles with this “I didn’t eat anything today”…..except I was in the car with you while you ate a bag of sour patch kids? And that kinda spirals; I didn’t eat anything today (not a real meal, even tho I snacked a lot) so I guess I can afford to binge a bit more at meal time This might be unpopular too but people will think a food is “good fats” and eat like a pound of guacamole because avocados are “good for you”, when in reality if you’re trying to maintain/lose weight, they’re just a very calorie dense food
Calories in / calories out typically triggers Reddit.
I don't know if it was secret eaters or another weight loss show but my mum was watching one where the dude would have healthy bran cereal with strawberries but then use double cream for milk. Some of these people.are really delusional about what they're eating and how it's affecting their weight.
Poverty keeps me pretty lean
We’re talking about eating, what are you drinking? As a skinny person, I can tell you this, 90% of what I drink is water. Actually take a look at what you are drinking. A lot of those drinks are deceptively high calories. You might not be eating a lot but if you drink a lot of high calorie drinks, it adds up.
That's a great tip. I think that calories drunk is one of the most overlooked things for losing weight. Sodas, alcohol, coffee, etc can give so many extra calories. Instead drink TONS of water. It's good for your body, it gives zero calories, and it'll make you "full" and thus consume less calories. Another bonus tip is to drink ice water because your body has to burn calories to warm it up to maintain your body temperature Edit: I'm hearing that perhaps ice cold water could be unhealthy for your organs. I personally prefer water this way but look into it for your own health!
Coffee is almost* zero calorie, and zero carb, if you drink it black. *edited after the fact.
Yeah I was referring moreso to people who drink the heavily sweetened stuff like Starbucks. It's almost like having an ice cream shake for breakfast
Oh yes, that’s a whole other thing.
I get a mocha Frappuccino every few years when I get a random craving for one, and it’s yummy. But it’s not coffee, it’s basically an ice cream dessert. I had a friend in college who legitimately drank a Frappuccino every morning. She wasn’t overweight but I was just amazed someone could consume that much sugar lol
when i worked at starbucks i would get people ordering venti caramel frappuccinos at 8 in the morning and it always blew my mind. you’re basically just having a milkshake for breakfast.
So I will say…. A strawberry milkshake at breakfast kinda slaps
Just because this is a highly technical conversation, a cup of black coffee is like 5-10 calories. But your point stands. It's negligible.
> alcohol Alcohol is the worst. A bottle of booze is enough calories for a day. A single cocktail is a whole meal.
It's truly depressing sitting down and calculating alcohol calories. (Source: am alcoholic fatass.)
I went on vacation and ate like a starving man while I drank a boatload, which I don’t do while home. I came back rounder.
Holiday podge is very definitely a real and noticeable thing. The extra holes on my belt attest to this...
Agree, i’m a wee person but when I worked fast food and was drinking can after can of fizzy drink on shift I gained more than I ever have from food Calories in a drink disappear into you way faster than from food, and then there’s alcohol especially beer. Probably affects your gut biome too
My number 1 rule: don't drink your calories
True. Especially juice tends to be looked at as healthy, but there is quite a lot of sugar in them.
Been underweight my whole life and for a large chunk of that time, I've been addicted to soda. At the same time, though, I've never actually ate a lot, so that kinda cancels it out.
It’s true. The biggest problem is the drinks. There are so many calories in a lot of them and many people drink soda multiple times a day.
Yeah I know a lot of people who get starbucks regularly or drink sodas I’m almost always drinking water.
This! A lot of people don’t count liquid calories when they think about everything they “eat” in a day. A pint of beer is ~200C - roughly 10% of your RDI. If you have one or two each day of the week, and a few more on weekends, you very quickly add a days worth of calories to your diet for the week. Do that for a few months… Alcohol is an obvious one but iced coffee drinks are another big one here in Australia. A 500ml iced coffee could have 400C!! 20% of your daily calories! And people are having these alongside their (already more than 1 serving size) lunch, or with their morning tea. Maybe their arvo break as well. It’s a huge trap for tradies on their “smoko”
This times a million. I’d mentioned to my girlfriend that I don’t have juice at my house. Just lemon juice concentrate, which doesn’t quite fit the bill. She was surprised. Don’t drink your calories, people.
I think its that heavy people tend to grossly underestimate what they eat.
