Do Expats Slim Down Eating Only Thai Food?

[nokia]

Ok we see plenty of rotund expats eating their hearts out at Sizzler & other western restaurants.

How about those expats who eat only Thai street food for months & months on end, without touching western food? ooh, those juicy tender mouth watering imported steaks, pizzas with melting cheese etc

Do they actually lose weight eating spicy som tam & fried rice & other delicious thai street food?

Aroi...

[chuchok]

Complete opposite.If I eat just Thai food I put on weight.Very hard not to have white rice with Thai Food.White Rice is as bad as sugar on the glycemic index.Mind you, I don't eat white bread or starchy western food either.

Edited January 26, 2006 by chuchok

[ThaiPauly]

I had several tubs of "Slimfast" sent over so I could try and loose some weight.

Two glasses a day and a thai meal at night (and no alcohol...booo)

Seems to be working, I have lost 2 kilos in a week now, even though it is not a long term solution it is a kick-start.

I don't really know yet what I will eat after a month on this stuff?

Any advice would be most welcome

TP

[Simmo]

Do they actually lose weight eating spicy som tam & fried rice & other delicious thai street food?

Aroi...

I think you'd be quite surprised the caloric count and fat of most of the street food.

[PeaceBlondie]

Don't Thais add a lot of white sugar into their cooking? Isn't that why it's such a problem now to have a shortage of white sugar in the supermarket?

I doubt that the pork they eat is lean.

[chippie]

As stated earlier white rice is not good for you as most people think, its not a complex carbohydrate. The pork is very fatty and the fried food is especially bad as they cook in pork fat mostly and don't change it often enough so it becomes a trans fatty acid and can be carciogenic.

Having said that I eat thai food every day but just not too much.

The only way to succesfully lose weight is not to eat more calories than you expend each day, easy really.

[cclub75]

Complete opposite.If I eat just Thai food I put on weight.Very hard not to have white rice with Thai Food.White Rice is as bad as sugar on the glycemic index.Mind you, I don't eat white bread or starchy western food either.

I'm not sure to understand you.

http://www.fitwatch.com/phpscripts/viewfoo...20rice%20cooked

Rice looks pretty "flat" from a caloric point of view !

As for myself, yes I'm loosing weight by eating thai food. I've noticed also that I eat less than in Europe (quantity).

It help me to "compensate" because here I eat... ice cream and I drink some alcohool.

[Totster]

Well... last time I was in Thailand for 6 months I lost 10kg's eating mostly isaan food.... most of it came off in the last 3 months when it was warmer.

When I got back to the UK I gained 10kg's in 6 months !

I'm back in LOS now, and I've not lost anything really.. but when it warms up I will !

Totster

[boogie]

Complete opposite.If I eat just Thai food I put on weight.Very hard not to have white rice with Thai Food.White Rice is as bad as sugar on the glycemic index.Mind you, I don't eat white bread or starchy western food either.

I'm not sure to understand you.

http://www.fitwatch.com/phpscripts/viewfoo...20rice%20cooked

Rice looks pretty "flat" from a caloric point of view !

As for myself, yes I'm loosing weight by eating thai food. I've noticed also that I eat less than in Europe (quantity).

It help me to "compensate" because here I eat... ice cream and I drink some alcohool.

Its not the calories its the carbohydrates in white rice. I put on weight eating my wife's thai food because we eat in the evening and then I sit on my ass in front of TV or a computer before going to bed, so the Carbs never get burned up. I bought a treadmill and exercised a while after eating instead and hey presto the weight started dropping off.

Edited January 26, 2006 by boogie

[girlx]

i have lost about 20 pounds since i got to thailand a year and a half ago, eating only thai food.

[BKK90210]

I saw many expats in Pattaya who eat only Thai foods...but still roundy...coz most portions are so small by western standard....so they always have 2 plates every times!

The bottom line is....It's all about the intake VS. outtake calories!...not about what type of foods you eat.

Just my thought

[Stacking Zeds]

As for myself, yes I'm loosing weight by eating thai food. I've noticed also that I eat less than in Europe (quantity).

That's a very valid point. I think the tendency is to eat less when you are eating only Thai food. At least for you and me anyway.

[Cassandra]

I saw many expats in Pattaya who eat only Thai foods...but still roundy...coz most portions are so small by western standard....so they always have 2 plates every times!

The bottom line is....It's all about the intake VS. outtake calories!...not about what type of foods you eat.

