German food and its effect on your weight

After living in Germany for only a few weeks now, I have noticed a drastic change from the vegetarian, wine drinking diet that I maintained in the United States.

Cheese, bread, meat, beer (beer, beer, beer), cheese, yogurt and pretzels! How delicious. And they love those pastries. Have you triiied the Americaner??

I'm curious, however, how these dietary changes have effected expats living here and how you all have adapted to it. I notice that Germans are quite active - riding their bikes and such... so is this the trick to the slim German female figure? Is it in the genes?
I don't want to become a fat American in Germany!

Yep, it's called the expat 20 - pounds or kilos - either one is just as bad. It's the exercise they get. They walk if they don't own a car and that's the ticket. Get a bike or start walking. Plenty of trails to walk on in these parts. As for those slim germans...don't you just wanna hate them! ha...I can't believe those silver haired folks riding bikes with better bodies than I had in my 20s. I think your body will start expelling all of the chemicals that's put in american food and the reverse will start to occur...you'll feel better from the detox. At least here you can enjoy healthy food that isn't pumped full of hormones if you maintain your veggie diet.

I just wished it would stop raining already. I want that April weather back. Sunny, warm and less humid. Bad hair days make me crazy!

The Germans drink far more coffee and mineral water than beer ... particularly their female majority

Don't mention that to the Spaniard!

Shodgen, welcome to Germany. You don't have to be a fat American in Germany. It's your choice. It's definitely hard to resist the pastries as there seems to be a bakery on every few corners and the beer is the best in the world. However, if you are committed to maintaining a healthy weight you have to find a good balance between your food intake and regular exercise and only then will you manage your weight just fine. Do you think it could be the stress of getting acclimated to Germany and getting settled in, besides all the good food, that's causing you to eat what you're eating? Regarding the exercise, I find a gym membership and exercise equipment, including exercise DVD's at home, has helped me. If you like hiking there's some great hiking trails here. Germany is very biker friendly too. It's really important to move, so it would be great if you could find some kind of sport or exercise you enjoy doing on a regular basis. Then the other thing is willpower, I think it's much easier for me to maintain a healthy weight by eating healthy and daily exercising then trying to lose weight. So I use a lot of willpower and I try not to go out and eat often as I don't have control over what's in the food and how it's prepared in terms of the ingredients.

But here's the real crux of it: the only thing worse than being fat, is if you dare actually CHOOSE to ACCEPT being fat.

Because setting yourself up for adult onset diabetes, heart attacks, and regularly spilling half your body mass over into my seat on a train or plane is somthing which I should accept and encourage.

woof.

My original hometown Münster is known as the "Bicycle Capital" of Germany ... Each day over 100,000 Münster residents ride their bikes. In fact, with around 500,000 bikes in Münster, the number of cycles is nearly double the number of residents

http://www.muenster.de/stadt/tourismus/en/city-of-bikes.html

Yep, skip the public tranportation and bike. I lost 10 pounds when I arrived a year and a half ago. It is still MIA and I am still biking.

I don't know for how long you are in Germany, but try stretching out how often you try new pastries etc. You're not leaving tomorrow so don't be in a hurry. You can eat healthy here, beer and pastries is not the healthiest diet though. It is tempting to just want to try everything at once because so much is new, but if you are staying a few months or even years, keep that in mind.
Riding your bike instead of taking public transport is a good idea as well.

When I was living in Munich, I biked a minimum of 10 km per day round trip to work and walked or biked everywhere else I went. It didn't matter, I still gained 30 lbs while I was there. When I got back to California, I lost a big chunk of it with minimal exercise (just walking and occasional climbing) and healthy eating. German food/beer really is hellish on the body.

beer isn´t good for an 8-year-old young lady ...

I actually do not think it's just the German food. Many Germans who spend some time in the States gain weight there. It is all the new food, and of course you have to try everything. You may not be familiar with how many calories are in what, etc. How healthily you eat is up to you personally, it is just as possible in Germany as it is in the States.

This time of the year I'm living mainly on water melons - cheap, yummie, hardly any calories and you get lots of exercise jogging to the bathroom every 10 minutes or so.

Every single person I spoke to about it in my international PhD program said that they had gained at least 10 lbs. It has to do with the food, whether or not we're aware of the calories. If I don't watch what I eat in the States, my weight plateaus, but I never gain. If I diet, I lose. In Germany, I just ate regularly and gained, despite the exercise I was getting.

