how many of you are able to eat whatever you want and maintain your physique...

[BlahBlahYouToo]

by working out and being blessed with good genetics?

I eat a ton of unhealthy food (beer, pizza, burgers, chips, etc. but no soda, fries), sometimes in large portions but I hardly put on any unwanted weight.
I work out like a maniac the rest of that week and it all balances out.

 

[polarmystery]

I have to force myself to eat so by default I stay thin. When I get bored and am aware that I'm hungry, I satisfy my boredom before hunger. It's been like that for years.

 

[Murloc]

I eat a lot and I don't put on any wanted or unwanted weight.

 

[Riverhound777]

I pretty much eat whatever I want. If I do it for a prolonged period and don't workout, i'll gain weight. But if I workout a few times a week like I usually do, and eat within reason say 3-4 days a week, I can get away with it.

My usual diet consist of protein bars, oatmeal, cheese-its, cheese and crackers in the morning and while at work.
For lunch maybe a sandwich I make, homemade burritos, homemade pizza, pasta, fast food.
For dinner usually homemade pizza, pasta, stir fry, random other things that aren't all that healthy.

I hover between 155-160lbs and am 6'1.

 

[highland145]

I'm doing 6 days of cardio and still have to be careful. Missed 3 weeks with a sprained ankle,gained 5 lbs that I still haven't gotten rid of 2 months later. 6'1" 200, 47 years old.

TBH, it's the beer I drink.

 

[blackdogdeek]

i must watch what i eat but i have cheat meals every couple of weeks where i eat whatever i want including pizza, fast food and big ice cream desserts. for the rest of the time i eat paleo and do crossfit 5-6 days a week.

41 m/5'6"/165#

 

[Deeko]

I eat what I want in the quantities I want. Luckily, this quantity is not enough to make me fat.

 

[Pantlegz]

depends. I can maintain a decent normal weight(250ish) and eat pretty much whatever. To lose weight I have to diet very strictly.

 

[Powermoloch]

I've eating anything I want now, of course in sensible amounts + activity

 

[Woosta]

I can eat a ton and not work out at all and not gain any weight ( been like that for YEARS @ 6'2 140-155 lbs ) but I got sick of that and I'm bulking up so I'm forcing myself to eat 200g of protein per day, stuff myself with meat and protein shakes..

Early this year ( Jan ) I was 6'2 155ish.. I'm 170 now, going for 190.

 

[Whisper]

This is a somewhat loaded question for me--I've been a healthy eater for the past 11-12 years, so what I want to eat at this point would generally be things like salads, lean meats, fruits and vegetables, etc. I do still splurge (e.g., hot wings, "chinese") when I have the urge, and I don't monitor myself during said splurges, but I'm still able to maintain my weight.

However, I'm too attached to my abs to screw around on my usual diet more than I currently do. I have a feeling that if I went buck wild, given how much (lean food) I'm currently used to eating at each meal, I'd definitely gain weight if that food were replaced by things like pizza and hamburgers.
(5'10"-ish, 175-180#)

 

[datalink7]

I work out 2 hours a day 5-6 days a week but if I don't keep a strict diet I blow up.

I'm 5'9". I weighed 179 about 2 months ago but then started eating whatever I wanted. I still worked out just as hard. I weighed myself last weekend and was at 190 . Started back on my better eating habits on Monday.

 

[Alone]

I can get by eating lots of fast food and not working out and still look the same. If I worked out at the same time I think I'd be alright.

 

[nanaki333]

i have to eat 6 times a day to maintain weight and actually still build muscle. i also have to workout 6-10 times a week to make sure i burn off all of those extra calories. on weeks i know i'm going to be taking it easy though, i probably consume about 2800 calories a day. i'm 6'3 255lbs

 

[NAC]

Age is important. Before I was about 25, I could eat as much as I want and never gain a pound. Frustrating actually, for when I wanted to build muscle.

From 25 to maybe 30 my metabolism slowed down, and then leveled off at a lower level. My fat percentage is higher than it was prior to 25, and not easy to reduce. I'm still skinny compared to most folks 5'10", 160. But if I didn't exercise enough or ate too much, I'm pretty sure I'd slowly gain fat.

 

[wantedSpidy]

People who were very active from a very young age, are most likely to be able to eat anything and their bodies just handle the extra calories no problem. Their bodies have been trained to take in a lot of food, and expend a lot of energy everyday. Their bodies don't need to retain any energy as fat because they know the next meal is always there when the body needs it. Its all about your body calibrating to your input/output.

Your body continuously keeps re-evaluating your needs. So generally as ppl age the body notices that the input/output of calories isn't as high as it used to be, so it starts to conserve more energy by using fat deposits.

I've experimented with my body over the course of 4-5 years, and at least thats the conclusion I've come to.

And yes, I did take my experiment to the extremes .... (~70lbs fluctuations)

 

[apac]

I am very skinny. My metabolism does not let me put on much fat at all. If I'm not working out, my appetite slows down and I eat smaller meals. What I eat seems to make no difference - I can eat tons of sweets and junk foods but it has no noticeable affect on my weight. My assumption is anything extra goes out the other end cause my body does not store fat.

I also have very dramatic energy loss if I don't eat. If I'm hungry and I don't eat, I start to get very hungry, then adrenaline kicks in and I'm good for a little while longer, and then I go off the deep end and primary goal #1 is food. You don't want to be around me when I get that far, so I just tend to constantly eat .

My maintenance weight when I am not working out is about 140 lbs, at 6'2" and 25 years old. Call it what you will but I find it very difficult to put on weight. I almost never gain weight in fat, and I need to eat A LOT to maintain muscle mass. If I'm getting lots of exercise, and especially if I'm lifting, I'll put on about 10 lbs of muscle. The most I've ever weighed is 155.

I'm sure I could put on more muscle weight if I tried hard enough. But I think that would entail 1) quitting the aerobic sports I like (skiing, cycling, martial arts, tennis) and 2) eating enough that it would be a chore. When I was 155 I was lifting 3x a week and eating 3,300 calories per day, including as much protein as I could handle. Yes I was counting accurately, and did so for about a month. I would use those massive calorie/protein shakes whenever I could. The problem is eating when you're not hungry just plain sucks - you do it if you have to, but I'd put it in the 'con' category.

For now I have just decided to be skinny, healthy and fit .

 

[SWScorch]

That's me. I actually gained weight when I started running. I was completely sedentary before and weighed about 120 pounds. Granted, I also grew a few inches in the first few years I started running, but even if I don't do any physical activities at all and eat whatever I want, I can't seem to get over 145. And I eat a lot, too, not just when I'm training hard. I'm sure it will catch up to me some day!

 

[spamsk8r]

Before I started working out consistently my weight was constantly creeping up, but now that I'm in the gym 4-5 days a week doing Crossfit or Olympic weightlifting I have a lot more leeway in terms of what I can eat to maintain weight. Losing weight, on the other hand, requires meticulous tweaking of my diet, and a strict adherence to < 2500 calories/day. My normal appetite puts me around 3500-4000 calories/day, and I'll pretty much maintain at that level for a while, maybe slowly gain a pound every few months, but I never let myself stay at that caloric intake because I'm always trying to lean out some more. Having a lot of lean body mass (i.e. muscle) helps out a lot in this department, as do all the heavy lifting and intense metcons I do.

M/27/208#/16&#37;BF