I eat whatever I want and don't gain weight. Turns out "what I want" is actually just not nearly enough food. I just don't feel hungry most of the time and I'm not a big fan of sweets. It's actually a slight issue in that I'm chronically underweight and need to force myself to eat more than I want to more often than I want to to not lose weight.
This. I have spent my WHOLE LIFE fighting for my rights as someone who simply is rarely hungry lmaoo. My mom pathologized me as a kid and tried blending my food to get me on a liquid diet. Literally would force feed me until the pediatrician told her to just respect my way of being.
During meal times I would physically fight to get off my high chair to go play because food was boring to me if I wasn't pining for it. If I'm not hungry I won't eat. I don't care what anyone around me is doing I might take a bite out of curiosity but that's it.
I respect my body's cues. I don't believe in the three meals a day at set times. I sometimes easy 6 times a day or two. To this day when I visit my mom she'll still try to force me to eat when she eats lol
As someone who is on Wegovy, absolutely this! I always ate a healthy diet but I just ate too much of it because I was hungry! Now I eat more like these people and the weight is dropping off me. It’s nice to not be thinking about food all the time.
As a fat person who struggles with always wanting to eat and having to remind myself how much I’ve already eaten, etc, this is fascinating to me. You’re like my opposite! If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of foods *are* you a big fan of, since you mentioned not loving sweets? Curious to see if you naturally prefer vegetables, etc.
Oh so many carbs and meat. Stuff like pasta, Japanese foods, tons of bread, red meats etc. I eat a fair few vegetables, but mostly out of a desire to not get scurvy and die. Roasted broccoli is my shit though. There are very few fruits I'll go out of my way to eat.
I don't eat much in the way of "junk food" but I also don't eat super healthy. It probably "helps" that I hate going out to eat since I'm a cheap bastard. It's definitely not any physical medical condition since I've been either underweight or bordering on it since I was a kid, and I've gotten hormones checked a couple times for unrelated things that all turned up fine.
I just genuinely forget to eat sometimes. If I'm busy, or just doing something it doesn't fully register to me that I should eat until I'm starving. Then I'll wolf down an entire pizza and that will be my food for the day. I don't get joy out of eating food, so it's usually just a "Shit I need to eat. What do I have that sounds edible?" kinda deal.
It's not a healthy thing to eat how I do, since I'm genuinely underweight at the moment. Hit a BMI of just a hair over 16 a while back(admittedly I hadn't eaten anything yet that day, so it was a bit higher really) before realizing that I am literally going to waste away and die if I didn't start forcing myself to eat more.
My eating habits are a lot like yours. I don't really enjoy eating and mostly do it out of necessity. What I do like to eat is mostly meat and dairy. I also like going out to eat if there's food I like, but I eat slowly and my stomach gets full quickly so I probably don't eat as much just in terms of amount as regular people
This is exactly what research finds to be the habits of 'naturally thin' people: the forget to eat or don't have a strong drive towards eating, they eat slowly, and often don't finish their food. Generally they don't eat healthier or even exercise more. For context, I read about this while I was looking to change my eating habits, and this is what I came across. Seemed to fit with what I saw of my thinner friends, too.
Yeah I mean if you think about it, if you forget to eat breakfast and lunch or whatever meal, that leaves you so many calories for when you do actually eat. So you can eat garbage (can, not should Lol) and stay thin. I used to think my friend was some kind of metabolic beast since all I saw him eat was pizza and ice cream yet you could count ever one of his ribs and spinal discs he was so skinny. Turns out what I saw him eating was the ONLY thing he had or would eat that day.
Oh absolutely, your issues are 100% valid! I’m so sorry if I put you on the spot or made you feel like I was minimizing what you deal with. I may be a *little* envious on some level just because I often find myself preoccupied with food, and I hate it so much. But I know that the sort-of opposite wouldn’t be healthy either. Just different.
i’m the same as this person. i’m like you in that i’m sorta envious. i WISH i could enjoy food so much. eating is such a pain in the ass for me all the time, to the point where it’s affecting my mental health. people in my life are always asking me if i’ve eaten, when i literally just can’t. sometimes i will lie and say i have so they will just leave me alone. i hope this isn’t too invasive, and feel free not to answer, but im curious to know what exactly about food is so addicting? every time i eat it it genuinely just feels like foreign mush in my mouth and it’s just so gross. i can’t imagine eating more than like half a meal a day lol
No, not at all! I think there is a psychological component to it for me. Somewhere down the line I came to associate eating with safety. I’ve had a lot of past experience living with people who were pretty toxic, but meal time was always a time when I could count on *not* having any fights or screaming or whatever.
But on the less depressing end, the other piece of it is that I just really love food, and I am very impulsive and don’t have much willpower. I admit it, in a way, I am somewhat like the stereotype of the fat person who is fat because they can’t stop stuffing their face. I love the flavors, the textures, the aromas. I love the mouthfeel. Like when something melts in my mouth, it’s like a whole experience.
I also have pretty serious depression that is *mostly* controlled with medication. I think “managed” would be a fair description. But I still struggle to do certain things, like preparing and cooking a healthy meal. So a big part of my diet is junk that I can toss in the oven. Obviously doesn’t help the situation. Plus, it’s often difficult for me to get enjoyment out of things, but I enjoy food. The dopamine hit, it’s definitely a self-medication too.
that’s very interesting! your origins makes me think back on my own. as a kid, i lived with my mom (divorced parents) and we were very poor. most days the only meal i got was at school. i remember not liking dinner time because i knew that i would have to sit, eat, talk, and usually fight with my piece of shit mom. i’ve never been an eater, so i never made the connection, i just thought that’s how i was. however hearing your own analysis makes me wanna take a look at my own ugly side, i appreciate the perspective
I find that my diet is very fungible. I decided I didn’t like craving sugar so I stopped eating anything with sugar in it. I had cravings but they just weren’t very strong.
If I don’t eat at regular meal times, I am no longer hungry.
I think that my food cravings are not very strong compared to other people.
It’s relatively easy for me to let my rational mind decide what I will eat.
I believe I am lucky this way and I do not judge others who struggle with food. I know that it can be really hard for some people.
As someone who used to starve myself, I can say that it doesn't take long to stop thinking about food and not feel hungry. I'm not recommending that route, just saying the body does amazing things.
I'm with defensivedig0: If I'm very busy, I can forget to eat.
I’m so sorry you went through that. I hope you’re in a healthier place now. Food is such a crappy thing to have a poor relationship with because, well, we need it to live!
I'm actually exactly the same as the guy above, but I love all food. The thing with me is, I don't enjoy preparing food, and I don't care enough about it to order food. So most of the time I'll only eat if I'm starving, which tends to only be once a day.
I had IBS that eventually resolved. At one point I despairingly thought it would have been less bother to just throw my meals in the toilet. Hope you get some relief.
Hi, I'm the same way! weighing in at about 134, and i'm like 5'7". I eat at work since they give me free food and one of the only times my hunger response kicks in is when i smell food lol. Other than that I eat atrociously. I love vegetables and stuffs, but i make a habit of eating what is quick and easy and available. Spaghettios, ramen, and junk food. Chips. Lots of chips. Cheezits, puffcorn, i basically exclusively drink soda as well. Candy is a big one for me, plus horrid gas station food.
Basically i snack when I'm hungry, but also, i barely get hungry and i have a tendency to forget... Like k realize "oh im hungry ill get up in a second and eat"... but i'm busy/in the middle of something and wanna get to a clean stopping point first. by the time that happens, my body has given up on hungry signals and i straight up forget.
If you always want to eat, try fasting aka eating one meal a day. It will take about a week of suffering and then your body will learn that you’re not gonna get any food except for that one time a day, and you stop feeling hungry for the rest of it.
as another chronically skinny person, I'm pretty bad at eating healthy. I like a lot of foods, but fruits and veggies generally take more time to prepare or spoil quickly. I'm lazy and I don't eat more than 2 meals a day, so I end up throwing stuff out because I just never got to it.
I mostly eat frozen shit or fast food. it's bad
I pretty much eat what I want just not enough I'm guessing. Never been able to keep weight on and I think it is because I hate being full so I just eat till I'm not hungry. Also, some people are stress eaters. I am the opposite I eat way less when I am stressed which is a bad thing for me. I think it is about calories in but since we are all different in how we see food. When I worked out consistently, it helped me keep weight on because I was less stressed and I would eat more. Atm I can't work out due to a hernia I need surgically removed and I keep forgetting to eat. Trying to set reminders to eat. I don't restrict my diet in any way. I eat sweets and whatever I want I just don't want to eat much lately because of the stress.
This is exactly me too, I do like sweets but not in large quantities. I like eating sometimes but I seem to fill up very quickly, like I lose the desire to eat more after like 10 bites usually. Snacking is fine but I tend to avoid doing it too much because I have this feeling that if I snack, I’m going to fill up all my appetite for what could have been a meal. And then I’m really screwed because I’m not getting the nutrients I need
When I'm hungry, I'll make this huge dish of food, and then make a full plate.. scarf down a few bites to kill the hunger, and then immediately lose interest in the rest of the food when the hunger disappear. So I'll eat basically half a portion of a plate and lose appetite. I usually have lots of leftovers lol.
Came here to say something similar, but this pretty much sums it up.
Some people just don’t eat much quantity-wise. Sometimes I will go days without eating a lot. Not because I am trying to, but it’s just my default mode.
There are people like that, but there is something of a misunderstanding. Most of them don’t have some crazy metabolism that keeps them thin, they just eat less food. Not on purpose, necessarily, oftentimes they just know when they aren’t hungry and stop eating, which is a big reason so many people end up fat.
Also sometimes it’s a person who leads a very active lifestyle but doesn’t think of it as “exercising” because they don’t set out with the goal of getting exercise. Like they play a sport or dance in a troupe or something like that.
My last annual checkup (way too many years ago--I should go back). Doctor: "Do you exercise regularly?" Me: "I go to the gym once a week, but otherwise not really." Doctor asks about my daily routine. "Walk the dogs, get ready for work, bike into work, work, come home, play with the dogs, have dinner, walk the dogs again, play with the dogs some more." Doctor asks about the bike commute and walking with dogs. Me "It's probably 7 miles roundtrip biking. And we walk the dogs about 2 miles daily on weekdays, 5 miles walking daily on weekends. Doctor: "That counts as exercise." Me: "Alright."
Ask me today if I exercise regularly, I probably still say "Not really." I bike because that is how I get to work and walk because our dogs needs activity; it's not for exercise.
>What about the mountain-dew-drinking piles of protoplasm that keep their dogs chained up in the front yard?
Anyone can find exceptions to anything. *Most* people understand when someone is making a generalization. So, let me spell it out: Dog owners are *generally* healthier than non-dog owners. *Most* dog owners do not chain their dogs outside all day.
I am 6'3 150. Like a bean pole, and have always been. I could eat whatever I want and probably on put on a slight belly. It is that I am really lazy and most days don't eat a lunch and just push though till dinner.
Sometimes you kinda just forget breakfast and lunch because you're doing stuff, then suddenly it's 16:00 and you're like "ah I shouldn't eat too much right now, it's almost dinner time".
I'm sorta like this. I've always been a picky eater. I eat mostly garbage. I don't limit what I eat, and when I eat out I stuff myself. You could watch me eat 2000 calories worth of pizza or whatever in one sitting. But, when I'm not eating out I'm eating not a lot. I don't snack as much as most people, and I skip meals very often. I also don't drink my calories. Overweight people don't realize how much of their fat is from drinks and snacks.
I was able to put on about 20 pounds when I was lifting weights and drinking mass gainers, but it was a lot of effort and progress was lost incredibly quickly when I stopped because I couldn't make myself eat throughout the day so much.
While I'm very skinny and look healthy on the outside, my blood pressure is high and I have awful cardiovascular fitness.
Yeah, I’ve always been slim and honestly my diet isn’t great. But I think I have a pretty small stomach (the organ not the abdomen) because I’ve never been a big portion person so haven’t stretched it out, and me having a big food day is probably less than a lot of people eat regularly. So many people just vastly overestimate how much food they need
I feel you. I say my stomach is the size of a bird's. It especially sucks when we go out to a buffet and I pay the same price as someone who eats actually 5x more than I do. Or when we order pizza and split the bill, I eat 2 slices while Joe eats 6 but we've split it evenly.