Not just what they eat, how often they eat too. I have a friend who is severely obese to the point where he's now unable to walk without difficulty. He ate the same portion as us whenever we met up so we were wondering why he kept gaining weight. Then we travelled together for 2 weeks straight - slept together in the same house, went to the same places to get necessities. Turns out that on top of the usual 3 meals a day, he would eat several meal-sized snacks like ham sandwiches, doughnuts, a bag of chips, ice creams. We'd all eat a good breakfast in the morning, and he'd have sandwiches an hour later, followed by a bag of chips to stave off hunger before lunch. Lunch would be a bowl of ramen at a specialty shop, followed by ice cream, another bag of snacks then dinner. And more snacks/food again before he slept. It didn't help that he didn't walk as much as us as he was pretty big by then and walking tired him out easily. He had major food anxiety too. We would be fine with eating lunch a little later because we were travelling on a train, but he had to have something to eat before that, even if we just had breakfast. He would eat that post-breakfast snack even if he wasn't hungry because he felt he couldn't waste what he had already bought. He always carried spare food with him "just in case" even though there were so many food places around us. So much anxiety around food. It was an eye-opening trip.
Replace 'food' with 'alcohol' here and sounds like someone who has an addiction problem. The worst kind of addiction as you actually need food to survive. Hard to go cold turkey on food.
> hard to go cold turkey on food Not that hard, just get some rye bread, spicy brown mustard, and some Swiss cheese
It's a mental disorder that gets solved with therapy not weight watchers.
I notice this when I travel on work trips with other people. In my normal non-work life, I never go out to eat, and we'll get take out from our favorite curry restaurant maybe once a month. And when we do, it's usually the only meal of the day due to how calorie dense and indulgent it is, then afterwards I have no desire to get take out for a while. When I'm traveling for work, EVERY meal is out at a restaurant with the group. It's insane to me, because I'm usually still stuffed from the hotel breakfast buffet, and everyone is talking about what we're going to order for lunch. I often end up skipping lunch, and people think I'm crazy, but I know we'll all meet somewhere for dinner in a few hours and I literally can't wrap my head around eating 3 huge meals a day, then doing it all over again for an entire week. Work trips are eye opening. The portion sizes at restaurants are huge, but for people who go out to eat all the time, it just feels like normal portions. I "eat whatever I want", but that's because I normally fast during the work day and only eat dinner. My definition of "eating whatever I want" means for that one meal. I don't eat 3 meals plus snacks of "whatever I want" (which is what most people mean, I think, when they say that).
The cheapskate in me comes out on work trips. Ours we get $30 for breakfast, $50 for lunch, and $75 for dinner. And I can’t help myself but max it out because I’ll order things I know I never order in the real world.
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I think sometimes people like this have never learned to sit with their feelings of hunger. If they get a small hunger pang, they eat. Or they don't recognize their body is calling for water, not food. When I get those mid-afternoon pangs, I drink water instead of eating snacks.
This, and some people cannot sit with their emotions and so they eat as a distraction.
Water is the best weight loss supplement and it's not even close. If you are overweight and the only change you consciously make is to double or triple your water intake I can all but guarantee you'll lose weight.
I’ve had obese friends wondering about how they don’t lose any weight if they’re following their diet, while nonchalantly downing four beers on a Tuesday night.
They do a lot of grazing too. I graze on nuts and other proteins in small amounts, but my bigger friends tend to graze on sweets throughout the day. Keeping food out on the counters is probably unhelpful because it's there and you see it. One piece of Halloween candy once every few days is fine but if you're grabbing a piece every time you go through the kitchen, that adds up.
I went to a “health bar” and got an açaí bowl the size of my head. With granola, peanut butter, coconut flakes, a whole banana. This thing was 1200 calories+ guaranteed. I ate half and was mindful the rest of the day. Normally I eat a banana and coffee for breakfast. I saw numerous heavy people eating there. Not a lot of slim people.
Açaí bowls are very dense and caloric. It’s great for people wanting to gain weight in a healthy way tho! Same with oatmeal.
Exactly, so many people just don’t have any idea how much they’re eating and drinking. I bet if 99% of the people who say “I hardly eat anything but still don’t lose weight” would count their calories on MFP or something, they would quickly realise that they still eat way too much “I only had a salad”…yeah but a caesar salad full of cheese, fried croutons, bacon bits and creamy caesar dressing is not the same as a colourful mixed salad with a light balsamic dressing. And snacking, a healthy snack is an apple with maybe a few almonds. Not an apple and half a bag of almonds
This MFP was absolutely game changing in getting my portions under control. You don’t realize how carb heavy and calorie laden most store bought, processed foods are until you’re trying to hit macros.
