How the Hell Can You Eat So Much?

Given that I seem to be asked this question every other week, I figured it would be a good idea to talk about this in detail. Plain and simple, yes, I eat a lot. My photos on Instagram prove that. As some of you know, yes, I’m also fairly skinny. But, I wasn’t always. Growing up, I was often a Husky size. When it came time to switch to Men’s sizes, I was 130lbs and a size 32 for pants. Today, I’m 110, size 30 (spoiler alert: I still fit into those old clothes, with a belt). So what happened? Hell if I know. Diet? Nope. Exercise? Definitely not. Did it scare the hell out of my doctor when I went for a physical before college?

If “we’re going to send you for blood tests” is doctor code for “yes”, then yes. Well, guess what? They came back fine. So what was it? I don’t know. I can say that I’ve eaten at the dining center here at Drexel for three years straight with generous amounts of dessert (read: extra cake with a side of ice cream) and I haven’t gained a single pound. Save for walking to places (classes and the Museum of Art mostly), I’ve done zero exercising too. That fancy rec center we have? Never used it. I thought about the climbing wall a few times, but I’ve never had the time for it.

So how can I do it then? Well, for one, I don’t always actually clean off my plate. I definitely eat the majority of what I take, but if it’s “acceptable”, I generally don’t finish it. I am also notorious for sleeping in. Average wake time on the weekends? Noon. As I’m sure you can guess, that means I wake up in time for lunch, but I’m guilty of a midnight snack or too that I write off as “dinner”. I of course have a regular dinner, but yes, I really only have two formal meals on the weekends. So, maybe that helps. Maybe not.

The bottom line is I don’t know why I can eat so much. I can only guess that perhaps I have a fast metabolism. I know that I can process caffeine rather quickly though (yay genetics!) so perhaps that attributes to something. Maybe it’s that I’m a slow eater (and by slow I mean slow as hell; I’m usually the last or close to last to finish a meal.) So who knows? Maybe it’ll catch up with me. But for now, I apparently could stand to put on some weight. And I know the black forest cake isn’t going to eat itself…