Anyone lose weight by eating like the French?

I read "Why French Women Don't Get Fat." I think there are a couple of things that really won't work for Americans. The main thing is that the French diet is not overloaded with sugar and chemicals the way American foods are. People walk a lot more in Europe and I noticed the times I have been in France that there is a lot more smoking.

I remember reading somewhere about the French attitude to dieting too. Instead of saying 'I've been good today' or 'I was bad last night', they talk about paying attention to what they eat instead. I love that. There is no value judgement being made, either about the qualities of food, or about the person eating.

In the past year or so I have adopted the 'eat to live not live to eat' approach. I didn't know I was borrowing it from the French!
I do eat what I really want, but have also focused more on veggies and fruits when I do eat. I've managed to lose about #50 since last March this way and it didn't feel like a diet at all.
I also know that they do a lot of walking in situations where I would normally drive. I'm working on incorporating more walking into my life as well. It's a whole different way of life from what I have always known, but I am hoping it will help me take off the remaining #20 that I want to lose.
Thanks for sharing that book.

Containers of WHAT??

And sugar. I saw a 'recipe' that was a pack of cake mix to which was added (among other things) a cup of brown sugar and a cup of powdered sugar!! Into a cake mix which presumably had plenty of sugar in it. You guys certainly have a sweet tooth - not saying we don't but maybe not quite to the same degree 

Yes, I find most North American dessert/baking recipes way way way too sweet. It's cloying and not enjoyable. 

Am I right in thinking that walking generally during your daily lives is not as do -able in terms of shopping, chores in town etc? Are most of your shops in mall type places rather than having a 'high street' in most towns as we have? I walk for pleasure/exercise but also I can walk 10 mins into my local town to shops as long as I'm not doing the weekly food shop obviously.

As for stairs - presumably they are there even though there are lifts/elevators available too?

That's referring to another fad diet I believe. Everything measured out in containers.

When we were over there last year, I lost weight. We were in Paris and London for a week each. We ate well but walked everywhere.

Good luck!

I could probably walk to the grocery store, but no where else. But...I gotta say? I rarely am bothered by the heat, but walking to the grocery store in August, in Central Florida? That may even be a bit much even for me.

One thing here that isn't addressed is that people eat when they are depressed, anxious, stressed etc. Being over weight and overeating can be a symptom of a greater problem. I suffer from depression and anxiety, and I tend to eat when I am in the mist of it. I have to constantly work to retrain myself to deal with it instead of eating(aka self medicating with sweets) which is really hard. When I'm not in the depression/anxiety mode I don't desire to eat all that stuff and I actually lose weight....anyway, I'm going to stop here before I start rambling lol.

When I was growing up in NYC, we walked to the corner store, but took the subway to the local grocery store. But that also meant we shopped every day or every other day because otherwise the bags would be too heavy.

When we moved out of the city, it was to a smallish town (outside the city). We could still walk to the corner store and often did. But the grocery store was definitely a car trip. We could walk to the optometrist, florist, diner, bank, etc -- although those were a fair walk of over a mile and a half each way. But that was only in good weather. For much of the year, we would probably have taken a car due to cold or icy sidewalks. 

As an adult, I have never lived in a place where I could walk to anything. We've lived in small towns, suburbs, and cities -- but even in cities, we could never afford to live in the part of a city where you had close proximity to amenities. Today, as an example, we live in the burbs (once a small town that has become the suburbs) because the lower cost of housing plus the FAR better education made it a no-brainer choice. It is 2 miles to the nearest "corner store" (a chain convenience store at which I would not buy anything except gas and milk). To get anywhere else requires crossing a very busy 4 lane road that bisects the town. I would never want to try crossing that road on foot or by bike. The nearest grocery store is 3 miles away (and would require crossing that road). 

If we'd wanted to live in the nearest city and walk to amenities, our cost of housing would have easily tripled, if not more. And we still could not have walked to a grocery store because there are none in the city core itself. It would have necessitated a car or bus ride. 

I also think another change is our lifestyle. Daily shopping was more do-able back in the days before many parents chose to get their kids  involved in 4 million activities that resulted in parents spending their non-work hours as unpaid chauffeurs. 

Stairs are obviously required, by code. But they are not next to the elevators and in many buildings, you'd have to really look to find them often they are in out of the way corners and women are often advised against using them for fear of attacks by criminals hiding in the stairwells because they are so often empty.

I've eaten more like the French for years, and I was able to stay at a good weight and maintain it. Lots of water, no soft drinks, especially at restaurants where they continually fill up your glass so you wind up drinking the equivalent of a 2 liter bottle with your meal-- some restaurant food is so salty you have to drink a lot. 

I only ate things that I knew what the ingredients were, no chemicals and fillers and stuff. 

I caught a lot of crap from my in-laws about not cleaning my plate and using doggy bags at restaurants, but I was the only one that wasn't severely overweight. 

I only eat a little ice cream or whatever, and it's the best, most natural ice cream I can buy. I only need a couple of spoonfuls to enjoy the flavour, the last 5 spoonfuls don't taste any better than the first. 

I'm also very aware of how full I am. Not being able to eat much means that I also make better choices and eat the foods I love. I turn down a lot of treats or foods that are mediocre because I don't really want them. When I'm at my inlaws house where they graze all the time--cupcakes and cookies and lots of snacks, I will sit down with them and drink a coffee or hot tea and nibble on one cookie--my SIL makes these Belgian butter cookies called Gauflets every Christmas. I don't feel the need to eat every time they do just because. 

I have a very good friend that was originally from Germany and she has said the same thing many, many times. They walk EVERYWHERE over there and it's not unheard of to walk several miles in an average day running errands that most of us would drive to. Many people there don't even own a car because they don't need one, shops and other necessities are much more conveniently located close to where people live.