Those of you who have lived in more than one country, did it affect your weight?

Third culture kid here. Originally from Kenya but I've lived in 8 different countries, currently living in Malaysia. I find that when I'm somewhere where fresh food is eaten daily, lots of fruits and veggies eg Kenya, China I tend to maintain my weight and even lose a little just from diet alone. However when I moved to Canada I was overwhelmed with all the candy and the sugar, processed food everywhere, got very little exercise as I took cabs or public transport everywhere and gained a lot of weight. I think if you live somewhere where the local diet tends to be fresh produce and complex carbs in small regular meals there definitely is a change in weight

I lived in Ireland for 25 years and was nor fat and had two boys. Moved to England for 5 years, had another boy and got a little heavier and then walked for 40 mins in the morning and 40 mins in the evening and lost it. Then to Nigeria, for two yeas lost more weight, got pregnant, moved to Ireland to have the baby, had a girl, walked for mies and lost weight. Moved back to Nigeria and gained and gained and gained. Moved back to Ireland for a year gained then lost again. Back to Nigeria till date, gained weight thanks to Mama's delicious food, lost weight. Gained when moved to the city and now a year later lost it all and still losing.

Bentrop, that's true! When I lived in Europe I hardly ever found nice clothes in shops because there wasn't much in my size (40-42 northern European size at that time). Online shopping was the way to go for me. Here in the Middle East it's the other way around. Just yesterday I was looking for office pants and casual trousers. If I was lucky there was one UK8 or 10, and masses of trousers starting from 12 or 14. *sigh*

I'm originally from Canada, currently living in the UK, and the only thing I found difficult was just getting used to my options. N. America has a lot more "light" "fat free" options, whereas England is a bit more limited. Just also getting used to different brands etc. But once I got accustomed to what I had available, then it was no different than Canada. I'll be moving to New Zealand in a month so anybody here from New Zealand, send me suggestions on foods please!

I lived in Germany for two years and it was a lot easier to maintain my weight there. With most things being within walking distance I was a lot more active. It didn't take long after moving back to the states in an area where winters were very harsh and a car was required to go anywhere for the weight to start creeping back up. The issue wasn't the food but my lack of making adjustments of my intake to match my new activity level.

I lived in La Gomera and lost tonnes of weight. I mainly attribute that to the diet - salad, fish and just amazing Mediterranean inspired food - despite being in the Atlantic Ocean! I still love the Spanish diet! I also attribute my weight loss to the heat - I just didn't want heavy carbohydrate laden food typical of the UK and Ireland. However weight loss generally is about eating less and exercising more!

I moved to Germany from the US (Wisconsin) in January of this year, and gained about 10 pounds in the first two months. I am admittedly much more active here, just in order to get around sans-car, but I also eat a LOT more.

I can attribute a small portion of this simply to being surrounded by new, delicious foods: the bread! the pastries! But the biggest factor is hands down emotional: I moved without a strong support network here in Germany, and when I'm feeling lonely, homesick, or bored, I've been turning to food to comfort myself. I'm not sure why I've turned to food as a coping mechanism now, since I was never an emotional eater previously, but there you are.

I've been fighting these urges actively since April now, and I'm very slowly losing again. As I've been meeting more people and doing more social activities, I find it's easier to return to normal eating patterns, but I do still have an occasional binge where I feel out of control and eat waaaay past satiation.

When I lived in Japan I was eating pretty much whatever I wanted but weighed less than I do here--and that has to do with the fact that I walked everywhere and everywhere I wasn't walking, I was biking. I was also teaching and running up and down three flights of stairs multiple times a day. Add to that the heat in the summer and I didn't even have to think about all the beer/food I was consuming.

librarianallyson wrote: »

I moved to Germany from the US (Wisconsin) in January of this year, and gained about 10 pounds in the first two months. I am admittedly much more active here, just in order to get around sans-car, but I also eat a LOT more.

I am from the UK (London), living in Germany for 5 months - I frickin' love the German's sheer dedication to bakery products. Bakeries on every corner. Fresh, cheap bread, every day.

London and Hamburg (where I am now) are both very walkable cities (especially Hamburg, and everyone also has a bicycle), so my activity and weight has stayed the same. I think I have swapped English pies and chips for German pastries, so they balance each other out. The big adjustment for me is how Germans tend to have their biggest meal at lunch, which is strange for me, as I like my dinners to be the size of spaceships.

