Natural weight

Had a real lovely time at the beach with D yesterday. While there, we hung out at a cafe having a late brunch and reading the Sunday papers and I came across a rather interesting article exploring whether we all have a "natural" weight.

You know how some people just seem to stay skinny no matter how much they eat? And then those who can't seem to diet successfully?

In a recent documentary for BBC2’s Horizon, 10 “naturally slim” volunteers ate almost double their usual kilojoules (14,651 for women, 20,930 for men) for four weeks.

Eight gained weight but two were physically unable to eat that amount of kilojoules, and one of them even lost weight over the month.

Most interestingly, they all reverted to their previous weight within weeks of the trial ending, without dieting.

Dr Susan Roberts, author of The Instinct Diet (Workman), has found similar results.

“I have conducted food trials where we have enlisted ‘naturally skinny’ volunteers to increase their kilojoule intake and they really struggled to overeat at every meal.

Left to their own devices, their instincts were to skip a meal or go light on supper to balance out their intake.”

So your annoyingly “naturally skinny” friend will in fact be unconsciously eating less and regulating her meals.

I'm not sure just how accurate or how true the results are, considering we've all been struggling to find out the secret behind being slim and successful dieting for as long as I can remember, but I have to admit that there is some truth behind this study.

It's interesting that it's no longer about metabolism, but simply about our natural tendency towards something.

Ironical also because I had such a big meal at brunch, I ended up only eating one meal yesterday.