They walk more. That's it. That's the secret.
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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Portion sizes are a factor too!
I dont feel like they are. Traveling France and Italy a couple years back, I found myself not finishing meals much more regularly that I do in the states, Even though I was eating a bit more because I was walking 5+ miles a day.
Maybe i was in part over ordering due to language, or menu expectations. Maybe some of thw places I was in were touristy and over doing it to match 'american portions'
But for instance, i got breakfast that was 'oefs en cocotte de compagne' at a café a couple blocks from the louvre, far enough to not be in the tourist trap surrounding area anymore.
It was massive- 4 shired eggs with a generous amount of mushrooms and gruyere, served with 4 pieces of toast. And I confirmed with the waiter that that was not a shared portion....
France doesn't really do restaurant breakfast, that dish is a main. Breakfast is coffee and a croissant if you're having it outside the house, otherwise it's brunch.
Yeah european breakfast is mostly just a cigarette and a bowl of creme
Yeah, I mean brunch checks out. It was like 11:00 it was still a huge serving of a verrry rich dish though.
Nobody has ever had this kind of breakfast in France. Normal breakfast here is coffee and maybe the last of yesterday's baguette.
Jesus, I top out at half that and I'm an absolute lardass, les that I used to be but still
I can do my weekly shopping without having to get in the car. Because in Europe everything's all mixed together rather than zoned into miles of endless residential, that you have to drive for 25 minutes in order to leave to get to the big shopping mall was it's one million car parking spaces.
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And also didn't replace all the fat in their food with sugar processed from corn.
Fat doesn't turn into fat when you eat it - it turns into sugars, which then turn into fat. Eating sugar just takes one step out of the process and makes your body work less (and therefore burn less calories) turning it into fat.
You can't outrun your diet.
calories in, calories out. Use more than you eat and weight goes down. Eat more than you use and weight goes up. It's an oversimplification, but it's not wrong.
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We compensate with gym time, you can't outrun a cheeseburger
Not being able to outrun your diet is a really strange concept to me, and I've exclusively heard it in this thread, and multiple times in this thread. Dafuq?
It's a metaphor, exercise won't fix a bad diet
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I lost weight after two weeks in Paris eating like a hedonist king because of all the walking.
We (Europeans) are just more active, including walking / cycling to work every day. Try it and see the difference.
i think it's not just "activity". lots of people in the US go to the gym a lot.
but what we have here in europe is integrating movements into everyday life. Like, when i drive anywhere in the city, it typically involves a 10 minute walk (to/from the subway/tram station). And i believe that does much more than going to the gym for 1 hour once a week. Because you stay moving daily, your body stays "awake" daily, instead of just waking up once a week and then falling back into slumber.
they also eat smaller portions, eat more non-processed food, etc, and have better food in schools and public institutions.
usa culture is the problem. our food culture is entirely different than most of europe.
the average take out meal in the usa is like 1200 calories, which is half your daily calories (or more if you are less than 200lbs) in europe it's like 800.
Carbs are much worse than fat. So drinking dozens of grams of sugar every day and putting sugar in every food is worse than eating fatty food.
carne et lacte vivant
from caesar's report about the brits: they live off meat and milk
Brits are fat too, they just don't have as many obese people as the States.
Britain is projected to be the fattest country in Europe. So don’t think all those chippies and pub food aren’t taking a toll.
Wait, what is pea pure?
Misspelling of puree (or pureé), most likely referring to the UK's mushy peas,which are ubiquitous in chip shops over there
I think I’m the only Northerner who hates those. Curry sauce though…
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Yes, let us come to a conclusion by comparing the obesity of one nation to the abundance of delicious food establishments of another.
In what is likely a touristy or well traveled section. Sometimes the difference includes how we do our transportation too, like more walking/biking. Maybe a difference in how often we rely on said restaurants too.
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