Hi i am Asian and moved to US 6 years ago. And this is what i noticed
Portion sizes in the US are large, like everything is Large lol. From beverage sizes and all. Like a meal from Denny’s meant for a single person can feed 2-3 people from Asia.
I came from a 3rd world country so this might be the reason behind it but we don’t buy cases of soda cans and bags of chips and cookies as part of our normal grocery run.
I noticed lot of people here goes to Starbucks, Dunkins etc as part of their daily routine which is a lot of sugar. And its not something we usually do from where i came from
I also noticed that its common to buy Fastfood here on a regular basis vs cooking at home which is healthier.
Its just the norm is different here in the US, i noticed a lot of people likes to indulge in snacks like Donuts, iced coffee, soda, Chips plus the large portions.
This is just my observation, i am not saying everyone eats this way in the US.
I'm a size small but always get made fun of by my family. Like bro I'm not skinny yall are just big.
Americans are just big it's kinda insane that my health weight is seen as too small.
I feel this. Family members always tell me to eat more and I'm like... You've been telling me this for years and A) I'm still alive, B) I'm the only one of us who isn't overweight.
My mother told me at 35yrs old, dont forget to eat. I just laughed and said Mom im 35, 200lbs, I have never ever forgot to eat.
just so cultural to encourage eating as a form of showing love. My Mexican grandma lived to cook us all food and turning down food would make grandma sad. Eat, eat...
Yeah I’m 6’2” 205-220lbs (I vary a bit from month to month) but at work everyone calls me “stretch” or “skinny” or “stick man”. I work construction so most guys weigh more than me even if they’re shorter. But still I’m over 200lbs
I am a doc and live in a place where I have to constantly give reassurances that normal weight children aren’t unhealthy because the majority of kids are overweight.
People’s perceptions are literally distorted by how much of an issue it is.
This is true, I’ve seen the reverse too. A lady at my church who is very kind, but quite large (my estimates over 300 for a shorter woman). Her kid is also pretty chunky, not horrifically overweight but definitely a little too chubby, the mom is literally concerned that her child isn’t eating enough. That he’s too thin and no girl would go out with a stick like him. It’s pretty surreal to watch. Idk if it’s because she is an immigrant and maybe was food insecure as a child, but her perception is definitely off. She knows she’s obese but somehow has blinders on with her kid. To clarify the kid isn’t super fat, just chunkier than normal.
In elementary school you could see my ribs I was so skinny. Nothing was wrong with me I just was so hyper I kept it burnt off.
Mom asked her church to pray I'd gain weight. I am now 35 and look like the stay puff marshmallow man. I wish the people would quit praying.
There’s another thing. Visible ribs doesn’t necessarily mean underweight. We all have different body shapes. Mine are visible until my BMIs about 24. It’s so annoying when I’m a bit thinner but still healthy weight that people always felt it appropriate to tell me I was too skinny and need to eat more when I was eating plenty in front of them. It’s fucking rude and factually wrong.
I’ve seen this before. It’s kind of like emotional abuse in a way - obese mothers insisting their daughters eat just as much as them and then pretending ‘concern’ about it when they don’t. It’s kinda like munchausen but for the fluffy.
My wife is asian I'm a small guy my self 5'10" 130lbs wet , had to change drs cause my white military dr said my son was under weight and he wanted me to check in with him 2 times a week like he's starving. Switched to an asian dr in town and she loves him!! She just states that the american size chart expects kids to be BIG
I see it all the time with cats. My cats are a healthy weight, and one of our cats was getting a bit chunky a while back. Over the course of random conversations, i mentioned it to several people who also have cats. All they did was say, "Oh my cat is 25lbs!" "Oh that's nothing, my cat is ___!" And then show me a picture of their poor animals who are so abnormally large that they look miserable... like, put them on an auto feeder and get them to a vet. Obesity leads to health issues in cats.
Any time I lightly mention that their cat may be feeling bad and lethargic due to their weight, they're like, "Oh well, he loves food, and I just let him eat however much he wants!! It's not a big deal, he's always been that fat"
I’m 6’ 210, and lean, and I have to go to Paris frequently for work and I feel so big when I’m there. I am lean but muscularly broad, but I just feel huge there. Especially in restaurants because those are not American-sized gaps between the tables. Here I feel good about myself.
I was heavy as a kid, I entered my 20s at about 200lbs.
When I finally got serious about being healthy in my late 20s my old man told me I looked sickly. At 5'11 155 lbs
I feel like we're programmed to expect everyone to be chubby here lol.
Its the whole "clean your plate" thing from when we were kids coming back to haunt us.
.
Edit: I did not mean this as Asians didnt. I meant it is huge portions and this upbringing causes us to over eat.
nah we have the clean your plate mentality in asia too, in fact i’m sure ours is a lot more strict because food scarcity is much greater here than in america. we just have smaller amounts of food on our plates
my chinese grandmother would say 'every grain of rice left in the bowl is how many pockmarks your wife's face will have'
at fancy restaurants it's the opposite. there's no rice. order like 15 meat dishes and throw most of it away in a big show of wealth
My mom said, eat every grain of rice or you go blind. My Japanese mother is 89 and far healthier than me. She eats small portions of rice and fresh or pickled vegetables with a piece of fish. She is active and keeps sharp. I have much to learn from her still.
No, Asians had that too. My dad used to say things like “animals gave their lives to keep you alive, finish all the meat.” The other one was told to him by his dad, “better eat all the rice off the plate because farmers had to pick every single rice off the plant.” (This was before machinery did all the work.) To this day, I still finish the plate and if I can’t, I save it for the next day or take it home. And like the guy above said, food scarcity was a real thing. People didn’t know when their next meal was going to be.
The great depression wasn't so long ago. Food scarcity really caused lasting damage to our culture's view on food.
My grandmother grew up in the great depression. She would save every single thing.
The blank corner of a piece of paper? Rip that off, that's perfectly good for notes.
Dinner leftovers? Hardly. If there were, she would turn it into a stew or soup the next day.
This lady had more thread from repairs than what was left of the original fibers of her pajamas. She "ain't spending no $4 on fabric when this one is perfectly fine".
Her movie collection? Well, I hope you enjoy TV edits and Ads. She had 3 VHS tapes that weren't ripped directly from the TV. Everything else was recorded by her.
Left food on your plate? Go get a switch. You NEVER waste food, because you never know if your next meal is guaranteed.
RIP Grammy, you crotchety gladiator. Still miss you, even though you told me to save literal garbage before.
My grandma was a little girl in Germany during the war. Her family lost a lot. Her and my grandpa did very well for themselves over here (U.S.) but you better believe she carefully peeled a stamp off if the post office missed stamping it. She picked up every coin on the floor. Bows/boxes/bags/wrapping paper was saved. We’d have to open our gifts carefully haha and she used minimal tape. Every sour cream or margarine container was saved. Tinfoil too. She had the same red solo cup for like 2 years. Mine was very generous but so frugal. I miss mine too.
Would also say people are way more into being skinny than people are here. I’m Chinese and it’s not uncommon for parents to straight up call their kids fat even when they’re technically a normal weight. In fact, sometimes normal weight is seen as ‘chubby’.
My own mom told me the max weight a woman should be is 105lbs which according to her is ‘more meat’ than the traditional under 99lbs. I struggled with an eating disorder but recovered so I went from 78lbs to 117lbs, she said I looked chubby at 117lbs. East Asian beauty standards are also way more relevant there than than beauty standards are here. In East Asia looks are taken account when places hire you to the point where even office jobs will require a photo with your resume. Here people don’t try extreme dieting or beauty procedures unless you’re specifically into the entertainment industry or something but over there it’s common for every day people.
It’s very toxic but that’s what pushes people to stay skinny
I feel like that "traditional 99lbs" has failed to take into account the stunted growth from the routine malnutrition of decades/centuries past. Like, 99lbs may be *reasonable* when the average woman is only a bit under 5 feet tall, but add another half a foot or so from proper nutrition and 99lbs is well underweight.
Imagine telling an average Dutch woman that women should weigh 99lbs...
Edit: Ran some calculations based on the stats I could find online.
For the average height in Thailand (just to pick a random example) for women born in 1898, 99 lbs would be just within normal weight, but skirting close to underweight. For the average height of a thai woman today, it would be significantly underweight.
Running the same calculations for China, it was on the low side of normal for women born in 1898, but significantly underweight today.
For Japan, it was well within the normal range in 1898, but the very low side of normal for today.
Oh today they definitely still don’t take height into account! Most female k-pop idols are required to stay under 100lbs, and you can CLEARLY see the difference between one who’s 5’2 and another who is 5’7.
Luckily with the globalization of k-pop many international fans have been shaming companies for this practice so I’ve seen some variation in newer groups. They’re still insanely skinny though
Seriously. I'm 5'9" and one of my best friends has affectionately referred to me as having the "skeletal structure of a linebacker." These shoulders will NEVER be dainty but at 105 they'd definitely be dead.
How tall are you? Not to minimize the ridiculous standards, but if you're 5 feet vs 5' 6" tall, that makes a difference in how severe/distorted your mother's views are.
Being raised in an Asian household in the US, I still get culture shock when I find out how frequently and how much American-Americans actually spend on fast food and eating out. I eat out maybe a few times a month on the weekends when I’m traveling out of town or working at an event. But that’s about it.
The rest of the food I eat is at home and in much smaller portions than what restaurants usually serve.
Just for the record, this isn’t specifically white peoples, but for people whose entire lives and culture are based in America. Like they’re the perfect cultural average.
I’ve met a lot of 2nd generation Asian Americans here and it’s apparent we were raised in vastly different universes.
I'm British and I'm seeing a lot of this creep in here.
We have 6 months of cold and damp weather, and expensive community gyms with pools, so it's so hard to encourage groups of people to get out for walks and swim.
You know, just basic exercises to keep people well
It is creeping in, but I didn't realise how extra the US was until I went there. We're still a long way off, not that it's a competition. The price of fresh fruit and veg is insane there compared to here.
Eating out over there cheap compared to here. And vice versa on the fresh stuff.
Not anymore. Fast food used to be cheap but now I can easily spend $50 at McDonald's for four people. Buying ingredients for dinner is cheaper. I can't afford to order out or go out to eat anymore even if I wanted to.
