Anonymous wrote:Genetics.

Pre-kids I was 115 at 5'6", now I am 125 with hips, but still the skinniest mom in the hood, although I am developing a belly.

In general I eat less than other women, not b/c of a diet but just b/c I don't have a big appetite. For ex., I could never finish a whole piece of pie or cake or side of fries -- the thought makes me nauseous.

I exercise irregularly -- a few times a week walk/run a few miles.

Wow, I could still put away 4 slices of pizza, no sweat. Always had a big appetite.

Anonymous wrote:Nothing with added sugar, no sweets, low carb and only whole grains, no soda or juice. Little to no wine. Eat a good breakfast with protein/fat. Snack on almonds/walnuts or hummus. Small/sensible lunch and dinner. Eat nothing after dinner. Go to bed early if you are starving.

Do you actually enjoy eating like that?

Anonymous wrote:OP, have you ever read Judith Beck's books? Her approach to weight loss is based on cognitive therapy. I've just finished her first book and in it she explains how most thin people think about food differently than overweight people. The responses from the skinny moms on this thread reinforce what Beck says in her book. They don't think about food very often. They're disgusted by large portions. They dislike feeling full. They eat for fuel not pleasure. Hunger is not an emergency to them...they can withstand the discomfort and wait until the next meal to eat.

So what seems simple/natural to these thin moms requires much more effort from us fat moms.

You're right, I'm an overweight mom and I love feeling full, definitely eat for pleasure not fuel. But I'm not interested in relegating eating to a biological function - how sad.

Anonymous wrote:I"m a skinny Mom of 2:
Here's what i eat on a typical day:
6:30 am - Piece of fruit
8:30 - handful of peanutbutter and crackers on way to drop kids off to school
9:00 - bagel with butter and coffee
10:30 - greek yogurt
11:30 - piece of fruit
12:30 - turkey sandwich with chips
2:00 - piece of fruit
5:00 - couple of twizzlers on my way to pick up kids
6:00 - dinner - chicken, rice, veggies, glass of wine
7:00 - couple of cookie
8:30 - chips with dip, glass of wine

Wow. You obviously don't work. No way do I have time to be constantly eating like that.

Anonymous wrote:OP, have you ever read Judith Beck's books? Her approach to weight loss is based on cognitive therapy. I've just finished her first book and in it she explains how most thin people think about food differently than overweight people. The responses from the skinny moms on this thread reinforce what Beck says in her book. They don't think about food very often. They're disgusted by large portions. They dislike feeling full. They eat for fuel not pleasure. Hunger is not an emergency to them...they can withstand the discomfort and wait until the next meal to eat.

So what seems simple/natural to these thin moms requires much more effort from us fat moms.

Hmmm, thin Asian mom here. This does not describe me or any thin Asian moms I know. Maybe it's cultural, but we love love good food, think about it all the time, and enjoy feeling full (but not overly so). I think it's important to associate food with friends and family, not eat alone, and to take the time to cook at home.

I'm 5'9" and 120 lbs, at age 47. I've always been thin (genetics) but was parked at 135-140 for about the past ten years (basically, post kids). Got the weight back off basically by cutting way back on wheat-based carbs. Breakfast is nuts and dried fruit and a glass of milk, rather than a muffin or bagel. Lunch is greens & tzatziki, or tomatoes and cheese, or maybe some leftovers from dinner the night before. But not a sandwich. Snack is fruit, popcorn, sometimes a modest portion of potato chips. Dinner is a protein, salad or veg, and potatoes or rice, but almost never bread or pasta. Oh, and a glass of wine most nights. I really don't crave the bread, cookies or cake anymore; it's become a habit NOT to eat those things. But those few changes were enough to make the difference. I know I'm lucky.

