We’ve all seen immigrants that move here from another country, start eating like Americans, and blow up like balloons. Does the reverse happen? Do Americans that move to another country start eating like the inhabitants of that other country to the extent that they lose weight?
I don’t know how much actual data there is on this, but, anecdotally, it was true for me. I probably lost about 15-20 lbs when I moved to Europe for 5 years. I returned to the US every year and was just astounded by the portion sizes (something I had not noticed before) – I could barely finish half a burrito in a single sitting, when I used to be able to eat a whole burrito after loading up on chips. When I returned permanently to the US, I gained all that back, and then some, before retooling my eating habits and activity levels (and am now to below my European weight.)
The food wasn’t necessarily lighter there. I lived in Hungary, where there was lot of meat, fat, and carbs on the plate. I also drank beer or wine practically daily. It’s just I got used to smaller portion sizes and I was very active in my job as a photographer. I walked and took public transportation all day, not having access to a car and, frankly, not needing one. Here my lifestyle is still active, but I have to force myself to set aside a time to do it (rather than being part of typical day-to-day getting around and doing work), and I have to watch portion sizes much more closely.
It depends.
I worked with 100 American volunteers in Cameroon. In general, men lost weight and women gained weight. This is probably because men generally ate local food (which wasn’t very good) where women cooked for themselves (and living alone, probably overate.) Another factor was that bigger women were seen as sexier in Cameroon, so there was less external pressure to be thin. We all walked around quite a lot, but the harsh climate limited our ability to exercise.
However, every group of volunteers had at least one guy who lost a large amount of weight. We had one who lost 80 lbs in a few months. So if you want to lose a large amount of weight, moving to the developing world might help.
In China, I think most of us lose weight. My theory is that eating from communal plates encourages eating until full, instead of eating what is on your plate. I think chopsticks also help control portions.
A friend of mine moved ro Scandinavia for a year and came back THIN.
He gained it all back in no time.
There’s a great Calvin Grondhal cartoon showing Mormon missionaries at the airport of some unnamed foreign country. The ones leaving at the end of their missions are all reed-thin, and they’re looking wide-eyed at their replacements arriving from the USA – all grotesquely fat by comparison.
I lost weight when I first moved to Thailand way back when. Now that I’m well into middle age, though, I weigh more than I ever have.
I knew an American living in Nepal who gained a lot of weight immediately upon moving to Thailand.
I wonder if that’s the reason many of them look like their shirts are two or three sizes too big. You see these young, blonde, blue-eyed guys in suits (or jacketless but still looking like there’s a jacket hovering nearby) with the name tabs and the shirts look “like they inherited them from someone bigger.” Often the pants do too.
I assume you’re talking here about business or office attire on people you meet at conferences? Yeah, men’s clothes over here have run to bagginess for nearly 20 years. There’s even an old movie where Joe Pesci’s character makes reference to this, saying, “YOu can’t see it the way men’s suits are today, but I’m really in great shape!” Or something like that.
As for the jackets, it’s quite common for men not to keep them on all the time. It’s usually too warm inside, and if you live in one of the warm regions, it’s also too warm outside ten months out of twelve. Which is too bad in a way, because the act of “wearing a suit” loses all meaning if you don’t keep the jacket on.
As for the premise of Americans being obese and the rest of the world being svelte, I have to differ. I certainly see a few fat Germans watching German TV online. I’m sure they are statistically fewer than in this country, but far from unheard of.
Another anecdote:
This one guy I used to work with came over to the Dublin office from Connecticut for three months. He weighed about 300 lbs when he arrived. He was constantly bitching and complaining about portion size in the local restaurants (even though he was in a rent-free company apartment with a kitchen, he ate out constantly). When he left he weighed about 250 lbs.
When we were permanently transferred to Connecticut, my (Irish) roomie and I went for food in a pub. We ordered nachos each as an appetizer and the waiter looked at us and said “you wouldn’t be able to finish one portion between you”. We took his advice and sure enough, we couldn’t, doggie bagged the rest and had no entree.
