Naturally slim people to post

I haven't seen anyone mention fruit much. We always eat fruit chopped up after our dinner could this be a mistake perhaps?

Apparently fruit after a meal 'ferments' in the stomach and can cause bloating.

in which case why don't I feel tiddly if I eat a tangerine after dinner?

Rhubarb!

Like many others I was slim until I was 50+ I went on early diets and that kept my weight down.
Then I had a stomach complaint that was so bad I began to loose weight. It just slipped off. I was down to eating warm shredded wheat which seemed to be the only thing I could face. After examinations I learned that I did not have stomach cancer and relaxed.

Since then I leave my weight more or less how it is naturally. But I am not fat but a stone heavier that I was at 25.
I drink a pint of full cream milk a day with cereals(no sugar) or in tea and coffee,then meat or fish or cheese and veg and potaoes and crisp bread. I gave up yeast and I feel better without bread.
All my meals are freshly prepared.

Rhubarb ?

Rhubarb ferments and turns into alcohol or rhubarb helps you to keep slim?

I am off to pick some now, either way sounds good!

I love Rhubarb vodka

I forgot to add to my post earlier, I'm a very restless active person, can't sit and watch TV for more than half an hour at a time. And during the day must be busy doing something, going out , cooking, gardening etc.
Also as someone else said, all cooking is from scratch (except baked beans.)

It would be very easy for me to put on weight especially as I'm only 5ft but I deliberately eat only half a caramac and I too share a cake or scone when out otherwise I would put on weight and I really don't want to.
I don't exercise as I have health problems so the most I can do is small walks and I don't sit down for hours (mainly because I can't !) so I'm aware most days not to overeat and to try to keep moving.
Oh and the other thing is I don't drink alcohol ? because of migraines.

OP, have a look at nutracheck.co.uk.
Input your daily food in the diary section and it will show you how many calories you've eaten in a day. To maintain a healthy weight you only need about 1800 calories (for average height women) so if you're regularly eating 2,200, you will slowly gain a pound every few weeks, and an extra stone or more each year.

Oh! you have to pay for it Craicon

I haven't seen a Caramac for years (and years).

Just off to make a healthy stirfry
Rice or no rice?

Rhubarb! as a derisive response to what I have heard of the rest of the "fruit after other food ferments in the stomach" quote - that you shouldn't eat fruit after a meal because it ferments in the stomach and makes your food go bad and that is very bad for you. (Yes, I know you weren't saying that but I was reminded of it - it is in the same pseudoscientific league as the "You must eat alkaline food". As the stomach is full of strong hydrochloric acid which will more than counterbalance any natural bias in food, you would need to eat stuff alkaline enough to strip the lining of your gut for any of it to survive)

Jalima you can get it for free for a 7 day trial. You don't have to pay upfront.
I was suggested it could be used to help figure out what sensible portion sizes are...
I was kidding myself for ages before I realised I simply ate a bit too much to maintain a healthy weight. My DH is tall and I was eating the same amount on the plate but I'm quite short so I was getting fatter and he was still a slim Jim.

After a bit, you get used to eating a bit less food than previously without feeling hungry.

Thanks Craicon

I had a glass of because I was feeling fed up about it

Empty calories!!

So it's all a load of rhubarb then!

Thank goodness

ps is rhubarb a food

That's one of my problem. Empty (wine filled) calories.

perhaps rhubarb wine would be better??

Breakfast, oats with yoghurt, chopped nuts and raisins. (rasins help to make me 'go' as advised by colorectal doctor ) Cup of coffee.

Lunch none or a slice of toast (home made bread, no salt) with marg and cup of peppermint tea.

Dinner small piece of chicken, carrots, cauliflower and one small boiled potato (no gravy). Handful of grapes and a pear followed by coffee and 4 squares of dark chocolate.

I could eat so much more (sigh). Would love packet of crisps, soup, marmite, anything with loads of salt in.....but can't.

I'm 5'4 and weigh 10 stone. Most of my life I've been around 9/9.5 stones. I take a size 12-14 and because I exercise a lot I look slimmer than I weigh, if you see what I mean.

Breakfast - small bowl of muesli with yoghurt or small bowl of porridge made with half milk/water and one teaspoon of sugar.
Lunch - cheese sandwich or soup or omelette followed by fruit
Supper - things like veggie stir fry, veggie version of meat and two veg subsituting tofu.
NO biscuits in the house now. I'll occasionally buy an apple pie or we'll have yoghurt.

In the last year my metabolism has definitely slowed and now I almost never eat bread, I snack on fruit and if desperate I'll have a flatbread (seedy ones from Sainsbury are lovely) with a couple of teaspoons of nut butter (200 calories!).

A free way of working out what you're eating and how you can change is to use the app My Fitness Pal. It lets you work out your daily calorie total for your weight/height/age and has an enormous database of foods and their calorific content and a daily diary where you fill in your food intake. It will send you little reminders to do this. I only did it for a couple of months but it made me stop and think what I was eating and I've lost half a stone since.

