Your weight is determined by the rate at which you store energy from the food that you eat, and the rate at which you use that energy. Most experts agree that the way to maintain a healthy weight is:

• Eat a balanced diet - appropriate amounts glucose, fat and protein
• Do not eat excessively - for most people, a diet of 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day is sufficient to maintain a healthy weight
• Exercise regularly

Turns out, research shows that skinny people simply don't think about food the same way as--well, the rest of us. "Thin people have a relaxed relationship with food," explains David L. Katz, MD, an associate professor adjunct in public health at Yale University. "Those who are overweight, however, tend to be preoccupied by it. They focus on how much or how often they eat, or attach labels like good and bad to certain foods. As a result, mealtime is always on the brain."

Here, weight loss experts explore the mysterious minds of "naturally" slim, and how to eat like skinny women. Learn what they do, what they don't, and how you can act the part.

On a fullness scale of 1 to 10, skinny women stop eating at a level of 6 or 7, says Jill Fleming, RD, author of Thin People Don't Clean Their Plates. The rest of us may keep going to an 8 or 10. Why? It may be because you mistakenly equate the sensation of fullness with satisfaction and feel deprived if you stop short, says Fleming. Or you may just be used to finishing what's in front of you, regardless of whether you really need it.

Copy Them: To eat like skinny women, about halfway through your next meal, put your fork down and, using the 1 to 10 scale, rate your level of fullness. Do it again when you have about five bites left. The goal is to increase your awareness of how satisfied you feel during a meal. (Bonus: It also slows down your eating, which allows the sensation of fullness to settle in.)

Most of us who struggle with extra pounds tend to view hunger as a condition that needs to be cured--and fast, says Judith S. Beck, PhD, author of the new Beck Diet Solution. "If you fear hunger, you might routinely overeat to avoid it," she says. Thin people tolerate it because they know hunger pangs always come and go, buying them some time.

Copy Them: Pick a busy day to purposely delay lunch by an hour or two. Or try skipping an afternoon snack one day. You'll see that you can still function just fine. Then next time you feel those grumbles, you'll hold off before making a beeline for the fridge.

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Back in the ’70s and ’80s, diets were advertised with big promises: Lose 10 pounds a week! Lose 30 pounds in one month! And many of them delivered in a big way. Of course, if you ate nothing but grapefruit for days at a time, or existed solely on a liquid shake that provided you with only 400 calories a day, you’d lose weight in a heartbeat. But these very low calorie diets were ultimately ineffective. Even though millions of people shed massive amounts of weight quickly, they gained it back when they returned to normal eating habits. Plus, they put their health at risk.

Very low is too low

While it’s not unusual to gain weight after going off any diet, very low-calorie diets that provide less than 800 calories per day are particularly problematic. No matter what kinds of foods are eaten with this approach (high protein, a “nutritionally-balanced” formula, lots of fruits and vegetables, etc.), if the calorie count is too low, then the body is put in a semi-starvation state.

Side effects of going too low can include constipation, dry skin, hair loss, nausea, gout, gallstones and diarrhea.

Drastic perturbations of the body’s normal balance are highly disruptive. It does what it can to survive. In the case of semi-starvation, once the body’s blood sugar supplies are used up the body breaks down protein stores—think muscle mass and enzymes—to help create more blood sugar that the brain and blood cells need to survive.

The body suffers when protein tissues are lost, so to slow down the rate of protein breakdown, the rate of fat breakdown speeds up. As a result, ketones are produced (noticeable because of a putrid, fruity breath), and these are used by the cells that normally rely on glucose for energy. With ketones present, the loss of protein and lean body mass is minimized for a while. Severe levels of this state, known as ketosis, can lead to ketoacidosis, which is dangerous and potentially fatal.

Not only that, cutting calories too low puts you at risk of missing out on nutrients your body needs to function. One reason that many very low-calorie diets are supplemented with vitamins and minerals, or why they recommend that you take supplements when following the diet, is that eating too little food can leave you lacking. The problem with relying on supplements is that there are many food-substances that aren’t in supplements, and it’s always more healthful to get nutrients from real food over pills.

Some liquid diets contain ingredients meant to replenish missing nutrients. Even so, extreme energy restriction can wreak havoc on the body, including a rapid loss of muscle mass. Damage to heart tissue, low blood pressure and fluid imbalances could also result from the lack of sufficient calories. (Anorexics who are chronically deficient in calories suffer similar fates.) Not surprisingly, there have been deaths associated with very low-calorie liquid diets.

Trying to exercise while on a very low-calorie diet is not a good idea; the body’s starvation state is exacerbated because the exercise calls for even more energy.

Today, few people are put on a very low-calorie diet—it’s only recommended when an extremely overweight person is in imminent medical danger unless they lose weight. Even then it’s done under medical supervision.

Over the long term, losing weight slowly is the healthiest approach—plus, it’s an effective strategy for reducing abdominal fat and total body weight.

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