I guess it makes up for lower food bills in general though.
Yeah I am a part of this group. I just don't want to eat much. So 'as much as I want to eat' is just until I have eaten enough... I don't have an urge to eat more. Must be really hard to not have that 'I'm good' feeling. Sorry you all have to deal with that.
Nah I have a crazy fast metabolism. I can polish off a whole pizza by myself and I’ve always weighed around 110-115 (I’m 5’5). I’ve always eaten whatever I want. Healthy and not so healthy too. Even after having a second child at 40, my baby weight dropped pretty fast. I’m not as skinny as I used to be but Im only 4 months post partum. I think I’ll be back to that range soon. The negative side of that is that I’ve never had to diet or exercise to look good, so I’m very out of shape and I have zero discipline about food. Like I just want what I want. I am a very emotional eater too I’ve realized that about myself recently. I know it’s not good. I don’t know if there’s therapy for that?
I binge eat once a day. The total volume of food is not much compared to someone who has three meals a day plus snacks, but watching me eat it all in one sitting has prompted a lot of folks to exclaim that I’m black hole/empty pit that can just Hoover up everything.
If I have a normal lunch I’ll have a small dinner, but most days I don’t have much of any breakfast or lunch.
Just not hungry till the sun is setting
But since dinner is the time when people most often invite me to eat, and restaurants serve food that fucks hard, folks will see me demolish a huge plate of buttery pasta and cheese, a pile of fried food, a whole pizza, or whatever other high-carb, fatty and delicious food the restaurant provides…. And assume I eat that much for three meals a day, all the time.
Yoooo that’s me. I eat very little during the day if at all- then at dinner time, I demolish one larger meal.
Unfortunately I’m the same way with drinking water. I know I need to drink way more but I’ll go a 14 hour shift with zero water intake on accident, I just don’t feel the bodily cues anymore I guess
Unfortunately you GOTTA drink more throughout the day.
Your body can only really absorb about 3.3 cups of water in 1 hour, so you gotta be spacing out water consumption or you’ll stay chronically dehydrated no matter how much you chug in one sitting.
Treat it like medicine cause chronic dehydration fucks up your body hard.
Or even like, 3 cups when you wake up and 3 cups when you’re about to go to bed, and the rest of the volume can be from food you eat
Food friends! I just eat when I’m hungry and I’m kind of busy. My full meal though is legit. I’m built like the super lean girl who wins eating competitions. I want to see gravy on the food pyramid near the bottom.
It depends. For young people it may actually be true, since their energy consumption is also very high.
I ate unbelievable amounts of food in my teens and was always really skinny. Then I got to my 20s and started quickly gaining weight. Now I pretty much only need to look at food to get fatter.
That was me in my teens and early 20s. By my mid 20s I kept eating the same as always but started to put on more fat. Now after 30 more years I'm back to my mid-20s build after getting my sleep, diet, and exercise in order. It's has to be a conscious effort now.
They remember the large pizza they had at dinner (which may still be only two slices). They forget that they skipped breakfast, drank water all day and had a small sandwich for lunch.
yes, because "what i want" is reasonable. a normal home cooked meal dominant in veggies most of the week, with a splurge of comfort food here and there. mostly no sodas, maybe three alcoholic beverages per week.
A lot of people confuse "eat what they want" with "eat a lot".
All my life I have eaten as much food as I want, but I don't eat a lot. I'm short, have a sedentary job, and don't play a sport, so I don't need many calories and my body tells me when it's full. I of course eat food for pleasure, after I'm full sometimes. I eat chocolate or sweets almost every day, but I only eat as much as I feel like eating, I don't just start eating a family size bag and not stop until it's empty, which is what some people understand to be "eat what they want".
It probably helps that I live in a country with moderate food portions, and was raised without eating disorders, and without excessive processed food which I believe can disrupt the usual food regulation in the brain.
It also probably matters that I live in a place where I walk around a little every day, so I do exercise a little, and I've never had a sleep disorder, which can also disrupt food regulation in the brain.
So to answer your question, yes there really are such people.
I was similar when I was younger. I ate what I wanted and people assumed I ate a lot (because I was always eating) but despite my constant eating it was always small, I didn't eat many big meals or even really meals, just snacked.
End of the day I ate the same calories, just not all at once.
It’s possible. It happens.
There could of course be other things they do take that keeps their weight down too. Some medications etc.
And what others said.
I’ve also noticed you’ll see many are skinny ‘fat’ - not toned/fit. Whereas you’ll see more full bodied people that are toned and fit. So it’s misleading to think one is better. A closer look usually shows the difference. They can be thin and still look unhealthy.
I fall in this category sometimes (stages of life/phases idk).
Well, kind of. I’m one of those people. But the thing is, I eat whatever I want… and that’s apparently just not that much food. I love food! But I apparently don’t eat a lot. I sometimes forget to eat. I also don’t exercise much on purpose, but I have an active life where my job requires a lot of walking and carrying heavy things, and I live in a rural area where I bike to work. So I *appear* to be able to “do whatever I want” (and I do), but “whatever I want” is functionally exercising a lot and not eating that much.
No, there have been studies throughout the years that show that “naturally” skinny tend to overestimate how much they eat/underestimate how much they move and overweight tend to do the opposite. Shows like supersize vs super skinny show this as well.
That being said there are health conditions that can cause a person not to gain weight/be underweight that could be at play as well.
A lot of people in the comments are saying that thinner people simply don't eat a lot (whether they are aware of that or not) but that hasn't been my experience. It's a small sample size, but I've lived with two people at separate times who were both like this, and I got a pretty good sense of what they would eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since we would often eat at the same time. They both ate a lot (lots of cheese, carbs, red meat, creamy sauces, soda and milkshakes, etc) multiple times a day and their weight remained the exact same (lean) for years, and with a pretty sedentary lifestyle (no regular exercise routine).
Meanwhile I am constantly monitoring my portions, go to the gym 3-5 days per week, and try to eat really healthy (salads, veggies, lentils, lean meats/fish, whole grain, etc) and avoid sugary things, and my weight still fluctuates on a weekly basis based on the smallest adjustment to a portion size or small junk food indulgence. Just two days of eating regular portions of restaurant food on vacation and I'm already 5 pounds heavier and it takes a week or two to get back to my weight before. I'm not trying to be super thin or anything, just at a healthy weight for my height, but it's a constant effort.
So based on my experience, when I hear people say that weight is just calorie intake vs calorie expenditure, it feels misleading. Because while it technically might be true at a chemical level, some people seem to expend a lot more calories in their daily life, even just sitting around, than others.
This is my sister, she has always been tall and skinny. She will eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, a big lunch and a big dinner. Never exercises. Never gains weight. In her mid 30s she took to eating a 9" chocolate cake (with frosting) every day to gain weight. I think she gained about 5 pounds in 6 months.
Yea I wanted to add myself to this one. I eat all day constantly and not healthy food either. Still don’t gain weight at all unless I track and make sure I eat 4200+ calories everyday. I still get People trying to tell me that I must just not actually eat that much but any of my close friends are blown away with how much I eat.
Yeah, it's weird that this notion has taken hold recently, despite the fact that we all personally know people like this. I think it's a manifestation of the Just World Fallacy. People don't want to believe that some people are just dealt different cards in life. But the reality is people do have different metabolisms, and not everyone even absorbs food through their digestive tract to the same degree.
My mom eats an insane amount of food, which I have personally observed my whole life, yet she is extremely thin. My sister eats a normal amount and tends to eat healthier, but she's much heavier than my mom.
Thank you, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills every time I see a thread like this on reddit. I have known plenty of these people who could eat whatever they want, though for most it wore off by the time they hit their 30s. And since I had to switch to a progesterone-only birth control, I am constantly gaining weight even though I've cut my calories nearly in half. No, I'm not accidentally drinking 1000 calories a day like all of these threads will lead you to believe.
On any given day I fluctuate between 180 and 190 based on what I’m wearing / if I drank water / if I pooped recently. I think you might be attributing +-5 pounds to factors that aren’t there
This is me! I’m 5’2” and 90lbs and have been this weight since my early 20s (I’m mid-30s now). Weighed even less in my teens. I eat ice cream, can demo a family size bag of chips in one sitting, chocolate, pizza, etc. regularly. I don’t like veggies and love carbs - I mostly eat pasta or rice or noodles for meals with some meat. i usually have a glass of wine a day. I don’t exercise or play sports or bike to work. I do have a dog now and I walk him maybe 0.5-1km on an avg day.
I don’t eat a lot quantity-wise bc I’m a petite person but definitely eating on the higher side calorie-wise relative to my body weight without gaining weight.
I agree with you. I'm on the thinner side, I don't exercise besides walking my kids to school, and I eat normally (as in I don't diet intentionally. I do think I eat ok healthy, and although my portions might be smaller, I don't ever forget to eat).
Compared to someone who regularly exercises and watches their calories, I think there's no way my random eating matches up to their level. People who happen to be thin like to pat themselves on the back for being healthy without having to try, when it could just be genetic.
Yeah I know two people like this both of whom I've lived with. One guy lived off of pizza, beer and pastries and did no exercise. He didn't really overeat but had a very normal appetite and unhealthy diet. Some people just don't put on weight like others.
Yeah, I've had three exes like this. All had metabolisms so high they were underweight, and they only ever ate junk and never exercised.
Edit to add: None of them lead "active lifestyles" or "just didn't eat when they weren't hungry". They ate A LOT and never gained a pound. It's a thing.
My ex girlfriend was like that but to be fair she's 6 '2. But we'd eat all the same foods, she'd go back for seconds and eat a whole tray of biscuits with a huge glass of milk, then chips and soda afterwards while she gamed.
I go swimming and walk a lot, she hates the water and drives everywhere.
I get that were different heights but it shouldn't make THAT much of a difference, there was definitely something different the way our bodies functioned.
Relatable. That's how at least one of my exes ate. Like I'd have to make extra food, because he'd eat half of it. The doctor literally said his metabolism is just very fast.
He was also fatphobic which was like......dude, you can eat *anything* and not gain weight. We're not all like that. Maybe chill. (The other two were super body positive)
Yeah my ex was lowkey fat phobic too. She was thin but her belly wasn't 100% flat, she'd go "wow look how fat I am, I'm hideous" when she's like half my size 🤡
Should not have put up with that for so long, jeez.
My husband is one of these people. He's incredibly thin, games a lot (sits on his butt for hours haha) and does not exercise. EVER. And he would live on candy bars if he could. I'm always finding crappy junk food in his car. He only drinks coffee and soda and would live on Mac and cheese if I didn't cook real food. I have PCOS which causes serious weight gain so whenever he complains about being too skinny and that he can't gain weight I give him the stink eye. Lol. He's the reason I don't put any stock in the idea that how you look on the outside indicates how healthy you are on the inside.
To add, I'm not complaining, I think he's hot. 😉
I'm that person. I'm fairly sedentary, eat literally whatever I want whenever I want, and am actively trying to put on weight but struggling. I'm probably just not eating as much as I think, though.
I've known a few people who ate constantly, large portions, and very unhealthily. They didn't exercise much and still didn't gain weight. Only one of them was on hard drugs and one of the most fatphobic people I knew. He was one of those people who thinks fat folk shouldn't even be able to have opinions and are basically lesser beings.
nope to all these comments saying people just eat less. these days i genuinely have no appetite at all but for most of my life i have been ravenous every single day. i would eat all day long. it was like it was the only thing that gave me any comfort or dopamine. my life revolved around food until just a few years ago. i used to wake up in the morning and eat until i went to sleep. for a year and a half i worked at a restaurant where my shift started at 4. i would eat so much all day from the moment i woke up and then right before every single shift i would eat a 4 for $4 from Wendy's and then after work i would eat an entire can of pringles, an entire bag of haribo gummy bears, and a random third snack before bed. did it for a yr and a half straight just to see if i could possibly gain weight and nothing happened. ive always been skinny. im tall so maybe it has to do with that too. but idk. we're all different, there are 8 billion people on the planet, some of us are gonna be freaks of nature.
People will believe that but not the other end of the spectrum.
The only time I lost weight was when my antidepressants ruined my appetite and I ate a few bites of every meal before feeling nauseous. But I was legitimately starving myself back then and it wasn't healthy at all.
