How a junk food lover stays so slim

We’ve all got that one friend who eats junk food whenever they want and never exercises… yet somehow, a good belly laugh is all they need to have chiselled abs.

Meanwhile, you spend your life making healthy choices and sweating it up in the gym with no discernible difference.

Well, the reason your ‘skinny friend’ stays so slim might come down to how much they sleep.

A UK show called The Secret Lives of Slim People, which follows slender people around for 24 hours to reveal how they maintain their weight, has suggested there is an association between one’s duration of sleep and their body mass index.

“People who have less than five or six hours a night are at risk of becoming obese,” expert Professor Hardy explains on the program.

“When people don't have enough sleep, it affects some of the key hormones to do with appetite and fullness.”

One of the stars of the documentary, Margaret, is 157cm tall and weighs only 50kg. However, the 23-year-old is a self-confessed junk food lover and admits she “doesn’t believe in calories”. As part of the program, Margaret had her every moment filmed to figure out why she doesn’t seem to gain weight easily.

“I'm not a fussy eater,” explained Margaret.

“If it comes to eating junk food in the morning I'll eat junk food in the morning, if it comes to eating junk food any time of day, I'll eat that. I don't pick and choose.”

In less than 24 hours, Margaret’s diet consisted of: skipping breakfast, pasta carbonara and strawberry frappe for lunch, meat stew with rice for dinner, and a takeaway meal after dinner.

After collecting the data from her sleep tracker, it was revealed Margaret got an average of nine hours of sleep per night—two hours more than the national average—which nutritionist Amanda Ursell said is the main factor helping her stay slim.

Many were quick to point out on social media that although Margaret was thin, it didn’t necessarily mean she was healthy. One twitter user pointing out that “genetics, mental health, air quality etc. all make a big difference.”

But hey, it’s worth a shot – maybe we’ll all be having an early night after reading this.