Just my thought

Just what is it about Pattaya expatriates that makes so many of them huge porkers.My guess is that they don't on the whole really have a typical Thai diet but gorge on fast food.Trouble is many of them don't have an interesting cultural hinterland and so eating, and needless to say drinking, assumes a disproportionately great importance in their lives.Probably that's partly why so many of these fatties die so early.

[Simmo]

Just what is it about Pattaya expatriates that makes so many of them huge porkers.

I think you've got that question the wrong way around. It should be "What is it about huge porkers that attracts them to Pattaya?.

In which case I think the answer is rather obvious

[BKKdreaming]

I lose a little when in Thailand ,

first because I actually walk places , that back home I would drive to .

Plus since its hot you do not eat as much ,

and my favorite sugary USA snacks are not easily available..

But it all gets put back on when I return to the USA

[sierra01]

I'm the same weight now as when I came here 4 years ago, probably 70% of my diet is non spicy Thai food, the rest is farang food, including McD and KFC.

There again, I'm the type that that could live on burgers, chocolate and fresh cream cakes and not get fat. I've stayed the same weight, within a 5KG band, since my distant teens.

[Soju]

As for myself, yes I'm loosing weight by eating thai food. I've noticed also that I eat less than in Europe (quantity).

That's a very valid point. I think the tendency is to eat less when you are eating only Thai food. At least for you and me anyway.

I also eat less when I eat only Thai food, and as a result lose weight - several pounds per month. Then tend to put the weight back on if I change back to Western food. You have to be careful about making assumptions about weight loss/gain when vacationing, because many peoples habits change when vacationing. Some people eat more when vacationing because there are all sorts of new and exciting foods. Others find the food dull and boring and eat less. Some drink more or less when vacationing than when at home. Some just lay around on their vacations, while others spend a lot of time in physical activiities. The only way to really judge if you lose weight when eating Thai food is if you do it as part of your everyday life and not just when vacationing. That is what I've done, and I feel much better and am much lighter when eating a diet of almost exclusively Thai food. The Thai food I eat consists of mostly vegetables with rice and/or noodles, and very little meat. If there is meat, it's usually chicken or very lean pork. And no desserts.

[Mighty Mouse]

It's not the Thai food, it's the beer you drink to wash lunch down............

.........and then there's all those complimentary peanuts you munch during happy hour just before dinner time...................

.......and then you tuck into six or seven plates of different Thai food, small portions of course.....

............and then after dinner and after a few more beers before you hit the road, you buy a chocolate covered ice cream to eat as you stagger home in a drunken haze......

........and once you get home, you have a few more beers to help you sleep...............

............and before you know it, you've put on weight.............

..........so maybe the answer is "YES".........Thai food DOES pile on the body weight.

Edited January 26, 2006 by Mighty Mouse

[autonomous_unit]

When we lived in the US, I think we were healthier, though we already ate a lot of "Thai" food there. I think we had more physical activity in the nice California climate, and we cooked for ourselves more often, choosing the ingredients and making healthy modifications to recipes. As others have said, I think the typical Thai food you get in neighborhood restaurants or carry-away in Bangkok is very fatty, meat oriented, and with too high a proportion of rice or noodles.

I've commented to western friends that it is ironic people think Thai food is such a healthy choice; what they know (and I once did) as a "Thai" stir fry with lots of nice vegetables is actually a California interpretation of an oily pile of meat from Bangkok! One of our new pasttimes is watching the confusion as my wife strays off the menu here, asking for some pak to be added to normal dishes.

However, now that I return to the US only for family visits and business, I definitely gain weight when there. On travel, I'm often dining socially at restaurants and pubs, and the ridiculous US commercial serving sizes encourage over-eating. Plus, there is a lot more drinking when on business...

I have found that some of my favorite beers and US "comfort foods" are unbearable here in the tropical heat, so I am still hoping that I will find a healthy lifestyle in the long run. We really haven't settled properly and are "coping" too much and having bad habits...

[Simbo]

As stated earlier white rice is not good for you as most people think, its not a complex carbohydrate. The pork is very fatty and the fried food is especially bad as they cook in pork fat mostly and don't change it often enough so it becomes a trans fatty acid and can be carciogenic.

Having said that I eat thai food every day but just not too much.

The only way to succesfully lose weight is not to eat more calories than you expend each day, easy really.

Easy really. HA!!