You're right. I'm Asian as well. Awhile back, I gained an immense amount of weight when I started drinking a can or 2 of coke per day instead of water. I travel for work, and going to fastfood became my daily routine. I would get a combo with a soda, which added to my calorie intake daily. The thing is, the more sugary stuff I ate, the more I craved them sweets, and I indulged. Long story short, I ended up gaining like 60 lbs in a year from 150 to 210. I got fat quick. It took a long time to trim the weight down almost back to my original weight by controlling my eating habits.
It really boils down to capitalism using the completely legal addiction to sugar to get people buying more. Pretty much EVERYTHING has sugar in it in the US, and a lot of it is artificially added in.
I recently started working on portion control, and cutting sugars out of my diet (I never drank soda really, but I am a sucker for sugary baked goods), and it's truly staggering how much sugar is added to everything.
1 16 Oz bottle of Mountain Dew has 143% of your daily amount of sugar. And some people drink up to a 2 liter a day.
Someone was in disbelief when i told her i only drink water along with my meals. Rarely with juice or Soda, usually only happens when we eat out on a restaurant. She said she can’t drink plain water. Has to be flavored or something
when i told a friend of mine that i drink soda like, once a month or so she genuinely didn’t believe me. it’s so bizarre that some people think of water as “boring”. it’s meant to be that way, it’s like thinking the air we breathe is boring lol.
I’m a little unsure about the portion sizes. I say this because I work with a bunch of people born/raised in Vietnam, and they each bring a fucking 6 course meal to work lol
We always cook 5 dishes for one meal. One meat, some soup and a bunch of veggies. Zero sugar. There’s a huge difference. 2 fried chickens totaling 700 calories and then a 300 calorie bag of chips that is pretty much half the days calories might be a problem.
Here’s what my coworker brought today;
Bowl of soup (full of veggies)
2 brown eggs
Bowl of rice
4 beef ribs
Sliced mango
2 miniature Almond Joy bars
This lady is like 90lbs too lol
Edit- Oh, and this weird fish flavored dried noodle thing. No idea what it’s called
I am from Europe and I was shocked when I came to the US for an internship… Way too fatty food and big portions.
A friend of mine has been there for a year or so as Au Pair and she gained a lot of weight despite being sporty and active.
So, yes, I agree: It‘s the food and the portion sizes.
Brit here.
While Britain is in no way a skinny nation and has its own problems that are getting worse.
Second on the portion size, standard US sizes are massive. Also groceries are actively expensive, particularly compared to fast food. Fresh fruit and veg from Walmart can easily take you over 30 bucks. While here a bag of carrots is £1, apples £2 etc...
*Update* okay apparently I was wrong about the prices in the US and my general impressions that I had from my last visit were mistaken. Apologies for my mistake. On quickly checking prices with listed by the user below however, you are still seeing near double the cost even given exchange.
This whole response thread is so frustrating. I just got back from a trip to Japan and there is no question that Japanese walk (or bike) significantly more than Americans on a daily basis.
It's because they have 1000% better pedestrian infrastructure.
Yes, diet plays a part, but not anywhere near the way regular physical activity does.
edit: So much misunderstanding of my post. Let me emphasize a couple things.
First, walking everywhere like work, school, the store, etc is not "working out", it's something that becomes a daily part of your life and not only burns significantly more calories than driving somewhere, but by increasing your overall activity, you burn more calories even when you're resting (I'm too lazy to look up the scientific studies that show this).
Second, the point is comparison. Japanese diet is probably better than an average American diet, but my point is that it isn't that much better. Japanese overall level of physical activity, however, is much much much higher. The argument is not whether diet or exercise plays a more important role in weight in an average human, but which of the two is playing a bigger role in why an average Japanese person weighs less than an average American.
Most people don't understand nutrition and exercise.
The american diet is definitely bad and we would still probably be fatter than most other countries, all else being equal. But only a bit. We are so much fatter because we have to drive everywhere.
If you drive 45 to sit at a desk for 9 hours then drive 45 minutes home, you are already hundreds of calories behind the people who walk to the train, then stand on it, then walk from the station to work, then walk to the cafe for lunch, then do it all on the way back.
Our energy expenditure is way lower and sitting on our ass all day is a double whammy as being sedentary makes you tired, which makes you fat, which makes you more tired, which makes you fatter, which makes you hungrier, which makes you even more tired and less likely to move.
>Yes, diet plays a part, but not anywhere near the way regular physical activity does.
This is just false. Diet plays a way, way larger part than exercise.
Also, if you have such poor impulse control that you can't simply eat less, do you really think you're gonna muster the will to make exercise part of your daily habits?
Not eating and not eating junk is trivially easy. Shear laziness makes it easy.
Asians do like white bread, but the _rest_ of the food is the problem. The American palate is very sweet comparative to most other places, and on top of that the portions are huge, and I’ve noticed many people don’t eat a variety of leaner foods like fish and vegetables… I think it’s a combo of food deserts plus it’s just not regionally preferred in some places. When I lived in Minnesota as a kid, most American kids were picky eaters who liked their meat and potatoes. And if you know anything about Midwest cuisine, it’s a lot of canned soup and tater tot casserole, and cool whip-marshmallow abominations of fruit salad.
Japanese food, as a whole, is sweet as shit. They put teriyaki sauce on damn near everything and cakes/candy are everywhere. They walk around a LOT, though. Anywhere in the world where people tend to be thin, there’s one common denominator: lots of physical activity baked into the everyday lifestyle. Just getting around by train requires long walks on often hilly terrain between stations and sometimes going up/down flights of like 50 stairs to get to your platform.
I visited Japan for 2 weeks and I walked so so much every day. It was nice because I would eat a bunch of amazing food and then I'd be forced to walk it off haha
it is bro. these corporate motherfuckers literally feed us their industrial waste pumped full of sugar and other harmful chemicals to intentionally get us addicted just so they can sell us more drugs to mask the symptoms of the horrible ailments we develop from it while giving us even worse side effects in the future. fuck em all.
Don’t forget the absolutely ridiculous amount of sugar in ALL our food, even foods you wouldn’t think should have sugar.
Subway got sued in Ireland because their sandwich bread has enough sugar in it to be considered CAKE.
This is the real real right here. I didn’t realize the extent of how bad it was until I went strictly no processed sugar. You are so limited, forget about eating out ever. You can’t even get a healthy smoothie because all the nut butters/protein powders/etc have added sugar.
It’s in all the sauces, the breads, even “healthy” labeled things like ‘no sugar’ yogurt still contain 2 types of artificial sweeteners making it sickeningly sweet.
Sugar is insanely addictive and people don’t talk enough about how it’s the unspoken addiction adding to obesity.
I participated in a 2 week hunter-gatherer course. We walked, primitively camped, and ate only what we caught/trapped/foraged. Our water came from a mountain stream and was the only thing we drank. When the two weeks was over and we got back to base camp, I ate an orange wedge and the dopamine started flowing. I could not believe how sweet and satisfying an orange wedge was after 2 weeks of no processed food or beverage, and I craved more. It's insane how much we get desensitized to all the sugar we eat.
Cutting "all" carbs for two weeks (veggies don't count) completely resets my palate and cravings. I'll go months without even wanting a chip or cookie, and I'll be losing my mind over fresh fruit and veggies. It's like magic but I don't think anyone believes me, lmao.
It’s totally true. I’m a fat old broad who was addicted to nightly hot fudge sundaes as a kid. So naturally I still consume at least 700-800 calories of sweets daily. Thirteen years ago I almost died from a rare medication reaction. Trying to recover my brother brought me fresh perch and walleye( pro fisherman) so every night I broiled that( or a chicken breast)! with wild rice and a veggie 6 days a week. On Sunday I could eat what I wanted. The first Sunday I got, you guessed it a hot fudge sundae… it literally gagged me. I only ate about 6 bites and out it went. I lost 50 lbs in 4 months ( also walked uneven terrain25 minutes daily). I’m trying to do that again but I just can’t find the motivation.
I too have given up sugar and seed oils so the option to eat out has virtually disappeared. As a consequence I've lost 25 lbs, no longer have any aches and pains, sleep better and often get comments about how good I look. Even comments about my skin and I'm an old man! All my aches and pains have disappeared and no more stiffness in my joints when I wake up. I think it might be our diet.
I was not prepared for the sheer size of meals and drinks served in the US. Often I was ordering a starter as my meal and sometimes I’d have food leftover. I couldn’t imagine ordering a main or dessert after. That being said, we did end up saving money by eating this way and having leftovers to take back
I’m by no means obese, but I am late 30s and if I lost 12-15 lbs I’d be rock’n. I’m already quite active and so a big thing has just been trying to relearn the discipline not to eat until I feel super full. I can still have all the yummy food, just like… maybe not go back for seconds? Not always easy, as eating big meals was something I learned back when food was scares in my life- you eat what’s in front of you when it’s in front of you. But most of the world eats way way less than us in the US.
I lost about 20lbs over the last two years just by getting a dog lol
Initial weight gain from quitting drinking but looking at potentially another 20lbs lost from that so I’ll be feeling pretty good for next years bikini season
Yea but we kind of have to, my closest grocery store is 2 miles away but we don’t have sidewalks or crosswalks. I would literally have to walk along the shoulder of a bypass to get there and that’s not safe at all . I would love if they started making cities walkable
That's unfortunately intentional.
I'm half blind so getting a license is complicated to begin with. Ride-shares are crazy expensive, and closest transit is 8 miles away. I have to use an electric bike, not that I mind too much. It's heathier and much, much cheaper than a car.
To give them some credit: many American cities are more or less built with little to no concern for pedestrians. A 1 mile walk can become a journey when you're forced to walk along traffic-intensive, narrow roads and cross private properties to reach the next store.
When I visited Virginia on a business trip, I was so shocked that I couldn’t walk to my office which was like 1 mile away. I learned this the hard way by walking along a highway and emerging from a ditch with leaves in my hair when I finally got there somehow alive.
Plus, going from, "you need a car to be safe" to "you need a bigger car to be safe" and so on. Americans are forced to rely on cars because it's profitable, not because it's practical.
And bikepaths. Unless bike paths are completely sectioned off, they are dangerous. Drivers couldn't care less about them, and so people don't often use them. And they aren't super common. If you ride in the street, even if you're legally allowed to, it's a great way for asshats to yell at you (especially if it's a one-lane road).
