You mean moving out of the US in particular, or just switching countries?

(I can tell you, that as someone who was always of average build, and reasonably active who didn't have to watch what I ate...I put on nearly 30 pounds in the first year of living in the US, without any effort.)

Yes, I mean moving out of the US. The person that was quoted in the article implied that moving out the United States would limit the availability of convenience foods and outrageous portions.

There are obesity problems the world over, although some countries are worse than others. I need to try and stay calm here because I lost *a lot* of weight through a change of diet and a whole load of exercise - I put a load of work into losing weight. I might be being really naive, but I really can't see how the vast majority of people couldn't loose weight by doing what I did rather than anything insanely drastic like gastric bypass surgery or moving to a different country. Honestly, get out of the house and walk places, maybe go for a jog - both are either free or massively less expensive than going to the gym; watch your portion size; stop eating junk food and sugary drinks; learn some self restraint.

I'm sorry if that's ranty, but I lost about 9 stone and dropped 12 inches around my waist by doing that. No surgery, no joining a gym, nothing from snake oil nutritionalists, no fad diets. Just eating sensibly, some self control and a lot of exercise.

/end

TheDonF, I agree with you.

I think the article focused a lot of self-control. For those that lack self-restraint it may be an option to save their lives. I don't know how moving to another country would fix their head though.

focused on self-control

I totally agree, TheDonF. It's just that, in the US, you have to focus on self control a lot more than in other places. Like portion size... if you're used to unthinkingly finishing a whole portion at a restaurant, and you're talking and suchlike, it's hard to monitor yourself when portion sizes get bigger on you. Of course, people should, but I'm speaking from experience here, as someone who never really overate, and then had to teach myself to not eat everything that was given me.

Agreed - self control *is* hard, especially if the portion sizes are ever increasing and the food is stuff that you really like. But that's just part of it, the exercise is crucial as well. That's the hard part - dragging yourself outside even if it's cold and wet; pushing yourself to try and go just that little bit further each time. I used to wait until it was dark before I went out so people didn't see me sweating like a pig, dragging myself around. Now? I run half marathons.

um, i dunno what i can contribute here as an american except my personal experience.

in late 2000 i moved from cincinnati, ohio (a city with little to zero alternative transportation incentives; picture the stereotypical american-suburban-blighted-sprawl anti-pedestrian scenario...) to boulder, colorado.

boulder is a really progressive community that incorporates ease of use infrastructure for peds, cyclists and bus users; i.e. we have (gasp) sidewalks and 1 to 2 metre wide bike shoulders on most if not all streets. there are bus shelters, they're clean and kept up, and the busses are comfortable and well maintained.

i've lost nearly 40 pounds since moving here. last year i quit driving altogether.

so... it's not necessarily the US, more of our social expectations / infrastructure / traditions / economy that has sucked most of us into a big vicious circle of inactivity. a bad combo of shitty, unsafe-for-peds & cyclists, car-centric infrastructure that's been encouraged since the 1950s which forces one to drive 2 blocks to pick up milk... coupled with some weird american sociological cues; i.e. we identify our success by the car(s) we drive, and we have been increasingly brought up to feel 'unsafe' and 'exposed' walking anywhere. add to that the fact that our national economy is based upon the success of the oil industry... well i won't go into the politics of perpetuating our conspicuous consumption policies, cos i hate politics and don't wanna start a flamewar. let's just say that it's damn near political suicide for any lobbyist to promote asceticism in this country.

it's not just that we're lazy, we're also highly paranoid. the media tends to perpetuate this with stuff like ZOMG KIDNAPPING!!... ZOMG MURDER!! ZOMG SMALLCARSAREDEATHTRAPS!!! because as we know, sensationalism sells eyeball time, right?

anyway. for the record i put on about 15 lbs when i moved to germany in my early 20s. mmmm, buttered broetchen mit Nutella? how's about a big phat plate of sauerbraten?

note that i never owned a car before i moved to germany and never drove there, so my activity level stayed the same. just my diet went down the can.

so... i dunno really what the point of this is. i'm just saying be careful where you point the finger, is all.

I think there are places in the US you could move to help lose weight. I didn't notice it when I lived in FL in the 'burbs, but now that I live in an urban environment where everybody walks a lot, I go back to the 'burbs and marvel at all the seriously overweight people I see. I don't see as many in NYC. I imagine the result is similar in any place where there's a lot of opportunity to walk around.

Two events in my life that caused me to lose a lot of weight (about 30lbs each time) - starting at university (which coincided with my developing gallbladder problems) and moving to France.

McDonalds sez: Hay guyz! I'm in ur foriegn kuntrys, feedin' ur kidz.

It's becoming more and more difficult to find places that aren't overrun with fast food places anymore... I'm seeing the Greek young people here becoming fatter as fast food places have popped up in the last 10 years. And on top of this, we don't have very many diet/health related foods in normal groceries. You have to find special places if you want things like tofu, or soy or rice milk, or even whole wheat flour. (Because dieting to lose weight for a normal, healthy, youngish person was never really a concern before.)

What we do have is lots of nice, lovely fresh vegetables (and olive oil!), though, and this is certainly a blessing.

