Hello there

Looking for some thoughts/opinions and experiences please

We are a very sedentary couple who tend to stop moving/hibernate to keep warm than move around to generate heat and so I keep joking that we'll have to come to Canada fairly attached to our bathroom scales in order to keep tabs on weight gain.


Have you gained weight since coming to Canada?

Any tips if I'm already at the top of the healthy weight range BMI

Segs

YES!
I am the biggest I have ever been (apart from when I was pregnant). I am now dieting and exercising like mad to lose weight before next summer. I'm not going back to England looking like a beach whale!

The people with active jobs seem to be usually slimmer than those with office jobs, who are more often than not overweight - regardless of any exercise or dieting you do.

As his doctor once told a friend of mine who had boasted he had began an exercise programme "exercise is good for your cardiovascular system. If you want to lose weight put less food in your mouth."

+1 when i first moved to canada i gained 1 1/2 stone within a year.

I was in a stressful job working ridiculous hours and had too many treats that were lying around at work since i often didnt have time to have a proper meal.

I went back to england and lost 2 1/2 stone by eating less, avoiding all processed food . I have since returned to canada and continued to eat as i did in the UK. Lots of vegetables, good amount of protein, i dont eat sugar or processed foods (high fructose corn syrup is the killer in canada and it's in everything!) and moderate my intake of alcohol. I have maintained the same weight after being in canada for the past 12 months this time around.

I have gained weight since moving here.

I spent a few weeks in the UK this summer on holiday and lost over a stone. I was eating the same, but the difference was I was doing a lot more walking. I unfortunately rely on my car to get me around here as there is no public transport where I live and there is actually nowhere to walk, except around the subdivision.

On my visit to the UK I could take some scenic walks as well as walking to local shops. Made a big difference.

I lost about 10 pounds within the first couple of months of living in Canada.

But I was previously living in the USA.

I've lost nearly 50 pounds in the last year and a half. Canada has little to do with it, but people have a natural tendency to gain weight as they get older.

Yes, you can't lose weight by doing more exercise. The laws of thermodynamics are just a myth put about by fitness freaks who want to make you feel bad for doing nothing - don't listen to them.

Anyone from UK who moves to US or Canada may experience a drop in the efficiency of converting food into energy. This is to do with how some "new" (to your body) substances, present in food here affect your thyroid glands. For example BVO, a chemical banned in major European countries is found in many food products and soft drinks here. Similar to high fructose syrup. The theory that the Americans are fat through overeating may be a myth. This happens because of human bodies succumbing to iodine deficiency and thus blocking their ability to convert food into energy. In US the problem is worse because here, I found, another chemical, Potassium bromate (KBrO3),banned in UK and Canada, also present in many food products containing wheat flour. What happens is that Bromine (used as flour improver),as all its derivatives, reduces libido, sedate some brain functions and to increase build up of fat tissue. Sometimes people coming here from UK find, after a few weeks, that their ability to "find the right words" communicating in English is somewhat reduced. The solution is: buy some Iodine tablets and take daily.

Fascinating!

But I disagree about "overeating being a myth"... when I first came here I was horrified at the portion sizes. I can also assure you that I had never previously considered cream-filled doughnuts to be a good breakfast choice either.

Add in the "slave to the car" mentaility and you can easily see why so many new arrivals pile on weight in their first year.

When I first came here they had a buffet breakfast in the place I was staying. Included in said buffet was things to make your own muesli - oats and what not. Nothing wrong with that, however they also had smarties, marshmellows and chocolate buttons

I've put on weight, that's down to working part time now, driving everywhere, and no stairs. We now live in a bungalow and I rarely need to go to a different storey at work. Even the parking at work is close by.

I'm full of good intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions so I must be well down that road by now.

Until I came here I had never seen an adult choosing to drink chocolate milk.

Fructose syrup, portion sizes, the power of the food industry, culture of snacking etc there are lots of issues. I find that a lot of what was in the recent series on BBC rings true.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18393391

The buffet breakfasts here are a bit of an eye opener. Although there are usually weatabix, fresh fruit etc to pick there is also a selection of supersweet donuts cakes etc