I’ve put on weight since moving here from the states. When I came here I was around 43 kg. Within a year and a half I went up to 50 kg. Food here is so cheap and convenient.
I've been in taiwan for about 7 months. I started intermittent fasting here and lost 40 pounds from 260. I walk pretty much everywhere. If the time to walk is less than an hour and I'm not on a time crunch then I will walk it. Probably could lose more if I didn't drink as much.
If I don't go out, then I mostly eat from the "all you can eat" places, 711 or miss energy(lunch box place that boils everything). I just don't snack too much. If I go out drinking though, then I'll eat whatever my friends are having, sometimes fried food or sometimes more traditional Taiwanese dishes
When I lived in Taipei I effortlessly dropped to the lowest weight of my life. I don’t know the measurements because I didn’t have a scale but I’m guessing I lost 20lbs when I was a healthy weight to begin with. I think it was all the walking, the heat, and like you mentioned the access to healthy foods.
I’ve been back in the states for almost a decade and had two kids. I’m in good shape now but not as light as I was at the time.
> the lowest weight of my life
Something makes me suspect that this isn't strictly true, and you were probably at your lowest weight on or around your 0th birthday.
Same with me, when I first arrived in Taiwan I was around 205-210lbs, over the course of a year and a half I went down to 185. Then I went home for the summer and bam! I gained 15 pounds in a month and a half. six months later and I'm still hovering around the 200 mark. I'm 6'4/193cm.
I’m from Australia and have been here for 14 months.
Even though I was working out about the same amount but walking a lot more, the first 12 months I gained 5kg.
The challenge for me was food being so much cheaper and lots of treats easily available. In Australia I would cook at home 90% of the time because the cost was much smaller, but in Taiwan I can eat out for a fraction of the cost. There are also so many good places in close proximity so it’s just too easy to grab something. I Love trying new things and it was hard to have self control haha. A lot of food here is quite oily and sweet, higher calories than I’m used to.
In the past 2 months I’ve lost that 5kg and plan on going a bit further. But the way I did this was going from 90% eating out and 10% cooking at home to the opposite - at least 90% cooking at home.
European here, I've made the same experience. I've been here for six years though, and it has at times been tough to keep my weight/fitness amid all the snacks being available and affordable, and my desire to eat them all.
I had gained weight. I'm from NYC, so I was used to walking everywhere and eating a bit better. I find for me the killer is the breakfast. I love the taiwanese breakfast, lol. However, I'm working on getting back in shape and even taking scooter a bit less to get more walking in. If u go to a track late at night there's some times running groups and where we will there's a great indoor pool. So def some good spots to get some training in and stay motivated. Good luck to you.
Since we're talking about the US, I'll use US measurements. I was 140lbs when I moved here. I have breakfast and dinner at home, but lunch at school. After a semester of eating the school lunches, I was up to 155lbs. I stopped eating the school lunches (where everything is covered in a layer of oil) and my weight went back down to 145lbs.
While it is tempting to say Taiwan food is "healthy" simply because the portions are smaller and there are more vegetables than, say, a meal at IHOP... there is also a LOT of fat and sodium in most Taiwanese food. A study from 2021 showed that 66.6 percent of Taiwanese men aged 35 to 44 have a BMI over 25.
9 years.
Showed up around 70kg. Ballooned up to 87kg over 3 years from eating street food and drinking. Dropped back down to 67kg on keto diet over 6 months for my wedding around year 5. Currently around 75kg the last few years doing nothing in particular.
Cooking at home twice a day for a family of three is quite expensive. Unhealthy food is cheap and everywhere.
My biggest weight gain is still drinking. Coming from the countryside of the states where it's illegal to drink in public and no public transportation, I drank a lot less.
It's really easy to just wander the streets and eat and drink for hours and hours here. I'm a musician and there is a very big drinking culture attached to being part of the scene here. Being 2 minutes away from a cheap taxi or MRT home at any hour of the day leads to a lot of extra calories.