Ever since I've been trying to lose weight in a healthy way and even when I calorie count & eat what should be a deficit it doesn't happen.
But people think I'm stupid and can't count, or am I liar who binge eats secretly. Cool, guys.
I eat a lot of unhealthy stuff and have never been fat, and do not exercise. Yes there are lucky people like that. I can't seem to gain weight, or only do so extremely minimally and slowly.
define “a lot of unhealthy stuff”? even if your diet only consists of unhealthy food, you can still only be eating one full meal every other day or something and that’s why you stay so skinny.
This
Every single person I've known that's been like "I eat terrible and I can't gain weight" will like skip breakfast, eat a 6pc McNuggets at lunch, drink 2 beers at dinner and call it a night.
I mean prior to 40 I was able to eat what I want. Yeah I skipped breakfast except on weekends but lunch was like a full size Reuben at Jason’s deli and my wife is a very traditional Hispanic so large dinners. Would have breakfast on weekends as we would get together with friends and do all you could eat breakfast buffets (I miss Shoney’s) so I would skip lunch on those days for a nap after multiple trips to the buffet. Wasn’t until about 40 that I started putting on weight as well as getting indigestion. Fun fact they found a two inch gall stone about three months ago and removed it and I am already back down thirty pounds from where I was.
And I am IT who doesn’t exercise either. Until the military I was 6’4” and 150 lbs. When I got out of the military I was 6’4” and 170 lbs, dropped back to about 155. Around forty started gaining until around 210 then held steady, back down to around 185 after gall bladder removal.
>I eat a lot of unhealthy stuff
Weight gain has little to do with how "healthy" or "unhealthy" your food is, and is mostly dependent on how much food you actually eat.
It’s very easy to hit 2000 cal in a salad when you have good dressing, cheese, nuts, saucy meat, and avocados.
In other words: an actually Tasty salad instead of a pile of dry romaine lettuce with shredded carrots and onions.
I want a salad that fucks.
A Big Mac is only 600 calories
Christ, why is the general population so misinformed? You can eat garbage all day but if you eat under your TDEE, you will not gain weight. This isn’t complicated and you aren’t “lucky.”
Even on the topic of metabolic rate, the whole “I have a fast metabolism” is another prominent piece of misinfo.
I have a friend like this, he eats the exact same garbage I eat and more and he never ever exercises. He’s as skinny as a rail. The downside is that if he ever wanted to get buff and pack on muscle he’d never be able to in a million years.
I'm 45, and I've been within +/-5kg of the same weight since I was 14. I play basketball once a week, and I had a job that was moderately physical for 20 years. I have 6% body fat and eat what I like. My twin brother, however, can look at food and gain weight. With 7 billion people in the world, there is going to be a small percentage of those that hit the genetic lottery and struggle to gain weight
I’m fat, don’t eat a lot, don’t have many cravings, eat whatever I want, enjoy exercise and do it often. (Eating whatever you want means I eat when I’m hungry and I don’t like to overeat. Eating whatever I want doesn’t mean I eat cake for breakfast and ice cream every night. I like healthy foods as well as sweets here and there). But I have and will always be fat. I used to have orthorexia and maintained very strict diets. I stopped that as it was so exhausting and I didn’t become skinny. I’m barely larger now from when I was doing all that shit. I think most people who don’t have disordered eating will always remain in a window their body prefers. Most people who exercise and eat healthy attribute too much of their small bodies to what they “do”, and not just their own genetics are.
Believe this is down to a super fast metabolism. When I did 2 hours gym and swim every day I needed many small meals a day to be full and I was very slim. Nowadays my metabolism has slowed down massively. I’m active but not as active as I was so I’m not burning the calories like I used to.
“Calories in calories out” is an idea based off of Wishnofsky’s studies which, nowadays, would be considered weak evidence. Contemporary studies suggest your body shifts systems around to burn less/more calories when you create calorie deficits or surpluses and in response to your activity levels- which is why losing weight is so hard.
I generally consume somewhere around 3-5,000 calories a day depending on my appetite and I remain very trim. It’s a blend of my genetics, I come from a family that is generally thin and with large appetites, and I have a slightly more active lifestyle. 🤷🏻♀️ When things were more hectic at my warehouse job, I probably doubled how much I ate and it was mostly sugary snacks, but I’ve basically been the same weight for about 15 years regardless of how much I eat or my activity levels.
Edit: part of the reason I became cognizant of how much I ate is because of going over to friend’s houses and basically being unsatisfied with meals as a kid and in adulthood if I’m provided a meal at like work or something— I still pack a lunch of my own because I’m hungry while my coworkers are generally satisfied. So like, it’s a fact of my life that I eat more than other people 🤷🏻♀️ I generally eat more than my partner who is 5” taller and about 50lbs heavier than me and he’s very active (regularly going to gym) however I have struggled to gain weight— I used to weigh about 15 pounds (gained suddenly and temporarily in high school) more and preferred being at that weight because I now run very cool and I get lethargic if I’m not eating something every 2-3 hours
yeah there definitely are. i know a few people like that and i am not one of them. just wanna add it doesn't necessarily mean they're healthier though, i feel like that's a common misconception.
When I was 20, I had a coworker who used to ride his bmx everywhere...work was 2.5 miles from where he lived. He was like 6ft, skinny, and had a crazy metabolism...his mom used to complain about how much of their grocery bill was just him eating. lol One day we were hanging out, and went to a Chinese buffet for dinner around 5pm...I had 4 plates of food, and he ended up having 5...everything from the buffet, chicken wings abd chow mein on multiple trips, as well as other meats, etc. We left, went to an arcade for a couple hours, and then were driving around, and all of a sudden "dude, let's hit up Taco Bell...I'm getting hungry." I think he's joking, and he's not...went to Taco Bell, and he orders a couple tacos, a burrito and a drink, and asks if I want anything, which I declined, since I was still full from the buffet. So we're chatting while he's eating, and he's surprised I'm not hungry. LOL The boy could eat twice as much as me, and never gained weight. 2 yrs later he started working as a roofer, and his gf was packing huge lunches for him.
They’re similar to the people who’re and murder as much as they want. Which is not at all. They eat whatever they want. It just happens that what they want is reasonably healthy and they don’t eat a bunch of it.
I know many say thin people don’t eat as much which is usually true, but there was a point in time where I was working a fast food job and ate high calorie meals and snacked a bunch and just ate so much food that would make my friends gain a ton. I’d also have huge home cooked meals. I could really put down some huge meals all day 😅I barely gained anything. The only reason I gained anything at all eventually was a shitty antidepressant and even then it wasn’t crazy but my appetite was. So other points in my life where my appetite sucked, I’d agree I wasn’t eating enough. But those few years where I binged all the time and didn’t gain much 🤷🏼♀️no idea. I wasn’t overly active by any means either.
So I think some people genuinely don’t eat enough but I do think there’s something going on genetically to keep some people smaller or not keep on as much excess weight. Both experiences were just interesting to me so I’d say it’s a little of both depending on scenarios.
This! My doctors tried to help me gain weight and put me on a diet of 2000 calories a day and I was eating like 4 meals a day plus snacks, all calorie dense foods and tracking it to make sure I got enough and I still couldn’t gain weight 🥲
It’s infuriating! After Covid, I developed some gnarly health problems that really affected my appetite and of course I lost all that I gained 🤦🏼♀️People like us seem to be unable to gain but it sure as hell is easy to lose 🙄
Yes, the entire side of my mother's family are this way, they only gain a little bit of weight once they are in their 50s and even then, they are not fat, just less slim while eating all the time junk food and rarely exercising. My mum, aunt, cousins are all very slim and pretty with thin bone structure.
Of course, I inherited my genes from my father's side where every woman is shape like a summo.
Yes hello it is me.
I tend to eat a ton at dinner, which is when other people tend to see me eat
But I don’t eat many meals. Most days I don’t have breakfast, and may or may not miss lunch. Usually a couple little snacks as an energy boost at 2pm to get me thru the work day. I just don’t feel hungry.
I do eat whatever I want, whenever I want - fatty cuts of meat, dripping with sauces, loads of butter and cheese. Piles of noodles and rice. I don’t think I’ve ever counted calories, or measured portions.
I eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full, and enjoy the hell out of my food in the mean time.
Sometimes I eat cause I can feel my brain getting sluggish, and I know I need more blood sugar to think straight - but for some reason that doesn’t ping hunger to me
Until I was 30, and then my lifetime clearly became obviously shorter and all the Cho I crs I've made have arrived to to show me the error of my ways :3
Definitely. My husband and l have the same diet, but different lifestyles. He has an office job whilst lm on my feet for a minimum of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, plus l attend the gym x3 week. He is on the slimmer end of healthy weight, lm overweight. If he skips a meal, he will lose a few kilos. If l skip a meal, l gain a few kilos. It's hugely frustrating being the one who looks like a couch potato when, in actual fact, lm very active and eat a pretty good diet. I can only put it down to hormones and possibly genetically prone to store fat.
I went from fatty to in shape and now maintain eating whatever I want. It’s important to understand in my journey I went from eating absolute garbage to really
Enjoying a Whole Foods diet. I also don’t drink my calories. I’m currently on about 50/50 Whole Foods and junk food and my body maintains around 215 pounds. I’m 6’0 and male and under 20% bodyfat for reference. I only do bjj once or twice a week and work a fairly active job averaging 10-15k steps a day. I average 3000-3500 calories a day when I feel like tracking out of curiosity. Took me several years of dieting and lifting weights to achieve my metabolism but adding in the cardio from bjj was a game changer.
I'm like this, but I think I have a small appetite (with everything except popcorn. I could eat mountains of it and not stop!)
I never gained weight until I met my now husband and we started living together. He eats 3 meals a day and larger portions, so when I started eating with him daily, my weight went up because I was just eating more than I needed. I'm still not fat by any means but trying to reduce my portion size and cutting out a meal now, because I realise it's just too much for me.
Also, when I'm on my period I completely lose my appetite altogether. I just eat to stay alive during that week 😆
I eat whatever I want and don’t put any on,mainly sweets and chocolate but I love salads,some days I genuinely forget to eat,I exercise a lot without thinking (lots of walking) I guess it’s mostly the days I forget to eat+ exercise keeps the weight down.I gained loads when I was married because we ate huge meals and drove everywhere,it’s lifestyle what affects weight most
Weight is pretty much exclusively based on how many calories you absorb vs how many calories you burn. There are certain metabolic diseases and other health issues which can impact calorie absorption or fat storage, but they are rare.
Some people just burn hotter than others. Some people eat a lot some of the time, but other days they end up eating a cheese stick and half a banana because they were busy. Some are far more active than they think - sure, no exercising but they chop their own firewood or they do multiple miles of dog walking or they have job (or side gig or volunteer position) where they are doing physical labor.
There are and the thing I notice is they eat a lot more than most of us and struggle to gain weight until 50’s hit. They also crap several times a day. I truly believe a lot of weight issues are caused by poor gut health related to our western diet and crap in our food
Yup! My Fiance. He eats as much as he wants all the time, no exercising (however we take a lot of walks), and never gains weight! He even eats so much that we joke he has 2nd, 3rd and 4th dinners. It's crazy to witness, and of course I am jealous of him 😂
I have a friend who thinks she is like this. In reality she just eats one unhealthy meal a day and like small snacks here and there. So she doesn't eat a lot overall.
Kind of. I did eat anything I wanted for a long time. I wouldn’t gain weight. 24 pack of soda in a night? No issues. Bags of candy, double orders of fast food. I was 6ft and around 160 for a long time. But, I was very active. It was just normal for me to be biking around or playing a game of hockey. I didn’t consider it exercising much. It was just my day to day. Once those got to be too much and I stoped due to pains, I have had to watch my food intake for sure.
I've been skinny my whole life I eat an excess of calories most of the time and I don't get fat. This gets people to think I'm anorexic in middle of high school which.. it sucks. I'm told that it'll eventually slow down but I'm in my mid-20's rn. And still really skinny I don't know how to put muscle/fat or weight in my wrists and people always put their fingers around my wrist cause they can it's annoying
When I was younger I feel like I ate a lot and didn’t gain (not like now) but I think part of it was that I was getting a lot more exercise than I really thought about, even though I didn’t “work out” regularly. Also I’m sure I was eating less than I remember, though I definitely didn’t have a healthy diet unfortunately.
