Naturally slim people to post

Of course, those with fuller figures tend to look younger, its an absolute pig that trying to remain skinny leads to scrawny all to easily.............

That could be why I still look 21 when I am 71

(wishful thinking )

20 years ago I was diagnosed with an underactive thyroid. I now weigh 14 and a half stone and cannot lose any weight, I was 10 stone all my adult life until the age of 50 and my diagnosis. I hate it ... and am now seeing a specialist to get my medication raised, to see if that alters my metabolism. There are many people with this condition, but are unaware of it and it doesn't always show up in blood tests. I suspect many people who can't lose weight may have this problem to a lesser degree maybe.

I think that slim people look younger myself

Now must go and work off that plain yogurt and banana

I'm now 10 lbs lighter because I'm going to Slimming World, other people I know go to Weight Watchers. Being slim requires focus but something you can achieve. I now eat healthy foods, am not hungry and reward myself with new clothes or a manicure when I'm wanting a bit of cossetting!
Good luck and remind yourself it's possible.
M xxx

I have never been skinny but at 5ft 3, I weigh 9st 5lb.

I love food and enjoy sampling different cuisines and foods.

Currently, breakfast is 2 marmite rice cakes spread with quark (a low fat soft cheese and sliced cucumber, fruit juice and coffee. Lunch is our main meal so it will be 3-4oz potatoes or 2ozs rice/pasta/couscous (dry weight) with a meat/fish/other based dish, usually casseroled and cooked with extra veg so that 1lb meat serves 6+ people plus a side dish of vegetables, followed by stewed fruit. Supper; a salad, veg soup, other veg dish, occasionall sausages,or fish cake with grilled tomatoes.

I do not usually eat between meals, but if I feel hungry I eat a piece of cheese. I do not consume much alcohol, mainly because I do not like it

I think portion control and not snacking is the key to weight loss, plus, of course leading an active life. I walk a lot, several miles daily, do pilates, swim and I am on my feet a lot at home; gardening, housework, sewing etc. If I sit down I am often sewing or knitting.

My doctor says losing weight means you have to watch what you put in to your mouth. Exercise tones you and keeps you fit but watching your diet is the most important.

I have been eating the following and have lost a stone in 6 months:

Oranges for breakfast
Small portion of main course
Lots of vegetables
Crackers with thin slice of cheese, tuna,salmon, ham with tomato or cucumber
Fruit salad
Or soup such as tomato or chicken

NO deserts; no biscuits, cakes, cereal, sweets or chocolate allowed

NO fruit juices, instead use water with lime or lemon flavour

Never feel hungry and never tired

Weight is coming off at last!

Also bought a peddle exerciser to use sitting down for arms and legs

Blaming big bones; medication; water retention; blood pressure; feeling hungry; cravings etc is just making excuses.

If you want to lose weight make up your mind that you want to reach a certain weight and stick to your routine until you achieve it.

It can be done. Do not give in to temptation and ditch the alcohol. There is lots of sugar in most spirits and canned drinks so just don't buy them and you will not be tempted. That goes for foods you know you have to avoid too. Don't put them on your shopping list!

I am a size 10 -12 around 9 st 3 and 5 ft 4 .i constantly keep an eye on what I eat to keep the weight down as I once was a size 16 and 11 st plus !i what works for me is fruit for breakfast sometimes nothing and then I have an early lunch of eggs on toast with a yougart or fruit.I then have a normal meal in the evening but always cook healthy using low fat spray .I always try to have plenty of veg and only eat pudding when I eat out.I pig out occasionally ,fish and chips or an Indian takeaway! I walk my dogs for an hour every morning and then 4 days a week I walk another dog for 30 mins.I really think the exercise is key.

For those who just HAVE to snack:

Try slices of apple or pears, or carrots
Buy mixed bags of fruit and nuts they sell in supermarket and only eat about a third of the pack each day
Do not eat crisps or biscuits at all

I don't like crisps and rarely buy biscuits.

Although I only weigh 7st I am only 4ft 11ins, so not very tall.

My normal eating routine would be a bowl of Oatibix Flakes with frozen blueberries, raspberries & cherries at about 7.30am with a cup of tea.

As OH is now retired we usually have a cup of tea around 10am and a plain biscuit, although before he retired I never ate anything between breakfast and lunch.