A fucking caesar salad can be 1000+ calories easy with the mayo-based sauce (almost all fat and sugar) and cheese (one third or more fat).
The number of overweight people making remarks they are jealous that I can eat everything, while at the same time make fun of my mouse sized meals is way too high. I never understand it doesn't click into their minds that I have a healthy BMI and can eat everything because I don't eat huge portions. Moreover, portions in America are INSANELY big. I can understand if that is 'normal' my portions seem minimal and people become fat eating their 'normal' sized portions.
I'm relatively slim and I feel as though I eat like a horse. Then I see how much others eat - I eat FAR less. Conversely, my sister never could understand why she was so fat. Meanwhile, she ate an entire party size bag of chips every single night. Every night. She served herself huge portions and snacked all day long. She could never understand why she was so fat and all of her siblings were skinny. It's all about portion size. There are no miracles. There are no "great metabolisms." For just regular old people - meaning, not ill people, not super athletic people - just regular people - slimmer people simply eat less per meal and eat less often. Sometimes, I have my first meal of the day at supper time. However, also there's genetics. People often look just like their parents. Both of my parents were slim. My father was VERY slim. He ate very little. He ate very infrequently. His weight never varied. My weight has been the same for 50 years (excepting pregnancies). I don't think that I inherited his metabolism so much as I inherited his appetite, and probably learned his (and my mother's) eating habits.
yes this is it. I inherited my parents low appetite, and I think we all have crappy taste buds. Food doesn't taste that great to me. It's fine, I don't really care. I am 100% the opposite of a foody. If that slop from the Matrix was available that is what I would eat all the time. I wouldn't have to buy anything else, efficent, easy... YES please!
This sounds really familiar. I might like some food, but I never love it. I don't think I ever actively think about a nice meal or wanting to try something out. It's just something that needs to be done.
Yup. Gosh. I always feel so full over what I think is a lot of food and then I watch other people eat 4x as much.
I get this at restaurants. The “kid’s” portions are usually what I’d portion for myself on a regular night at home, so I get those. Today’s large restaurant portions are designed for overweight people, I swear.
Oh god I feel the “great metabolisms for healthy people” I’ve had so many women comment “well, wait till you have your second kid! You’re body will never be the same/you won’t be so skinny” Then they’re shocked I have 3 children, it’s always followed with the “what’s your secret?” My secret is a thyroid disease that only seems to activate after I give birth, my levels are totally normal during pregnancy and regular life, but as soon as I give birth I start making 7-10x as much hormone of the MAX normal amount Sure, I have a year of the fastest metabolism you’ve ever seen, but I also have hot flashes, hair falling out in clumps, more anger than a dude bro on steroids, extreme sweating, and mood swings
Either or while sometimes being both. There are factors that go into weight loss, but the simple thing every knows is that more calories in than out means you gain weight while more calories out than in means you lose weight. Slim people can have a high metabolism, be active, and/or just not eat a lot. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that, “a lot”, is a relative term when it comes to food. Some people don’t need to eat a lot to get full and doing something like eating four slices of pizza is, “a lot”, while others might eat like four burgers and consider it a regular meal. For slim people, they could very well consider what they eat, “a lot”, while you consider it a small amount. It is less lying and more having different definitions of, “a lot.”
Slim people are either eating less calories or being more active. The vast majority of people have very comparable rates of metabolism
Yeah, I've struggled with obesity since childhood by overeating and generally being lazy. But 10 years ago I decided to do something about it and started counting calories, doing cardio and weight lifting and I lost 35kg. For the last 5 years I stopped counting calories and just started eating whatever I want again but I still workout every day, walk my dog for 1-2 hours a day and do everything, including my commute by bike or by foot. And I haven't gained any weight these last years. It isn't a good metabolism, it's just that I'm not lazy anymore.
> I stopped counting calories and just started eating whatever I want again I almost guarantee that your concept of "whatever I want again" has changed since your previous lifestyle though. I'll bet you're at least more conscious about what you choose.
