Moving to Germany do not know what to expect for food!

I am from Germany myself and find it easy to eat healthy. It mostly depends on the choices you make when shopping. For packaged/processed food you will always find nutritional value and ingredients somewhere on the back. Also, I believe regulations concerning food origins and labeling are much stricter than in most other countries.
Every shop that I know offers a large variety of fruits and vegetables. Also in most rural regions there are still local farmers that will sell their goods to you. The good thing about that is that you don't have to keep to opening hours of shops. The ones that I know just leave milk/eggs in a fridge outside of their house where you can take whatever you need and leave the money in a nearby box.

3 years is quite some time. I'm sure you'll be fine after you have settled in

I have been doing so well lately in terms of keeping up with my calories and exercise, I'm really worried about this move.

My husband is military and we are about to go to Germany (Bavaria) for 3 years! As exciting as that is, I have no idea what kinda of foods to expect to see...my husband was basically raised there and being 6'3 240lbs he can't wait to eat everything...me I'm a little paranoid because as much as I want to enjoy my new surroundings I do not want to ruin my weight loss that's happened so far.

I'm glad that most of Europe has banned gmo, so that's great that I will not have to worry about that anymore. Germany is well known for it's fattening food.

Anyone have personal experience on what to eat to not tip the scales overseas?

my aunt moved to Germany for a bit for her husbands job and they loved it
also I remember her telling us her fridge was super small so she had to shop a lot and that means buying a lot of fresh veggies and fruit etc
you'll be fine just buy your veggies and produce and cook every day
also you tend to walk everywhere to travel around and see the sites so you will naturally get more exercise in

good luck!

My dad was stationed in Zweibruecken from '85-'90 (that base closed in the 90s). It's been a minute since I've been over there, but here's my take:

1. The base you'll be on is a tiny island of America in a sea of Germany. On this island you will be able to find (almost) everything you found in the States. There will be familiar American food in the commissary and the restaurants on base. Easy to count calories and portion foods. No problem.

2. Off base, you may have a bit more difficulty. Figuring out how many calories are in your Gasthaus meal of wild game and spaetzle will be daunting at first. Take your German/English dictionary and translate any foods you don't recognize. Write down everything, with portion sizes estimated, and enter it later when you get home. Don't let weight loss goals come between you and some amazing German food, but don't go crazy either.

3. As other posters have said, walk and bike everywhere.

4. Do your best to learn the language. In my experience, Germans are extremely helpful and friendly, especially if they see you are trying your best to meet them on their terms.

Have fun! :drinker:

I've been living in Austria for the last decade and I can tell you that yes the food is nice and fattening here, but it is not snack food they are meals and smaller portions generally (unless you eat at a restaurant that caters to tourists with large portions). I will give you some tips to follow:

1) Since hubby is in the military you will have access to the commissary shopping. Avoid this. Take advantage that you are not in the US for now and change your diet. The commissary is full of American snack food, condiments etc. Especially avoid things like butterball turkeys and stuffing around the holidays. You can get a local free range bird and make your own stuffing and gravy from scratch with so much less fat, salt and sugar. Someone mentioned mexican food. God I love mexican food, but you don't need to buy prepacked spices or tortillas you can make everything from scratch and it is so much better for you without the MSG and other additives. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/taco-seasoning-i/ and http://www.annies-eats.com/2014/05/05/corn-tortillas-from-scratch/ for example.

2) Find your local farmer's market and get an app like http://dict.leo.org/ and start learning the German words for things! Produce is very seasonal in Europe so you need to learn what dishes to make and what times of year. Anyway cook a lot of food from scratch there are no preservatives! And cut back on salt (use sea salt like Maldon instead of table salt it is a bit stronger so you can use less).

3) Get a bike with a basket (some cities have "citybikes" free for an hour from station to station) and a pair of running shoes and try not driving around all the time. There are MANY parties in the expat / military community so make sure you get in a lot exercise so you don't miss out at that BBQ beer bash or ball.

4) A lot of German bread is roggenmehl or black bread so it is easier to skip than big fluffy loaves of white bread everywhere. Try not to eat a lot of bread or pastries for breakfast.