For lunch I have a yoghurt, banana, about 3 walnut halves and a cup of tea.

Mid afternoon I've always had a cup of tea and a biscuit.

Dinner is around 5.30pm and it varies from day to day as to what we eat. We don't have particularly large portions and I know I eat less the older I have got. I'm not very adventurous with my cooking so it's usually something like spag bol, chilli, swedish meatballs, baked salmon, all with rice or pasta and we usually have egg and chips on a Saturday evening as I do love my chips. We always have a pudding after dinner too, although nothing too fattening.

My main weakness is in the evening when I do crave a bag of crisps or something similar. I do have a very sweet tooth too and love a nice piece of cheesecake or hot pudding with custard!

I know back in my 20's and 30's I was much more sedentary than I am now and apart from housework never did any exercise. Now I have my Fitbit and do 25mins of hula hooping a day, walk the dog and make sure I do my 10,000 steps.

I have lost 10lbs since New Year. I now weigh 9st1lb. Still more than I did up till about 5 years ago. Anyway, I decided to do a low carb diet. So no bread, pasta or Lidl lollies (yummy). Can't seem to get my carbs down but not eating the above seems to work. Breakfast - 30g porridge with blueberries and low fat almond milk. Lunch - salad with pretty much what I like in it, including pine nuts; prawns or ham, avocado (half a small), and the usual basics. Dinner - this week it has been chicken breast with micro-rice or it could be fish. I eat a banana about 10am and if I get peckish I have a Chia & Oat Crispbread. About 5 coffees a day and that's it. I have plenty of stamina as I have just finished unloading 10 x 25kg bags of sand up the garden to lay the new patio slabs on. Which I am also doing myself. So I think I'm a healthy 5ft2in. ?

I keep reasonably slim. Thinner at the moment (7st 3lbs) due to house move and DH's PD accelerating, but generally under 8st. Breakfast is one and a half oat cakes with honey and white tea without milk and sugar. Mid morning black coffee, but with some hot milk added,,a banana and a couple of squares dark chocolate. I rarely eat a sandwich these days, instead have things like ham, hard boiled egg or omelette, olives, tomatoes, cheese, or maybe soup with an oatcake. I try not to eat sweet things In the aft, unless I'm out, but I do sometimes have cake or half a hot cross bun. Evening is run of the mill like meat or fish and veg, pasta or a rice dish. I rarely eat potatoes, but do eat a few chips or a potato waffle. Seldom have puddings. I try to eat a couple of portions of fruit in the evening. With my last cup,of tea, I have half an oatcake and a few dates or nuts. I sound boring, but I'm not too bothered about food really, though have a weakness for chocolate, and over and above what's listed, I do have other treats. When the weight creeps up, I'll have a fasting day. I often think that where weight is concerned, it's what you don't eat/drink that might make the difference ie, I eat little in the way of bread, potatoes, pastry, and rarely drink alcohol. As I can afford to put a little weight on at the moment, I have been indulging myself! My guilty pleasure is Double Raspberry Magnums!

so unfair! I eat about a quarter of what the slim folk eat and am as fat as hell. I have a son who is the same, I think it is genetic, although I don't move much being badly arthritic!

Hello
Well I am overweight and have got to lose weight - doctors orders! So, about 2 months ago I registered with slimming world and have already lost over half a stone which I am very happy with - however I was made redundant just over two weeks ago and I stopped going BUT I have all the books to continue. It is dropping off slow but that is healthy - AND already pain in my knees and lower back has really improved - and since being made redundant I am now making sure I must move more rather than sat most of my day stuck in an office - eating healthier definitely has made me feel better but I got a long way to go yet before I reach my ideal weight- but I must for my health especially at my age too!!!

Forgot to say my eating plan consists mainly of plenty of vegs fruit and protein ...

Do you remember that chunky MP Ann Widdicombe? When she lost a lot of weight a publisher asked if she'd write a diet book. She proposed a big glossy book full of blank pages with just 2 words on the first page: Eat less.

I am five foot three and weigh eight and a half stone. I eat what I think are normal portions and three meals a day, but nothing in between meals except fruit. I have a big glass of red wine on Saturday and Sunday. I gave up dairy about two and a half years ago and lost a stone without even trying. No dairy means no milk, cheese, butter, cream - but also no biscuits, cakes or puddings made with milk, butter or cream and none on veggies, in mash etc. Its made a huge difference with relatively little effort. In tea, coffee and porridge I have soy, almond or substitutes for milk with extra added calcium and eat coconut yoghurt.