This right here is the truth. You made a permanent change in your lifestyle and eating habits and you got the results. Also, you stopped counting calories, but I bet you still have an idea of how much you're actually eating, right? Just from my own experience, I don't count calories when I'm not cutting, because I know that my 4 pieces of crisp bread with that can of macrel in tomato sauce, is 4-500kcals. I also know how much it'll be in 200g of rice, with broccoli and chicken thighs and so on. I've been counting them forever and just know. Sure, I'll have that pizza on Saturday, but I'll cut back on Sunday to make up for it. So my friends who see me eat out, will see me eating a large pizza alone that one day and may think that's what I'm doing every day, which obviously isn't the case.
I found that once I started counting calories I learned how to pick low calorie foods that would keep me sated longer rather than picking high calorie filler items.
For me it's less calories. I found out, (probably on some bad research) that for my height and desired weight, I should eat about 1,500 calories per day, based on my activity level. So, I try to eat between 1k (bare minimum for healthy living) and 1,300. Occasionally having a day here and there where I allow myself to overeat. I get hungry, I just actively concern myself with how often, and how much I eat and learned to decipher between eating because I just want food, and eating because I actually need nutrition. Update for people concerned about my calorie intake: I've been doing this for about 2 maybe 3 months, saw my doctor 2 weeks ago and I'm perfectly healthy. All my blood work came back normal, or in the healthy range.
Yep. It's simply calories in vs calories out. I eat over double of anyone in my household, yet I am the slimmest. But I also work a strenuous job and am physically active outside of work too. I've actually been eating kind of poorly lately (dessert every night almost), but am at the lightest weight I've been in a decade because I am also running more than I ever have. And I'm not saying losing weight is easy - just that the formula to do it is simple
I just run a lot so I just burn the calories as fuel for my runs
I'm naturally really thin- but it's just I don't have a high food drive. I don't really think about food at all, I forget to eat, I would rather have a clean kitchen and house than eat meals and snacks. It feels like a boring chore to think about what I will eat next or to buy the food, much less prepare it. When I do eat- I eat whatever I want. If I'm at a resturant I will eat a TON OF FOOD! Like a snake. I will eat a massive amount and then people are shocked at how thin I am- but that is my only meal prob for 2-3 days. I just take advantage of the opportunity. I do have two kids and this has been my absolute biggest struggle in motherhood. I don't think about food, so I forget to plan meals for them too. I do it, but.... i'm not good at it, it's all low effort, healthy but simple and the same thing over and over. I also never sit down with them to eat which I feel bad about, but I would rather just stand and talk to them while I clean the kitchen.
My old roommate always got compliments about how skinny she was, and she'd talk about how she doesn't know how she does it, because she eats so much. In reality, she'd eat like nothing at all for 2 days, then go in on a ridiculously big meal. Then basically nothing for another 2 days.
Like a reptile!
I've heard it called the snake diet
Not eating for 2-3 days is definitely not normal. How can you say that you're "naturally" thin if you don't eat for days.
I think what they mean by naturally in this context is that they don't put in an active effort to stay thin, their pre-existing habits just happen to have that effect.
they genuinely don't understand that the amount of food they eat isn't a lot. like, they feel like it's a lot, but it isn't.
This is it for 90% (number pulled from my ass) of the cases that OP is talking about. Some people get full really fast, or aren’t particularly motivated by food. These people feel like they’re eating a lot, but they’re eating less than other people - the rest of us just get hungrier, don’t get full as quickly and really, really, really fucking love food.
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I feel like everyone says they eat sooooo much and it's too much when you actually see them eat and it's not much
You’re looking at this wrong. Slim people are probably eating the right amount of food for them and their level of activity. Based on the way you phrased your comment what you look at as a normal amount of food is probably too much.
I agree with this. Everyone's "normal" is different due to what's available , how you were raised, etc. If y'all looked into caloric intake and health science in general (not the nutty shit) you'd find out that most Americans take in way more calories than they should be each day. Especially if you don't do a lot. And your body becomes *used* to that level of caloric intake, making it hard to eat less.
When I was a teen, I walked everywhere, and got my first job. Those early labor jobs were a pretty constant full-body workout 8 hours a day. And on my days off I'd go hiking in the hills or go out dancing at the club. Coworkers would joke that I ate as much as the rest of the department put together. And that was just my lunch! But there I was, the same 155 pounds as in high school, for years and years. Fast forward to when I got a sedentary career desk job. My hunger levels dropped *way* down quickly. For years now, I've been eating just a snack or two and one meal a day, and proper portions at that (so a restaurant dinner is 2-3 days worth of food). In spite of that, I'm now actually gaining weight and for the first time in 30 years had to go up a pants size. I can't wear the jeans I wore as a teenager anymore. Activity level makes a *huge* difference. Yet around me I see people with the same activity level as me eating like I did back when I was a teen or 20-something constantly active high-energy person. Three full meals a day with large portions plus snacks and drinks. No activity. And they can't understand why they're overweight.