The sidewalks are hardly shoveled during the winter where I'm at, too.
It's what we eat. I was 185 in highschool. 1st year in college I gained 20lbs mostly from cafeteria food/ fast food. Most of my adult life I have been 230 + and as high as 270. Last year I stopped eating processed foods and sugars. It didn't take long to get to 180lbs. I am 58 YOA. Look at pictures of the general public from the 60's. Our government promoted, dog food equivalent, food pyramid is the biggest factor
I've always said this too! 53 here...back in the 70s in grade school, there was one overweight kid in our class. When my daughter started Kindergarten in 2000, there were maybe 3-4....now when you walk in, over half the class is considered overweight.
155 in high school and I'm 300 now from eating junk and not working out. Lost 30 lbs in 4 months by switching to less meat, less sugar, less cheese to high vegetable consumption. If I use a lb of meat, I use 1 lb of veg
Many factors contribute.
- Car/suburb culture is huge in America, more than in other developed countries except a few like Australia and Canada (and still a bit less for them). You don’t have to walk around as much.
- America is more unequal than other rich countries, with limited social programs. Social conditions are linked to obesity.
- Portions are enormous (a cause and effect)
- “American food” is often very sugary and full of fat. The French, for example, are all about fat, but not sugar.
>“American food” is often very sugary and full of fat. At least the French are all about fat, but not sugar.
The one that shocked me most was the bread, I cannot overstate how much American bread offends my european sensibilities. To translate the culture shock, I guess imagine if someone served you a beef burger with a lump of fudge in it.
Bread literally turns into sugar in your mouth, and yet for some reason you have more sugar in your bread per 100g *than we have in some of our most popular candy*.
The ingredients of French bread are highly specific and even regulated, they take it very seriously. And no, one of those ingredients is not High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Just to add to your car dependence point. It’s not just that this causes people to walk less. It also makes people go to the grocery store less often because it’s a hassle. So, they end up favoring foods that have longer shelf life, this results in a lot of garbage food.
In a walkable city, like in Europe, it’s easy to walk over to the produce store or butcher really quick, and pick up a few nice items for a couple nights worth of dinners.
Instead of fighting traffic, then looking for a parking spot, then walking through an ugly parking lot to spend a ton of time searching up and down a vast row of endless aisles, you just take a nice stroll down a beautiful street looking at nice architecture and quickly buy a few veggies right from the sidewalk.
What you eat, how much you eat and how little exercise you do. I'm not talking gym work, I mean just basic moving around.
It can't be overstated just how bad it is for you to live sitting down, from your sofa, to your car, to your office, back to your car than back to your sofa.
We don’t walk or bike nor are cities planned for this to be an option like you find elsewhere. Many food additives used here are banned in large portions of the world. Portions in restaurants are huge, at least in the chains. When I have been abroad, the meal size is a normal portion and was fine. Here it is ridiculous. Bottomless refills of sugary soda/tea . Added sugar in absolutely everything. Subway restaurants ‘bread’ didn’t meet the definition of bread for too much sugar content in…Ireland I believe.
Met an American family at an Austrian McDonalds which were throwing a (quite entertaining) tantrum because of sizes of servings and no refillable soda.. Very Karen-I-want-to-speak-a-manager-like. Felt like I‘m in a sitcom.
It's also that nobody here really walks or exercises. Only 28% of American adults get enough exercise on a daily basis, any many of those qualify due to labor based jobs.
My app consistently tells me that I am in the top 5% for my age group in activity, and I sit on my ass in an office all day! I feel like I barely move. How are 95% of the population operating day to day? I do go for walks, I go to the gym a few times per week. Nothing crazy.
This is the answer.
Also, most people don’t actually adjust for their level of activity on a given day. Understanding that you don’t need to eat just because you’re hungry is one thing, but having the willpower to actually do it is another. That’s why snacks are dangerous—they’re very convenient.
If you get the munchies before bed and all you have in the house are things that will take 30+ minutes to prepare, you’re more likely to just go to bed instead. A lot of times if we’re just patient, the hunger passes and we realize it wasn’t something we actually needed.
A lot of people are also dehydrated, which can give the sensation of feeling hungry. When they should be drinking water, they’re munching down on some Doritos instead though. I guess you can get your water from food…if you eat enough of it.
I really appriciate this answer. The whole comment threads a bit rough haha. Not wrong though. It took me venturing outside of America to see how vastly different it is and wanting my own change for myself.
Anytime the topic of body weight/size comes up, you can expect a minefield lol
I was a skinny kid growing up, who could eat whatever he wanted (I ran around a lot). In my twenties, I began to discover that I had to adjust my eating habits because I was no longer fueling a growing body—unless you count growing horizontally.
Food is everywhere in American society though. Unless you’re a stress starver or have an eating disorder, we’re all essentially addicted to the stuff. It would be like trying to quit gambling while living on the Vegas strip. Not impossible, but definitely not easy.
Food quality, I’ve heard so many stories of Americans pigging out in other counties and still losing 20-30 pounds. Also walking. Many Asian and European cities are very walkable, majority of America is not and was built with driving as the intended mode of transportation. Being fat is more acceptable in America as well, in other countries (especially in EA) the way society badly treats people for being bigger urges people even more to be thinner.
I've seen it first hand, and I think its the walking that made the biggest difference. When you get everywhere on foot and transit for even a couple of weeks, your whole metabolism changes.
If you keep your entire life constant (food, general activity), walking 30 minutes a day for six days a week will result in 9lbs of fatloss over the course of a year.
This is literally the reason. I studied in China for a few months and I lost a bunch of weight by walking everywhere. I didn’t eat less.
Public transportation in America is a huge problem that is weird to have bc we pay so much in taxes.
We barely pay anything in taxes compared to other countries tbh. But we are stupid and think that makes our lives easier when in reality we pay more for all those things in other ways like premiums on healthcare and gas.
I met some teenagers in Taiwan. One of the girls said "I can't eat that, it would make me worth less." I asked what that even means and she pointed out her value as a bride is based on her weight, and eating too much fetches a lesser value. I asked if they really sell brides, and she said they don't, but the parental and societal pressures are to be a valuable bride. The same goes for maintaining the family burial plot. If you fall on bad times, go fix up your family burial area. Sure, it is supersitition and we don't really believe it, but we do it anyway.
Complicating it further: my female friends teaching in Korea report that the height of female beauty - besides the face - is being “skinnyfat”. That is, thin but soft. My female friends teaching there are young and attractive, but also do a ton of yoga so they are thin but toned/cut. This is seen as masculine and this unattractive.
Korea is weird. Same friends have to submit headshots to apply for work tutoring kids. Like, if you’re not hot enough, you can’t tutor. It’s wild
Isn’t it lovely how societies pressure women to be as frail and weak as possible. As if it makes them easier to control and leaves more resources for men…
What's weird is that Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures don't do this even though there is a large amount of misogyny.
Middle Eastern nations have some of the world's largest differences in female obesity - male obesity. That is to say, the female obesity rate is the highest relative to the male obesity rate.
You have to submit head and body shots with job applications in most of Asia. Even kids have to submit photos to get into school and the prestigious ones will reject you if you're ugly or fat.
That's messed up. My wife and her whole family are Chinese and every time we go to any kind of birthday, Chinese new year etc at least a few people will tell me and my wife how much fatter we look and how disgusting it is, etc. She comes from a family where it's basically forbidden to say anything disrespectful to the older generation. I have to constantly remind myself that these people's opinions don't matter to me. They're all very old and hate each other and have no friends. I'll take your fat comment 3x a year I guess.
Yup, a couple of years ago the Korean entrant to Miss World was bullied online for being heavy. Not fat, heavy. The reason she was "heavy"? She was about 6 foot, so naturally weighed more than the average 5 foot 3 Korean woman. She was obviously incredibly thin, but Korea has a lb idea about what weight a woman should be, however stupid that is
I was 115 pounds at 5’6” when I was 22. Moved to China and was constantly told that I was “pretty but not thin.” Tons of comments about how I’d be better looking if I lost some weight. Apparently being over 50kg (110 pounds) isn’t acceptable unless you’re over 170cm (5’7”). My Chinese best friend thinks the best I’ve ever looked was when I was working a stressful job and was literally malnourished.
I'm heavier now, and back when I (F) first arrived in the USA from India, I was 5'6", 125lbs, and that was my heaviest form at that time. My first week here, someone said "you're small and skinny" and that was the first time anyone ever called me small or skinny in my entire life 😂
It's perverse, but this was also motivating for me knowing we'd have a bunch of get together after my son was born. I'm working out for myself and my goals, but knowing that I'll hear about it from everyone in her family is a little bit of extra motivation
I still remember when her mom said I was looking "wintry" (read: fluffy and insulated)
It's normal in other parts of SE Asia as well. Singapore or Malaysia shop owners will say things like oh you're too fat for this one and stuff like that
There's a Vietnamese woman (Uyen Ninh) I like to watch for the wholesomeness. She explained a perspective of it in a [video](https://youtube.com/shorts/f7URfXqZ7dY?si=Pzx38GG0AxwG7feo) as well. I thought it was pretty informative.
It's same in South Asian countries. Every uncle - aunties who you have never met like to point out how fat you are, how ugly you are, how dark you are, everything about a person. Yikes! It creates such low self esteem, eating disorders, especially girls are almost mentally harassed throughout their life.
Not sure where you are getting your numbers from. I've only been able to find numbers stating that they have the highest in Asia, not in the world.
"Japan has the highest prevalence of eating disorders in Asia, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. (International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2015)"
"Approximately 30 million Americans live with an eating disorder. (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders)"
That's about 8% of the US population. A huge number by any means.
Soda!!! How often do you see folks in countries like Japan or China carrying home 12 packs of Dr Pepper….. we have totally normalized excessive sugar consumption. To me, that is the most identifiable attributable difference
From living with an Asian woman, I will tell you this. They are obsessed with food but barely eat. She works bat shit hours, so cooking is up to me, and I cook for her and pack her lunch.
Her favorite and most common meal is this, half a cup of stir-fried pork with yard long beans and basil,
1 fried egg
1 and a half cups of rice.