5) Beer is pretty easy to count... Normal lager is about 200 cal per half liter 0,5l about 20 minutes of jogging. Try to fit in an hour of running in your day and you can down 3 beers at night!

6) Amazon.de is your friend but also your worst enemy you can get anything on there including food. Need to find something in English? Try ordering it from Amazon.co.uk

I don't know Germany very well but I've lived in many different parts of the world and there's no reason you can't eat pretty much like you do at home. European food is labeled with nutritional information -- slightly different than in the U.S., but actually easier to read and measure because everything is metric and done by 100 g. As for restaurants and the local fare, just be reasonable and eat in moderation. It's not like you're moving someplace so very different...you're even going to be on a U.S. military base...that's like not leaving the country at all. LOL

I was stationed in Stuttgart from 2000-2002 and absolutely loved it over there.

One thing that helped with all of the wonderful food over there was all of the walking that I did. Most things were within walking distance and I found that area to be very pedestrian friendly. Walk for exercise, get familiar with the area and enjoy the beautiful scenery.

I am from the Black Forest and just would like to point out that from there to Stuttgart 220kms, which I believe is about 140 miles. Of course on the Autobahn it is a quick 220 kms, but still worthwhile pointing out that Stuttgart and the Black Forest are not close.

Ah - here we see a cultural difference. I grew up in Michigan, in the American Midwest, in a town called Kalamazoo. It is about 220 km from Chicago, and I consider Chicago to be close to Kalamazoo. I now live in Massachusetts, about 1300 km from my home town. That is far. The guitarist Adrian Legg, who is English, once remarked at a concert that I attended that the difference between the US and the UK is that in the UK, 100 miles is a long distance, and in the US, 100 years is a long time.

OP: I lived in Berlin for a year, and have made a few trips back in self-catered apartments. In my experience, German supermarkets have excellent produce. But if you have smaller merchants nearby - greengrocers/vegetable stands, cheese shops, butcher shops, bakeries, etc. - you can get more personal service and higher quality goods.

ETA: Back in 1996, my wife and I drove from Chicago to San Francisco via I-90 to Spokane, then down to Portland OR and along the coast to SF. It was about 2750 miles, or 4400 km. We had to tell our French friends that it was like driving from Paris to Baku, Azerbaijan.

I lived there for a while during my High School Days. Worry not, the commissary is rather good. You can walk between Vilseck and Graf.. I actually found German's to be rather understanding but you know people are people; they vary between each other. I also lived in Frankfurt, Ansbach, (Katerbach)and a few other cities I can't remember how to spell. I loved walking around on cobblestone and the variety in food at markets. I miss the chocolate, the curry ketchup, and snitz. Total, I spent a sum of six years there. I miss the swimming complexes too.

I have been warned by many people (and in my overseas military briefing!) about how rude Germans can and usually are to Americans but I refuse to accept that everyone is like that and I look forward to meeting new people there and learning more about my husbands family in Germany and my own heritage.

I wouldn't say they're rude, it's just that Americans are so exceptionally friendly that we tend to misinterpret their behaviour as "rude." First, let me preface this by saying I'm an ESL teacher and have students from all over the world (although primarily from Asia and the Middle East). Almost *all* of them have told me, "Americans are SO friendly!" as if it's weird to them...because their cultures are not as overtly friendly. To give some examples, one Chinese student asked me "I was walking down the hallway and a stranger told me he liked my shoes...I didn't know him, why would he say that?" or "Why would someone I don't know smile and say 'hi' to me when we pass each other on the sidewalk?"

This is the kind of thing you won't see most Germans doing. I studied in Saxony (Dresden) for a summer and that was one of the biggest differences I noticed. People don't talk to you if you're sitting next to them on the bus, people don't make small-talk with strangers waiting at the tram stop, and if you pass someone on the sidewalk, it's pretty much as if you don't exist to each other. They're also generally "quieter" and will talk less to their friends on buses, in stores, etc...I got so used to the quiet, once I was home I got a couple headaches going to public places in the US because it was so LOUD! I'd also say they're more blunt and straight-forward.

That being said, when we needed help (we were lost, didn't know what food to order, etc.) most of the people were very friendly, and there were many Germans who welcomed American friends. It's just more difficult to approach them initially as we typically behave differently.