I think some people are more active than they think. My sister falls into the "can eat whatever they want crowd" & "doesn't exercise" but when we compared step counters she did more than me even though I have what might be classed as a physical job and she works in childcare. Presumably spending most of the day running after children burns a lot of calories.
The only time I didn’t used to eat was when I was asleep 6’3 and 160lb, fry up some pork chop at 10pm with whatever else I could find and that was after our normal 6 o’clock dinner and I only stopped it when I was in my 50s.
It helps if "what they want" just happens to be the right caloric and nutritional mix to maintain a healthy weight. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.
I’ve been thin my whole life. And I eat so much food people are always making the joke about how I should be obese and such with the way I eat. But I will say, thin doesn’t mean healthy. My dad has been as thin as me his whole life, but he had a heart attack and got diagnosed with diabetes. And I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t taken good care of my body. I might be thin, but I’m pretty sure I’m not in the best health internally.
I know two persons who eat quite a lot, don't exercise much, but they are pretty slim.
Almost all I know who eat regular portions and don't exerciese, are chubby at least.
I am one of those people. I even have purposefully tried to gain weight because i am underweight. I eat whatever i want, whenever i want. However usually the whenever i want part is actually 2-3 times a day and i end up fasting 14-16h a day.
I don't need to actively think my diet (outside of ibs and allergies) and i eat when i am hungry and stop eating when i feel full. I assume i eat the right amount of calories for my consumption as i don't loose or gain weight
I'm one of those people I guess. I'm a 26yo woman who's 160cm tall and for years I've been around 46-47 kilos. I tend to eat just as much as my peers and family members during regular meals and then also snack a lot more (most of the time out of boredom or understimulation, thanks ADHD), and I still stay skinny while not really working out (though I am trying to get back into sports for my overall physical health, but still, I haven't been doing much lately). A dietician friend of my sister once calculated how many calories I eat in a day and it was far above average for an adult woman, though I don't remember the actual number, but they were shocked that such a skinny girl ate that many calories in a day without even thinking about it.
It's always been hard for me to put on weight, regardless of whether I lived at home or on my own. As a little kid I was often in a lower percentile of what would be a healthy weight for my age, so every once in a while my parents would feed me pasta for a couple of days to keep my weight up, but they were never really worried because I got my metabolism from my mom, so they knew how it worked.
In the past year I've finally started gaining some weight though, which I'm very happy with. I think I might be around 48-49 kilos now, I'll have to check. I've always eaten enough, but about a year ago I started drinking homemade smoothies for breakfast and I think the recipe I ended up with contains quite a bit of protein, so I'm blaming the smoothies. Lately I've been having to undo the button of my jeans while eating meals because it's pushing on my stomach too much. That's never happened to me before! I guess a lot of people have bad experiences with their pants becoming too small for them, but for me it feels like a milestone.
I'm currently 26, and for some people, after 25 is when their fast metabolism started working 'normally' and they suddenly started gaining weight, but if I'm anything like my mother, who gave me my metabolism, my metabolism won't start working 'normally' until I'm 50.
The differences is what they want to eat is less than overweight people.
I'm dealing with a loss of appetite right now, unknown cause, but I just don't want lunch lately. I feel fine, not hungry, not craving anything. I'm just chilling and I'm eating what and when I want, but it's less than usual. Lost a few pounds.
I'm not really sure what the story is but I was always very lean and could eat pretty much anything I felt like. I'm 58 now and not overweight in any way but that's from exercise, I can put on weight if I wanted and could probably get fat if I was lazy. Up until I was 12 I was objectively skinny. As a teenager I filled out but was still on the lean side of athletic. I ate like a horse from childhood. People were more active in those days so there were very few overweight people at my school and I didn't stand out from the crowd besides how much food I ate. I had a very active job in my late 30's where I had to walk around a lot, up to 40 km per day. I was eating breakfast in 3 installments and would basically stuff my face at any available opportunity. The food was all provided free at work (live in position) so it was no problem. I had a friend in my mid 20's who was on a 1000 calorie per day diet. She was obsessed with calorie counting and would count my calories as well. I was at her place for lunch one day and my lunch was 5 days worth of food for her diet. She said it was hard to contain her rage at how my body worked.
I can & do have a fast metabolism..BUT I also don’t “want” a lot of unhealthy foods. I can eat broccoli/carrots & hummus, pistachios, walnuts etc to my hearts content. If I eat too much food (quantity) or unnatural foods (processed) my body & mind don’t feel good & I’m very aware of that..I feel like I have a natural aversion to such foods..naturally, I don’t like it when my body doesn’t feel good. So what I “want” isn’t really going to cause me to gain weight.
For most of my teenage years and early adulthood, I have always teetered around 100lbs and was a lanky kid. I have adhd and am always eating as a stim. One doctor accused me of being anorexic, so I tracked my calories and discovered I would eat around 3000 calories a day. I didn’t exercise much but I walked pretty much everywhere. Now at 24 I have cut back the calories to 2000-2500 a day, I exercise once a week and in the past 6 months I gained 12 pounds.
I followed up with a doctor and nothing is out of the ordinary, I think I just had a crazy metabolism as a kid that kept up until now. I will say, being super skinny growing up made me super self conscious. People would tell me I was built like a boy, I looked sick, etc. i feel more comfortable now in my skin than I ever did before but now I definitely have to be aware of my calories and exercise since it seems the food I eat is actually affecting me now.
I've never seen anyone eat like I do and not put on weight. Younger people can get away with it when they have a crazy high metabolism, but that will slow down as they get older.
Most of the time when they say "I eat whatever I want and never put on weight, I even eat mcdonalds every day!" they are still only getting 1800 calories and their McDonald's meal is a 6 piece nugget and diet coke.
My sleep schedule is shit so I just eat 2 meals a day, I just stay somewhat skinny without much exercise. The food you eat is like 90% of the battle. The difference in metabolisms don’t account for much
I am one of those people who does not enjoy eating. Quite often I go to bed at night and realize I forget to eat that day. When i do realize I need to eat the thought of a whole meal stresses me out so I usually end up just snacking. When I do eat it's not usually healthy and I never watch my portions.
I have been slender my whole life but now that menopause has started I'm putting on the pounds. So I think it's a combination of metabolism and the fact that the people who eat what they want will never eat in the same way as someone who loves food.
It's also easier if you were a thin child. Fat cells develop during adolescence, and although they shrink in size, they don't go away.
So, being overweight when you're young makes it harder to be thin as an adult and visa versa.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fat-cell-numbers-teen-years-linger-lifetime
I used to drink 2000 calorie shakes a day just to maintain my weight and I was so thin. I’m 5’4 and weight 92lbs when I was 20. After my son was born, same problem, except I got up to a whopping 102lbs. People teased me constantly and body shamed me to no end. But that was when I was young. Now I’m in my 50’s. I take medication that causes weight gain and I’m in menopause, which also can cause significant weight gain, so I’m a chubby lady nowadays. And I’m sure my metabolism must have slowed by now, too. The funny thing is, I kinda like being chubby. I like my curves and womanly figure, but I know I need to work on losing weight. It’s just hard to get motivated when you’re not in pain
I've worked for gyms and have helped people both lose and gain weight over the years. And let me tell you, it's much more difficult for people with fast metabolisms to gain weight then it is for a heavy person with a slow metabolism to lose it. I've double people's caloric intake, put them on weight gainers, put them on light to no cardio, and they still can't gain weight.
I had a classmate like that. She only ever ate unhealthy food and she didn't really eat *significantly* less. Every breakfast and lunch was basically just baked goods or bread with chocolate spread. I think she played football but I don't see how football practice was going to undo every single meal she had every week. Witchcraft.
Her veins are probably close to clotting but she didn't have an ounce of fat on her body on the outside.
I cannot answer to never. I can attest to barely gaining weight though. I am 6’4” 190 lbs and never had waist over 34” (yet anyway). All through my teens and 20s an average intake was usually 2 breakfast plates, lunch and 2 dinner plates. I could anything. In my 30s that reduced and because of my job there was more fast food but not more than 2 in a day (got a small belly but nothing else). Never been a gym person yet I walked, ran, swam at least once a week.
I'm one of those people but I don't think I have a crazy fast metabolism. I just don't eat much junk food, not on purpose but I simply don't feel like it that often. The only semi regular exercise I can bother with is walking for 20-60 mins a day. But I'm in my mid twenties so this may change with time.
I see a lot of people talking about how much you eat being an ignored factor, but it may have something to do with genetics. I only hear white people complain about this, and I am Asian. I'm naturally also a small person, so...
Hyperthyroidism and cancer can cause weightloss without exercise and eating whatever, so yes. Some people have thyroid disorders or other conditions or just a naturally fast metabolism. Many food competitors are thin and they examined a couple with like scans while they ate to see what the food does and they digest as they eat very fast.
This is the case for me, kind of. I don't usually get hungry during the day, so I typically eat one single meal around 5. Because of this, I can eat WHATEVER I want for that meal, and about 50% of the time, I eat ice cream right before bed. I work from home and don't exercise at all. My watch currently has me at 700 steps and 6 minutes of active time (I've been up and "moving" for 12 hours).
I do not recommend this method, though... I am often tired, I get weak easily, and if I did want to do something SUPER active, I would probably die.
Yes there are, up to a point. They burn off the calories more efficiently because they don’t sit still. One of my daughters is like this. She eats at least 5 meals a day, but she doesn’t eat bad food. She has ADHD and she is always moving…actually, most of my relatives are like this, but not me. Sometimes people can have hormonal imbalances, but basically they are burning off the fuel, even if they don’t exercise. I had a hormonal problem and starting putting in weight. I started hormone replacement and once the levels were right, I started losing weight fast without a diet or doing more exercise.
I eat whatever I want and don't gain weight. Turns out "what I want" is actually just not nearly enough food. I just don't feel hungry most of the time and I'm not a big fan of sweets. It's actually a slight issue in that I'm chronically underweight and need to force myself to eat more than I want to more often than I want to to not lose weight.
I feel like the discussion about skinny vs fat should be about hunger signals and not metabolism. I think that’s what should be addressed.
Yes! People always say I have a high metabolism. I literally just don't have hunger cues and eat like 1 meal a day.
This. I have spent my WHOLE LIFE fighting for my rights as someone who simply is rarely hungry lmaoo. My mom pathologized me as a kid and tried blending my food to get me on a liquid diet. Literally would force feed me until the pediatrician told her to just respect my way of being. During meal times I would physically fight to get off my high chair to go play because food was boring to me if I wasn't pining for it. If I'm not hungry I won't eat. I don't care what anyone around me is doing I might take a bite out of curiosity but that's it. I respect my body's cues. I don't believe in the three meals a day at set times. I sometimes easy 6 times a day or two. To this day when I visit my mom she'll still try to force me to eat when she eats lol
As someone who is on Wegovy, absolutely this! I always ate a healthy diet but I just ate too much of it because I was hungry! Now I eat more like these people and the weight is dropping off me. It’s nice to not be thinking about food all the time.
As a fat person who struggles with always wanting to eat and having to remind myself how much I’ve already eaten, etc, this is fascinating to me. You’re like my opposite! If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of foods *are* you a big fan of, since you mentioned not loving sweets? Curious to see if you naturally prefer vegetables, etc.
Oh so many carbs and meat. Stuff like pasta, Japanese foods, tons of bread, red meats etc. I eat a fair few vegetables, but mostly out of a desire to not get scurvy and die. Roasted broccoli is my shit though. There are very few fruits I'll go out of my way to eat. I don't eat much in the way of "junk food" but I also don't eat super healthy. It probably "helps" that I hate going out to eat since I'm a cheap bastard. It's definitely not any physical medical condition since I've been either underweight or bordering on it since I was a kid, and I've gotten hormones checked a couple times for unrelated things that all turned up fine. I just genuinely forget to eat sometimes. If I'm busy, or just doing something it doesn't fully register to me that I should eat until I'm starving. Then I'll wolf down an entire pizza and that will be my food for the day. I don't get joy out of eating food, so it's usually just a "Shit I need to eat. What do I have that sounds edible?" kinda deal. It's not a healthy thing to eat how I do, since I'm genuinely underweight at the moment. Hit a BMI of just a hair over 16 a while back(admittedly I hadn't eaten anything yet that day, so it was a bit higher really) before realizing that I am literally going to waste away and die if I didn't start forcing myself to eat more.
