What I love about the weightloss in the US

I am from Europe (Prague 🇨🇿) - born and raised, and for the last 4 years I’ve been coming to the US (NYC) on a regular basis for work, staying up to 6 months at a time. I lost 30 LBS (250->220) almost effortlessly.

Here are things that helped me as opposed to losing weight in Europe.

1) Many fastfood restaurants / chains have calories listed on the menu - I eat healthy but maybe allow myself a fast-food once or twice a week. Makes tracking so easy.

2) Portion sizes are bigger and it is just perfect for IF regime eating twice a day - two big portions a day (lunch and dinner), skip breakfast. If you don’t IF, just order small portion (which is regular portion in Europe).

3) Trader’s Joe’s / Aldi’s frozen foods section Tired after work? You have access to amazing frozen meals if you don’t wanna cook. Be smart about the sodium intake, and you have some delicious options!

4) Loseit / other reddit communities Feeling like buying low carb mac n cheese? Ask reddit and your fellow Americans will bend over backwards to tell you about which mac n cheese has the best macros, where to buy it, how to cook it, what to combine it with, etc - all this information is served on a silver platter to you tested by thousands of people. Good luck searching for something like this in a smaller European city. I literally had to go to every supermarket and check out all the products on my own until I found my favorites - very exhausting (and sometimes demotivating, lmao)

5) Variety - insane variety of foods from all the nations imaginable. Million vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, low carb options.

6) Community that mostly supports you You think body shaming is bad? Try Eastern European body shaming. Or try getting a compliment for being active and trying to get in shape. Try getting a random compliment on your tennis forehand during a tennis match. You guys are one of the nicest people that exist in terms of sport activities, nutrition, weightloss and fitness.Not that it is crucial, but from an outsider’s pov the general fitness / sport / nutrition community is motivational and supportive so much. I’ve only been punched up, never punched down by the community. (Anecdotal, curious if other people share my opinion here)

By this post I just want to commend America for how great it is in terms of food variety - don’t get me wrong - there are huge issues with your nutrition (for instance it takes a lot of time to find normal bread that is not full of sugar). But if you decide to count calories, are smart about your nutrition, do basic movement and exercise, then this country is heaven. I realize that I might speak from a privileged pov - no food desserts in NYC, no need to commute an hour to wallmart, etc. But generally I am so happy everytime I need to travel to the US because I know I’m gonna enjoy finding amazing food options with good calorie counts and lose weight.

Thank you 🦅