Anonymous wrote:OP, have you ever read Judith Beck's books? Her approach to weight loss is based on cognitive therapy. I've just finished her first book and in it she explains how most thin people think about food differently than overweight people. The responses from the skinny moms on this thread reinforce what Beck says in her book. They don't think about food very often. They're disgusted by large portions. They dislike feeling full. They eat for fuel not pleasure. Hunger is not an emergency to them...they can withstand the discomfort and wait until the next meal to eat.

So what seems simple/natural to these thin moms requires much more effort from us fat moms.

I've always been thin - was underweight till I was 30. (5' 7.5", less than 125lbs - as low as 115 when I was in grad school)

Now I am 42 and weight 145 - definitely have the mom belly but the rest of me is still pretty thin.

The Beck book does not sound like me at all. I think about food all the time. I definitely eat for pleasure. I hate being hungry. I love feeling full.

I struggle a lot to keep my weight down now. 2 kids - ages 6 and 3. I try to exercise 3x week - two zumba classes & a muscle conditioning class. I use My Fitness Pal app to track calories. If I stay under 1300/day (I do eat more on days that I exercise) then I can lose about 1 lb/week. But I find it extremely difficult to do that, given my stressful job.

Recently I tried cutting more carbs and had more success w/weight loss. I'm about to start up again and the general plan is:

breakfast: small, nonfat mocha; oatmeal w/cranberries or a cheese stick & serving of fruit
lunch: salad w/spinach, chicken, feta cheese, cranberries, cucumbers, balsamic vinaigrette; 90 calorie Coke (HATE diet coke and I need the midday caffeine)
snack: 70 cal yogurt
dinner: depends... often a small serving of pasta; large serving of vegetables. I'm trying to do more protein so rotisserie chicken or salmon.

My normal inclination is more like 2000 calories/day and lots of carbs & sweets...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:genetics. I eat a ton and I don't gain weight. I'm 38.

I do have thin, bad hair that I hate.

I have a question for the women who say it's genetics, and thst they eat a lot but don't gain weight. For you, what is a typical day's food? I am thinking that your definition of "a lot" is different from mine. For example, i can easily eat an entire pint of froyo or ice-cream in one sitting.

that's a binge

Anonymous wrote:Genetics and exercise (moderate - about 1 hour of walking a day, plus martial arts a few days a week).

LOL, I think I'd kill myself if I had to limit myself to what most of you skinny moms eat. I consume about 2500 calories a day. Today was:

Breakfast:
English muffin with butter and PB

Coffee with whole milk and sugar as a "snack"

Lunch:
Two pieces of homemade quiche and a big arugula salad with plenty of homemade vinagrette

Snack: guacamole (I dunno, like 2 tablespoons?) with tortilla chips and some cheese and tomato slices

Dinner: like a 1/3 lb of pasta, for real. With four cheese sauce. And a glass of wine.

Dessert: sugar cookie from Wegmans (yum)

I also momivored a lot of my kid's snack leftovers today.

Never had a problem with my weight, I'm 5'4" and about 120. I build muscle really easily (runs in the family) so I look really toned despite not doing a lot of resistance exercise. I gained like 50 lbs when I was pregnant (I think my metabolism was completely different then), but no issues losing it.

I could be younger than some? I'm only 33. I have a feeling it'll be harder when I get to the 40s.

YEs it will be....and eating a 1/3 lb of pasta before bed will chunk you up like a sumo wrestler!

Anonymous wrote:"The PP who's starving isn't living. What a nightmare."

But she looks good. Sometimes, it's worth it for some people.

I never got more compliments in my ENTIRE LIFE than when I was about 29 yrs old, had just had a horribly painful breakup with longterm live-in BF, and threw myself into exercising and hardly eating. I was about 110 lbs at 5'2" and i was miserable and starving. But i had strangers stopping me on the street to compliment me on my body.

Now, i've had two kids, weigh close to 145 and am seriously overweight. I'm striving to get back down to around 115, 120. I may have been miserable then, but at least i looked good. Now, i am miserable because i am fat.