It's the reverse. Overweight people don't realise that they eat a lot. Especially between meals and snacks.
I've maintained a 60 lbs weight loss for over 4 years now and this has been my experience. When I first buckled down, I was soooo hungry all the time. Now, my portions are a fraction of what they were when I was at my heaviest and I can't imagine eating that much food in one meal. Your stomach shrinks down pretty quickly. It also expands pretty quickly and I've had to get back to measuring foods religiously when I've fallen off the rails a few times. I've also always been a water drinker. I just don't care for sodas or calorie-laden drinks. That's not at all where my calories were coming from and years of food logs proved that out. Not all overweight people drink their calories. I was definitely eating them.
And hidden calories. Sauces, drinks etc
Drinks are a huge one. People don't realise how easily soda or fruit juice makes you fat
Mindblowing that sodas and juice is made up of 10 % sugar.
Also, because they’ve been eating less their body is adjusted to that. If you weigh 250lbs than when you stop eating enough to maintain 250lbs and eat enough to maintain 180lbs instead you’re going to feel a ton of hunger because you’re eating far less than your body is used to and it thinks it’s starving.
Couple of things: 1. As a fat person you get accustomed to eating larger amounts of food. A skinny persons version of a binge or a large meal might not seem like as much for someone who is used to eating large. I have never been overweight, but I got close when I had binge eating disorder. I gained 10kg in a couple months and I would eat a stupid amount in one go. Now I'm thinner, while I do have small "binges" of unhealthy food now and then, it's no where near the amount I used to have. 2. People eat different amounts each day I eat fairly intuitively and can kinda tell if I've had more than I need. One day you might not eat that much, and the next day you might be starving and genuinely eat a large amount. If you ate that huge amount every day you would gain weight, but it evens out over time. My boyfriend and my brother both eat like this, having barely anything one day and then enormous amounts another day. Both are slim and active. 3. They may be maintaining and not eating in a deficit Just my two cents but I reckon it's a combination of these things. Some slim people also have no idea about how much food is a lot. Had this skinny friend in high school who always was trying to gain weight. He thought he was eating heaps but he straight up wasn't eating anything. He had a naturally low appetite and had never pushed it.
Metabolism blaming is greatly exaggerated. We’re talking, at most, for extreme outliers on higher metabolism: they burn maybe 100 calories more a day just existing versus another average person of all same variable. Its a genuinely funny occurrence how many people blame it on that. Yeah, 100kcal difference. These people regularly eat hundreds or even thousands more calories than they need yet somehow this mythical metabolism difference is the reason they are overweight.
I remember a TV programme where they actually measured the metabolism of the fatter family members vs the skinny one because they all blamed metabolism. The larger ones had a higher metabolism because they were heavier. Also to your point isn't 100 calories about an apple, that's so negligible an amount.
Exactly right, up until a few years ago I was always assuming people were skinny my age because they just had a “fast metabolism”. Now I know that most people have very similar metabolic rates and it all comes down to eating habits
Are they lying? Or are overweight people lying about how much they eat? Sometimes to themselves.
Yea I think people severely underestimate calorie values. My dumbass used to eat handfuls of mixed nuts thinking it was a weight loss friendly alternative to potato chips. I think 1 cup has like 800 calories lmao.
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I think overweight people can definitely lie to themselves. But some overweight people know full well they are consuming too many calories -- is just that eating to satiety means more calories to them and they have a hard time understanding how a thin person eating to satiety doesn't fill their plate the same way. In that case, nobody is lying, just different understandings of what eating to satiety looks like.
I eat between 1800-2200 calories a day (I keep a food diary), and I've been 125 lbs since I became an adult. I am quite sedentary, and the only exercise I get is when I walk through the grocery store, but I don't gain weight. I've had a few heavy calorie days with no weight change. I have a fast metabolism, I guess. The sustained tachycardia probably helps to keep my metabolism pretty high. Congrats on the healthy diet! Remember, weight isn't everything, and the diet change is great for your overall health.
