i have always maintained a slightly underweight body, well into my 30s, despite limited exercise and unrestricted eating.
i personally know many people who struggle immensely, despite eating far less than me.
for me, it takes exactly 0 effort to remain thin. zero. i literally don't even think about it. other people count every single calorie they eat, exercise religiously, take weight loss medication, and still have trouble managing their weight.
but hunger is a primal thing - some people are far hungrier far more often than other people, for many reasons - and yes, it takes energy to resist hunger.
money and free time aren't required, no, but it definitely helps your odds.
> i have always maintained a slightly underweight body, well into my 30s, despite limited exercise and unrestricted eating
I'm the same, but not because my bodies special. I can very easily gain weight and actually have really bad self control around food.. especially snacks
I pretty recently moved to the US and it infuriates me that so many stores only have 200g+ family-size packs of chips/crisps/whatever you call them.. I want them, but not a huge pack, so I just don't buy them. I know if I keep them at home I'll eat the whole bag in a day
I eat mostly nutritionally dense, unprocessed food because even though I hate cooking I found ways to bulk cook tasty meals and keep them in the fridge/freezer for when I'm lazy and would otherwise order shit
I have breakfast at 1-2pm.. which makes it really hard to overeat in such a short time window before bed. Not for any specific reason I just have coffee before then and it blunts my hunger
I don't think about it either.. but so many of my habits I've built up, if I look at it, make it really hard for me to get fat. I'm guessing you have similar things
"choices" are as much lifestyle design (whether you meant to do it or not) as they are pure willpower. They're all things in your control that can make it so you don't rely on just resisting hunger
i personally know many people who struggle immensely, despite eating far less than me.
for me, it takes exactly 0 effort to remain thin. zero. i literally don't even think about it. other people count every single calorie they eat, exercise religiously, take weight loss medication, and still have trouble managing their weight.
but hunger is a primal thing - some people are far hungrier far more often than other people, for many reasons - and yes, it takes energy to resist hunger.
money and free time aren't required, no, but it definitely helps your odds.