My French diet challenge (warning, high carbs)

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.

Francl27 wrote: »

Patttience wrote: »

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


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.


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.

Some companies still have lunch vouchers, but they encourage you to eat MORE lunch not less, because the bakeries try to make up the lunch offer to something that could plausibly cost E5:50. So you'll be eating a quite large sandwich AND a dessert (usually a cake or pastry).

I guess when I say 'anywhere else' I am thinking of Europe rather than America though. I live in the UK and I know lots of overweight people but relatively few obese ones.

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!

My Italian diet involved much more pizza, pasta and prosecco than this. Gained 5lbs in a week.

Well worth it though, and I lost it again within a week of tracking.

oh, the french are into family meals as well, right? I imagine pigging out is tough when you are sitting down to a meal with your whole family watching.

Stereotypes are pretty dangerous. There seems to be lot of that here. Calling a diet the 'french' diet or 'italian' diet and assuming that's how everyone eats in an entire country? That's like eating all burgers and fries and calling it the 'american' diet. Except this is a large country with millions of people in it, and many of them don't eat that way. There are a lot of regional areas in each state that have their own particular kinds of food. I'm sure the same is true for other countries, as well.

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

well, there is an american pattern of eating. We (americans) do eat dinner earlier than the french, and we do tend to snack more than they do.

all - how many millions of us? huh.

Oh man, this thread is making me hungry and it's about lunchtime. Plus, it's bringing back all the amazing memories I have of our trip to Paris, Nice and Monaco, and the fabulous 5 course lunch we had at a French friend's flat in Paris. The food there is just amazing and fresh. Yes, people walked everywhere, as did we so as to cut down on the cost of transportation. When we stopped at Marseilles, we found a McDonald's and there was hardly anyone there (it was lunchtime). Here at lunchtime, McDonald's is a madhouse! I need to stop drooling now.

mccindy72 wrote: »

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

well, there is an american pattern of eating. We (americans) do eat dinner earlier than the french, and we do tend to snack more than they do.

all - how many millions of us? huh.

That's the thing about trends. They're never meant to apply to the whole population, sometimes just a plurality. It isn't every single American eats dinner before his/her French counterpart; it's just likely that any given person probably does. With trends, you can generally find or name someone you know that doesn't fit it because it isn't all or nothing.

I've only been to Europe once, and that was in Italy. The food was so yummy and walking plentiful!

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 (other than while sleeping, which is true of most everyone).

I do this often (and the not snacking thing works well for me, although I never thought it was especially French).

Get up at 5, and eat around 6 (maybe earlier, maybe a bit later if I run/swim first thing and eat after). Lunch around 12, and dinner around 9.

noclady1995 wrote: »

snikkins wrote: »

mccindy72 wrote: »

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

well, there is an american pattern of eating. We (americans) do eat dinner earlier than the french, and we do tend to snack more than they do.

all - how many millions of us? huh.

That's the thing about trends. They're never meant to apply to the whole population, sometimes just a plurality. It isn't every single American eats dinner before his/her French counterpart; it's just likely that any given person probably does. With trends, you can generally find or name someone you know that doesn't fit it because it isn't all or nothing.

I've only been to Europe once, and that was in Italy. The food was so yummy and walking plentiful!

It must be the majority of Europe because I had to work in Dublin, Ireland a couple of different times and I walked to and from work every day (it was a 20 min walk each way), as well as lunch and dinner. And the awesome thing is that most everything was walking distance. I even attended a church one Sunday, and walked there. Whether it was 30 degrees or 60 degrees outside, people walked to and from places. I loved it.

Big cities in the US can be like that. I walk 10 mins to the L or ride my bike to work, and one thing I did when deciding to get back in shape was start sometimes getting on and off at less convenient stops to include more walking. I walk to the grocery store and for most errands, walk to church and back (1.25 miles each way, although there are closer churches), so on.

The thing with the US is even in big cities it can be convenient to drive--I have parking at home, which makes it easier to have a car (and gas here is cheaper). The grocery stores in my neighborhood and my church have parking lots, which makes it tempting to drive if it's cold or I am going to have heavy bags. In my city the cost of parking downtown is absolutely insane, so I don't, but in tons of US cities that's not the case.

lemurcat12 wrote: »

noclady1995 wrote: »

snikkins wrote: »

mccindy72 wrote: »

melimomTARDIS wrote: »

well, there is an american pattern of eating. We (americans) do eat dinner earlier than the french, and we do tend to snack more than they do.

all - how many millions of us? huh.

That's the thing about trends. They're never meant to apply to the whole population, sometimes just a plurality. It isn't every single American eats dinner before his/her French counterpart; it's just likely that any given person probably does. With trends, you can generally find or name someone you know that doesn't fit it because it isn't all or nothing.

I've only been to Europe once, and that was in Italy. The food was so yummy and walking plentiful!

It must be the majority of Europe because I had to work in Dublin, Ireland a couple of different times and I walked to and from work every day (it was a 20 min walk each way), as well as lunch and dinner. And the awesome thing is that most everything was walking distance. I even attended a church one Sunday, and walked there. Whether it was 30 degrees or 60 degrees outside, people walked to and from places. I loved it.

Big cities in the US can be like that. I walk 10 mins to the L or ride my bike to work, and one thing I did when deciding to get back in shape was start sometimes getting on and off at less convenient stops to include more walking. I walk to the grocery store and for most errands, walk to church and back (1.25 miles each way, although there are closer churches), so on.

The thing with the US is even in big cities it can be convenient to drive--I have parking at home, which makes it easier to have a car (and gas here is cheaper). The grocery stores in my neighborhood and my church have parking lots, which makes it tempting to drive if it's cold or I am going to have heavy bags. In my city the cost of parking downtown is absolutely insane, so I don't, but in tons of US cities that's not the case.

You're definitely fortunate. You pretty much have to drive to most everywhere where I live in Texas.