My French diet challenge (warning, high carbs)

So, what's the diet? Other than your breakfast I see a list of behaviors, and your breakfast content was vague, emphasis seemed to be that your breakfast should be small. Most Americans have a carby breakfast, so I guess I'm not seeing what's so interesting about your breakfast here.

Other than the high-carb breakfast, this is pretty much how I eat.

I think of it as kind of generally Spanish (minus the white rice) but whatever. High quality, tasty foods in smaller portions are more satisfying to me than eating a lot of junk.

To each his or her own.

Unless the "diet" is based on French food, it makes no sense. And even if it is French food, which part of France? Southern and Northern part of the country have significant differences in basic ingredients.

What about the "Italian" diet?
When we were visiting Italy, we did as numerous Italians did and ate a big delicious cornetto every morning! That's a huge croissant filled with cream or Nutella! Oh, and a large cup of cappuccino!
And yet, I stilled managed to maintain! Gotta love that diet!

healthygreek wrote: »

What about the "Italian" diet?
When we were visiting Italy, we did as numerous Italians did and ate a big delicious cornetto every morning! That's a huge croissant filled with cream or Nutella! Oh, and a large cup of cappuccino!
And yet, I stilled managed to maintain! Gotta love that diet!

Don't forget the gelato!
We were in Florence for a month last summer and I had that exact breakfast you described as well as gelato every single day. I essentially maintained during that trip. Best trip ever!

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

But I don't see where you would be not eating for 5-6 hours if you are eating 3 meals a day.

French people often eat their lunch at 12pm and their dinner at 8pm.

litsy3 wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

But I don't see where you would be not eating for 5-6 hours if you are eating 3 meals a day.

French people often eat their lunch at 12pm and their dinner at 8pm.

Oh, okay. Thanks! I guess that makes sense if you are having a large lunch.

WinoGelato wrote: »

healthygreek wrote: »

What about the "Italian" diet?
When we were visiting Italy, we did as numerous Italians did and ate a big delicious cornetto every morning! That's a huge croissant filled with cream or Nutella! Oh, and a large cup of cappuccino!
And yet, I stilled managed to maintain! Gotta love that diet!

Don't forget the gelato!
We were in Florence for a month last summer and I had that exact breakfast you described as well as gelato every single day. I essentially maintained during that trip. Best trip ever!

How could I forget the gelato!?!
And the wine and pasta-sometimes 2x a day!
Next summer, the Amalfi coast for a month!

jt, i haven't read the thread but the point i want to make is if you want to eat like the french, you could do worse than reading French Women Don't Get Fat. Its a wonderful book.

Also the french i took from this book and my own experience of french food in france etc is courses. Don't eat just one course. Make your meals consist of several courses. The reason why this is a good idea is becuase it increases the variety of foods you eat and this is good becuase it means more nutrients and more nutrients means better health and easier weight management as well.

I agree that a tiny breakfast as described is not a great start if you like breakfast. And i agree that if you do eat a light breakfast like that, you may need a mid morning snack and you may also need an afternooon snack if you have to wait a long time for dinner. Generally I space my main meals 3-4 hours apart. If i have to wait longer, i will need a snack between and that's even with fairly decent sized meals.

Patttience wrote: »

"There are plenty of overweight French people though; it's pretty much like anywhere else."

Compared to Australia, i would say France is not the same. There are indeed overweight people but not nearly so many obese people as you see in Australia, and i suggest also America. Those countries who have good traditional cuisines which people still tend to consume seem to do better with weight management than countries where fast food is a big part of people's lives.

Yeah. I lived in France until I was 23 and only ever knew 3 very obese persons, although I knew a bunch of overweight ones.

My experience is probably not typical though as I lived in the suburbs of Paris, but the difference from what I've seen...

As kids we walked to school. No school bus. Ok sometimes my mom would drive us there, but most kids would walk. There were sidewalks everywhere though, not like here, so it was totally safe. To go to high school would take me 20 minutes. Here the school is just as far but there's no sidewalk or even crosswalks so my kids will have to take the school bus. Kids don't bring lunch, but can go home for lunch, and school lunches are healthy (meat and veggies with a piece of cheese and a small dessert, for example).

Work - I never met anyone who brought their lunch. Most big companies have a cafeteria that serve balanced foods (sure, you can find French fries sometimes, but you can get salads, veggies, fruit etc and pretty much no fried foods apart from the fries, and desserts are SMALL, and usually some kind of yogurt/pudding cup instead of a donut). Otherwise, people get lunch coupons that they can spend everywhere. There are fast food places like McDonald's, sure, but a lot of cafés, restaurants or bakeries that sell foods in reasonable portions. Apart from KFC you won't find fried chicken or fried shrimp etc. A typical lunch for me was 2 rolls of maki, or a baguette sandwich with some meat and lettuce/tomatoes, a ham and cheese crepe, or a small quiche with an eclair or something.

Anyway, if you want to think in term of food style, think Boston Market vs McDonald's. And we never had take out for dinner (heck I don't think I know anyone who did, except pizza occasionally - and pizza there is much lighter on the toppings).

People did have a coffee break with a croissant in the morning though. And yeah, 'apéritif' before dinner with some alcoholic drink was the main time we ate things like crackers, pretzels, goldfish, nuts etc.

And obviously I walked everywhere (or took the subway, but again, you have to walk to the station and walk from one station to another when changing trains). You don't really get the huge housing communities that you have here - in most places you can walk to a grocery store and bakery at least.

But again, that was 15 years ago (gosh now I feel old) so who knows what it's like now.