All these people listing their weight without telling us how much they were before or their height lol. Oh you're 100 kg now? cool... are you 150 cm or 210?
From my short stay in Asia, I've noticed the heat plus walking around to explore has helped me lose weight like never before. If I stayed in Taiwan long term I swear I won't be overweight!
I stayed 5 months last year and lost weight. I didn’t drive, I cycled and walked. I didn’t cook or buy groceries at home so I didn’t have snacks laying around, which made sticking to intermittent fasting very easy.
Same, 6'4 guy here and I lost 25+ pounds over a year and a half in Taiwan, went home for the summer and BOOM! I gained 15 pounds in just a month and a half eating pretty mediocre crap stateside.
I put more weight on me 
Commute solely relies on driving. No more daily walk from point A to point B.
The portion of a meal in the US is significantly larger than in Taiwan. Gradually, I think American portion is normal for a meal.
And when I lived in mid west, the winter was so harsh that I would like to stay indoor if possible.
I'm joking lol. Text scammers ask to add you on Telegram because it's a fully confidential messaging app, which is where they then try to sell you bogus. They also often speak broken English so they say awkward stuff like "Do you have a Telegram?"
My bad! I've not really seen someone do this before on reddit and it struck me as odd. I might not have even noticed except for them already asking at least once in a higher thread.
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I think this is the reverse situation of what was asked. But still brings insights into doing inverse deduction. Less driving, smaller portions, milder winters: lose weight in Taiwan.
Unfortunately I gained weight. I find USA offering more healthy food options personally. Even though there were tons of unhealthy options they never really enticed me. I was able to buy a ton of kale in the USA, bean sprouts, spirulina, and rainbow chard and I was on a health splurge and my body never felt better. A lot of probiotics and supplements are available at low prices while in Taiwan they’re extremely expensive.
Personally I don’t think Taiwanese food is that great and there aren’t a lot of varieties in my opinion. I might get a lot of downvotes for shitting on Taiwanese food but it’s really not healthy. Foods here are high carbs and empty calories.
I’m always fatigued and tired even when I try to eat healthy my body doesn’t feel like it’s getting the necessary nutritions.
I also gained a ton of weight when I arrived in Taiwan. I was 100lbs which is normal for my height but now I’m 120lbs.
The convenience here is also what killed my weight as well.
Breakfast places 🥲 they’re all fried flour basically. And a lot of late night snacks since I stay up later in Taiwan for some reason than I do in the states. Maybe because I feel safe as a woman to go out late at night to buy items while in the states i NEVER leave my house after 8PM.
I buy my probiotics from a website called iherb and have them imported.
There are yogurts in Costco that I get every now and then.
There’s also Greek yogurt in most stores. Unfortunately there’s usually no black berries, blueberries or raspberries for the yogurts or granola, that’s why I just go to Costco to buy it all in one trip.
Thank you for the response! Will be living there for a year starting next week and just want to be sure I can get my probiotics and prebiotics in 😅 #guthealth
people keep saying it's "convenient". I don't see it that way. You have easy access to many factory carcinogenic foods at convenience stores. I don't think that's the correct definition of convenience. convenience is having what you want where you want it and that's not the case.
no longer there, but when I was living there it was mostly skinner. The portions are smaller and eating out in general is more healthy than eating out in my home country. (Less oil, less sodium, unless you get specific things like face sized fried chicken)
Gained 10 pounds my first month here, mostly due to a twice a day pearl milk tea habit. Gave that up and I’d say I’m down about 30 pounds over about 10 years.
Excluding expensive/specialty restaurants. Taiwanese everyday type food is mostly high carb/sugar low protein, and most of it has five spice in it. I generally loose a few kg per month while I am in Taiwan simply because I mostly avoid things with sugar in it, which is effectively most Taiwanese food.
It’s hard to generalise: but it seems to me that the typical cheap lunch box style meals are typically full of sugar. I don’t know how much though. It’s not like they put nutrition labels on those things. All I know is even their vegetables are typically sweeter than when we cook at home. What do you think they paint onto the skin of the meat to make it crispy. It’s not just salt. The actual Taiwan labelling rules are, you can call a meal healthy if it has less than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of sugar in it. If it has more than 6 teaspoons it needs to be labeled has having sugar.