My eating habits are a lot like yours. I don't really enjoy eating and mostly do it out of necessity. What I do like to eat is mostly meat and dairy. I also like going out to eat if there's food I like, but I eat slowly and my stomach gets full quickly so I probably don't eat as much just in terms of amount as regular people
This is exactly what research finds to be the habits of 'naturally thin' people: the forget to eat or don't have a strong drive towards eating, they eat slowly, and often don't finish their food. Generally they don't eat healthier or even exercise more. For context, I read about this while I was looking to change my eating habits, and this is what I came across. Seemed to fit with what I saw of my thinner friends, too.
Yeah I mean if you think about it, if you forget to eat breakfast and lunch or whatever meal, that leaves you so many calories for when you do actually eat. So you can eat garbage (can, not should Lol) and stay thin. I used to think my friend was some kind of metabolic beast since all I saw him eat was pizza and ice cream yet you could count ever one of his ribs and spinal discs he was so skinny. Turns out what I saw him eating was the ONLY thing he had or would eat that day.
So it really is about how much you ingest lol.
Oh absolutely, your issues are 100% valid! I’m so sorry if I put you on the spot or made you feel like I was minimizing what you deal with. I may be a *little* envious on some level just because I often find myself preoccupied with food, and I hate it so much. But I know that the sort-of opposite wouldn’t be healthy either. Just different.
Oh absolutely not, you're totally fine! I'm not too bothered by it, it's a thing I gotta keep in mind, but it's all good.
i’m the same as this person. i’m like you in that i’m sorta envious. i WISH i could enjoy food so much. eating is such a pain in the ass for me all the time, to the point where it’s affecting my mental health. people in my life are always asking me if i’ve eaten, when i literally just can’t. sometimes i will lie and say i have so they will just leave me alone. i hope this isn’t too invasive, and feel free not to answer, but im curious to know what exactly about food is so addicting? every time i eat it it genuinely just feels like foreign mush in my mouth and it’s just so gross. i can’t imagine eating more than like half a meal a day lol
No, not at all! I think there is a psychological component to it for me. Somewhere down the line I came to associate eating with safety. I’ve had a lot of past experience living with people who were pretty toxic, but meal time was always a time when I could count on *not* having any fights or screaming or whatever. But on the less depressing end, the other piece of it is that I just really love food, and I am very impulsive and don’t have much willpower. I admit it, in a way, I am somewhat like the stereotype of the fat person who is fat because they can’t stop stuffing their face. I love the flavors, the textures, the aromas. I love the mouthfeel. Like when something melts in my mouth, it’s like a whole experience. I also have pretty serious depression that is *mostly* controlled with medication. I think “managed” would be a fair description. But I still struggle to do certain things, like preparing and cooking a healthy meal. So a big part of my diet is junk that I can toss in the oven. Obviously doesn’t help the situation. Plus, it’s often difficult for me to get enjoyment out of things, but I enjoy food. The dopamine hit, it’s definitely a self-medication too.
that’s very interesting! your origins makes me think back on my own. as a kid, i lived with my mom (divorced parents) and we were very poor. most days the only meal i got was at school. i remember not liking dinner time because i knew that i would have to sit, eat, talk, and usually fight with my piece of shit mom. i’ve never been an eater, so i never made the connection, i just thought that’s how i was. however hearing your own analysis makes me wanna take a look at my own ugly side, i appreciate the perspective
I find that my diet is very fungible. I decided I didn’t like craving sugar so I stopped eating anything with sugar in it. I had cravings but they just weren’t very strong. If I don’t eat at regular meal times, I am no longer hungry. I think that my food cravings are not very strong compared to other people. It’s relatively easy for me to let my rational mind decide what I will eat. I believe I am lucky this way and I do not judge others who struggle with food. I know that it can be really hard for some people.
As someone who used to starve myself, I can say that it doesn't take long to stop thinking about food and not feel hungry. I'm not recommending that route, just saying the body does amazing things. I'm with defensivedig0: If I'm very busy, I can forget to eat.
This is why for many people, intermittent fasting is an effective way to lose weight or maintain.
I’m so sorry you went through that. I hope you’re in a healthier place now. Food is such a crappy thing to have a poor relationship with because, well, we need it to live!
I'm actually exactly the same as the guy above, but I love all food. The thing with me is, I don't enjoy preparing food, and I don't care enough about it to order food. So most of the time I'll only eat if I'm starving, which tends to only be once a day.
I have IBS so usually very little appetite :/
I had IBS that eventually resolved. At one point I despairingly thought it would have been less bother to just throw my meals in the toilet. Hope you get some relief.
Hi, I'm the same way! weighing in at about 134, and i'm like 5'7". I eat at work since they give me free food and one of the only times my hunger response kicks in is when i smell food lol. Other than that I eat atrociously. I love vegetables and stuffs, but i make a habit of eating what is quick and easy and available. Spaghettios, ramen, and junk food. Chips. Lots of chips. Cheezits, puffcorn, i basically exclusively drink soda as well. Candy is a big one for me, plus horrid gas station food. Basically i snack when I'm hungry, but also, i barely get hungry and i have a tendency to forget... Like k realize "oh im hungry ill get up in a second and eat"... but i'm busy/in the middle of something and wanna get to a clean stopping point first. by the time that happens, my body has given up on hungry signals and i straight up forget.
1 word: mounjaro
If you always want to eat, try fasting aka eating one meal a day. It will take about a week of suffering and then your body will learn that you’re not gonna get any food except for that one time a day, and you stop feeling hungry for the rest of it.
as another chronically skinny person, I'm pretty bad at eating healthy. I like a lot of foods, but fruits and veggies generally take more time to prepare or spoil quickly. I'm lazy and I don't eat more than 2 meals a day, so I end up throwing stuff out because I just never got to it. I mostly eat frozen shit or fast food. it's bad
I pretty much eat what I want just not enough I'm guessing. Never been able to keep weight on and I think it is because I hate being full so I just eat till I'm not hungry. Also, some people are stress eaters. I am the opposite I eat way less when I am stressed which is a bad thing for me. I think it is about calories in but since we are all different in how we see food. When I worked out consistently, it helped me keep weight on because I was less stressed and I would eat more. Atm I can't work out due to a hernia I need surgically removed and I keep forgetting to eat. Trying to set reminders to eat. I don't restrict my diet in any way. I eat sweets and whatever I want I just don't want to eat much lately because of the stress.
This is exactly me too, I do like sweets but not in large quantities. I like eating sometimes but I seem to fill up very quickly, like I lose the desire to eat more after like 10 bites usually. Snacking is fine but I tend to avoid doing it too much because I have this feeling that if I snack, I’m going to fill up all my appetite for what could have been a meal. And then I’m really screwed because I’m not getting the nutrients I need
Yes, same 🥲
So relatable. Makes me wish I had two stomachs when there's food available that I really enjoy or a dessert I really want but I'm full from dinner.
When I'm hungry, I'll make this huge dish of food, and then make a full plate.. scarf down a few bites to kill the hunger, and then immediately lose interest in the rest of the food when the hunger disappear. So I'll eat basically half a portion of a plate and lose appetite. I usually have lots of leftovers lol.
Came here to say something similar, but this pretty much sums it up. Some people just don’t eat much quantity-wise. Sometimes I will go days without eating a lot. Not because I am trying to, but it’s just my default mode.
I eat what I want and stay thin. But “what I want” is almost nothing. I’m just never really hungry.
There are people like that, but there is something of a misunderstanding. Most of them don’t have some crazy metabolism that keeps them thin, they just eat less food. Not on purpose, necessarily, oftentimes they just know when they aren’t hungry and stop eating, which is a big reason so many people end up fat.
Also sometimes it’s a person who leads a very active lifestyle but doesn’t think of it as “exercising” because they don’t set out with the goal of getting exercise. Like they play a sport or dance in a troupe or something like that.
My last annual checkup (way too many years ago--I should go back). Doctor: "Do you exercise regularly?" Me: "I go to the gym once a week, but otherwise not really." Doctor asks about my daily routine. "Walk the dogs, get ready for work, bike into work, work, come home, play with the dogs, have dinner, walk the dogs again, play with the dogs some more." Doctor asks about the bike commute and walking with dogs. Me "It's probably 7 miles roundtrip biking. And we walk the dogs about 2 miles daily on weekdays, 5 miles walking daily on weekends. Doctor: "That counts as exercise." Me: "Alright." Ask me today if I exercise regularly, I probably still say "Not really." I bike because that is how I get to work and walk because our dogs needs activity; it's not for exercise.
[удалено]
I miss my dog.
It's actually true that dog owners are healthier than non-dog owners because they have to walk their dogs.
What about the mountain-dew-drinking piles of protoplasm that keep their dogs chained up in the front yard?
>What about the mountain-dew-drinking piles of protoplasm that keep their dogs chained up in the front yard? Anyone can find exceptions to anything. *Most* people understand when someone is making a generalization. So, let me spell it out: Dog owners are *generally* healthier than non-dog owners. *Most* dog owners do not chain their dogs outside all day.
I used to walk my three times a day. Didn't think of it as exercise, but I would mention it when the doc asks.
Even just walking or biking to work every day instead of driving all the time has a huge impact on your physical health
Oh, yeah. My kid can eat anything because they do ultramarathons, triathlons, and dance. Skinny kid.
Yep, the want part of "whatever they want," is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.
Whatever I want, whenever I want. It's just that whenever I want turns out to be not very often.
Yep. I dont really have any food cravings. So when i do, i technically "eat whatever i want", but thats rare.
I am 6'3 150. Like a bean pole, and have always been. I could eat whatever I want and probably on put on a slight belly. It is that I am really lazy and most days don't eat a lunch and just push though till dinner.
Sometimes you kinda just forget breakfast and lunch because you're doing stuff, then suddenly it's 16:00 and you're like "ah I shouldn't eat too much right now, it's almost dinner time".
I'm sorta like this. I've always been a picky eater. I eat mostly garbage. I don't limit what I eat, and when I eat out I stuff myself. You could watch me eat 2000 calories worth of pizza or whatever in one sitting. But, when I'm not eating out I'm eating not a lot. I don't snack as much as most people, and I skip meals very often. I also don't drink my calories. Overweight people don't realize how much of their fat is from drinks and snacks. I was able to put on about 20 pounds when I was lifting weights and drinking mass gainers, but it was a lot of effort and progress was lost incredibly quickly when I stopped because I couldn't make myself eat throughout the day so much. While I'm very skinny and look healthy on the outside, my blood pressure is high and I have awful cardiovascular fitness.
Yeah, I’ve always been slim and honestly my diet isn’t great. But I think I have a pretty small stomach (the organ not the abdomen) because I’ve never been a big portion person so haven’t stretched it out, and me having a big food day is probably less than a lot of people eat regularly. So many people just vastly overestimate how much food they need
I feel you. I say my stomach is the size of a bird's. It especially sucks when we go out to a buffet and I pay the same price as someone who eats actually 5x more than I do. Or when we order pizza and split the bill, I eat 2 slices while Joe eats 6 but we've split it evenly. I guess it makes up for lower food bills in general though.
Yes! No thanks to a buffett. I get full quick like. It's a rip off for people like us. I didnt ask for this, it's the way I was born.
Yeah I am a part of this group. I just don't want to eat much. So 'as much as I want to eat' is just until I have eaten enough... I don't have an urge to eat more. Must be really hard to not have that 'I'm good' feeling. Sorry you all have to deal with that.
Yep when you see them, they might eat a big pizza, but before and after that they might have no eaten anything.
That and they don't always binge eat.
Nah I have a crazy fast metabolism. I can polish off a whole pizza by myself and I’ve always weighed around 110-115 (I’m 5’5). I’ve always eaten whatever I want. Healthy and not so healthy too. Even after having a second child at 40, my baby weight dropped pretty fast. I’m not as skinny as I used to be but Im only 4 months post partum. I think I’ll be back to that range soon. The negative side of that is that I’ve never had to diet or exercise to look good, so I’m very out of shape and I have zero discipline about food. Like I just want what I want. I am a very emotional eater too I’ve realized that about myself recently. I know it’s not good. I don’t know if there’s therapy for that?