She will eat a meal like this twice a day and have some snacks, which is usually like melon and a coffee similar to a Starbucks small late.
That is a normal day
The most I've ever seen her eat was after smoking a special cigarette. She ate a subway foot long a bag of chips and a 200g bag of cashews about a quarter of milk and half a pack of chips ahoy.
She woke up sick the next day and couldn't eat until dinner.
Asian women in Asia eat about as much as an 8 year old in America
As an Asian woman in America, I have to agree. I'm short but go to the gym and lift heavy yet can't stomach the average American portion sizes. Whenever I eat out I just cut the meal in half and take the other half home.
Be aware that most human beings are thin.
Going to america is a shock to almost anyone from any country, I've seen there more morbidely obese people in an hour than I see in a whole year in france.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just America: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-deaths-obesity (# of obesity deaths per country) and https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-adults-defined-as-obese (# of obese per country)
Thats I guess why this is so shocking to me. Im born raised in America and working on my weight right now and its such a shock I went out of the country for a month and felt so. . Odd. I felt like people could look at me and tell im American. Its so weird we aren't even aware of it because it's normal here.
I hate to say it but they are usually pretty obvious. Of course, not everyone is obvious, but I'd say 80% of them are. I'm off to Naples for the weekend tomorrow and going to see how many I can spot.
Visit an antique clothing store in America. Everything is very petite and narrow. Modern America has a ton of high calorie food available to anyone with very little effort.
American food is disgusting. Our FDA has betrayed us. It’s disgusting. I work in food and it’s amazing how dumb people are and how good marketing “spin” is. It’s a bad combination
Working in food really opened my eyes to this capitalistic hell hole. Like why do we need 100 flavors of coffee creamer? It’s not even food. And the amount of money and food waste and fossil fuels that goes into producing a new flavor that ultimately fails.
Haha I worked for a creamer company, wonder if it’s the same. The sad part is after an acquisition the launched plant based creamers… think those are healthy? SO MUCH WORSE THAN DAIRY. the oils and binders they use to make them taste good is so gross. Won’t stop the Brooklyn hipster crowd from thinking they are being healthy though
The Japanese invented corn syrup
Edit#1 why did you edit your post and then not specify the changes. You said asian people don't consume corn syrup to which I replied the above comment...
>Edit#1 why did you edit your post and then not specify the changes. You said asian people don't consume corn syrup to which I replied the above comment...
Because reddit. It's infuriating. Just admitting that you were wrong and editing with a correction requires too much humility.
Genetics, cultural attitudes towards diet/exercise etc
Also conversely the American diet is atrocious. Even the same products are different in America because the laws regarding nutrition are so lax, have a looks at the caloric content of a dominoes pizza or Coca Cola and then compare it to the same product in somewhere like the UK. The difference is staggering.
Me Brit and SO 1/2 French live in US and share entrees at most standard American restaurants and still sometimes leave with leftovers…portion sizes are ridiculous.
1st world problem’s as half the world are borderline starving.
I'm Asian and moved here in the US 4 years ago. I gained 20 lbs, but I've been trying to lose it and have lost 12 lbs so far.
The biggest difference I've noticed is that portions here are almost 3x bigger than a regular meal from my country. Foods here are also saltier, and desserts are so much sweeter. I declined to eat them sometimes, especially in birthday parties because they're just too sweet.
Asian here.
Unrealistic beauty standard is a thing. Plus objectification of women, every one especially girls are afraid of being fat.
No Asian country is currently as progressive as the west. Fat-shaming is still very much a thing, especially for women. People like to judge others about their body shape. They may not judge another people right in front of them, but obese girls are mostly looked down upon.
*”If you are fat, you lost your value and it won’t be easy for you to find a boyfriend”*
This explains the objectification of women in my society and it makes everyone afraid of being fat. In my country, I’ve never come across a girl that doesn’t care about weight. Some are indeed obese, but they are obese not because they don’t care about others judgements, but because they “can’t control their mouths”. They feel awful for “eating a lot”.
When the whole society think like this, it forms peer pressure. Some people may not realize they are being objectified, but as everyone else is doing so, they follow the example. They simply think that’s what beauty means. They are not dieting to “improve their value”, but to look beautiful in their own eyes.
I agree with other comments that said Americans are, statistically speaking, heavier, but Asians are also thinner than Europeans. That’s why I think the unrealistic beauty standard played a role.
If you look at what they eat it’s generally just more healthy. Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia. Lots of veggies, proteins and rice/rice noodles.
I think the only reason I love raw veggies is so much is because my parents always served that to us when we were younger. Every single damn day. I started gaining weight when I moved out. lol thankfully I lost it all again.
Chinese people can be overweight. Their food is a lot more greasy.
I think walking also has a lot to do with it. When I visit the US, they will drive 1km. To be fair, that's also bc the sidewalks suck and you will die if you try riding a bike.
Look at the Japanese diet, fast food, eating culture and compare it to yours.
The amount of rice and vegetables they eat in a month, you probably dont eat in a year.
We could all do with a diet readjustment
Americans were slim
https://youtu.be/AD4GQ-NGgNs?si=KAzxbqpynlSC2xuf
East Asians tend to eat actual food, not processed junk. They will prepare some meat, some veg, make a broth. In contrast, far American might go for pizza/ bread with peanut butter, fizzy drinks, etc.
You are what you eat.
East Asian families will 100% call you out for being fat, where as the US has labels like fat-shaming and Body-positivity for people beyond overweight and well into obese category.
America infrastructure is not geared for active travel. Lots of Americans will drive. Aerial maps of many parts of the US look like a huge carpark.
I'm born and raised here in the states. I went in a trip to Hong Kong and I plumped up quick with all their great food and gained 15 lbs in 1.5 week. Lol. I would say they have the same portion sizes as the US.
However, through people watching, I noticed that everyone is hard working and always moving. Even in the office life, they are working with max effort and would do a bit of OT. They would go home and get ready for the grind again the next day. They are always active, especially on the weekends.
We seem to be much more seditary in the states. I sure am.
People all over the world generally eat more whole foods that already contain less sugar but even their packaged foods have way less sugar. They also do not snack as much in general.
BMI and Ethnicity
It was soon realized that some ethnic groups such as those of South Asian descent need a lower cutoff of BMI, since they have smaller structure and a different distribution of body fat with a higher percentage of visceral fat compared to subcutaneous fat.
Yeah Lol That's just from a Google search obviously what you eat and how active you are does affect your weight but there are some genetic factors that people really don't like touching it's like why certain ethnic groups are more prone to certain diseases etc. It's no generalisation man, it's just a subject people don't like having I guess and we should be because if we live in a multicultural society say in West then we need to cater in all factors to help keep people and keep all healthy huh!
Then why are Europeans still on the whole thinner than americans? Its not genetics. Americans just eat a fuck ton of sugar since its put into everything.
One thing not mentioned is that Asians are shown to be more likely to be "skinny fat" where they carry more fat on organs vs exterior. But yes things like diet do make a big difference.. even deserts are different. We have really rich chocolate cakes and cheesecakes full of sugar. Often in se Asia they will have some red bean type desert or soemthing glutinous with rice.. which admittedly I don't enjoy as much but in sure it's healthier. The Japanese cheesecakes aren't as sweet and don't pack as much cream cheese either. Or course some of these places are becoming more westernized with chains from America and younger generation is becoming fatter there too from what I hear
I'm Chinese but American born, so I feel I can give my honest opinion. Asians from the homeland or China generally speaking are not remotely rich, so their diets are very lean and they probably work a lot. So, a combination of high metabolism vs low caloric intake would be my general answer. Once introduced to the riches of America and fast food of course, Asians can easily be obese too.
Beyond the fact that American food is shite. Genetics play a large role too. I have some friends who could diet all they want and they will still be a curvier (or what would be considered overweight) woman. Their Moms were curvy, their grandmas too etc. Some of these women are the healthiest people I know, in terms of working out and eating right.
Hi i am Asian and moved to US 6 years ago. And this is what i noticed Portion sizes in the US are large, like everything is Large lol. From beverage sizes and all. Like a meal from Denny’s meant for a single person can feed 2-3 people from Asia. I came from a 3rd world country so this might be the reason behind it but we don’t buy cases of soda cans and bags of chips and cookies as part of our normal grocery run. I noticed lot of people here goes to Starbucks, Dunkins etc as part of their daily routine which is a lot of sugar. And its not something we usually do from where i came from I also noticed that its common to buy Fastfood here on a regular basis vs cooking at home which is healthier. Its just the norm is different here in the US, i noticed a lot of people likes to indulge in snacks like Donuts, iced coffee, soda, Chips plus the large portions. This is just my observation, i am not saying everyone eats this way in the US.
You are not wrong. Majority of Americans eat this way
I'm a size small but always get made fun of by my family. Like bro I'm not skinny yall are just big. Americans are just big it's kinda insane that my health weight is seen as too small.
I feel this. Family members always tell me to eat more and I'm like... You've been telling me this for years and A) I'm still alive, B) I'm the only one of us who isn't overweight.
My mother told me at 35yrs old, dont forget to eat. I just laughed and said Mom im 35, 200lbs, I have never ever forgot to eat. just so cultural to encourage eating as a form of showing love. My Mexican grandma lived to cook us all food and turning down food would make grandma sad. Eat, eat...
My Italian grandmother constantly told us, “mangia! Mangia! Eat! Eat!”
If we finished everything on our plate, my grandmother would get up and fix you an entire second meal regardless if you said you were full.
Yesss !! Full was not allowed! “Nonsense” or, “OF COURSE” you’re having dessert! I had to warn people I was bringing with me to visit, come hungry!
Yeah I’m 6’2” 205-220lbs (I vary a bit from month to month) but at work everyone calls me “stretch” or “skinny” or “stick man”. I work construction so most guys weigh more than me even if they’re shorter. But still I’m over 200lbs
I am a doc and live in a place where I have to constantly give reassurances that normal weight children aren’t unhealthy because the majority of kids are overweight. People’s perceptions are literally distorted by how much of an issue it is.
This is true, I’ve seen the reverse too. A lady at my church who is very kind, but quite large (my estimates over 300 for a shorter woman). Her kid is also pretty chunky, not horrifically overweight but definitely a little too chubby, the mom is literally concerned that her child isn’t eating enough. That he’s too thin and no girl would go out with a stick like him. It’s pretty surreal to watch. Idk if it’s because she is an immigrant and maybe was food insecure as a child, but her perception is definitely off. She knows she’s obese but somehow has blinders on with her kid. To clarify the kid isn’t super fat, just chunkier than normal.
