10 Healthy Habits of the ‘Naturally’ Thin

We all know the type: the slender colleague who’s never known a love handle, the childhood friend who’s still rocking her high school pants size, the fit neighbor who just doesn’t get your weight-control struggles. While genes, income, health conditions and a host of other factors help dictate who joins the ranks of the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese, even for part of their lives, the folks who don’t slide into those categories share some common healthy habits that anyone can steal. U.S. News asked them – and the researchers who study them – their secrets. Here’s what they said:

1. They don’t diet.

At Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, researchers compared people who stay “mindlessly slim” to those who’ve also maintained healthy weights, but more rigidly. (Notably, the vast majority of the lifetime-healthy-weighters were of the mindless variety.) One of the biggest differences? The folks for whom slimness comes easy don’t diet. “Oftentimes, people associate thinness with strict diet,” says lead researcher Anna-Leena Vuorinen, a research scientist at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and former visiting scholar at the Food and Brand Lab. “However, highly restrictive behaviors are neither effective nor sustained long-term.” They’re also linked to food cravings, binge eating and some eating disorder symptoms – not successful weight loss, she adds.

2. They eat real food.

For meals, Dixon sticks to lean meats such as chicken, turkey and fish. For snacks, it’s usually whole foods such as strawberries or nuts. “I ensure I have a good balance of all the major food groups,” she says. Mindlessly slim folks in the Food and Brand Lab’s registry also seem to value real food: Fifteen percent reported eating high-quality, unprocessed foods as a top strategy to control weight, whileonly 3 percent of stricter dieters did. “Eat as many fresh fruits and vegetables as you can throughout the day,” advises Melissa Buches, a naturopathic physician in Seattle who weighs the same now at age 47 as she did at 17.

3. They cook.

Home-cooking proved to be another big difference between the mindlessly slim and the rigidly so: Nineteen percent of the former reported using this strategy as a top way to control weight, while none of the latter did. Indeed, other research out of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has found that people who cook at home six or seven nights a week eat healthier and consume fewer calories than those less acquainted with their kitchens.

4. They dine out in good conscience.

Even when home chefs leave their kitchens to eat out, they consume fewer calories and avoid fast food more than frequent out-of-the-house diners, the Johns Hopkins study found. For Chris Tucker, a 54-year-old in the District of Columbia whose weight has stayed within a 10-pound range for more than 20 years, that means choosing the second-most healthy menu item. “That way,” he says, “you don’t feel deprived but you can feel great about avoiding high-calorie foods.”

Click here to learn more:

The Arena District Athletic Club is more than just a gym, it’s a premier fitness facility located in the heart of the Arena District in downtown Columbus. We provide convenience and quality, featuring top-of-the-line equipment, top-notch personal trainers, spa-like locker rooms and a wide variety of free group fitness classes daily including Cardio, Spinning, Barre Fusion, Yoga, Boot Camp and more. We offer free 2-hour parking and convenient contract-free memberships, to fit your healthy lifestyle needs. Don’t just join, belong