Fast food and soft drinks are becoming big, big problems almost everywhere, I think. And it's specifically the way chains like McDonalds prepare their foods - all fat and sodium, no nutrients. Greece has had Gyro shops and pastry shops on every corner forever, but not until modern fast food places became ubiquitious (in the cities, anyway) did I start seeing fat kids and fat teenagers/early 20s here.

it makes sense, less sugar and more human portions may indeed be a blessing.

I always gain weight when I'm in the States. esp now that, in my thirties, my metabolism has slowed down, this is cause of concern.

just don't move to a place with especially yummy, carb-rich food. like, you know, Italy. but then, I'd rather get fat on yummy fresh pasta and fine wine than on fast food.

and taz is right, the now omnipresent McD and Burger King et similia are getting non-USian kid fatter, too. the real tragedy is that in some non-US countries burgers and fries from fast food chains seem to have for kids some sort of "cool" mystique, which frankly escapes me.

When I was going to the Negev desert often, I would typically lose 20 to 30 pounds in the first 2 or 3 weeks there. You can barely drink enough water to stay alive in the summers, and it kills your appetite completely. Minimum of 3 shirts a day, and only light starch.

If you can eat at all, it is in the relative cool of the morning, but in hotels you typically have Israeli breakfast which is two buffet tables, one which may have cold cuts, boiled eggs, and some breads, and on the dairy table, some yogurt, some cheeses, maybe milk and cereal. And tea or "mud" coffee, made in the cup, from powdered grounds. Not the most appetizing spread, for an American palate. I'd usually go the first week, just reeling from one day to the next, blasted by the dry, baking heat into only wanting cool darkness in the evenings, seeking refuge and sleep in my room. Maybe in the second or third week, I'd go for dinner with my business companions, but there are few restaurants open for real dinner in the small cities of the Negev. No evening trade, for many reasons, not least the oppressive heat of long summers.

But after a few weeks of that, you acclimate, as much as you possibly can. The businesses I worked with had cafeterias typically, and the food wasn't bad, although it wasn't particularly inspired. I'd eat salads, maybe a bowl of soup for lunch, and more mud coffee in the afternoon. And water or juice, every hour. People would constantly ask "Did you drink something?" You cannot wait to be thirsty, and you drink whenever you're reminded, 2 to 3 gallons of water a day, easily. 16 to 24 pounds of fluid moving through you every 24 hours carries away everything, shortly, and you need salts, and minerals, and have no appetite. If it would have been beer they offered, I might have kept up, weight wise, even if it were only Maccabee.

By then, my pants would hang on me, held up only by a belt taken in 3 or 4 unaccustomed notches. Once, I stayed 3 months, from early July to the first week of October, and was reduced to buying several pairs of pants, when those I brought with me wouldn't stay up anymore. This, working mostly in air-conditioned buildings by day, driving only back and forth to hotels, and between various appointments. You just don't see fat people in the Negev, unless they are tourists or visitors.

Finally, I would finish my business, and make the TWA flights out of Tel Aviv, to Athens or Rome, and on to London, or New York. After a couple days back, I would wake in the middle of the night, ravenous, usually for meat. I'd get up, get dressed, and head out to one of Boston's all night joints, and wolf down a couple of steaks, maybe 1/2 dozen eggs, and a pot or two of coffee which blessedly didn't have grounds in it. Only then, when my appetite returned, did it feel like I'd come out of the desert.

Fast food and soft drinks are becoming big, big problems almost everywhere, I think. And it's specifically the way chains like McDonalds prepare their foods - all fat and sodium, no nutrients. Greece has had Gyro shops and pastry shops on every corner forever, but not until modern fast food places became ubiquitious (in the cities, anyway) did I start seeing fat kids and fat teenagers/early 20s here.

This is so sad.

Thanks for the story paulsc. It was thoroughly enjoyable.

altolinguistic, I would love to hear about your dietary habits in France versus the USA.

just don't move to a place with especially yummy, carb-rich food. like, you know, Italy.

Meh. I dropped two sizes* the first year & half I was here, sans dieting, and to this day have not put even half of the weight back on. My passport photo's chipmunk cheeks make borders officials occasionally do a double take.

My theory on how I lost that weight without trying is A) I ate whatever I wanted after years of heavy dieting, thus restabilizing my metabolism, B) No car, thus I walk more & C) Less additives & preservatives in the food here.

The 30's creep is starting, though. I think I need to get back to eating fish on Tuesdays & Fridays, pasta & fagoli on Wednesdays, gnocchi on Thursdays, lamb on Sundays and a balance of pasta for lunch/meat for dinner on the other days. And try to curb the SO's penchant for late night choco-fests of which I nearly always participate.

* Two Italian sizes. I dunno what the US manufacturers have been doing, but I was around the very upper end of size 5/6 previously and nowadays hit the 0/1 sizes stateside. There's no way in hell I dropped that much weight. (I barely break the 5' barrier for those of you gnashing your teeth: 2 pounds extra on me looks like 10).

Yes, romakimmy, vanity sizing is rampant in the US.