[bangkokStranger]

For anyone that hasnt been watching sky one, Paul McKenna has a tv program every Monday night for a month "Paul McKenna will make you thin" theres no will power needed, theres no hypnotis needed just 4 simple steps, he does other hypnosis type things aswell (only really neccessary if your a big binge eater or have bad cravings but there simple to do too) but i havent used these and ive lost half a stone in 3 weeks and thats eating whatever you want, really works and you just dont feel hungry all the time after a while. Although he says it only works for about 70% of people. Ive been eating pizza,apple tart, cereal, chips, chocolate, burgers, fish, potato, rice, bread, etc in those 3 weeks, really the same things as i used to eat, i also eat healthy stuff sometimes but thats not a neccessity on this diet, if thats what you want to call it. PM if you want more details on the steps you need to do as i havent time now to write them down.

Edited January 26, 2006 by bangkokStranger

[britmaveric]

Drank Chang/Singha nonstop and skipped meals - seem to lost weight after 3 weeks? (new diet trend?????)

CHANG DIET!!!!!

[sadman]

I don't understand it, but I tend to lose weight in LOS. I have fruit for breakfast then nothing (usually) until the evening meal. However, I don't particularly watch what I eat, and drink my share of Chang. I also find that when I go to the gym I can train harder and achieve more. I suppose it may be to do with muscles already being warm or something, I really don't know. It may also be connected with the fact that I feel mentally fitter when in LOS.

I don't want to eat so much in the hot weather, and don't comfort eat anyway, but in the UK I just look at food and put on weight. I'm not so worried about calories as the MSG that is prevalent in Thai cooking. But then again, I'm not going to lose sleep over that either.

And as for Paul McKenna - if you need hypnotherapy, go to a proper registered hypnotherapist and don't buy books about it. It is specialist stuff and while some of it may seem (and is) easy, if you are not careful and it goes wrong, it can go wrong in a big way.

[joyeves]

I have seen a lot of foreigners losing 5-10 kg after staying here for a longer period. Basically our food is slimfast when we avoid oily cooking. Combined with vitamin intake Thai slimfast is guaranteed.

[Thaipwriter]

I have seen a lot of foreigners losing 5-10 kg after staying here for a longer period.

With the majority of this bulk missing from their wallets

[joyeves]

I have seen a lot of foreigners losing 5-10 kg after staying here for a longer period.

With the majority of this bulk missing from their wallets

I dont know about this, mistaken ?

[Jeff1]

Drank Chang/Singha nonstop and skipped meals - seem to lost weight after 3 weeks? (new diet trend?????)

CHANG DIET!!!!!

Thats working for me too .

I have been drinking Chang almost everyday for 6 weeks and I have lost 2 pant sizes . I eat a good breakfast and some Thai food ( Issan stlye ) here and there the rest of the day . I am alot more active here than back in the U.S. Also I am offered alot of food that I would not touch .

This sums it up nicely . A conversion I had with with my wife yesterday :

Me - Do we have any food in the house ?

Her - I have alot of things to eat but you , well your pretty much screwed !

[PeaceBlondie]

There's a component that's almost missing from this conversation: EXERCISE! Some mentioned it in passing, but weight loss is very difficult without a fairly large amount of exercise.

I don't mean the strenuous kind, but the low-impact stuff like walking, careful jogging, swimming, etc.

I read once that there was a study with three groups: a control group that neither dieted nor exercised any more than normal; a group that only dieted (eating much less); a group that only increased their exercise but didn't eat more or less.

The group that lost the most: the one that increased their exercise without changing their diet.

Uhh, I'm no nutritionist, but isn't carbohydrate fairly closely linked to calories?

All forms of ethyl alcohol are just empty calories, and poison.

When I go home to Houston, Texas, the world's champion of incredibly overextended $9.95 all-you-can-engorge buffets, I walk around people weighing well in excess of 300 pounds, and eat three salads, four main dishes, mashed potatos with gravy, three desserts, etc. I put on about ten pounds each trip.

I once got down to 171 pounds by swimming three hours every day, and eating about 11 meals per week.

[caledonia]

I would say that most people would loose weight if they were still going for just three meals a day as the portions are so much smaller. In fact I sometimes had four meals a day but the smaller portions made a big difference. You are drinking more water too because of the heat and that helps your body to digest.

I also excercised more because of all the free (well i hope they were ) aerobics classes that they have in public parks - which I just thought was GREAT!

I think I lost about a stone in four months - although I hate to admit that all came back in Bonnie Scotland!

[daleyboy]

I dont slim down, the trouble being i can eat 2 plates of Thai food with rice then in 30 minutes i am hungry again. Its the same with fast food, one burp and your hungry again.