Your international phd program? Go figure. It has nothing to do with the food, it has to do with the fact that you were all new to Germany and German food. Juts like Germans in the States.
Plenty of Germans are super skinny. They eat German food too. Germany is not more obese than the US.
When you are in a new environment you eat differently. Freshmen in college also often gain.

Want to see something weird? For the last 4 years I've been weighing myself daily, and recording it in Excel. I've highlighted some interesting things. Basically my move to germany (and lack of appetite after a hard breakup) caused me to shed the pounds very quickly. I was actually quite worried. Out of modesty, I've left off the axis labels, but the peak to now is a little over 30 pounds, and most of that happened in the span of 2 months or so. I was quite amazed really. Must be leaving all that tex mex.

I do think that although it is easier to overindulge here, the food is generally healthier than in the states.

Probably, thefirelane. I need to lose weight myself, but I can shed the pounds fairly easily if I try. Of course I won't if I don't try.
Many people's eating habits change for the worse when they move to another country, some do change to the better.
Did you drink as much beer when you lived in the States as you do since living here? Eat so much meat? Eat so much greasy food? Eat so much candy, pastries, cake?
You can eat lean food here as well, you just need to know what to pick from a menu, or well, if you cook your food yourself, it is pretty easy to stay away from unhealthy food.

They have a vegetarian option in the Mensa. I always went for that not because I am one, but rather because that is where the better tasting food was located.

I think a lot of it.. not to sounds like an Atkins person, was I eat less carbs here actually (I used to cook a lot of pasta). I eat a small breakfast, usually of daily and grainy bread, then a big lunch (always with a big portion of veggies) and a dinner of cut meats, cheese, and bread.

Also, I moved here in the winter... I've gained 2-3 pounds since the beer gardens opened

Oh those questions were directed more at the people who gained...
I do weight watchers, so my "diet" is not low-carb (pasta is actually one of the things that is good to eat as low in points), but I cut down on fatty and sugary foods and drinks and it makes a huge difference.

What's that supposed to mean? International PhD programs do not change your metabolism. Changing countries doesn't change your metabolism. Eating different types of food, however, will affect your weight.


Then it has EVERYTHING to do with German food. Your body doesn't just process food differently, because you're new to a place. I didn't eat any more in Germany than I do in the US, and in Germany I gained weight, while in the US I never have. In Germany, I absolutely had to exercise just to maintain my weight. Here in California, if I don't exercise I maintain my weight, and if I do exercise I lose it. Same amount of food, same amount of beer, different calorie content. It's the food.


Germans are super skinny, because 1) they're tall and 2) they know how to portion German food. Freshmen in college gain weight, because they suddenly have to cook their own food and make what's easy, like pasta and ramen. That's a change in the food they eat, just like moving to Germany.

The only change in my eating habits in Germany was going from my regular diet to eating German food.

Now, maybe Germans are brought up with some emphasis on going out of their way to get their fruits and veggies, because where I was living just outside of town, it was pretty damn hard to get my hands on either of good quality. Penny/HL/Tengelmann aren't exactly overflowing with healthy produce. Even their yogurt was mainly straciatella or chocolate.

Aha! Who's been watching the "Fast Show" then?

You'll find that Germans eat a lot of bread but typically the whole grain variety. Those thin Germans you're seeing are definitely not eating pastries all the time. You're probably just diving into the yummiest looking stuff as a newbie in Germany. Lay off the pastries, cut down on beer, and hit the bike paths...you'll be fine.

Or you can do what a lot of those thin German women do and smoke two packs a day.

Because you were all new to Germany.


Exactly, that is what I'm guessing.

Being new to a country does not change one's metabolism. Please explain how being new to a country means you'll gain weight, particularly if you think it has nothing to do with the food.

The latest I have read/seen/heard is that German children have overtaken the Americans in fat surplus. Due to fast food and no exercise. There is that program "You are killing your child" on one of the trash channels . Looking at overweight families.
Robert Berridge

Because you do change your eating habits. You eat differently even though you do not have to. If you eat greasy food every day, you'll gain. You'd never eat at a fast food restaurant every day in the States would you?
If you eat more cake than before just because there is more of a selection, you'll gain, not because there is a bigger selection, but because you eat more cake.
Just because it's there doesn't mean you have to eat it.
By the way, not all women are tall in Germany, I have friends that are short too, and they do not smoke, eat normal food, and yet they are thin.

