Interesting article about thin people who eat whatever they want yet remain thin

[Anonymous]

Food for thought (pun intended). Really goes against the notion that fat people are all gluttons and thin people all have healthy, spartan diets.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/obesity-researchers-study-thin-people-for-clues-about-hunger-and-metabolism/2012/07/02/gJQAV5XTIW_story_2.html

Genetics play a big role, one that's not really recognized by the general public.

[Anonymous]

I think people KNOW that genetics play a role, but our society also lends itself to people becoming excessively obese even for their genetic profile.

I'm inbetween. If I don't watch it then I can easily shoot up to 200lbs. I keep my weight around 145 by eating in moderation and exercising daily. I can't tell you how many people are flabberghasted that I exercise daily. They are stunned asking "How do you do that?" Are you serious?? How do you NOT exercise and look in the mirror each day at flab drooping off your body and not get off your butt and do something about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think people KNOW that genetics play a role, but our society also lends itself to people becoming excessively obese even for their genetic profile.

I'm inbetween. If I don't watch it then I can easily shoot up to 200lbs. I keep my weight around 145 by eating in moderation and exercising daily. I can't tell you how many people are flabberghasted that I exercise daily. They are stunned asking "How do you do that?" Are you serious?? How do you NOT exercise and look in the mirror each day at flab drooping off your body and not get off your butt and do something about it?

I'll tell you how. I work 50+ hours a week plus and I'm raising children. Working and raising children are higher priorities than exercising, to me. I still work out about 4 times a week, but sometimes life gets in the way.

[Anonymous]

I'm the size of the lady in the article and I don't consider myself thin. Average-to-a-little-heavy actually.

[Anonymous]

All the thin people I know who "eat whatever they want" in actuality don't eat a whole lot (they feel full/done after grazing for a while). So, they are lucky in that they are sated with less than I would be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the thin people I know who "eat whatever they want" in actuality don't eat a whole lot (they feel full/done after grazing for a while). So, they are lucky in that they are sated with less than I would be.

I think this is just as big a part of it as genetics. I am very small (5'1, 93 pounds) and I pretty consistently stay at that weight. Part of this is due to genetics- the women in my family are just not big. Some days I eat more than others, but I can't imagine eating as much food as the woman profiled in the article reads. That was a LOT of food in one day! I don't starve myself either, but I just would not need as much food as she does to feel sated. I have an acquaintance who struggles mightily with her weight. I imagine part of it is genetics, but I do know she cannot get "a bagel." If she goes to a bagel shop for a treat, she gets three bagels and will eat them all by lunch. That is what makes her feel satisfied. I can't even imagine eating three bagels back to back, especially huge bakery bagels. So maybe there really is something to "thin people can eat whatever they want'- maybe some thin people DO eat whatever they want, it just so happens they want a lot less than others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the thin people I know who "eat whatever they want" in actuality don't eat a whole lot (they feel full/done after grazing for a while). So, they are lucky in that they are sated with less than I would be.

This is what I think people miss. That and I would think that some of these "naturally thin" people are better at not letting themselves get heavy in the first place - not watching the scale, but if their pants feel a little tight, they cut back for the week without really thinking about it. They're probably also not sedentary. Maybe they don't exercise daily in the gym, but they probably do lots of walking and moving around within the course of their days.

I would probably be called "naturally thin" - I'm tall and size 2/4 (not teeny, but slender) - and if people watched me eat, they'd probably say I eat whatever I want. I eat every couple of hours, I eat chocolate after every meal, if I want a big meal, I eat it. I think the difference is that "whatever I want" is pretty much all healthy, unprocessed foods. I'm vegetarian, I do lots of cooking, I rarely eat processed, packaged stuff, I never eat anything with fake sugar/preservatives, I never drink soda or other fake drinks. I eat frequently, but rarely do I eat a lot.

So one person's "wow she gets to eat whatever she wants and stays thin!" - well maybe to them that means huge amounts of unhealthy foods. I doubt there are more than a handful of adult women who could truly eat tons of unhealthy food and stay thin. I can't help but think all this focus on blaming obesity on genetics isn't more frequently a huge cop-out (notice I said frequently, not always). There, I said it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the thin people I know who "eat whatever they want" in actuality don't eat a whole lot (they feel full/done after grazing for a while). So, they are lucky in that they are sated with less than I would be.

What are you eating though? And I apologize for making assumptions - so just ignore me if you already do this. I used to be one of these people who could just eat and eat and eat and not feel "done." Years ago I stopped eating processed foods and started eating real, high-quality foods instead. Amazingly, it made all the difference in the world. Stop eating anything "diet" or "light" or "fat-free". Eat only things that are truly delicious. It worked for me - I now stop when I'm full and eat when I'm hungry and my body actually gives me those signals, where it never did before.

[Anonymous]

"at 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds, she looks quite trim."

Huh? No she doesn't - she looks like she could lose 15-20 pounds.

[Anonymous]

And she was active as a young woman. I know naturally thin people, and they really don't eat much and are more active than they think they are.

I am small -5'1, 118 pounds. I watch what I eat and exercise daily. At work potlucks, people will comment if I don't eat some of the fattening stuff saying that as much as I exercise I can eat all that I want. Not true - to stay at my weight, I have to both control intake and ensure daily activity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think people KNOW that genetics play a role, but our society also lends itself to people becoming excessively obese even for their genetic profile.