A far too skinny, as many will say except my doc,50kg
5.6 never to see 75 again sort of veggie although I have the occasional fish and chip shop meal.
I developed an aversion to meat 30 years ago when with my late DH we bought a property next to farmland. The livestock 'smell' I could never escape and I found cooking a piece of meat let alone eating it turned my stomache.
I eat cakes, biscuits, crisps but can't abide choccies as I find them far far too sweet.
I also have soya milk in preference to any other milk.
I believe its the luck of the draw and am naturally
slim as are my two DD' although I have 'robust 'cousins who are constantly on diets.

And this business of appetite and always being hungry; those of us who went to boarding school in the 1950's will remember being starving for the first 3 weeks of each term: the school portions were so tiny! Then it settled down. But for the first couple of weeks back home in the holidays, we just couldn't finish our meals. Stomachs had shrunk. Back to school again - starving! Stomachs had expanded- as they do- to accommodate the amount of food we put into them.
So that's why 'Eat less' works.
The ancient Buddhists knew this: they said you should never eat more than your two cupped hands can hold, each meal. Because that's the normal size of your stomach.

Interesting to see that Downsized says 7st was not a good look. I am a size 12 and have rummely bits that I really hate. I have a friend who is size 20 and looks about 40 yo when she's 50 yo. I have a SiL who lost weight and was asked by everyone if she'd been ill. I would like to lose the rummles but think it would come off my face first. By the way, I eat yog, fruit and a little granola for breakfast, sandwich or eggs for lunch, fish/chicken/lamb for supper with lots of veg. My down fall is snacking in between ...

5 years ago I was 55kg and loving it. Then I stopped smoking and swapped standing outside shivering and having a cig for lying on the sofa eating chocolate - and not just little bars of chocolate! I used to buy the big ones thinking I'd have a single row of squares and inevitably ended up eating the lot .
So having peaked at 71kg, I'm now following the Food Doctor (who I followed to get down to the 55kg). From him I get that it's about eating little and often - he makes me eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and have snacks mid-morning and mid-afternoon as well, but it's all healthy and loads of veg and few if any carbs for the evening meal.
So once I've shifted the excess weight (only another 7.5kg to go!) then I intend to be careful and limit my treats as many here have said they do. Even now I'm allowing myself a toasted teacake with lashings of butter at the weekends!
Because on my deathbed I don't think I'm likely to be saying "I wish I'd had less chocolate"

I was always slim as a child (DM had me at Doctor's as I was so skinny) & through my teens & early 20s. I put weight on when I was pregnant with DD although I was very active. I never shifted that weight until H walked out on us & I lost 3 stone in 3 months without trying. Throughout my 30s & 40s I weighed about 10 stone to 10 half stone, I'm 5'7" but was never less than size 12/14.

I gained weight in my 50s as I was diagnosed with Epilepsy & a side effect of the medication is weight gain caused my slowing of metabolism. I was still fairly active especially gardening. However as time has passed my Arthritis limits walking & exercising. My weight has risen although I lost a stone last summer as I was doing some heavy gardening but I've put it on during the winter.

I am Diabetic so try to eat healthily, lots of veg, not too much fruit (natural sugars), smaller portions, virtually no alcohol, limited carbs but this has little effect on my weight.

Hello Overthehill

Here's my experience. Most of my adult life I have been tubby - slim legs and arms but fat tummy midriff and boobs. Not any more tho as I have changed what I eat and don't feel deprived. Breakfast is a porridge made with almond milk, lunch rye bread with avocado or egg plus fruit and an Alpro natural yoghurt. Dinner is fish or chicken with sweet poptatoes loads of veg. Or quorn burgers, mince or sausages.
I don't eat puddings, occasionally I eat tea cakes as they are low sugar. Avoid white rice or white pasta. Basically try to wean yourself off sweet things.if I am peckish I eat pop chips ( baked and popped crisps) more fruit, nuts or more yoghurt or milky coffee. . I never drink sweetened drinks but do have full fat cappuccino. Avoid low fat things as they are loaded with sugar.

Good luck - just give it a try!