Tips from mindlessly thin people who have never struggled with weight problems

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Study has shown that people who are effortlessly slim eat fruit, dairy, cereal and granola for breakfast. For lunch, more than a third eat salad every day, and for the majority, chicken is their favourite meat and they always include vegetables in their dinner. In fact, almost a tenth were vegetarian and nearly a fifth said they don’t drink alcohol. But despite their healthy habits, almost half said they didn’t diet, and more than one in ten never weigh themselves.
Researchers from the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, wanted to find out what people who are mindlessly thin, and have never struggled with weight problems eat.
The team created an online 'registry' - a questionnaire that asked people who are a healthy size and do not struggle with weight problem about their eating habits. To be eligible the people had to be a healthy weight, have no fluctuations in weight, and have had no weight counselling. They gathered responses for 147 of these people, who had an average Body Mass Index (BMI of 21.7). A healthy BMI is one between 18.5 - 24.9, according to NHS Choices. Their average weight was 9st 8lbs (61kg), their average height 5”6 (168cm) and 72 per cent were female.
They were asked questions such as 'On an average day, what would you have for breakfast?'
The survey found the most common breakfast items consumed by slim people were fruits (51 per cent), dairy (41 per cent) and cold cereal / granola (33 per cent). They also ate bread (32 per cent), eggs (31 per cent), hot cereal (29 per cent), and coffee (26 per cent).
While dieters might be tempted to skip breakfast, it seemed slim people hardly ever missed a meal. Only 4 per cent of people said they didn't eat breakfast.
When it came to snacks fruit (39 per cent) and nuts (20 per cent) came out top.
For soft drinks, many said they never drink them (35 per cent), while a similar amount said they only drink diet soft drinks (33 per cent). Only 10 per cent said they drank Coca-Cola. In terms of exercise, most did physical activity one to three days a week (38 per cent) while only 10 per cent said they didn’t exercise at all.
Lead author Anna-Leena Vuorinen, of VTT Technical Research Centre Of Finland and the University of Tempere, said: 'One important take away from this study is that a very high rate of slim people actually eat breakfast instead of skipping, which is consistent with previous research on the importance of breakfast.
'But what stands out is that they not only ate breakfast, but that they ate healthful foods like fruits and vegetables.
'Also, egg consumption was higher than we expected.'

Source: DailyMail