I lived in three different countries so far. In the Netherlands, UK and NZ. All had their ways of staying fit easier or not.
In the UK I found an awesome dance studio and that helped a great deal. Also as I had no car for most of the time, I had to do a lot of walking. The latter was not always a positive experience. Not always well lit and the sidewalks were not always in the best shape possible. Foodwise it was a lot harder to eat healthy and the lots of partying most certainly did not help the waistline in a positive way. After a year there I had gained weight.

In NZ - well that was up and down with my weight and that was also due to life circumstances that would have affected me irrespective of where I lived. The NZ culture is very outdoors, however the healthy food is way over the top expensive. Most certainly in the beginning when I did not earn a lot it meant not eating right. In the last years that I lived there I had an awesome sports centre (a gym, a pool and an aerobic studio I never used the gym :-) Auckland does have wonderful parks and a lot of green, however getting there was usually by car as the whole infrastructure is geared towards using cars, Even public transport was rough. The latter I must say has improved a lot since I left, at least in Auckland. When I lived out in the country for a year everything and I mean everything was done by car. I think I only walked to the shop once and it was a 15 minute walk only. Ubless you were in a village, walking on the side of the road was and is at your own peril.
I also recall the first time I came to NZ that I was amazed and the huge humber of junkfood outlets. Somehow it seems less in the Netherlands (not sure if it is true)

Here in the Netherlands - well I walk and cycle where and when I can. Both are an accepted means of transportation. Parking in the city centres is expensive so often it is better to take public transport, unless it is easier for transporing whatever you want to buy - which means having to walk to the bus/train/tram station.
I find the food here and specifically the fresh food reasonably priced, and can also be bought at the farms often.
I don't pay much more for my food than in NZ and the wages here are a lot higher. Also our tapwater (one of the bottled water brands uses the same well as the tapwater company, just 10 m down the road) is of excellent quality so I drink that a lot, but I also did that in NZ I should add. In the UK it is often treated and teastes often horrible IMO
Of all the countries I think my current home the Netherlands is easiest for this lifestyle and that has a lot to do with the transport infrastructure

When I lived in France I lost a bunch of weight because all their food is frickin horrible.

I'm originally from Australia but now live in the UK. I have lost weight successfully in both countries now so I can't really say that one is better than the other.

In Australia, I found there was a big cafe culture in cities like Sydney and Melbourne. You end up drinking a LOT of coffee and while there is often good food to be had, it can be very high in calories. There is low fat alternatives of almost everything in the supermarket. It is really easy to be active in Australia as there are lots of nice places to walk and swim.

Here in the UK I found there is more of a focus on having organic alternatives rather than low fat/low calorie. I found that some people in the UK almost exclusively eat frozen processed food which I found very strange. Apparently it comes from the 70s when it became "fashionable" to eat food that "saved time". Not sure if that is true or not though! I find fresh food more expensive here than I remember it being in Australia.
In the UK I found it harder to be active (especially in Winter) but once I found different activities, I made sure I took advantage of them. The weather isn't always wonderful so for me a gym membership was critical to my success.

At the end of the day, you gravitate towards foods and activities that give you what you want - whether that be comfort, weight loss or whatever. It takes time to adjust to the differences though.

I was a bit tubby until I moved to Canada aged 35, and then piled the weight on within 2 years.
Same reasons everyone else is mentioning - poor food choices and lack of exercise. In the UK I had a 3 story house with the kitchen on the lowest floor. I was always running up and down the stairs, often with a baby on each arm. I also walked everywhere with a double stroller because even though we had a car, parking was a nightmare and not worth the hassle.

LiftAllThePizzas wrote: »

When I lived in France I lost a bunch of weight because all their food is frickin horrible.

You have to be joking

tomatoey wrote: »

zyxst wrote: »

Liftng4Lis wrote: »

You gain weight from eating too much. Doesn't matter where you eat it.

+1

I lived in the U.S. for 32 years and was fat.
I lived in Canada for 13 years and was fat.

Losing weight is a mental change. Where I live has very little impact.

Yeah but those two countries are functionally the same, in terms of the impact of city design and food quality/quantity (lifestyle generally).

Taking the overall country into a ball of generalization, yes they're the same, but that doesn't change that I stayed fat because I ate too much. Just because I never left the continent (technically) doesn't mean my experience is moot.

I grew up in Iowa where you can get food out your backdoor, even in a city. In Newfoundland, a lot of food is shipped from the mainland via overnight ferry (provided it's in service); there aren't any farms (that I've seen) and no food production facilities despite living in the capital.