Something else that I have noticed, that I believe is related to capitalism as well, is the portion size at restaurants and take out. They have conditioned us to think that a 1200 calorie meal is a normal size and if it’s smaller we are not getting a good deal. Cheesecake for example sells the skinnylicious meals that are about 550 calories, which I consider a normal dinner size, as if it’s diet food. It’s almost impossible to eat out and stay within a reasonable calorie range.
Seriously this. I lived in the US for most of my life until 2020 when I moved to Norway. If Americans paid what we pay here for the portion sizes given, they would absolutely riot. It’s so expensive to eat out here and the portion sizes are like, a third of what you’d get in any US restaurant. And that’s okay because…
I lost like 60lbs the first year we were here by simply eating a sensible portion size and not having a shitload of ready to eat mindless consumption snacks in the house. (also walked everywhere. Everywhere.)
Now I can tell who is a tourist just by size alone like 80% of the time (I live in a very touristy city). Brand new sneakers and look to be over 300lbs? Almost always walk by me speaking American English. It’s honestly quite surprising to see a very obese person here and then hear them speaking fluent Norwegian.
Something else that I have noticed, that I believe is related to capitalism as well, is the portion size at restaurants and take out. They have conditioned us to think that a 1200 calorie meal is a normal size and if it’s smaller we are not getting a good deal. Cheesecake for example sells the skinnylicious meals that are about 550 calories, which I consider a normal dinner size, as if it’s diet food. It’s almost impossible to eat out and stay within a reasonable calorie range.
Seriously this. I lived in the US for most of my life until 2020 when I moved to Norway. If Americans paid what we pay here for the portion sizes given, they would absolutely riot. It’s so expensive to eat out here and the portion sizes are like, a third of what you’d get in any US restaurant. And that’s okay because…
I lost like 60lbs the first year we were here by simply eating a sensible portion size and not having a shitload of ready to eat mindless consumption snacks in the house. (also walked everywhere. Everywhere.)
Now I can tell who is a tourist just by size alone like 80% of the time (I live in a very touristy city). Brand new sneakers and look to be over 300lbs? Almost always walk by me speaking American English. It’s honestly quite surprising to see a very obese person here and then hear them speaking fluent Norwegian.