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My brother [22] and I [24F] are the only healthy-weight people in our family. I struggle with satiety and emotional eating. Am I doomed?

Sorry for the r/relationships style heading.

So, the title is basically a TLDR of the situation. Out of our entire extended family, including our parents, living grandparents, aunts and uncles, and first cousins (about sixteen people aged 21 to 80+), the only people who aren't overweight/obese are my brother and I. Most of the older adults seemed to become so in their thirties/forties; our cousins are already overweight aged 30 and below. Several of them have hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, etc.

The thing is, we don't have the stereotypical super bad diets you see in America where people eat fast food every day or something. Growing up, we ate at home, home-cooked food, and my worst habit was eating ice cream after meals. But as a child I was always a healthy weight or even slightly underweight, due to then-undiagnosed health conditions.

Now, as the title says, I'm one of only two people in my family who are maintaining a healthy weight. My brother's still sort of in the bean pole stage, while I am around 165cm tall and currently weight 54kg. And I don't know how my brother is doing, but for me it's already VERY hard to not put on weight.

Things I struggle with:

FOOD ALLERGIES. I have some food allergies, which means I am pretty restricted in food choices when out, and also food I can make and carry (no sandwiches etc), though I have no trouble cooking for myself at home. Thankfully this rules out some fast food, but it also rules out most healthy food you can buy cheaply when out. Too often, if I'm caught away from home at a mealtime, my fallback plan is hot chips, which has led to episodes of weight gain in the past.

EMOTIONAL EATING. I have anxiety, have for a long time. It gets a lot worse when I'm hungry, and I also get nervous about being/feeling hungry, especially at night and before things like exams. My mum thinks this is due to the health conditions I had as a kid which at one point caused me to be underweight as a baby. My most recent episode of weight gain (put on 4kg in three months) was related to a traumatic life event.

SATIETY. I have trouble feeling full, and holding on to the feeling for long. Sometimes feel hungry within half an hour of what should have been a filling meal. This is probably my biggest issue - - I've almost finished losing the 4kg I gained after the traumatic event, but I've often felt hungry while getting there. I feel like I have to choose between being overweight (or on track for it) and feeling hungry constantly.

My main issue is, if my diet has to be this restricted to avoid runaway weight gain NOW, what's going to happen when I'm older and my metabolism slows down? I eat no unhealthy snacks or desserts on a regular basis, basically no refined sugar in my diet, no drinks other than water, black tea/coffee and sometimes skim milk. My Achilles heel is cheese, so I only buy a 750g bag of grated cheese once a month.

Am I just doomed to become overweight/obese like everyone else in my family? Like I said, as far as I know, none of them are bingeing on McDonald's or ice cream. I have my hormones, including thyroid, checked regularly and am not deficient in any major nutrient.

submitted by /u/slimishbutstruggling
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://www.reddit.com/r/loseit/comments/avple3/my_brother_22_and_i_24f_are_the_only/

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