When Germans gain in the US it is usually because all of a sudden they eat a lot more junk food (BK, Taco Bell, Sonic, Wendy's) just because there is more variety in fast food restaurants. Of course they're going to gain.
But that has nothing to do with the food the US generally has to offer, but with the food they choose to eat. It's the same thing here.
Often I guess people are not aware of just how high in sugar/fat some foods are when they are new to them, so they do not know that it will cause them to gain weight if they eat it all the time.

No matter if a person is here in Germany or in the States, I think most intelligent people generally know which foods have a high caloric value, but still choose to eat these foods as sometimes it's a lot easier to eat them then to exercise some self-restraint.

Cake is cake, regardless if it's here in Germany or in the U.S. Beer is beer, regardless if it's here or in the U.S. The difference here in Germany is the beer just taste better and is of higher quality and with the cake and pastries there is a vast variety and the presentation is very appealing and with so many bakeries there is more abundance and accessibility.

No, I wouldn't eat fast food every day or even on a monthly basis, and I never ate it in Germany either.


What makes you think I eat cake or suddenly started eating it in Germany? As I said, the only thing that changed about my eating habits was that I was suddenly eating German food. Most of the people I knew there did the same, given that the options for preparing Chinese food, etc. are limited. I didn't start eating fast food and junk food just because I moved to Germany. I just started eating the common German food options (Schnitzel, Spaetzle, Schweinbraten, etc.) and the foods available in the grocery stores.


I never said it wasn't possible to be thin in Germany. It just takes a very distinct effort, given what's available. I know loads of thin Americans too and have rarely seen an obese one in my part of the country, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.

well when I worked on an American base there were loads of healthy eating options: Colters Grill, Taco Bell and Burger King to name a few. Number of overweight American women I saw...

Funnily enough the healthiest food was the Mess Hall. Good old fashioned cooked foods and salads.

imo, it all depends on how you eat (i am with mariposa). i found the size of the dishes in US restaurants overwhelming. a regular seemed more like a large to me. obviously i didn't force myself to finish the plate.

if i moved to the US, i am pretty sure i would have to make a distinct effort not to gain weight. and i am not the fast food type.

It would only be an effort if you were eating in chain restaurants every day. The healthy options at American grocery stores are *much* better than in German grocery stores.

Is this turning into a which-food/grocery-store-is-better-contest? *yawn*

when I moved here I actually lost weight despite eating 'German food'. I weigh less now than when I lived in the UK.
I think you can have a healthy diet here, it's not necessary to solely eat the stodgier foods, there are healthier options available.
in theory you could go to any new country & gain weight.

It's the amount and type of food that makes you gain weight and not in which country the food is eaten.

A daily fix of Schweinebraten with Spaetzle and gravy will make you gain weight no matter where you eat it. If you only live of 3 apples a day, they will keep you thin both in Europe or America and even Australia...

When I first moved to Britain I gained weight, but not because British food makes you fat but because I ate the wrong things. At home I got a home-cooked meal every day, but I didn't really do this in the first few months of living in student accommodation where you had to share an untidy kitchen with 15 others. Also, there were so many new varieties of crisps and biscuits to try...

When I moved here my weight went down slightly, for an obvious reason: back in the States I did most of my grocery shopping between 10pm and 1am. After I came here, the stores would be closing just as I was thinking about what I needed to buy. So I went hungry for a while.

Add to that the fact that I didn't know what anything in the "super"market was and I was just eating far less than before. Unfortunately, with my high metabolism, the affect on my weight was slight but on my moods it was severe. Once I finally starting building up my German foods vocabulary and getting used to taking a couple shopping bags with me to work so I could stop on the way home, everything starting falling into place.

You know that muscle weighs more than fat, right?

And as I said above, the fruit and veggie selections in Penny/HL/Tengelmann absolutely suck. Sure, they've got lots of choices at the Viktualienmarkt, but when that's a 15 minute bike ride + 25 minute train ride away, it's not exactly convenient. The large majority of food in German grocery stores is high in calories, hence the discussion. Then a bunch of other people started going on about fast food, junk food, eating more, etc., which is not the problem. A typical meal in Germany (i.e. "German food") is most often a meat and potato kind of meal with very little fruits and veggies.

My lifeline in Berlin: Bio-Frische. Why can't we have these in the UK?
*yawn* was it a late night for you too?

added: I linked to their website, but their website is woeful and somewhat lacking in information or dynamism! Gizza job, I could do that!

in my experience, I think you don't need to shop at Viktualienmarkt to get good veggies and fruit at all.
we do a big weekly shop at our local Aldi or Lidl, we're quite happy with the choice of food on offer there, their fruit and veg is good quality and really cheap. these places even do low-calorie food options now. so there's really no need to eat stodgy unhealthy food all the time.