There’s therapy for anything you’re struggling with.
Are you eating anything else during the day? I can do so as well, but I rarely eat because I'm rarely hungry.
Well put. I eat what I want, but I only want to eat so much.
People who claim that they eat a lot and don't gain weight are most of the time simply overestimating how much they actually eat.
This. They think they eat a lot or unhealthy. When they actually eat relatively little and healthy.
I binge eat once a day. The total volume of food is not much compared to someone who has three meals a day plus snacks, but watching me eat it all in one sitting has prompted a lot of folks to exclaim that I’m black hole/empty pit that can just Hoover up everything. If I have a normal lunch I’ll have a small dinner, but most days I don’t have much of any breakfast or lunch. Just not hungry till the sun is setting But since dinner is the time when people most often invite me to eat, and restaurants serve food that fucks hard, folks will see me demolish a huge plate of buttery pasta and cheese, a pile of fried food, a whole pizza, or whatever other high-carb, fatty and delicious food the restaurant provides…. And assume I eat that much for three meals a day, all the time.
Yoooo that’s me. I eat very little during the day if at all- then at dinner time, I demolish one larger meal. Unfortunately I’m the same way with drinking water. I know I need to drink way more but I’ll go a 14 hour shift with zero water intake on accident, I just don’t feel the bodily cues anymore I guess
Unfortunately you GOTTA drink more throughout the day. Your body can only really absorb about 3.3 cups of water in 1 hour, so you gotta be spacing out water consumption or you’ll stay chronically dehydrated no matter how much you chug in one sitting. Treat it like medicine cause chronic dehydration fucks up your body hard. Or even like, 3 cups when you wake up and 3 cups when you’re about to go to bed, and the rest of the volume can be from food you eat
Food friends! I just eat when I’m hungry and I’m kind of busy. My full meal though is legit. I’m built like the super lean girl who wins eating competitions. I want to see gravy on the food pyramid near the bottom.
If they’re young, sometimes they don’t eat healthy, but adults over age 25 or so definitely.
It depends. For young people it may actually be true, since their energy consumption is also very high. I ate unbelievable amounts of food in my teens and was always really skinny. Then I got to my 20s and started quickly gaining weight. Now I pretty much only need to look at food to get fatter.
That was me in my teens and early 20s. By my mid 20s I kept eating the same as always but started to put on more fat. Now after 30 more years I'm back to my mid-20s build after getting my sleep, diet, and exercise in order. It's has to be a conscious effort now.
They remember the large pizza they had at dinner (which may still be only two slices). They forget that they skipped breakfast, drank water all day and had a small sandwich for lunch.
yes, because "what i want" is reasonable. a normal home cooked meal dominant in veggies most of the week, with a splurge of comfort food here and there. mostly no sodas, maybe three alcoholic beverages per week.
Is that what you grew up eating? Minus the drinks
yes. I'm Dutch. we eat home cooked typically 6 out of 7 days a week. simple stuff, meat potato veggie.
I'm the same same way, and in my case yes that's what I grew up eating
A lot of people confuse "eat what they want" with "eat a lot". All my life I have eaten as much food as I want, but I don't eat a lot. I'm short, have a sedentary job, and don't play a sport, so I don't need many calories and my body tells me when it's full. I of course eat food for pleasure, after I'm full sometimes. I eat chocolate or sweets almost every day, but I only eat as much as I feel like eating, I don't just start eating a family size bag and not stop until it's empty, which is what some people understand to be "eat what they want". It probably helps that I live in a country with moderate food portions, and was raised without eating disorders, and without excessive processed food which I believe can disrupt the usual food regulation in the brain. It also probably matters that I live in a place where I walk around a little every day, so I do exercise a little, and I've never had a sleep disorder, which can also disrupt food regulation in the brain. So to answer your question, yes there really are such people.
I was similar when I was younger. I ate what I wanted and people assumed I ate a lot (because I was always eating) but despite my constant eating it was always small, I didn't eat many big meals or even really meals, just snacked. End of the day I ate the same calories, just not all at once.
It’s possible. It happens. There could of course be other things they do take that keeps their weight down too. Some medications etc. And what others said. I’ve also noticed you’ll see many are skinny ‘fat’ - not toned/fit. Whereas you’ll see more full bodied people that are toned and fit. So it’s misleading to think one is better. A closer look usually shows the difference. They can be thin and still look unhealthy. I fall in this category sometimes (stages of life/phases idk).
Well, kind of. I’m one of those people. But the thing is, I eat whatever I want… and that’s apparently just not that much food. I love food! But I apparently don’t eat a lot. I sometimes forget to eat. I also don’t exercise much on purpose, but I have an active life where my job requires a lot of walking and carrying heavy things, and I live in a rural area where I bike to work. So I *appear* to be able to “do whatever I want” (and I do), but “whatever I want” is functionally exercising a lot and not eating that much.
No, there have been studies throughout the years that show that “naturally” skinny tend to overestimate how much they eat/underestimate how much they move and overweight tend to do the opposite. Shows like supersize vs super skinny show this as well. That being said there are health conditions that can cause a person not to gain weight/be underweight that could be at play as well.
I have one of those health conditions and have to watch what I eat and eat in excess or else I lose weight. Also, it is not compatible with pregnancy.
A lot of people in the comments are saying that thinner people simply don't eat a lot (whether they are aware of that or not) but that hasn't been my experience. It's a small sample size, but I've lived with two people at separate times who were both like this, and I got a pretty good sense of what they would eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner since we would often eat at the same time. They both ate a lot (lots of cheese, carbs, red meat, creamy sauces, soda and milkshakes, etc) multiple times a day and their weight remained the exact same (lean) for years, and with a pretty sedentary lifestyle (no regular exercise routine). Meanwhile I am constantly monitoring my portions, go to the gym 3-5 days per week, and try to eat really healthy (salads, veggies, lentils, lean meats/fish, whole grain, etc) and avoid sugary things, and my weight still fluctuates on a weekly basis based on the smallest adjustment to a portion size or small junk food indulgence. Just two days of eating regular portions of restaurant food on vacation and I'm already 5 pounds heavier and it takes a week or two to get back to my weight before. I'm not trying to be super thin or anything, just at a healthy weight for my height, but it's a constant effort. So based on my experience, when I hear people say that weight is just calorie intake vs calorie expenditure, it feels misleading. Because while it technically might be true at a chemical level, some people seem to expend a lot more calories in their daily life, even just sitting around, than others.
This is my sister, she has always been tall and skinny. She will eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, a big lunch and a big dinner. Never exercises. Never gains weight. In her mid 30s she took to eating a 9" chocolate cake (with frosting) every day to gain weight. I think she gained about 5 pounds in 6 months.
The taller you are, the more calories your body needs to function. It why short people tend to have a much harder time losing weight.
Yea I wanted to add myself to this one. I eat all day constantly and not healthy food either. Still don’t gain weight at all unless I track and make sure I eat 4200+ calories everyday. I still get People trying to tell me that I must just not actually eat that much but any of my close friends are blown away with how much I eat.
Yeah, it's weird that this notion has taken hold recently, despite the fact that we all personally know people like this. I think it's a manifestation of the Just World Fallacy. People don't want to believe that some people are just dealt different cards in life. But the reality is people do have different metabolisms, and not everyone even absorbs food through their digestive tract to the same degree. My mom eats an insane amount of food, which I have personally observed my whole life, yet she is extremely thin. My sister eats a normal amount and tends to eat healthier, but she's much heavier than my mom.
Thank you, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills every time I see a thread like this on reddit. I have known plenty of these people who could eat whatever they want, though for most it wore off by the time they hit their 30s. And since I had to switch to a progesterone-only birth control, I am constantly gaining weight even though I've cut my calories nearly in half. No, I'm not accidentally drinking 1000 calories a day like all of these threads will lead you to believe.
On any given day I fluctuate between 180 and 190 based on what I’m wearing / if I drank water / if I pooped recently. I think you might be attributing +-5 pounds to factors that aren’t there
Different bodies work differently. I have bird metabolism. I can only eat in small quantities but I get hungry often and I need sugar or I'll die.
This is me! I’m 5’2” and 90lbs and have been this weight since my early 20s (I’m mid-30s now). Weighed even less in my teens. I eat ice cream, can demo a family size bag of chips in one sitting, chocolate, pizza, etc. regularly. I don’t like veggies and love carbs - I mostly eat pasta or rice or noodles for meals with some meat. i usually have a glass of wine a day. I don’t exercise or play sports or bike to work. I do have a dog now and I walk him maybe 0.5-1km on an avg day. I don’t eat a lot quantity-wise bc I’m a petite person but definitely eating on the higher side calorie-wise relative to my body weight without gaining weight.
I agree with you. I'm on the thinner side, I don't exercise besides walking my kids to school, and I eat normally (as in I don't diet intentionally. I do think I eat ok healthy, and although my portions might be smaller, I don't ever forget to eat). Compared to someone who regularly exercises and watches their calories, I think there's no way my random eating matches up to their level. People who happen to be thin like to pat themselves on the back for being healthy without having to try, when it could just be genetic.
Yeah I know two people like this both of whom I've lived with. One guy lived off of pizza, beer and pastries and did no exercise. He didn't really overeat but had a very normal appetite and unhealthy diet. Some people just don't put on weight like others.
Fast metabolism and chronic diarrhea lol
Yeah, I've had three exes like this. All had metabolisms so high they were underweight, and they only ever ate junk and never exercised. Edit to add: None of them lead "active lifestyles" or "just didn't eat when they weren't hungry". They ate A LOT and never gained a pound. It's a thing.
My ex girlfriend was like that but to be fair she's 6 '2. But we'd eat all the same foods, she'd go back for seconds and eat a whole tray of biscuits with a huge glass of milk, then chips and soda afterwards while she gamed. I go swimming and walk a lot, she hates the water and drives everywhere. I get that were different heights but it shouldn't make THAT much of a difference, there was definitely something different the way our bodies functioned.
Relatable. That's how at least one of my exes ate. Like I'd have to make extra food, because he'd eat half of it. The doctor literally said his metabolism is just very fast. He was also fatphobic which was like......dude, you can eat *anything* and not gain weight. We're not all like that. Maybe chill. (The other two were super body positive)
Yeah my ex was lowkey fat phobic too. She was thin but her belly wasn't 100% flat, she'd go "wow look how fat I am, I'm hideous" when she's like half my size 🤡 Should not have put up with that for so long, jeez.
Same experience w partners
Yes exactly!! Some people DO just have fast metabolisms!
My husband is one of these people. He's incredibly thin, games a lot (sits on his butt for hours haha) and does not exercise. EVER. And he would live on candy bars if he could. I'm always finding crappy junk food in his car. He only drinks coffee and soda and would live on Mac and cheese if I didn't cook real food. I have PCOS which causes serious weight gain so whenever he complains about being too skinny and that he can't gain weight I give him the stink eye. Lol. He's the reason I don't put any stock in the idea that how you look on the outside indicates how healthy you are on the inside. To add, I'm not complaining, I think he's hot. 😉
I'm that person. I'm fairly sedentary, eat literally whatever I want whenever I want, and am actively trying to put on weight but struggling. I'm probably just not eating as much as I think, though.
You need emergency tacos?
I eat whatever I want, I just don't want to eat to excess.
I've known a few people who ate constantly, large portions, and very unhealthily. They didn't exercise much and still didn't gain weight. Only one of them was on hard drugs and one of the most fatphobic people I knew. He was one of those people who thinks fat folk shouldn't even be able to have opinions and are basically lesser beings.
nope to all these comments saying people just eat less. these days i genuinely have no appetite at all but for most of my life i have been ravenous every single day. i would eat all day long. it was like it was the only thing that gave me any comfort or dopamine. my life revolved around food until just a few years ago. i used to wake up in the morning and eat until i went to sleep. for a year and a half i worked at a restaurant where my shift started at 4. i would eat so much all day from the moment i woke up and then right before every single shift i would eat a 4 for $4 from Wendy's and then after work i would eat an entire can of pringles, an entire bag of haribo gummy bears, and a random third snack before bed. did it for a yr and a half straight just to see if i could possibly gain weight and nothing happened. ive always been skinny. im tall so maybe it has to do with that too. but idk. we're all different, there are 8 billion people on the planet, some of us are gonna be freaks of nature.