The next week we were out with the guy in my first paragraph - he finished the same nachos appetizer alone, then ate a huge steak with fries, then a slab of cheesecake. He’d been back in the States for 6 months and was back up to the weight.
I myself put on 7 lbs in a couple of weeks of moving there, but realised what was happening to me and went onto a seriously restricted diet to lose it and keep it off, which was torture because American food is so fucking tasty.
I’ve gained a bit of weight since coming back to Taiwan. Sitting in an office and eating a lot of McDonald’s will do that.
Every time I move to France I lose about 20 kg. It’s all about the portion sizes methinks. It’s a bit of an adjustment when I get there and I look at my plate and think to myself, “That’s all I get?” But eventually you get used to it. I think the observation about clothes being too big is dead on. I’m a student, and therefore quite poor, so buying a whole new wardrobe is generally out of the question, but I did have to get a couple new pairs of jeans and a new belt in February (I arrived in September) because I was swimming in my old jeans and, in Paris, punching a new hole in a belt is just not done. (Incidentally, I learned some belt trivia while shopping. Apparently, if your belt is properly sized, the little hook thing should fit into the third and only the third hole out of the five they put in.) Anyway, anecdotally speaking, in Paris, American men lose weight, and American women gain. It has a lot to do with pastries.
No, specifically about Mormon missionaries in Spain and Italy. I don’t know anybody else who walks around town in identically-dressed pairs with plastic nametags identifying them as Brother XYZ.
I should mention that though not overweight - I’m near the top level of the ‘correct’ BMI for my height - I always lose weight after spending more than about a week the developing world, even Thailand where the food is delicious.
Neither the wife nor I have gained or lost weight since moving to London, but our appetites have certainly shrunk. When I go back to the states and get a meal on a groaning plate the size of a car tire and a drink so big it has its own diving board, I wonder what the hell I used to eat.
Actually, I do and did most of my own cooking, which is probably why my weight hasn’t changed much.
I’ve gained weight (approx 25 pounds over 15 years) since moving to the UK but put that down mostly to getting older and exercising less.
Hell, I moved to Boston from the Midwest, and that was enough of a lifestyle change that I lost 10 lbs without even trying. Went from 165ish to 155ish in a year. My diet was roughly constant, and I didn’t make any huge attempts to exercise. But instead of driving everywhere, I was taking public transit and walking. I think I was walking a mile or two every day, and a lot of that was up and down hills. Any big errands added another few miles of walking, since I would usually walk instead of hop on the bus.
I did not lose weight moving from Chicago to Singapore. In Singapore I could afford to eat out (and also didn’t care to tempt any more 6 legged critters into my apartment with actual food in the kitchen). Agreed, though, with the above posters about portion size.
I’m guessing that’s the guy who got tapeworms.
Friends from the U.S. generally lost a little weight when they came to Prague, gained some back when they went home to visit, and lost it again when they came back. Not all, mind you, some were thin to begin with and some didn’t really lose much weight, but the general trend seemed to be to lose a little weight. It wasn’t the diet, though; it was the activity level. You walk more in Prague than in the states - a lot more.
On the basis of this thread, it should be cheaper to fly TO the USA than from it!
It depends. When I was a teenager, I was an exchange student in Northern Europe. A lot of the kids–from various countries but mostly the US–gained weight because they were eating yummy food that was new to them (Nutella alone probably accounted for many extra pounds), so they tended to eat more. Also the diet was high in carbs and meat and gravy. Also our systems just weren’t used to it for a while. I gained, then got wise and lost, and came home about the same as ever.
My husband served an LDS mission in Chile, and though he wasn’t heavy, he did lose a lot of weight. He had done a lot of weight-lifting and the constant walking made him leaner. Then the bout with dysentery made him lose a lot. When I met him just after he came home, he was a bit underweight.
Generally speaking, guys who serve missions outside the US will come home thin–they walk all the time. Male missionaries in the US will gain–some of them have cars. Also they eat all their dinners at church members’ homes, and every family wants to give them a good dinner complete with dessert. So they’re eating a large meal every night. Female missionaries are quite different and often react the opposite way.