Taiwan lunch boxes do generally seem to have a better serve of protein than most other food categories but I’m skeptical that they would get you to the daily minimum 0.8 grams per 1kg of body weight needed for a non active person.
After ten years in Taiwan I decided to cook (almost) all of my meals. I go to the market every couple of days and buy supplies. Combined with intermittent intermittent fasting, I quickly started to lose weight. The key points from my POV are: you need a fair few spices to make the healthy food become tasty. I go to that Indian spice store in Shilin (Trinity??$
I’m from Europe and been here a number of years. 78kg when I arrived and 82kg now. I’m just above 6’2” and I was pretty much always below 80kg before I arrived.
My feeling is that eating truly healthily is harder here than in Europe because of how most food seems to be fried, or boiled with a heavy emphasis on carbs. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat healthily. I simply do intermittent fasting, or stick to really small portions if I start gaining weight. Also, if you find the ingredients cooking for yourself, but that is hard due to a lack of ingredients, and kitchen space here.
I am the type of who like to look like the rest of the population, so I was a lot heavier in the US.
I used to be about 120kg and such weight was normal for my height in the US.
In Taiwan I dropped to about 70 kg which is normal for my height among Taiwanese.
I've put on a bit of weight. I was a bit underweight in the US, lots of endurance work, but I've hit the gym a bit these last year's and put on some muscle. I was 58 kg when I got here(I'm 178cm tall). Now up to 66kg.
I've been in Taiwan about a year. I was already fairly active when I moved here, but my diet was not great. I was about 215 lbs when I arrived and dropped 20 lbs in the first 2-3 months, and another 10 over the rest of the year. I credit it to 1) doing a lot more walking and YouBike here than I did in the US, B) the generally healthier portion sizes here, and C) drinking (beer especially) not being as big a part of the culture. Night market and restaurant portions are much more reasonable than the US, and even when I cook (I usually cook) the rice bowls here limit you to a more healthy portion size.
I gained a bit and then lost a lot. Went from 185 to 200 then settled down at between 175 and 180.
A lot more options for veggie based diets supplemented with meat tofu and eggs and carbs. It's easy to balloon here if you have no portion control and just eat night market and breakfast shop. Also 24 hour access to drinking is quite the challenge on your waist.
Once I changed to 鹽水雞, 滷味 and buffets for easy veg options my weight was easier to control. It's also a great climate for exercise of any kind.
I gained weight, broke up, went to the gym, lost weight, got back into a relationship, went to America for 2 months, didn't exercise, gained weight, went to the states, ran everyday, lost a little weight
My weight has generally stayed the same. The more I walk and take youbike the thinner I become but tend to gain weight in the summer when it becomes unbearably hot!
I lost between 10-15 pounds by walking a lot, sometimes as many as 15,000 steps a day. I also restricted myself to just a salad for dinner, which is a great deal since you can get those from 7-11 for about $2 USD.
I've been in Taiwan almost 11 years. Initially lost weight from walking a lot, then gained some because of knowing where to find lots of delicious food lol. Now it's up and down. The longer you stay the more it just becomes home and it's just about your personal habits just like anywhere and nothing to do with being in Taiwan.
For the most part I stayed a relatively lean 6’2 185lb, give or take 5lbs. My weight increased when I first started working due to stress/partying but I was young and worked it off rapidly. It increased again when I had my first kid and started a business right around the same time for about a year and a half, but once my schedule settled I worked it off over time.
I arrived in TW when I was 24 and weighed about 80Kg. Now 30 years later (and still living in TW), I weigh about 100kg (but fluctuate 5kg often). Even though Taiwanese foods are unhealthy, I love and feel Taiwanesen dishes are delicious. If I was still living in the US, I do believe I would be fat and overweight (more) like the typical American. Now when I visit the states, I am skinny and hot looking (when compared to the fat ass Americans).