I'm the one who sad that...paraphrasing Kathy Griffin. I wasn't really serious. My point was that I don't eat much. Ever. I watch what I eat, always. There is no magic to being slim, but there is a lot of willpower to it.

I think it's genetics and age for me .. still relatively young at 32. I just had #3 and wasn't sure how my body would bounce back. The baby is 10 weeks old and I feel back to to my old body, except a little flabbier in the stomach. I'm currently 5'4" and around 105. If I tone my stomach I will be happy with my body. I suppose breastfeeding is also helping.

What I ate toady:
Breakfast:
pineapple, banana smoothie made in blender
egg + ham scramble
half a ham sandwich while making my son's lunch
some apple slices

Lunch:
half a package of fresh tofu
about a cup of cooked rice
some bell pepper slices
a slice of chocolate cake
four pieces of chocolate from a box of chocolates i got as a gift over the weekend

Dinner:
I just prepped a pan of baked ziti loaded with cheese. I'll probably have a good helping of that and then maybe a few more snacks.

I drink a lot of water and am relatively active as I chase two young boys and a newborn. No regular exercise routine right now.. I'll probably wait a few more months til the baby gets older and I figure out the best time to exercise. I don't have any health problems... my cholesterol tests always come back high in good cholesterol and low in bad cholesterol. So far I seem to take after my dad who is 60 and in great health with no potbelly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:genetics. I eat a ton and I don't gain weight. I'm 38.

I do have thin, bad hair that I hate.

I have a question for the women who say it's genetics, and thst they eat a lot but don't gain weight. For you, what is a typical day's food? I am thinking that your definition of "a lot" is different from mine. For example, i can easily eat an entire pint of froyo or ice-cream in one sitting.

That is it exactly. A pint of ice cream is 4-5 servings for me. I still think I eat "a lot", but my definition may be quite different than the next person.

I am 21:15 - I have to say that "recalibrating" in terms of what I think of as normal portion sizes has been one of the most important things I have done. I used to eat really large servings of baked goods, for example, and now I just don't. Once in awhile, I used to eat a full cupcake from crumbs - not often, maybe once a month. Now, it seems insane to eat that much in one sitting. And other smaller changes - 3 slices of pizza used to be my normal, now it's 2. It just takes awhile to make it a habit, but after a few months of being diligent it kicks in.

It seems insane to eat an entire cupcake once a month?

Haha - well, a crumbs cupcake is like the size of three red velvet cupcakes. That's a lot for one sitting.

OP, have you ever read Judith Beck's books? Her approach to weight loss is based on cognitive therapy. I've just finished her first book and in it she explains how most thin people think about food differently than overweight people. The responses from the skinny moms on this thread reinforce what Beck says in her book. They don't think about food very often. They're disgusted by large portions. They dislike feeling full. They eat for fuel not pleasure. Hunger is not an emergency to them...they can withstand the discomfort and wait until the next meal to eat.

So what seems simple/natural to these thin moms requires much more effort from us fat moms.

I"m a skinny Mom of 2:
Here's what i eat on a typical day:
6:30 am - Piece of fruit
8:30 - handful of peanutbutter and crackers on way to drop kids off to school
9:00 - bagel with butter and coffee
10:30 - greek yogurt
11:30 - piece of fruit
12:30 - turkey sandwich with chips
2:00 - piece of fruit
5:00 - couple of twizzlers on my way to pick up kids
6:00 - dinner - chicken, rice, veggies, glass of wine
7:00 - couple of cookie
8:30 - chips with dip, glass of wine

I hear the PPs about the stomach. I am 5'9 and 115 pounds. I know that most people would call me skinny (and I am, I acknowledge that). But my belly is pure flab! And after two pregnancies, I have some pretty hefty love handles. And that all looks WEIRD on such a thin frame. So while I wear a size 2 and pretty much eat whatever I want, I do NOT look good in a bathing suit, or tight fitting shirts.