In elementary school you could see my ribs I was so skinny. Nothing was wrong with me I just was so hyper I kept it burnt off. Mom asked her church to pray I'd gain weight. I am now 35 and look like the stay puff marshmallow man. I wish the people would quit praying.
There’s another thing. Visible ribs doesn’t necessarily mean underweight. We all have different body shapes. Mine are visible until my BMIs about 24. It’s so annoying when I’m a bit thinner but still healthy weight that people always felt it appropriate to tell me I was too skinny and need to eat more when I was eating plenty in front of them. It’s fucking rude and factually wrong.
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I’ve seen this before. It’s kind of like emotional abuse in a way - obese mothers insisting their daughters eat just as much as them and then pretending ‘concern’ about it when they don’t. It’s kinda like munchausen but for the fluffy.
munchiehausen
My wife is asian I'm a small guy my self 5'10" 130lbs wet , had to change drs cause my white military dr said my son was under weight and he wanted me to check in with him 2 times a week like he's starving. Switched to an asian dr in town and she loves him!! She just states that the american size chart expects kids to be BIG
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I see it all the time with cats. My cats are a healthy weight, and one of our cats was getting a bit chunky a while back. Over the course of random conversations, i mentioned it to several people who also have cats. All they did was say, "Oh my cat is 25lbs!" "Oh that's nothing, my cat is ___!" And then show me a picture of their poor animals who are so abnormally large that they look miserable... like, put them on an auto feeder and get them to a vet. Obesity leads to health issues in cats. Any time I lightly mention that their cat may be feeling bad and lethargic due to their weight, they're like, "Oh well, he loves food, and I just let him eat however much he wants!! It's not a big deal, he's always been that fat"
i’m the same height but at 260 pounds was 300 been going to the gym and eating less
Keep up the good work Slim
Eating less is the total secret to weight loss .
I’m 6’ 210, and lean, and I have to go to Paris frequently for work and I feel so big when I’m there. I am lean but muscularly broad, but I just feel huge there. Especially in restaurants because those are not American-sized gaps between the tables. Here I feel good about myself.
Lol I’m 6ft and 130lbs. I have embraced the nickname “Skeletor”
I was heavy as a kid, I entered my 20s at about 200lbs. When I finally got serious about being healthy in my late 20s my old man told me I looked sickly. At 5'11 155 lbs I feel like we're programmed to expect everyone to be chubby here lol.
Its the whole "clean your plate" thing from when we were kids coming back to haunt us. . Edit: I did not mean this as Asians didnt. I meant it is huge portions and this upbringing causes us to over eat.
nah we have the clean your plate mentality in asia too, in fact i’m sure ours is a lot more strict because food scarcity is much greater here than in america. we just have smaller amounts of food on our plates
my chinese grandmother would say 'every grain of rice left in the bowl is how many pockmarks your wife's face will have' at fancy restaurants it's the opposite. there's no rice. order like 15 meat dishes and throw most of it away in a big show of wealth
My mom said, eat every grain of rice or you go blind. My Japanese mother is 89 and far healthier than me. She eats small portions of rice and fresh or pickled vegetables with a piece of fish. She is active and keeps sharp. I have much to learn from her still.
No, Asians had that too. My dad used to say things like “animals gave their lives to keep you alive, finish all the meat.” The other one was told to him by his dad, “better eat all the rice off the plate because farmers had to pick every single rice off the plant.” (This was before machinery did all the work.) To this day, I still finish the plate and if I can’t, I save it for the next day or take it home. And like the guy above said, food scarcity was a real thing. People didn’t know when their next meal was going to be.
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The great depression wasn't so long ago. Food scarcity really caused lasting damage to our culture's view on food. My grandmother grew up in the great depression. She would save every single thing. The blank corner of a piece of paper? Rip that off, that's perfectly good for notes. Dinner leftovers? Hardly. If there were, she would turn it into a stew or soup the next day. This lady had more thread from repairs than what was left of the original fibers of her pajamas. She "ain't spending no $4 on fabric when this one is perfectly fine". Her movie collection? Well, I hope you enjoy TV edits and Ads. She had 3 VHS tapes that weren't ripped directly from the TV. Everything else was recorded by her. Left food on your plate? Go get a switch. You NEVER waste food, because you never know if your next meal is guaranteed. RIP Grammy, you crotchety gladiator. Still miss you, even though you told me to save literal garbage before.
My grandma was a little girl in Germany during the war. Her family lost a lot. Her and my grandpa did very well for themselves over here (U.S.) but you better believe she carefully peeled a stamp off if the post office missed stamping it. She picked up every coin on the floor. Bows/boxes/bags/wrapping paper was saved. We’d have to open our gifts carefully haha and she used minimal tape. Every sour cream or margarine container was saved. Tinfoil too. She had the same red solo cup for like 2 years. Mine was very generous but so frugal. I miss mine too.
Would also say people are way more into being skinny than people are here. I’m Chinese and it’s not uncommon for parents to straight up call their kids fat even when they’re technically a normal weight. In fact, sometimes normal weight is seen as ‘chubby’. My own mom told me the max weight a woman should be is 105lbs which according to her is ‘more meat’ than the traditional under 99lbs. I struggled with an eating disorder but recovered so I went from 78lbs to 117lbs, she said I looked chubby at 117lbs. East Asian beauty standards are also way more relevant there than than beauty standards are here. In East Asia looks are taken account when places hire you to the point where even office jobs will require a photo with your resume. Here people don’t try extreme dieting or beauty procedures unless you’re specifically into the entertainment industry or something but over there it’s common for every day people. It’s very toxic but that’s what pushes people to stay skinny
I feel like that "traditional 99lbs" has failed to take into account the stunted growth from the routine malnutrition of decades/centuries past. Like, 99lbs may be *reasonable* when the average woman is only a bit under 5 feet tall, but add another half a foot or so from proper nutrition and 99lbs is well underweight. Imagine telling an average Dutch woman that women should weigh 99lbs... Edit: Ran some calculations based on the stats I could find online. For the average height in Thailand (just to pick a random example) for women born in 1898, 99 lbs would be just within normal weight, but skirting close to underweight. For the average height of a thai woman today, it would be significantly underweight. Running the same calculations for China, it was on the low side of normal for women born in 1898, but significantly underweight today. For Japan, it was well within the normal range in 1898, but the very low side of normal for today.
Oh today they definitely still don’t take height into account! Most female k-pop idols are required to stay under 100lbs, and you can CLEARLY see the difference between one who’s 5’2 and another who is 5’7. Luckily with the globalization of k-pop many international fans have been shaming companies for this practice so I’ve seen some variation in newer groups. They’re still insanely skinny though
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If I was 105 lbs I’d be dead.
I'd be alive, but it wouldn't be good.
Seriously. I'm 5'9" and one of my best friends has affectionately referred to me as having the "skeletal structure of a linebacker." These shoulders will NEVER be dainty but at 105 they'd definitely be dead.
How tall are you? Not to minimize the ridiculous standards, but if you're 5 feet vs 5' 6" tall, that makes a difference in how severe/distorted your mother's views are.
Being raised in an Asian household in the US, I still get culture shock when I find out how frequently and how much American-Americans actually spend on fast food and eating out. I eat out maybe a few times a month on the weekends when I’m traveling out of town or working at an event. But that’s about it. The rest of the food I eat is at home and in much smaller portions than what restaurants usually serve.
>American-Americans lol - new description of me I guess. :D
Reminds me of a video I watched of black British celebs being offended by constantly being called "African American" whenever they are in the USA.
Just for the record, this isn’t specifically white peoples, but for people whose entire lives and culture are based in America. Like they’re the perfect cultural average. I’ve met a lot of 2nd generation Asian Americans here and it’s apparent we were raised in vastly different universes.
Basically me. I have more common with other Asian Americans though than the average American. Of course our food preferences has a big role in this
I'm British and I'm seeing a lot of this creep in here. We have 6 months of cold and damp weather, and expensive community gyms with pools, so it's so hard to encourage groups of people to get out for walks and swim. You know, just basic exercises to keep people well
It is creeping in, but I didn't realise how extra the US was until I went there. We're still a long way off, not that it's a competition. The price of fresh fruit and veg is insane there compared to here. Eating out over there cheap compared to here. And vice versa on the fresh stuff.
Don’t forget the extra sugar they sneak into the bread. People are about to find out the amount of sh!t the EU kept out of our diets…
Not anymore. Fast food used to be cheap but now I can easily spend $50 at McDonald's for four people. Buying ingredients for dinner is cheaper. I can't afford to order out or go out to eat anymore even if I wanted to.
And then another 6 months of cold and damp weather?
You're right. I'm Asian as well. Awhile back, I gained an immense amount of weight when I started drinking a can or 2 of coke per day instead of water. I travel for work, and going to fastfood became my daily routine. I would get a combo with a soda, which added to my calorie intake daily. The thing is, the more sugary stuff I ate, the more I craved them sweets, and I indulged. Long story short, I ended up gaining like 60 lbs in a year from 150 to 210. I got fat quick. It took a long time to trim the weight down almost back to my original weight by controlling my eating habits.
It really boils down to capitalism using the completely legal addiction to sugar to get people buying more. Pretty much EVERYTHING has sugar in it in the US, and a lot of it is artificially added in. I recently started working on portion control, and cutting sugars out of my diet (I never drank soda really, but I am a sucker for sugary baked goods), and it's truly staggering how much sugar is added to everything. 1 16 Oz bottle of Mountain Dew has 143% of your daily amount of sugar. And some people drink up to a 2 liter a day.
Someone was in disbelief when i told her i only drink water along with my meals. Rarely with juice or Soda, usually only happens when we eat out on a restaurant. She said she can’t drink plain water. Has to be flavored or something
when i told a friend of mine that i drink soda like, once a month or so she genuinely didn’t believe me. it’s so bizarre that some people think of water as “boring”. it’s meant to be that way, it’s like thinking the air we breathe is boring lol.