I'm inbetween. If I don't watch it then I can easily shoot up to 200lbs. I keep my weight around 145 by eating in moderation and exercising daily. I can't tell you how many people are flabberghasted that I exercise daily. They are stunned asking "How do you do that?" Are you serious?? How do you NOT exercise and look in the mirror each day at flab drooping off your body and not get off your butt and do something about it?

I'll tell you how. I work 50+ hours a week plus and I'm raising children. Working and raising children are higher priorities than exercising, to me. I still work out about 4 times a week, but sometimes life gets in the way.

OMG this. I used to exercise every single day, but with a more-than-full-time job and a 1-year-old, I can't guarantee that I will every day. The best laid plans and all that.

That said, I'm only about 10 lbs over my normal weight, so I guess it's a matter of degree -- if I were much heavier, I might force the issue more.

[Anonymous]

I would probably be called "naturally thin" - I'm tall and size 2/4 (not teeny, but slender) - and if people watched me eat, they'd probably say I eat whatever I want. I eat every couple of hours, I eat chocolate after every meal, if I want a big meal, I eat it. I think the difference is that "whatever I want" is pretty much all healthy, unprocessed foods. I'm vegetarian, I do lots of cooking, I rarely eat processed, packaged stuff, I never eat anything with fake sugar/preservatives, I never drink soda or other fake drinks. I eat frequently, but rarely do I eat a lot.

I eat -exactly- as you do, minus chocolate. I exercise several days a week, although with admittedly varying intensity. I don't drink. I sleep 8 hrs a day.

I am a size 14 at 5' 4".

What do you say about me and the many people like me?

Right, and that brings us back to the point of the article and the research finally being undertaken by NIH and others: people are engineered differently.

[Anonymous]

I have no doubt that there is a genetic predisposition towards obesity. However, there is no way that genetics alone could play a major role in maintaining a healthy weight. It's simple math. If you take in more calories than your body needs, you'll get fat. There is no magic solution. However, if you are overweight and serious about getting in shape, I would highly recommend looking at one of the Beach Body programs. The insanity workout will take weight off very quickly.

[Anonymous]

Am I reading the article correctly that these are all studies that are in progress and other than having found that thin people have more brown fat than fat people, that nothing has actually been determined? So what if it's part genetics and part what people eat and not just how many calories, how much exercise they get (both currently and in everyone's past too) that determines how much brown fat you have currently or how much your body can metabolize. Does this article really conclude anything at this point?

And the woman they characterize as naturally thin is probably 15 pounds overweight. She's at the high end of the normal range for BMI and she certainly doesn't look fit. But her menu doesn't seem awful awful. She certainly could be healthier, but it sounds like she eats mostly whole foods, eats fruits/veggies, doesn't drink soda. If she cut out a sausage or two, went down to a 6-inch sub, and left it at one pork chop, she'd probably lose 10 pounds and have a fairly healthy diet. I'm not seeing this as a naturally thin woman who can eat whatever she wants. Bad article.

Breakfast - two scrambled eggs, two-three polish sausages, an english muffin, orange juice
Lunch - 12-inch seafood sub, doritos
Dinner - two pork chops, potatoes, broccoli OR salad, two servings of spaghetti and meatballs
Dessert - bowl of ice cream

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I would probably be called "naturally thin" - I'm tall and size 2/4 (not teeny, but slender) - and if people watched me eat, they'd probably say I eat whatever I want. I eat every couple of hours, I eat chocolate after every meal, if I want a big meal, I eat it. I think the difference is that "whatever I want" is pretty much all healthy, unprocessed foods. I'm vegetarian, I do lots of cooking, I rarely eat processed, packaged stuff, I never eat anything with fake sugar/preservatives, I never drink soda or other fake drinks. I eat frequently, but rarely do I eat a lot.

I eat -exactly- as you do, minus chocolate. I exercise several days a week, although with admittedly varying intensity. I don't drink. I sleep 8 hrs a day.

I am a size 14 at 5' 4".

What do you say about me and the many people like me?

Right, and that brings us back to the point of the article and the research finally being undertaken by NIH and others: people are engineered differently.

Totally agree that people are built differently (so not everyone is going to be a size 2) and that sometimes there are genetic or hormonal things going on - maybe you're one of those?. I'm the poster you quoted and I didn't mention that I used to be a size 12 in HS/college. I've been a size 2/4 for about 10 years now, but it took me a few years of eating unprocessed foods for my body to settle at a 2/4 for whatever reason. It wasn't genetics for me obviously. How do you tell when it is and when it isn't? Hopefully the research will come up with ways to be a healthy weight for those who do struggle, but like I said, I think people frequently use it as a cop-out, particularly when I see people saying they're genetically heavy and then see what they eat - stuff I would never touch. Especially when they lament how "lucky" I am. Bugs me.

Who knows what the difference is between us - for one, you're 5 inches shorter than me, so likely need many fewer calories just based on that. Were you active when you were a kid/teenager? How's your thyroid? What serving sizes are you eating? How long have you been eating unprocessed foods only? Are you eating frequently enough?