(THE SECRET TO THE NATURALLY THIN AND TIPS ON HOW TO GAIN WEIGHT FOR THOSE HARD GAINERS)
Maybe you have one of those friends who remains rail thin regardless of what they eat, or a friend who merely looks at a bag of chips and gains 10lbs.
It's not magic, you just aren't seeing every aspect of these people's lives that are influencing their weight. We are a terrible judge of how much food we are really consuming and tend to confuse volume of food with total calories. And unless you are tracking your intake and weighing it to the gram your conclusions are merely theories.
If someone is overweight more often than not they are under active and overeating and if someone is thin they are better at regulating their appetite and getting daily activity.
Over or under eating behaviors aren't something we are born with, they are learned—they are built from childhood experiences, our outlook and worldview, social messages, and familiar habits.
Some of us grow up learning food is a reward or a way to relieve stress, others don't.
Yes there are going to be some physiological differences between who we view as naturally thin versus naturally heavier ones. However it doesn't come down to just genetics or metabolism.
Naturally leaner people think and act differently too.
These people find it genuinely hard to overeat, so yes their physiological makeup plays a large part as to why they are naturally thin, but equally important is their outlook and behaviors towards food.
THEY DON’T EAT THEIR EMOTIONS
Naturally thin people view food as fuel. Some enjoy it more than others but they do not use it to deal with stress, as a security blanket, as a reward and it does not hold any deep significance to them. It is something to help them get through their day, fuel their workouts and end their hunger. But it's very rarely something they crave.
The downside to this of course is that they don't put too much thought into the nutritional value of their food either. Being thin isn't synonymous with health. Being thoughtless with regards to your food choices , whether you are over or under weight might cause poor health due to nutritional deficiencies.
Some people describe being hungry all the time. Or even suffer regularly from cravings best described as "head" hunger. (psychological want for food that is related to creating a desired change in state, i.e. stress relief, emotional escape.) They have a difficult time distinguishing the difference between hunger for survival and hunger for desire. They are also more likely to give in without a second thought and over indulge.
If on the off chance a naturally skinny person does develop a craving he feels less urgency to indulge. Sometimes following through and other times not. And if he does there is no pressure to have large amounts.
THEY FORGET TO EAT
Eating can also feel like a hassle as opposed to a celebration. Unless they are truly hungry, eating is an inconvenience. They find themselves waiting until their stomachs strongly remind them they are starving, or rely heavily on scheduled meal times otherwise they may forget to eat all together.
THEY STOP WHEN THEY ARE SATISFIED NOT FULL
They do not feel the same urgency others might to clean their plates.
Maybe you were told as a child to clean yours, or that in Africa kids are starving, causing you to develop an unconscious habit to lick yours clean at every meal.
Some people will devour whatever portion size is laid out in front of them, letting restaurants, packages or family members determine the amount of food they end up consuming. Many of us have become deeply out of tune with our bodies' fullness signals. Whereas naturally skinny people are acutely in tune with theirs. They actually dislike the feeling of being over full, classifying it as being painful and distracting and will stop effortlessly at 40% to 60% full regardless of the food they are eating.
They are also ok with having meals that aren't over the top gourmet flavored events. It's ok for a meal to not be exciting. Food is not the highlight of their day.
NEAT
NEAT stands for NON EXERCISE ACTIVITY THERMOGENESIS. These are all of the movements you do during the day that aren't planned activities that require energy (calories), such as walking up the stairs, cleaning your house, fidgeting, getting up and pacing, going for a walk.
Naturally thin people have a tendency to move a lot, they literally have ants in their pants, it's hard for them to be sitting for long periods of time.
They also like exercise, so beyond moving at any chance they get they normally partake in planned activity as well.
If you are a gym goer but also sedentary the rest of the day, your activity level is still going to be considered low. This is why it's really hard to outrun a bad diet, when you sit all day you really don't need very many calories to maintain your body weight.
CAN THEY GAIN WEIGHT?
It is possible for everyone to gain weight unless they have an underlying medical condition.
The law of thermodynamics states that energy is neither created nor destroyed but merely transferred. So if you start eating more calories than you burn on a regular basis you will start to pack on the pounds.
You may even be one of those guys at the gym who feels like no matter how hard he tries he can't put on mass. It's hard to overeat when it goes against your natural inclinations to do so, to learn eating patterns that go against your “normal” desires and habits.
You have to become aware of your eating habits and then alter them accordingly. The same goes for weight loss. In the end you are forming new habits. New habits take repetitions to master and conscious thought and planning. They can be very difficult to change after 20 or 30 years of blindly going with the flow of what your environment created for you.
Not all is lost, just like those trying to lose fat, trying to gain weight done properly takes time and should be tackled one step at a time. Before embarking on some crazy over the top diet you'll be unlikely to follow for more than a few months, I would highly recommend following these steps.
1. Ask yourself is this a short term goal or a long term one. Results will only last the amount of time you can maintain your new behaviors. If you want the results to last forever, follow the path that will lead you there.
2. Become conscious of your current eating and exercise habits by tracking them, categorize the ones that serve you versus the ones that don't.
3. Master the fundamentals of good nutrition. If you want to be able to manipulate your overall body compositions for longterm it's imperative that you do so. The fundamentals include, understanding energy intake, macronutrients, micronutrients and hydration. (Get help so that someone can lead you down a clear path.)
4. Set up a system baby step by baby step of new habits that serve your goals. For someone trying to gain weight this could be as simple as going to the grocery store and having the correct foods available to them at all times, setting an eating schedule, and working on eating past when they feel comfortably full. (A lot of us have goals we want to achieve but when faced with what makes us feel good in the moment, and abstaining for the long term reward, the latter usually wins out. Make it as easy as possible)
If you are trying to gain muscle mass understand that a little fat gain is normal for a period of time. You can then decide to lean out again afterwards. So not doing cardio and moving as little as possible in order to speed up the process is recommended. Everyone will have a different starting point.
If you exercise regularly and are interested in losing fat or gaining muscle click on the link below and let's chat.
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