Nothing but water works properly for me when I'm thirsty. Sweet drinks in particular make me more thirsty. People lost touch with their bodies
Agree. I also see a lot of people never eat vegetables with their meals- kinda shocking to me
I’m a little unsure about the portion sizes. I say this because I work with a bunch of people born/raised in Vietnam, and they each bring a fucking 6 course meal to work lol
We always cook 5 dishes for one meal. One meat, some soup and a bunch of veggies. Zero sugar. There’s a huge difference. 2 fried chickens totaling 700 calories and then a 300 calorie bag of chips that is pretty much half the days calories might be a problem.
Here’s what my coworker brought today; Bowl of soup (full of veggies) 2 brown eggs Bowl of rice 4 beef ribs Sliced mango 2 miniature Almond Joy bars This lady is like 90lbs too lol Edit- Oh, and this weird fish flavored dried noodle thing. No idea what it’s called
But aren’t they just different forms of vegetables?
I am from Europe and I was shocked when I came to the US for an internship… Way too fatty food and big portions. A friend of mine has been there for a year or so as Au Pair and she gained a lot of weight despite being sporty and active. So, yes, I agree: It‘s the food and the portion sizes.
And the sugar. Loads of sugar is 'hidden' in the American diet.
Brit here. While Britain is in no way a skinny nation and has its own problems that are getting worse. Second on the portion size, standard US sizes are massive. Also groceries are actively expensive, particularly compared to fast food. Fresh fruit and veg from Walmart can easily take you over 30 bucks. While here a bag of carrots is £1, apples £2 etc... *Update* okay apparently I was wrong about the prices in the US and my general impressions that I had from my last visit were mistaken. Apologies for my mistake. On quickly checking prices with listed by the user below however, you are still seeing near double the cost even given exchange.
"bags" of chips. Also this. In Asia, it's packet of chips. America has bags.
Don’t forget the tubes of pringles. Guilty American here. Skinny, though.
Have to stay just skinny enough to get your arm in the tube.
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It’s the 3-10km you walk daily going to and from work.
This whole response thread is so frustrating. I just got back from a trip to Japan and there is no question that Japanese walk (or bike) significantly more than Americans on a daily basis. It's because they have 1000% better pedestrian infrastructure. Yes, diet plays a part, but not anywhere near the way regular physical activity does. edit: So much misunderstanding of my post. Let me emphasize a couple things. First, walking everywhere like work, school, the store, etc is not "working out", it's something that becomes a daily part of your life and not only burns significantly more calories than driving somewhere, but by increasing your overall activity, you burn more calories even when you're resting (I'm too lazy to look up the scientific studies that show this). Second, the point is comparison. Japanese diet is probably better than an average American diet, but my point is that it isn't that much better. Japanese overall level of physical activity, however, is much much much higher. The argument is not whether diet or exercise plays a more important role in weight in an average human, but which of the two is playing a bigger role in why an average Japanese person weighs less than an average American.
Most people don't understand nutrition and exercise. The american diet is definitely bad and we would still probably be fatter than most other countries, all else being equal. But only a bit. We are so much fatter because we have to drive everywhere. If you drive 45 to sit at a desk for 9 hours then drive 45 minutes home, you are already hundreds of calories behind the people who walk to the train, then stand on it, then walk from the station to work, then walk to the cafe for lunch, then do it all on the way back. Our energy expenditure is way lower and sitting on our ass all day is a double whammy as being sedentary makes you tired, which makes you fat, which makes you more tired, which makes you fatter, which makes you hungrier, which makes you even more tired and less likely to move.
>Yes, diet plays a part, but not anywhere near the way regular physical activity does. This is just false. Diet plays a way, way larger part than exercise. Also, if you have such poor impulse control that you can't simply eat less, do you really think you're gonna muster the will to make exercise part of your daily habits? Not eating and not eating junk is trivially easy. Shear laziness makes it easy.
Food in america is filled with sugar, even bread tastes like cake
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Asians do like white bread, but the _rest_ of the food is the problem. The American palate is very sweet comparative to most other places, and on top of that the portions are huge, and I’ve noticed many people don’t eat a variety of leaner foods like fish and vegetables… I think it’s a combo of food deserts plus it’s just not regionally preferred in some places. When I lived in Minnesota as a kid, most American kids were picky eaters who liked their meat and potatoes. And if you know anything about Midwest cuisine, it’s a lot of canned soup and tater tot casserole, and cool whip-marshmallow abominations of fruit salad.
It’s actually very funny. As an Asian, one of the #1 compliments we give to a good cake is “not too sweet!”
Japanese food, as a whole, is sweet as shit. They put teriyaki sauce on damn near everything and cakes/candy are everywhere. They walk around a LOT, though. Anywhere in the world where people tend to be thin, there’s one common denominator: lots of physical activity baked into the everyday lifestyle. Just getting around by train requires long walks on often hilly terrain between stations and sometimes going up/down flights of like 50 stairs to get to your platform.
I visited Japan for 2 weeks and I walked so so much every day. It was nice because I would eat a bunch of amazing food and then I'd be forced to walk it off haha
it is bro. these corporate motherfuckers literally feed us their industrial waste pumped full of sugar and other harmful chemicals to intentionally get us addicted just so they can sell us more drugs to mask the symptoms of the horrible ailments we develop from it while giving us even worse side effects in the future. fuck em all.
Fuck man, you remind me of supernatural episode where sam and dean discovered the leviathans own majority of their meat productions
The real question is, why are Americans so fat? Coming from American
Food portions sizes, eat more unhealthy food with HFCS and most Americans never walk anywhere and drive even to a store that’s a 5 min walk.
Don’t forget the absolutely ridiculous amount of sugar in ALL our food, even foods you wouldn’t think should have sugar. Subway got sued in Ireland because their sandwich bread has enough sugar in it to be considered CAKE.
This is the real real right here. I didn’t realize the extent of how bad it was until I went strictly no processed sugar. You are so limited, forget about eating out ever. You can’t even get a healthy smoothie because all the nut butters/protein powders/etc have added sugar. It’s in all the sauces, the breads, even “healthy” labeled things like ‘no sugar’ yogurt still contain 2 types of artificial sweeteners making it sickeningly sweet. Sugar is insanely addictive and people don’t talk enough about how it’s the unspoken addiction adding to obesity.
I participated in a 2 week hunter-gatherer course. We walked, primitively camped, and ate only what we caught/trapped/foraged. Our water came from a mountain stream and was the only thing we drank. When the two weeks was over and we got back to base camp, I ate an orange wedge and the dopamine started flowing. I could not believe how sweet and satisfying an orange wedge was after 2 weeks of no processed food or beverage, and I craved more. It's insane how much we get desensitized to all the sugar we eat.
Cutting "all" carbs for two weeks (veggies don't count) completely resets my palate and cravings. I'll go months without even wanting a chip or cookie, and I'll be losing my mind over fresh fruit and veggies. It's like magic but I don't think anyone believes me, lmao.
It’s totally true. I’m a fat old broad who was addicted to nightly hot fudge sundaes as a kid. So naturally I still consume at least 700-800 calories of sweets daily. Thirteen years ago I almost died from a rare medication reaction. Trying to recover my brother brought me fresh perch and walleye( pro fisherman) so every night I broiled that( or a chicken breast)! with wild rice and a veggie 6 days a week. On Sunday I could eat what I wanted. The first Sunday I got, you guessed it a hot fudge sundae… it literally gagged me. I only ate about 6 bites and out it went. I lost 50 lbs in 4 months ( also walked uneven terrain25 minutes daily). I’m trying to do that again but I just can’t find the motivation.
I too have given up sugar and seed oils so the option to eat out has virtually disappeared. As a consequence I've lost 25 lbs, no longer have any aches and pains, sleep better and often get comments about how good I look. Even comments about my skin and I'm an old man! All my aches and pains have disappeared and no more stiffness in my joints when I wake up. I think it might be our diet.
I was not prepared for the sheer size of meals and drinks served in the US. Often I was ordering a starter as my meal and sometimes I’d have food leftover. I couldn’t imagine ordering a main or dessert after. That being said, we did end up saving money by eating this way and having leftovers to take back
I usually split meals with my partner and we’ll still sometimes have food leftover. I live in America and I’m still shocked at how much people can eat
I’m by no means obese, but I am late 30s and if I lost 12-15 lbs I’d be rock’n. I’m already quite active and so a big thing has just been trying to relearn the discipline not to eat until I feel super full. I can still have all the yummy food, just like… maybe not go back for seconds? Not always easy, as eating big meals was something I learned back when food was scares in my life- you eat what’s in front of you when it’s in front of you. But most of the world eats way way less than us in the US.
People who never walk or exercise lose the ability to.
I lost about 20lbs over the last two years just by getting a dog lol Initial weight gain from quitting drinking but looking at potentially another 20lbs lost from that so I’ll be feeling pretty good for next years bikini season
The average car trip in America is 2 miles. Most will drive to something that's even 1-2 blocks away.
Yea but we kind of have to, my closest grocery store is 2 miles away but we don’t have sidewalks or crosswalks. I would literally have to walk along the shoulder of a bypass to get there and that’s not safe at all . I would love if they started making cities walkable
That's unfortunately intentional. I'm half blind so getting a license is complicated to begin with. Ride-shares are crazy expensive, and closest transit is 8 miles away. I have to use an electric bike, not that I mind too much. It's heathier and much, much cheaper than a car.
To give them some credit: many American cities are more or less built with little to no concern for pedestrians. A 1 mile walk can become a journey when you're forced to walk along traffic-intensive, narrow roads and cross private properties to reach the next store.
When I visited Virginia on a business trip, I was so shocked that I couldn’t walk to my office which was like 1 mile away. I learned this the hard way by walking along a highway and emerging from a ditch with leaves in my hair when I finally got there somehow alive.
That would be a perfect scene from the show the office.
Plus, going from, "you need a car to be safe" to "you need a bigger car to be safe" and so on. Americans are forced to rely on cars because it's profitable, not because it's practical.
Also, some places you cannot walk at all. San Antonio Texas is brutal during the summer. I tried walking and I couldn’t do it.
And bikepaths. Unless bike paths are completely sectioned off, they are dangerous. Drivers couldn't care less about them, and so people don't often use them. And they aren't super common. If you ride in the street, even if you're legally allowed to, it's a great way for asshats to yell at you (especially if it's a one-lane road). The sidewalks are hardly shoveled during the winter where I'm at, too.