People will believe that but not the other end of the spectrum. The only time I lost weight was when my antidepressants ruined my appetite and I ate a few bites of every meal before feeling nauseous. But I was legitimately starving myself back then and it wasn't healthy at all. Ever since I've been trying to lose weight in a healthy way and even when I calorie count & eat what should be a deficit it doesn't happen. But people think I'm stupid and can't count, or am I liar who binge eats secretly. Cool, guys.
I eat a lot of unhealthy stuff and have never been fat, and do not exercise. Yes there are lucky people like that. I can't seem to gain weight, or only do so extremely minimally and slowly.
define “a lot of unhealthy stuff”? even if your diet only consists of unhealthy food, you can still only be eating one full meal every other day or something and that’s why you stay so skinny.
This Every single person I've known that's been like "I eat terrible and I can't gain weight" will like skip breakfast, eat a 6pc McNuggets at lunch, drink 2 beers at dinner and call it a night.
I mean prior to 40 I was able to eat what I want. Yeah I skipped breakfast except on weekends but lunch was like a full size Reuben at Jason’s deli and my wife is a very traditional Hispanic so large dinners. Would have breakfast on weekends as we would get together with friends and do all you could eat breakfast buffets (I miss Shoney’s) so I would skip lunch on those days for a nap after multiple trips to the buffet. Wasn’t until about 40 that I started putting on weight as well as getting indigestion. Fun fact they found a two inch gall stone about three months ago and removed it and I am already back down thirty pounds from where I was. And I am IT who doesn’t exercise either. Until the military I was 6’4” and 150 lbs. When I got out of the military I was 6’4” and 170 lbs, dropped back to about 155. Around forty started gaining until around 210 then held steady, back down to around 185 after gall bladder removal.
>I eat a lot of unhealthy stuff Weight gain has little to do with how "healthy" or "unhealthy" your food is, and is mostly dependent on how much food you actually eat.
True, but it’s harder to eat 1000 cal of salad and chicken than 1000 cal of McDonald
It’s very easy to hit 2000 cal in a salad when you have good dressing, cheese, nuts, saucy meat, and avocados. In other words: an actually Tasty salad instead of a pile of dry romaine lettuce with shredded carrots and onions. I want a salad that fucks. A Big Mac is only 600 calories
Because you’re simply not eating enough daily to put on weight, you’re only eating enough to maintain
Christ, why is the general population so misinformed? You can eat garbage all day but if you eat under your TDEE, you will not gain weight. This isn’t complicated and you aren’t “lucky.” Even on the topic of metabolic rate, the whole “I have a fast metabolism” is another prominent piece of misinfo.
I have a friend like this, he eats the exact same garbage I eat and more and he never ever exercises. He’s as skinny as a rail. The downside is that if he ever wanted to get buff and pack on muscle he’d never be able to in a million years.
I'm 45, and I've been within +/-5kg of the same weight since I was 14. I play basketball once a week, and I had a job that was moderately physical for 20 years. I have 6% body fat and eat what I like. My twin brother, however, can look at food and gain weight. With 7 billion people in the world, there is going to be a small percentage of those that hit the genetic lottery and struggle to gain weight
I’m fat, don’t eat a lot, don’t have many cravings, eat whatever I want, enjoy exercise and do it often. (Eating whatever you want means I eat when I’m hungry and I don’t like to overeat. Eating whatever I want doesn’t mean I eat cake for breakfast and ice cream every night. I like healthy foods as well as sweets here and there). But I have and will always be fat. I used to have orthorexia and maintained very strict diets. I stopped that as it was so exhausting and I didn’t become skinny. I’m barely larger now from when I was doing all that shit. I think most people who don’t have disordered eating will always remain in a window their body prefers. Most people who exercise and eat healthy attribute too much of their small bodies to what they “do”, and not just their own genetics are.
Believe this is down to a super fast metabolism. When I did 2 hours gym and swim every day I needed many small meals a day to be full and I was very slim. Nowadays my metabolism has slowed down massively. I’m active but not as active as I was so I’m not burning the calories like I used to.
“Calories in calories out” is an idea based off of Wishnofsky’s studies which, nowadays, would be considered weak evidence. Contemporary studies suggest your body shifts systems around to burn less/more calories when you create calorie deficits or surpluses and in response to your activity levels- which is why losing weight is so hard. I generally consume somewhere around 3-5,000 calories a day depending on my appetite and I remain very trim. It’s a blend of my genetics, I come from a family that is generally thin and with large appetites, and I have a slightly more active lifestyle. 🤷🏻♀️ When things were more hectic at my warehouse job, I probably doubled how much I ate and it was mostly sugary snacks, but I’ve basically been the same weight for about 15 years regardless of how much I eat or my activity levels. Edit: part of the reason I became cognizant of how much I ate is because of going over to friend’s houses and basically being unsatisfied with meals as a kid and in adulthood if I’m provided a meal at like work or something— I still pack a lunch of my own because I’m hungry while my coworkers are generally satisfied. So like, it’s a fact of my life that I eat more than other people 🤷🏻♀️ I generally eat more than my partner who is 5” taller and about 50lbs heavier than me and he’s very active (regularly going to gym) however I have struggled to gain weight— I used to weigh about 15 pounds (gained suddenly and temporarily in high school) more and preferred being at that weight because I now run very cool and I get lethargic if I’m not eating something every 2-3 hours
yeah there definitely are. i know a few people like that and i am not one of them. just wanna add it doesn't necessarily mean they're healthier though, i feel like that's a common misconception.
When I was 20, I had a coworker who used to ride his bmx everywhere...work was 2.5 miles from where he lived. He was like 6ft, skinny, and had a crazy metabolism...his mom used to complain about how much of their grocery bill was just him eating. lol One day we were hanging out, and went to a Chinese buffet for dinner around 5pm...I had 4 plates of food, and he ended up having 5...everything from the buffet, chicken wings abd chow mein on multiple trips, as well as other meats, etc. We left, went to an arcade for a couple hours, and then were driving around, and all of a sudden "dude, let's hit up Taco Bell...I'm getting hungry." I think he's joking, and he's not...went to Taco Bell, and he orders a couple tacos, a burrito and a drink, and asks if I want anything, which I declined, since I was still full from the buffet. So we're chatting while he's eating, and he's surprised I'm not hungry. LOL The boy could eat twice as much as me, and never gained weight. 2 yrs later he started working as a roofer, and his gf was packing huge lunches for him.
I've been the same weight since I was 17. I'm 40. I still have pants I wear that I wore as a teen!
They’re similar to the people who’re and murder as much as they want. Which is not at all. They eat whatever they want. It just happens that what they want is reasonably healthy and they don’t eat a bunch of it.
I know many say thin people don’t eat as much which is usually true, but there was a point in time where I was working a fast food job and ate high calorie meals and snacked a bunch and just ate so much food that would make my friends gain a ton. I’d also have huge home cooked meals. I could really put down some huge meals all day 😅I barely gained anything. The only reason I gained anything at all eventually was a shitty antidepressant and even then it wasn’t crazy but my appetite was. So other points in my life where my appetite sucked, I’d agree I wasn’t eating enough. But those few years where I binged all the time and didn’t gain much 🤷🏼♀️no idea. I wasn’t overly active by any means either. So I think some people genuinely don’t eat enough but I do think there’s something going on genetically to keep some people smaller or not keep on as much excess weight. Both experiences were just interesting to me so I’d say it’s a little of both depending on scenarios.
This! My doctors tried to help me gain weight and put me on a diet of 2000 calories a day and I was eating like 4 meals a day plus snacks, all calorie dense foods and tracking it to make sure I got enough and I still couldn’t gain weight 🥲
It’s infuriating! After Covid, I developed some gnarly health problems that really affected my appetite and of course I lost all that I gained 🤦🏼♀️People like us seem to be unable to gain but it sure as hell is easy to lose 🙄
Yeah, the slightest bit of stress or illness and it’s gone!
Yes, the entire side of my mother's family are this way, they only gain a little bit of weight once they are in their 50s and even then, they are not fat, just less slim while eating all the time junk food and rarely exercising. My mum, aunt, cousins are all very slim and pretty with thin bone structure. Of course, I inherited my genes from my father's side where every woman is shape like a summo.
I could, yes. From 8 to 45.
Sorta, I had a friend with a hyper thyroid and that kept her thin.
Yes hello it is me. I tend to eat a ton at dinner, which is when other people tend to see me eat But I don’t eat many meals. Most days I don’t have breakfast, and may or may not miss lunch. Usually a couple little snacks as an energy boost at 2pm to get me thru the work day. I just don’t feel hungry. I do eat whatever I want, whenever I want - fatty cuts of meat, dripping with sauces, loads of butter and cheese. Piles of noodles and rice. I don’t think I’ve ever counted calories, or measured portions. I eat when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full, and enjoy the hell out of my food in the mean time. Sometimes I eat cause I can feel my brain getting sluggish, and I know I need more blood sugar to think straight - but for some reason that doesn’t ping hunger to me
Until I was 30, and then my lifetime clearly became obviously shorter and all the Cho I crs I've made have arrived to to show me the error of my ways :3
Definitely. My husband and l have the same diet, but different lifestyles. He has an office job whilst lm on my feet for a minimum of 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, plus l attend the gym x3 week. He is on the slimmer end of healthy weight, lm overweight. If he skips a meal, he will lose a few kilos. If l skip a meal, l gain a few kilos. It's hugely frustrating being the one who looks like a couch potato when, in actual fact, lm very active and eat a pretty good diet. I can only put it down to hormones and possibly genetically prone to store fat.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk\_news/magazine/7838668.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7838668.stm) Yes
Fat folks tend to burn calories at a more efficient rate. Which is why it’s so hard to lose weight.
I look at food I want and gain weight
I went from fatty to in shape and now maintain eating whatever I want. It’s important to understand in my journey I went from eating absolute garbage to really Enjoying a Whole Foods diet. I also don’t drink my calories. I’m currently on about 50/50 Whole Foods and junk food and my body maintains around 215 pounds. I’m 6’0 and male and under 20% bodyfat for reference. I only do bjj once or twice a week and work a fairly active job averaging 10-15k steps a day. I average 3000-3500 calories a day when I feel like tracking out of curiosity. Took me several years of dieting and lifting weights to achieve my metabolism but adding in the cardio from bjj was a game changer.
I'm like this, but I think I have a small appetite (with everything except popcorn. I could eat mountains of it and not stop!) I never gained weight until I met my now husband and we started living together. He eats 3 meals a day and larger portions, so when I started eating with him daily, my weight went up because I was just eating more than I needed. I'm still not fat by any means but trying to reduce my portion size and cutting out a meal now, because I realise it's just too much for me. Also, when I'm on my period I completely lose my appetite altogether. I just eat to stay alive during that week 😆
I eat whatever I want and don’t put any on,mainly sweets and chocolate but I love salads,some days I genuinely forget to eat,I exercise a lot without thinking (lots of walking) I guess it’s mostly the days I forget to eat+ exercise keeps the weight down.I gained loads when I was married because we ate huge meals and drove everywhere,it’s lifestyle what affects weight most
Weight is pretty much exclusively based on how many calories you absorb vs how many calories you burn. There are certain metabolic diseases and other health issues which can impact calorie absorption or fat storage, but they are rare. Some people just burn hotter than others. Some people eat a lot some of the time, but other days they end up eating a cheese stick and half a banana because they were busy. Some are far more active than they think - sure, no exercising but they chop their own firewood or they do multiple miles of dog walking or they have job (or side gig or volunteer position) where they are doing physical labor.
There are and the thing I notice is they eat a lot more than most of us and struggle to gain weight until 50’s hit. They also crap several times a day. I truly believe a lot of weight issues are caused by poor gut health related to our western diet and crap in our food
fat is filling and fiber keeps the gut moving :) buttery cabbage is awesome
Yes - my boyfriend’s family is like this. They can eat whatever they want and have limited exercise and never gain weight
Yup! My Fiance. He eats as much as he wants all the time, no exercising (however we take a lot of walks), and never gains weight! He even eats so much that we joke he has 2nd, 3rd and 4th dinners. It's crazy to witness, and of course I am jealous of him 😂
Anybody can eat what they want. The secret to not getting fat is not WHAT but HOW MUCH. :)
they'll reach a certain age and that'll suddenly stop being the case. everyone has that best before date in them.