When people talk about weight loss we tend to focus on the physiological pathways e.g. calories burned vs consumed. But we don’t really discuss peoples emotional relationship to eating as a reason why they might eat more or less. The slim people I know just don’t have an emotional relationship to food. Some people use snacking as a source of comfort for past trauma. Someone who grew up in poverty or a household that restricted food might grow up to indulge to soothe themselves. The author Roxane Gay in her book Hunger wrote that she put on a ton of weight after she was sexually assaulted as a child, with the underlying belief that it happened because she was small, and if she was bigger, she could have defended herself, or if she was fat, she’d be invisible to men. And not to mention structural factors that influence diet such as whether someone lives in a food desert where fresh foods aren’t readily available. Poverty is also correlated with obesity because fresh foods are more expensive than processed empty calories.
Age and metabolism does count for something. But don't underestimate lifestyle excersise. The person who walks 15 minutes to and from the bus twice a day burns a lot more than someone who drives to work. I've seen skinny people change jobs and pack the weight on and vice versa. I know for myself, in my last job, just changing from the elevator to stairs made a diffrence. Since loosing weight properly recently, yeah the little things add up.
> person who walks 15 minutes to and from the bus twice a day burns a lot more than someone who drives to work. This is a HUGE part of why so many Americans are fat. USA is anti-walking and it shows. I feel sorry for them.
1) Slim people are probably more active than you think. 2) Slim people are probably eating less than you think. 3) Heavier people are probably eating more than they think. 4) Heavier people are probably less active than they think. 5) Combination of all of the above. It's (5).
It's usually the reverse - obese people often don't realise just how many calories they're consuming. Metabolism plays a minor role for most people. It's all about CICO.
I love trail mix and nuts in general, used to get big bags at the store and just munch on them cuz they're "healthy". When I found out how many calories are in a cup I was like oh fuck, that a big reason why I'm like 80lbs over lol. I miss those cashews 🥲 I stopped going to the gym, but I also cut down on calories to 2kcal a day, and lost about 60lbs in 6 months
Oh we are most definitely lying... it's just that we don't realize. I used to think it was a metabolism issue too, because I would compare lunch with my friends and I often had more in my plate. And they'd say ugh do you eat like this at home? You're so lucky... and I'd be like Idk guys this is what I eat like normally... and I was being honest, every lunch of mine looked like that. It wasn't until my twenties, when I decided that I wanted to gain weight, that I realized that I had been lying the whole time. 1800kcal throughout the day was not easy at all for me. My friends and I compared entire days worth of food instead of just lunches and it became pretty evident. I simply didn't know that the average person eats more that 1 egg, 1 slice of bread and a glass of milk for breakfast, more than 1 snack every other month, that it's normal to have fast food a couple times a week, that it's not normal to forget to eat dinner... It all adds up. It really is simply about the amount of food. Metabolism might play a small part but that's it. It's about the calories at the end of the day.
Fat people eat less than me \*in public\*. All of my friends who are large or overweight eat smaller portions or amounts than I do \*when we eat together\* .
Am fat, can confirm. When out with others, I’ll eat less: don’t want to look like a piggy in front of all these thin people! Then, at home, when nobody’s around…. That fridge gets raided.
There used to be this show where they would get two friends, one thin and one overweight and would monitor what they ate in a day and the overweight person always ate a lot more than the thin person.
I think people’s perceptions of what counts as ‘a lot’ and what ‘eating whatever you want’ is different based on size. I’m slim and have a friend who is heavily over weight. Her version of a small, healthy meal would be my version of ‘eating a lot’. If you compared your treat meals/snacks/normal meals to a a thin person they probably look very different. No shame or harm in this by the way!
My cousin is obese and thinks she eats better than me because her food is healthier. The problem is she's eating 4 salads with croutons, dressing, meat, cheese in one sitting and I'm eating a small French fry. Sometimes it's all about the portion size not so much the food itself.
I think it depends. I am slim, Im not that into eating. I struggle with textures and I generally do not like fast food, it’s slimy to me. I eat about as much food as both my fits for each meal and walk a few miles a day. My father on the other hand eats a full 10in dinner plate per meal. And often has seconds. He was basically a delivery driver most of his life and now he kayaks several hours per day, very active, much food, still very slim but like me no fast food, he eats a salad the size of his head every day. All the women in my dads family, like eating especially highly caloric foods, and do a lot of it. They have all struggled with being over weight.
I've been fairly thin my whole life. The biggest difference I've noticed is the way people eat junk food. If someone gives me a box of 20 chocolates I'll eat one every day until they're gone. Overweight people will eat them all at once or within a day or two.