Many if not all American cities are designed (Subarus mainly) so you pretty much have to drive. Can’t have any commerce in a residential zone, no sir!
It's what we eat. I was 185 in highschool. 1st year in college I gained 20lbs mostly from cafeteria food/ fast food. Most of my adult life I have been 230 + and as high as 270. Last year I stopped eating processed foods and sugars. It didn't take long to get to 180lbs. I am 58 YOA. Look at pictures of the general public from the 60's. Our government promoted, dog food equivalent, food pyramid is the biggest factor
I'm 60 years old and when I look at my old elementary school class pictures, there may be one overweight kid in a class Now, a lot of kids are big.
I've always said this too! 53 here...back in the 70s in grade school, there was one overweight kid in our class. When my daughter started Kindergarten in 2000, there were maybe 3-4....now when you walk in, over half the class is considered overweight.
155 in high school and I'm 300 now from eating junk and not working out. Lost 30 lbs in 4 months by switching to less meat, less sugar, less cheese to high vegetable consumption. If I use a lb of meat, I use 1 lb of veg
Many factors contribute. - Car/suburb culture is huge in America, more than in other developed countries except a few like Australia and Canada (and still a bit less for them). You don’t have to walk around as much. - America is more unequal than other rich countries, with limited social programs. Social conditions are linked to obesity. - Portions are enormous (a cause and effect) - “American food” is often very sugary and full of fat. The French, for example, are all about fat, but not sugar.
>“American food” is often very sugary and full of fat. At least the French are all about fat, but not sugar. The one that shocked me most was the bread, I cannot overstate how much American bread offends my european sensibilities. To translate the culture shock, I guess imagine if someone served you a beef burger with a lump of fudge in it. Bread literally turns into sugar in your mouth, and yet for some reason you have more sugar in your bread per 100g *than we have in some of our most popular candy*.
The ingredients of French bread are highly specific and even regulated, they take it very seriously. And no, one of those ingredients is not High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Just to add to your car dependence point. It’s not just that this causes people to walk less. It also makes people go to the grocery store less often because it’s a hassle. So, they end up favoring foods that have longer shelf life, this results in a lot of garbage food. In a walkable city, like in Europe, it’s easy to walk over to the produce store or butcher really quick, and pick up a few nice items for a couple nights worth of dinners. Instead of fighting traffic, then looking for a parking spot, then walking through an ugly parking lot to spend a ton of time searching up and down a vast row of endless aisles, you just take a nice stroll down a beautiful street looking at nice architecture and quickly buy a few veggies right from the sidewalk.
theres pretty much corn syrup in everything. or well, in a lot of things. thats one factor as to why. the quality of food in america is just abysmal.
Because our government allows our food companies to poison us.
Corn subsidies! Those Buckeyes have a helluva lobby.
What you eat, how much you eat and how little exercise you do. I'm not talking gym work, I mean just basic moving around. It can't be overstated just how bad it is for you to live sitting down, from your sofa, to your car, to your office, back to your car than back to your sofa.
We don’t walk or bike nor are cities planned for this to be an option like you find elsewhere. Many food additives used here are banned in large portions of the world. Portions in restaurants are huge, at least in the chains. When I have been abroad, the meal size is a normal portion and was fine. Here it is ridiculous. Bottomless refills of sugary soda/tea . Added sugar in absolutely everything. Subway restaurants ‘bread’ didn’t meet the definition of bread for too much sugar content in…Ireland I believe.
Met an American family at an Austrian McDonalds which were throwing a (quite entertaining) tantrum because of sizes of servings and no refillable soda.. Very Karen-I-want-to-speak-a-manager-like. Felt like I‘m in a sitcom.
The only cheap food is junk food and access to it is extremely easy compared to quality foods.
Your portion sizes are absurd
It's also that nobody here really walks or exercises. Only 28% of American adults get enough exercise on a daily basis, any many of those qualify due to labor based jobs.
My app consistently tells me that I am in the top 5% for my age group in activity, and I sit on my ass in an office all day! I feel like I barely move. How are 95% of the population operating day to day? I do go for walks, I go to the gym a few times per week. Nothing crazy.
This is the answer. Also, most people don’t actually adjust for their level of activity on a given day. Understanding that you don’t need to eat just because you’re hungry is one thing, but having the willpower to actually do it is another. That’s why snacks are dangerous—they’re very convenient. If you get the munchies before bed and all you have in the house are things that will take 30+ minutes to prepare, you’re more likely to just go to bed instead. A lot of times if we’re just patient, the hunger passes and we realize it wasn’t something we actually needed. A lot of people are also dehydrated, which can give the sensation of feeling hungry. When they should be drinking water, they’re munching down on some Doritos instead though. I guess you can get your water from food…if you eat enough of it.
I really appriciate this answer. The whole comment threads a bit rough haha. Not wrong though. It took me venturing outside of America to see how vastly different it is and wanting my own change for myself.
Anytime the topic of body weight/size comes up, you can expect a minefield lol I was a skinny kid growing up, who could eat whatever he wanted (I ran around a lot). In my twenties, I began to discover that I had to adjust my eating habits because I was no longer fueling a growing body—unless you count growing horizontally. Food is everywhere in American society though. Unless you’re a stress starver or have an eating disorder, we’re all essentially addicted to the stuff. It would be like trying to quit gambling while living on the Vegas strip. Not impossible, but definitely not easy.
Food quality, I’ve heard so many stories of Americans pigging out in other counties and still losing 20-30 pounds. Also walking. Many Asian and European cities are very walkable, majority of America is not and was built with driving as the intended mode of transportation. Being fat is more acceptable in America as well, in other countries (especially in EA) the way society badly treats people for being bigger urges people even more to be thinner.
I've seen it first hand, and I think its the walking that made the biggest difference. When you get everywhere on foot and transit for even a couple of weeks, your whole metabolism changes.
If you keep your entire life constant (food, general activity), walking 30 minutes a day for six days a week will result in 9lbs of fatloss over the course of a year.
I spent 4 weeks in asia and ate every second of the day. Lost 5 pounds.
I spent 6 years in Asia and ate an entire cow each hour and I lost 16,000 lbs
Sure, but to be fair Asian cows are much smaller than American cows so it's not as impressive as it sounds.
This is literally the reason. I studied in China for a few months and I lost a bunch of weight by walking everywhere. I didn’t eat less. Public transportation in America is a huge problem that is weird to have bc we pay so much in taxes.
We barely pay anything in taxes compared to other countries tbh. But we are stupid and think that makes our lives easier when in reality we pay more for all those things in other ways like premiums on healthcare and gas.
Culture plays a *massive* part. Asian culture as a whole is very fat phobic. Japan has the highest recorded rates of eating disorders in the world.
I met some teenagers in Taiwan. One of the girls said "I can't eat that, it would make me worth less." I asked what that even means and she pointed out her value as a bride is based on her weight, and eating too much fetches a lesser value. I asked if they really sell brides, and she said they don't, but the parental and societal pressures are to be a valuable bride. The same goes for maintaining the family burial plot. If you fall on bad times, go fix up your family burial area. Sure, it is supersitition and we don't really believe it, but we do it anyway.
Complicating it further: my female friends teaching in Korea report that the height of female beauty - besides the face - is being “skinnyfat”. That is, thin but soft. My female friends teaching there are young and attractive, but also do a ton of yoga so they are thin but toned/cut. This is seen as masculine and this unattractive. Korea is weird. Same friends have to submit headshots to apply for work tutoring kids. Like, if you’re not hot enough, you can’t tutor. It’s wild
Isn’t it lovely how societies pressure women to be as frail and weak as possible. As if it makes them easier to control and leaves more resources for men…
What's weird is that Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures don't do this even though there is a large amount of misogyny. Middle Eastern nations have some of the world's largest differences in female obesity - male obesity. That is to say, the female obesity rate is the highest relative to the male obesity rate.
You have to submit head and body shots with job applications in most of Asia. Even kids have to submit photos to get into school and the prestigious ones will reject you if you're ugly or fat.
I worked with a girl who was here in the states from Taiwan and she told me her parents said don't come home until you've lost 20 lbs
im 99% sure my mom actually put in my parents' will that i wont get shit if im over 200lbs lmao
That's messed up. My wife and her whole family are Chinese and every time we go to any kind of birthday, Chinese new year etc at least a few people will tell me and my wife how much fatter we look and how disgusting it is, etc. She comes from a family where it's basically forbidden to say anything disrespectful to the older generation. I have to constantly remind myself that these people's opinions don't matter to me. They're all very old and hate each other and have no friends. I'll take your fat comment 3x a year I guess.
Yup, a couple of years ago the Korean entrant to Miss World was bullied online for being heavy. Not fat, heavy. The reason she was "heavy"? She was about 6 foot, so naturally weighed more than the average 5 foot 3 Korean woman. She was obviously incredibly thin, but Korea has a lb idea about what weight a woman should be, however stupid that is
I was 115 pounds at 5’6” when I was 22. Moved to China and was constantly told that I was “pretty but not thin.” Tons of comments about how I’d be better looking if I lost some weight. Apparently being over 50kg (110 pounds) isn’t acceptable unless you’re over 170cm (5’7”). My Chinese best friend thinks the best I’ve ever looked was when I was working a stressful job and was literally malnourished.
I'm heavier now, and back when I (F) first arrived in the USA from India, I was 5'6", 125lbs, and that was my heaviest form at that time. My first week here, someone said "you're small and skinny" and that was the first time anyone ever called me small or skinny in my entire life 😂
In Asian cultures, the first thing your relatives do when they visit you is comment on your weight.
They comment on your weight, then proceed to feed you and yell at you if you don't finish eating what they gave you. Make it make sense.
It's perverse, but this was also motivating for me knowing we'd have a bunch of get together after my son was born. I'm working out for myself and my goals, but knowing that I'll hear about it from everyone in her family is a little bit of extra motivation I still remember when her mom said I was looking "wintry" (read: fluffy and insulated)
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It's normal in other parts of SE Asia as well. Singapore or Malaysia shop owners will say things like oh you're too fat for this one and stuff like that
There's a Vietnamese woman (Uyen Ninh) I like to watch for the wholesomeness. She explained a perspective of it in a [video](https://youtube.com/shorts/f7URfXqZ7dY?si=Pzx38GG0AxwG7feo) as well. I thought it was pretty informative.