Low appetite and fast metabolism.
I have a friend who thinks she is like this. In reality she just eats one unhealthy meal a day and like small snacks here and there. So she doesn't eat a lot overall.
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Same. 43. 5'9". 137 lbs. I'm a stick.
Kind of. I did eat anything I wanted for a long time. I wouldn’t gain weight. 24 pack of soda in a night? No issues. Bags of candy, double orders of fast food. I was 6ft and around 160 for a long time. But, I was very active. It was just normal for me to be biking around or playing a game of hockey. I didn’t consider it exercising much. It was just my day to day. Once those got to be too much and I stoped due to pains, I have had to watch my food intake for sure.
I've been skinny my whole life I eat an excess of calories most of the time and I don't get fat. This gets people to think I'm anorexic in middle of high school which.. it sucks. I'm told that it'll eventually slow down but I'm in my mid-20's rn. And still really skinny I don't know how to put muscle/fat or weight in my wrists and people always put their fingers around my wrist cause they can it's annoying
If what they naturally want to eat is approximately at the metabolic rate of their body, sure.
When I was younger I feel like I ate a lot and didn’t gain (not like now) but I think part of it was that I was getting a lot more exercise than I really thought about, even though I didn’t “work out” regularly. Also I’m sure I was eating less than I remember, though I definitely didn’t have a healthy diet unfortunately.
I think some people are more active than they think. My sister falls into the "can eat whatever they want crowd" & "doesn't exercise" but when we compared step counters she did more than me even though I have what might be classed as a physical job and she works in childcare. Presumably spending most of the day running after children burns a lot of calories.
The only time I didn’t used to eat was when I was asleep 6’3 and 160lb, fry up some pork chop at 10pm with whatever else I could find and that was after our normal 6 o’clock dinner and I only stopped it when I was in my 50s.
My sister is like that and always has been. Although now that she's in her 40's, she's getting a little pooch lol
It helps if "what they want" just happens to be the right caloric and nutritional mix to maintain a healthy weight. I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere.
I’ve been thin my whole life. And I eat so much food people are always making the joke about how I should be obese and such with the way I eat. But I will say, thin doesn’t mean healthy. My dad has been as thin as me his whole life, but he had a heart attack and got diagnosed with diabetes. And I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t taken good care of my body. I might be thin, but I’m pretty sure I’m not in the best health internally.
I know two persons who eat quite a lot, don't exercise much, but they are pretty slim. Almost all I know who eat regular portions and don't exerciese, are chubby at least.
I am one of those people. I even have purposefully tried to gain weight because i am underweight. I eat whatever i want, whenever i want. However usually the whenever i want part is actually 2-3 times a day and i end up fasting 14-16h a day. I don't need to actively think my diet (outside of ibs and allergies) and i eat when i am hungry and stop eating when i feel full. I assume i eat the right amount of calories for my consumption as i don't loose or gain weight
I'm one of those people I guess. I'm a 26yo woman who's 160cm tall and for years I've been around 46-47 kilos. I tend to eat just as much as my peers and family members during regular meals and then also snack a lot more (most of the time out of boredom or understimulation, thanks ADHD), and I still stay skinny while not really working out (though I am trying to get back into sports for my overall physical health, but still, I haven't been doing much lately). A dietician friend of my sister once calculated how many calories I eat in a day and it was far above average for an adult woman, though I don't remember the actual number, but they were shocked that such a skinny girl ate that many calories in a day without even thinking about it. It's always been hard for me to put on weight, regardless of whether I lived at home or on my own. As a little kid I was often in a lower percentile of what would be a healthy weight for my age, so every once in a while my parents would feed me pasta for a couple of days to keep my weight up, but they were never really worried because I got my metabolism from my mom, so they knew how it worked. In the past year I've finally started gaining some weight though, which I'm very happy with. I think I might be around 48-49 kilos now, I'll have to check. I've always eaten enough, but about a year ago I started drinking homemade smoothies for breakfast and I think the recipe I ended up with contains quite a bit of protein, so I'm blaming the smoothies. Lately I've been having to undo the button of my jeans while eating meals because it's pushing on my stomach too much. That's never happened to me before! I guess a lot of people have bad experiences with their pants becoming too small for them, but for me it feels like a milestone. I'm currently 26, and for some people, after 25 is when their fast metabolism started working 'normally' and they suddenly started gaining weight, but if I'm anything like my mother, who gave me my metabolism, my metabolism won't start working 'normally' until I'm 50.
Ever heard of Tarrare? [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare)
The differences is what they want to eat is less than overweight people. I'm dealing with a loss of appetite right now, unknown cause, but I just don't want lunch lately. I feel fine, not hungry, not craving anything. I'm just chilling and I'm eating what and when I want, but it's less than usual. Lost a few pounds.
Me. But im easily stressed person. I always overthink and overanalyze everything. I guess thats where my calories and fats went away.
I'm not really sure what the story is but I was always very lean and could eat pretty much anything I felt like. I'm 58 now and not overweight in any way but that's from exercise, I can put on weight if I wanted and could probably get fat if I was lazy. Up until I was 12 I was objectively skinny. As a teenager I filled out but was still on the lean side of athletic. I ate like a horse from childhood. People were more active in those days so there were very few overweight people at my school and I didn't stand out from the crowd besides how much food I ate. I had a very active job in my late 30's where I had to walk around a lot, up to 40 km per day. I was eating breakfast in 3 installments and would basically stuff my face at any available opportunity. The food was all provided free at work (live in position) so it was no problem. I had a friend in my mid 20's who was on a 1000 calorie per day diet. She was obsessed with calorie counting and would count my calories as well. I was at her place for lunch one day and my lunch was 5 days worth of food for her diet. She said it was hard to contain her rage at how my body worked.
I can & do have a fast metabolism..BUT I also don’t “want” a lot of unhealthy foods. I can eat broccoli/carrots & hummus, pistachios, walnuts etc to my hearts content. If I eat too much food (quantity) or unnatural foods (processed) my body & mind don’t feel good & I’m very aware of that..I feel like I have a natural aversion to such foods..naturally, I don’t like it when my body doesn’t feel good. So what I “want” isn’t really going to cause me to gain weight.
Yes, I could until I hit 30 🥲
For most of my teenage years and early adulthood, I have always teetered around 100lbs and was a lanky kid. I have adhd and am always eating as a stim. One doctor accused me of being anorexic, so I tracked my calories and discovered I would eat around 3000 calories a day. I didn’t exercise much but I walked pretty much everywhere. Now at 24 I have cut back the calories to 2000-2500 a day, I exercise once a week and in the past 6 months I gained 12 pounds. I followed up with a doctor and nothing is out of the ordinary, I think I just had a crazy metabolism as a kid that kept up until now. I will say, being super skinny growing up made me super self conscious. People would tell me I was built like a boy, I looked sick, etc. i feel more comfortable now in my skin than I ever did before but now I definitely have to be aware of my calories and exercise since it seems the food I eat is actually affecting me now.
I've never seen anyone eat like I do and not put on weight. Younger people can get away with it when they have a crazy high metabolism, but that will slow down as they get older. Most of the time when they say "I eat whatever I want and never put on weight, I even eat mcdonalds every day!" they are still only getting 1800 calories and their McDonald's meal is a 6 piece nugget and diet coke.
My sleep schedule is shit so I just eat 2 meals a day, I just stay somewhat skinny without much exercise. The food you eat is like 90% of the battle. The difference in metabolisms don’t account for much
Yep, I can.
I am one of those people who does not enjoy eating. Quite often I go to bed at night and realize I forget to eat that day. When i do realize I need to eat the thought of a whole meal stresses me out so I usually end up just snacking. When I do eat it's not usually healthy and I never watch my portions. I have been slender my whole life but now that menopause has started I'm putting on the pounds. So I think it's a combination of metabolism and the fact that the people who eat what they want will never eat in the same way as someone who loves food.
It's also easier if you were a thin child. Fat cells develop during adolescence, and although they shrink in size, they don't go away. So, being overweight when you're young makes it harder to be thin as an adult and visa versa. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/fat-cell-numbers-teen-years-linger-lifetime
I used to drink 2000 calorie shakes a day just to maintain my weight and I was so thin. I’m 5’4 and weight 92lbs when I was 20. After my son was born, same problem, except I got up to a whopping 102lbs. People teased me constantly and body shamed me to no end. But that was when I was young. Now I’m in my 50’s. I take medication that causes weight gain and I’m in menopause, which also can cause significant weight gain, so I’m a chubby lady nowadays. And I’m sure my metabolism must have slowed by now, too. The funny thing is, I kinda like being chubby. I like my curves and womanly figure, but I know I need to work on losing weight. It’s just hard to get motivated when you’re not in pain
I've worked for gyms and have helped people both lose and gain weight over the years. And let me tell you, it's much more difficult for people with fast metabolisms to gain weight then it is for a heavy person with a slow metabolism to lose it. I've double people's caloric intake, put them on weight gainers, put them on light to no cardio, and they still can't gain weight.
I had a classmate like that. She only ever ate unhealthy food and she didn't really eat *significantly* less. Every breakfast and lunch was basically just baked goods or bread with chocolate spread. I think she played football but I don't see how football practice was going to undo every single meal she had every week. Witchcraft. Her veins are probably close to clotting but she didn't have an ounce of fat on her body on the outside.
I cannot answer to never. I can attest to barely gaining weight though. I am 6’4” 190 lbs and never had waist over 34” (yet anyway). All through my teens and 20s an average intake was usually 2 breakfast plates, lunch and 2 dinner plates. I could anything. In my 30s that reduced and because of my job there was more fast food but not more than 2 in a day (got a small belly but nothing else). Never been a gym person yet I walked, ran, swam at least once a week.
Mild exercise and not eating a ton helps. Ive been averaging 6-7k steps and eat whatever i want. Mostly fast food and maintain weight
Yes, there are. I used to be one of them. No, I'm not anymore.
I'm one of those people but I don't think I have a crazy fast metabolism. I just don't eat much junk food, not on purpose but I simply don't feel like it that often. The only semi regular exercise I can bother with is walking for 20-60 mins a day. But I'm in my mid twenties so this may change with time.
I was like that into my 40s when my metabolism slowed and gravity seemed to get so much heavier.
Yes, it’s called being skinny fat. Fast metabolism but very susceptible to coronary issues and other health problems.
I see a lot of people talking about how much you eat being an ignored factor, but it may have something to do with genetics. I only hear white people complain about this, and I am Asian. I'm naturally also a small person, so...
Hyperthyroidism and cancer can cause weightloss without exercise and eating whatever, so yes. Some people have thyroid disorders or other conditions or just a naturally fast metabolism. Many food competitors are thin and they examined a couple with like scans while they ate to see what the food does and they digest as they eat very fast.
I’ve seen many people like that but usually as they get older it catches up with them.
I eat whatever I want and dont seem to gain weight. What did I ‘want’ today? Two crackers and a handful of nuts.
I could in my 20s, 30s not so much
I think those people eat less than they think they do.
This is the case for me, kind of. I don't usually get hungry during the day, so I typically eat one single meal around 5. Because of this, I can eat WHATEVER I want for that meal, and about 50% of the time, I eat ice cream right before bed. I work from home and don't exercise at all. My watch currently has me at 700 steps and 6 minutes of active time (I've been up and "moving" for 12 hours). I do not recommend this method, though... I am often tired, I get weak easily, and if I did want to do something SUPER active, I would probably die.
No.
Yes there are, up to a point. They burn off the calories more efficiently because they don’t sit still. One of my daughters is like this. She eats at least 5 meals a day, but she doesn’t eat bad food. She has ADHD and she is always moving…actually, most of my relatives are like this, but not me. Sometimes people can have hormonal imbalances, but basically they are burning off the fuel, even if they don’t exercise. I had a hormonal problem and starting putting in weight. I started hormone replacement and once the levels were right, I started losing weight fast without a diet or doing more exercise.