Last thought is that lots of posters are saying they get very hungry. There is a hormone called leptin that tells your body whether you are fat or not and I have read that this varies throughout the day and between people. Here is the first paragraph of the Wikipedia article about it:

Leptin (from Greek λεπτός leptos, "thin"), the "satiety hormone",[a] is a hormone made by adipose cells that helps to regulate energy balance by inhibiting hunger. Leptin is opposed by the actions of the hormone ghrelin, the "hunger hormone". Both hormones act on the hypothalamus to regulate appetite to achieve energy homeostasis. In obesity, a decreased sensitivity to leptin occurs, resulting in an inability to detect satiety despite high energy stores.

So genes and biochemistry certainly play a role in whether we are naturally slim or not. I hate having to watch what I eat but I feel better at a lower weight and my blood pressure is better as are my knees so that has to be the reward for avoiding cake! (Dammit!)

I am naturally slim but I do check my weight night and morning. That way I can check which foods have actually made me put on weight.

I could have a roast dinner or a pie and the weight does not go up. However, if I have bread, particularly a sandwich, it rockets.

By weighing each day I balance out my meals over the week. If I indulge in something fattening I just try to avoid having that same meal within the next three days. Sandwiches are the thing I avoid most.

I don't believe in being hungry or depriving myself of treats, but I do eat healthy meals. When I was younger I could not face breakfast but now I cannot eat in the evenings. I have a very large breakfast at about 10am quite often a fry up. No bread but I do have potato products. This sustains me until about 3pm whenI have lunch. If. On the rare occasions when I want a snack in the evening I go for a high protein no carb. Some cheese, a boiled egg, tinned salmon or some slices of ham. I do have a biscuit when I feel like it or a piece of cake.

I think the not getting too hungry is really important. Otherwise I would obsess about food and laziness would make me choose a quick, high carb option.

Today has been fairly typical so far: two oatcakes and about six dates, two mugs weak coffee with whole milk, just had bacon butty (two streaky rashers, one thick slice homemade bread, plenty butter, marrow chutney), mug of tea.

There's half a small can of baked beans that needs eating up so I might have that for lunch on toast or with the other two rashers of bacon that also need using up.

I usually have something like a flapjack for elevenses and in the afternoon at about four o'clock. Both with more tea.

Last night's dinner was a fillet of baked salmon (minus about a quarter of it that I gave to DH), boiled spuds in their skins a bit squashed on the plate and smeared. with loads of butter, green peas and sweetcorn.

That's standard over a day. I'm 161cm (5'3") all and weigh 52kg (8st,3lb), which is what I weighed when I was fifteen. I put on nearly a stone when I was prescribed steroids for asthma but lost it again, and I lost a bit more than half a stone during a stressful part of my life. Then I had Minibags and although I put on more than the recommended 28lb during that pregnancy, as I had with my other two as well, I weighed 55kg after I'd had her.

I've noticed over the years that most people can eat a lot more at one sitting than I can. A three course meal forced onto me (it'd have to be forced) would be torture. I'm happy with a bowl of hearty soup and a hunk of bread for dinner or small helpings of whatever.

As for exercise, I find hacking rhododendrons and other mega gardening tasks (DH is not a gardener and we have a challenging garden on a steep hill) and even housework keep my muscles well oiled, so to speak. I can walk two or three kilometres without even leaving the garden. It's not that big, the steps add up just toing and froing.

Pic of garden 'twig' ;)

Im 50 5'7" and probably weigh around 9and half stone. I wear size 10 clothes (which I admit have grown in size and are NOT what a size 10 was when I was a girl.) As I have a desk job I have realised that my dietary requirements are almost zero. I dont eat carbs - bread pasta rice biscuits potatoes. Sadly a slice of toast with butter and marmite is now considered an absolute treat. I eat lots and lots of vegetables - broccoli and carrots especially cos they're plentiful and cheap!! and say if serving chilli con carne I will serve the chilli over veg for myself. I am NOT skinny - probably have a bit of body dismorphia and see myself as a hulking lump, big bones, solid child bearing hips that will never give me the skinny hip silhouette that even when I starved myself I could not achieve. Im less brutal on myself now - I will have a slice of pizza or two if Ive been exerting myself in the garden or gym but on a drive to work and sit at desk day I dont need to eat much!

The gentle filling of my tubs and baskets doesn't count then?

although I did do a lot of to-ing and fro-ing and we have steps and a slope
and I did have to carry fresh soil etc
My back hurt so I must have put something into doing it all
Not finished yet either!

probably have a bit of body dismorphia and see myself as a hulking lump
I think I have body dismorphia and see myself as a slender size 10 until I catch sight in a mirror

I blame my medication.

As others have said I find it really important to NOT GET HUNGRY - if that happens I am so much more likely to reach for the biscuits. My best advice is to keep loads of healthy salad and veg handy and to eat until you are completely full - it was pointed out to me that you cant put on fat from carrots and broccoli, so if i fancy eating a whole head of broccoli and 4 large carrots I do. Better that than half a French stick, a packet of brie and 4 chocolate digestives.