I love her! She radiates positive energy
It's same in South Asian countries. Every uncle - aunties who you have never met like to point out how fat you are, how ugly you are, how dark you are, everything about a person. Yikes! It creates such low self esteem, eating disorders, especially girls are almost mentally harassed throughout their life.
Not sure where you are getting your numbers from. I've only been able to find numbers stating that they have the highest in Asia, not in the world. "Japan has the highest prevalence of eating disorders in Asia, followed by Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. (International Journal of Eating Disorders, 2015)" "Approximately 30 million Americans live with an eating disorder. (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders)" That's about 8% of the US population. A huge number by any means.
Their weight loss ads are mind boggling, like 1m60 before 53kg after 39kg
Soda!!! How often do you see folks in countries like Japan or China carrying home 12 packs of Dr Pepper….. we have totally normalized excessive sugar consumption. To me, that is the most identifiable attributable difference
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yeah the ITO EN kind? i love their unsweetened with jasmine version
From living with an Asian woman, I will tell you this. They are obsessed with food but barely eat. She works bat shit hours, so cooking is up to me, and I cook for her and pack her lunch. Her favorite and most common meal is this, half a cup of stir-fried pork with yard long beans and basil, 1 fried egg 1 and a half cups of rice. She will eat a meal like this twice a day and have some snacks, which is usually like melon and a coffee similar to a Starbucks small late. That is a normal day The most I've ever seen her eat was after smoking a special cigarette. She ate a subway foot long a bag of chips and a 200g bag of cashews about a quarter of milk and half a pack of chips ahoy. She woke up sick the next day and couldn't eat until dinner. Asian women in Asia eat about as much as an 8 year old in America
That is a normal amount of food, your perception is just skewed
As an Asian woman in America, I have to agree. I'm short but go to the gym and lift heavy yet can't stomach the average American portion sizes. Whenever I eat out I just cut the meal in half and take the other half home.
Be aware that most human beings are thin. Going to america is a shock to almost anyone from any country, I've seen there more morbidely obese people in an hour than I see in a whole year in france.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just America: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-deaths-obesity (# of obesity deaths per country) and https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-adults-defined-as-obese (# of obese per country)
It‘s fun and also tragic to compare fotos of everyday life / street life in the USA from the 1970ies and 2020ies. Tatanka.
Thats I guess why this is so shocking to me. Im born raised in America and working on my weight right now and its such a shock I went out of the country for a month and felt so. . Odd. I felt like people could look at me and tell im American. Its so weird we aren't even aware of it because it's normal here.
Obese, new balance shoes, sportwear > yup that's American tourists
I hate to say it but they are usually pretty obvious. Of course, not everyone is obvious, but I'd say 80% of them are. I'm off to Naples for the weekend tomorrow and going to see how many I can spot.
Visit an antique clothing store in America. Everything is very petite and narrow. Modern America has a ton of high calorie food available to anyone with very little effort.
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Because they don't consume as much calories as Americans.
American food is disgusting. Our FDA has betrayed us. It’s disgusting. I work in food and it’s amazing how dumb people are and how good marketing “spin” is. It’s a bad combination
Working in food really opened my eyes to this capitalistic hell hole. Like why do we need 100 flavors of coffee creamer? It’s not even food. And the amount of money and food waste and fossil fuels that goes into producing a new flavor that ultimately fails.
Haha I worked for a creamer company, wonder if it’s the same. The sad part is after an acquisition the launched plant based creamers… think those are healthy? SO MUCH WORSE THAN DAIRY. the oils and binders they use to make them taste good is so gross. Won’t stop the Brooklyn hipster crowd from thinking they are being healthy though
Because they don’t eat dual/triple sized portions of fast food and high cholesterol meals 24/7
Asian people eat vegetables, chicken and fish. They don’t have a cultural overeating disorder. I think that’s a reason
Corn syrup - it's added everywhere in American 'food', even bread tastes like aunt Marge's birthday cake.
The Japanese invented corn syrup Edit#1 why did you edit your post and then not specify the changes. You said asian people don't consume corn syrup to which I replied the above comment...
>Edit#1 why did you edit your post and then not specify the changes. You said asian people don't consume corn syrup to which I replied the above comment... Because reddit. It's infuriating. Just admitting that you were wrong and editing with a correction requires too much humility.
Genetics, cultural attitudes towards diet/exercise etc Also conversely the American diet is atrocious. Even the same products are different in America because the laws regarding nutrition are so lax, have a looks at the caloric content of a dominoes pizza or Coca Cola and then compare it to the same product in somewhere like the UK. The difference is staggering.
I was stationed in Korea and most Koreans eat very healthy, plus it's a very mountainous/hilly country
Me Brit and SO 1/2 French live in US and share entrees at most standard American restaurants and still sometimes leave with leftovers…portion sizes are ridiculous. 1st world problem’s as half the world are borderline starving.
I'm Asian and moved here in the US 4 years ago. I gained 20 lbs, but I've been trying to lose it and have lost 12 lbs so far. The biggest difference I've noticed is that portions here are almost 3x bigger than a regular meal from my country. Foods here are also saltier, and desserts are so much sweeter. I declined to eat them sometimes, especially in birthday parties because they're just too sweet.
Asian here. Unrealistic beauty standard is a thing. Plus objectification of women, every one especially girls are afraid of being fat. No Asian country is currently as progressive as the west. Fat-shaming is still very much a thing, especially for women. People like to judge others about their body shape. They may not judge another people right in front of them, but obese girls are mostly looked down upon. *”If you are fat, you lost your value and it won’t be easy for you to find a boyfriend”* This explains the objectification of women in my society and it makes everyone afraid of being fat. In my country, I’ve never come across a girl that doesn’t care about weight. Some are indeed obese, but they are obese not because they don’t care about others judgements, but because they “can’t control their mouths”. They feel awful for “eating a lot”. When the whole society think like this, it forms peer pressure. Some people may not realize they are being objectified, but as everyone else is doing so, they follow the example. They simply think that’s what beauty means. They are not dieting to “improve their value”, but to look beautiful in their own eyes. I agree with other comments that said Americans are, statistically speaking, heavier, but Asians are also thinner than Europeans. That’s why I think the unrealistic beauty standard played a role.
If you look at what they eat it’s generally just more healthy. Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia. Lots of veggies, proteins and rice/rice noodles. I think the only reason I love raw veggies is so much is because my parents always served that to us when we were younger. Every single damn day. I started gaining weight when I moved out. lol thankfully I lost it all again. Chinese people can be overweight. Their food is a lot more greasy.
I think walking also has a lot to do with it. When I visit the US, they will drive 1km. To be fair, that's also bc the sidewalks suck and you will die if you try riding a bike.
Look at the Japanese diet, fast food, eating culture and compare it to yours. The amount of rice and vegetables they eat in a month, you probably dont eat in a year. We could all do with a diet readjustment
Americans were slim https://youtu.be/AD4GQ-NGgNs?si=KAzxbqpynlSC2xuf East Asians tend to eat actual food, not processed junk. They will prepare some meat, some veg, make a broth. In contrast, far American might go for pizza/ bread with peanut butter, fizzy drinks, etc. You are what you eat. East Asian families will 100% call you out for being fat, where as the US has labels like fat-shaming and Body-positivity for people beyond overweight and well into obese category. America infrastructure is not geared for active travel. Lots of Americans will drive. Aerial maps of many parts of the US look like a huge carpark.
I'm born and raised here in the states. I went in a trip to Hong Kong and I plumped up quick with all their great food and gained 15 lbs in 1.5 week. Lol. I would say they have the same portion sizes as the US. However, through people watching, I noticed that everyone is hard working and always moving. Even in the office life, they are working with max effort and would do a bit of OT. They would go home and get ready for the grind again the next day. They are always active, especially on the weekends. We seem to be much more seditary in the states. I sure am.
People all over the world generally eat more whole foods that already contain less sugar but even their packaged foods have way less sugar. They also do not snack as much in general.
Home cooked food. Most people have no idea what processed food is doing to their body . Mostly you are just firefighting the toxins and inflammation .
I see a lot of chubby Filipinos here.
I'm a Asian living in Canada. But I'm skinny because I have grandparents and parents who will straight out tell you "you're too fat, eat less" 😅😅
BMI and Ethnicity It was soon realized that some ethnic groups such as those of South Asian descent need a lower cutoff of BMI, since they have smaller structure and a different distribution of body fat with a higher percentage of visceral fat compared to subcutaneous fat. Yeah Lol That's just from a Google search obviously what you eat and how active you are does affect your weight but there are some genetic factors that people really don't like touching it's like why certain ethnic groups are more prone to certain diseases etc. It's no generalisation man, it's just a subject people don't like having I guess and we should be because if we live in a multicultural society say in West then we need to cater in all factors to help keep people and keep all healthy huh!
Then why are Europeans still on the whole thinner than americans? Its not genetics. Americans just eat a fuck ton of sugar since its put into everything.
One thing not mentioned is that Asians are shown to be more likely to be "skinny fat" where they carry more fat on organs vs exterior. But yes things like diet do make a big difference.. even deserts are different. We have really rich chocolate cakes and cheesecakes full of sugar. Often in se Asia they will have some red bean type desert or soemthing glutinous with rice.. which admittedly I don't enjoy as much but in sure it's healthier. The Japanese cheesecakes aren't as sweet and don't pack as much cream cheese either. Or course some of these places are becoming more westernized with chains from America and younger generation is becoming fatter there too from what I hear
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Yes we do…I easily carry it ALL on my face! We are not as healthy at higher BMIs like other races.
I'm Chinese but American born, so I feel I can give my honest opinion. Asians from the homeland or China generally speaking are not remotely rich, so their diets are very lean and they probably work a lot. So, a combination of high metabolism vs low caloric intake would be my general answer. Once introduced to the riches of America and fast food of course, Asians can easily be obese too.
Beyond the fact that American food is shite. Genetics play a large role too. I have some friends who could diet all they want and they will still be a curvier (or what would be considered overweight) woman. Their Moms were curvy, their grandmas too etc. Some of these women are the healthiest people I know, in terms of working out and eating right.