And, of course, most parts of Munich have a very decent number of fruit stands which provide good quality without the need of heading to the Viktualienmarkt.

Traditional German dishes, like traditional food in many central and northern European countries, were originally intended for people who do hard manual labour in a (mostly) harsh climate. That's why it's not the best choice for people working in an office - and it's not the stuff most Germans actually eat on a daily basis. Most Germans I know eat a lot of fruit and veggies actually. I buy mine either at a market stall or at one of the Turkish shops. It's somewhat more expensive than getting them in a supermarket, but it's well worth it.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the large majority of food in German grocery stores is high in calories". That's certainly true for convenience food, but pretty much every grocery shop I've ever been to has a great variety of low-fat stuff, yoghurts etc. - it's your choice really. It's not like once you're in Germany you're forced to live on Schweinebraten and Spätzle.

The other problem is that as you age your metabolism slows down, alot! My wife is fighting that, in spite of exercising 4 times a week she has to maintain a strict diet (actually more portion control than dieting), if she overeats even slightly she gains weight. We had friends over for a movie night and kinda got lax on the food, popcorn some pringles etc and come Monday morning she was up 2 pound. I have noticed that really thin people eat very very little. I've read a few stories about former models (names escape me right now) who have complained about gaining weight as they age. They said exercise isn't enough, they've had to cut back on portion sizes. Seems to affect ladies more than men.

An interesting aside to the fruit question is how difficult it is to get good fruit down here. Very inconsistent quality. For example I splurged and bought a watermelon from Carrefour for a friends BBQ and sat out for 4 day and was fine. But when I bought another one the next day (same chain different store) it looked fine but when I cut it open it had gone bad. Same with tomatoes, one day there great, next day there so bad I can't eat them. It's a real crap shoot if the produce will be edible or not. I have found one vendor in the local market who's food is consistently good but his prices are higher.

I definitely gained weight since moving here, about 20lbs to be exact I know its a combination of the great beer and lack of activity. I was very active in the States because we had a great Park District program which allowed me 6 months of Soccer (then I moved to an indoor league for 4 months over winter), summer softball league, and lots of parks with FREE tennis courts. I did lots of organized long-distance bike rides in the summer too (for Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer, etc). Now I break a sweat going to the fridge for my next beer

I need to find an over 30, out-of-shape, low-skilled foreigner soccer club, anyone know of any?

Regarding the American grocery stores, I'd much rather shop in the German stores as I find the food products that I eat are less processed and have less preservatives than American food stores. But now high fructose corn syrup is being put in a lot of German food products so I have to read every label of every product I buy to avoid this and other forms of sugar like the plague. What I do find difficult here in Germany is to find a breakfast cereal with low grams of sugar. So it's HaferFlocken (oatmeal)for me. In the American food stores it's very difficult for me to find healthy snacks, unless it's fruits and vegetables. The euphermism for "snack" foods in America is "junk" food.

Regarding the "german" food, I don't eat german food or fast foods so I don't have an issue with this.

Ummm yeah, no more explanation needed. I hardly ever eat any of those (maybe every few months). It is typical German food but it is not like every German eats food like that a lot. I eat a lot more pasta, potatoes, bread, and when I eat meat, I eat turkey or chicken, or ham, all healthier than Spätzle, Schnitzel and Schweinebraten.
I personally eat healthier here than when I lived in the States.


Exactly.

Edit: And LittleSprite's reply is good too. Thanks for putting it into better words.

Don't forget, Germans tend to eat their main meal at noon. Most of the Germans I know eat little more than 2 slices of bread with a thin slice of cheese and maybe some cold sliced meat in the evening. Also, even at noon portions are small in comparison to North America.

Wish I could have my main meal for lunch and just a sandwich for dinner like when I was at school. Personally, I think that was better for me as when I cook in the evening I tend not to 'move around' too much after it and that also contributes to weight gain (especially in winter and when those naughty Plaetzchen want to be eaten).

But the staff cantine at my work is not great and too expensive and to cook in the evening and bring it to work is too much hassle for me. So I try and eat not too heavy things during the day and cook a sensible dinner. The Schweinebraten variety I keep for weekends or when we have people round.

The 'secret' is: don't eat too much of anything, exercise a little and cook things yourself, so you know what's in your food.

Not specially for foreigners but you could try here