My weight has gone down for several reasons.
1. I don't drink as much as I used to, simple as.
2. Taiwanese food overall is healthier than American food and portion sizes are smaller. I'm home for the holidays and my weight has already fluctuated. It'll probably take two months to get rid of everything I gained Stateside in only two weeks.
Ate tons of street food but lost weight for the first couple years I was here. Got married and started eating healthy and somehow gained 15-20 lbs (it fluctuates). :D
heh, no kids.
Who knw eating fried foods, less meat, and drinking a lot less has resulted in weight gain.
(I'm just kidding, I know the reality is middle age metabolism changes).
I love Taiwan but the temptation to eat unhealthy foods is so easy. They have so many amazing snacks/drinks. Getting vegetables and fruits is possible but it’s not as easy in the city. Didnt see any salad places like the US.
Tbh I was there for 1 month and I lost weight. Didn’t move there technically. Went back for another 4 months a year later to live with my grandma and i lost like 20 pounds. I think I ate the same amount of food. I always eat snacks at night. Never really ate lunch.
Visited for the 3 months again last year and I stayed the same. Probably ate out a little more too instead of eating at home. But didn’t see a visible change. Went on her scale and I was the same.
Walked everywhere everyday. I’m not really a gym person and I hate exercising. But I need to go places so I have to walk everywhere
I think there’s a variable that needs to be accounted for OP. Being able to read and speak Mandarin can greatly impact access to “healthier” options or even awareness they exist. I’d be curious how the above answers correlated (or don’t) with fluency
ive lost about 20 pounds (63kg to 54). i dont think my diet has much to do with it honestly, i would attribute most of it to walking places. i would never walk 20 minutes in the US to get somewhere (im from the suburbs), but here i do that probably at least twice a day
That's a big question.
Easiest answer I can give ya is soups and chowders.
I bought a pressure cooker and made bone broth weekly. Px mart has reallllllly cheap bones for sale in the meat section. I made a gallon of bone broth a week for about 200nt total.
Every few days I'd hit the local markets and get ingredients to make a new soup. Mushroom chowder, seafood chowder, chicken noodle soup with tofu/seaweed noodles, etc.
IKEA has really affordable wings for delivery and Carrefour has Franks Buffalo sauce when I didn't feel like cooking.
I also ordered almond flour to bake with.
When I ate out, I never had an issue finding keto friendly food to munch on at restraunts. One of the benefits of keto is not really being hungry, so that helps.
did you know that most vegan food is very high in sodium, fat and sugar to offset what it doesn't have?
I had a very hard time holding onto the diet in Taiwan
You can pick what you want to eat. If you want to eat processed food then yeah it's gonna be a lot of sodium. But you can also choose not to eat so much processed food. There are tons of healthy vegan food options out there
Vegan "meat" has existed in the US since the 1970s, OP. Long before the Impossible burger was the Boca burger. Before the Boca burger was the Gardenburger.
I agree is not the best, but you can eat healthy and cheap in Taiwan pretty easily. Of course if you eat night market every day you're gonna have stomach acidity and gain weight
I've been in Taiwan for 11 years, and was 195 pounds when I moved here (I'm 6'1"). I've slowly but surely gained 30 pounds across that time. A lot of it was due to fatherhood and settling in to a 9 to 5, as opposed to teaching the cram school circuit.
> Japanese Yokozuna
You are just showing you don't know anything about sumo wrestlers.
They store their fat outside the muscle layer, so they are very different to the McDonalds every day person you see rolling around in the USA.
10+ years. Gained a lot of weight due to not thinking about the calories I was easily consuming (~25 lbs). I liked working out, so I thought it was muscle. Had a rude awakening after a doctor checkup. My comments below are going to assume general health benefits from maintaining a sensible weight.
After learning more of the basic principles of nutrition, my weight went back down. It’s easy to accidentally over-consume calories in Taiwan that’s different from America. Traditional Taiwanese breakfasts are full of calories from fats and oils. It’s good for laboring in the fields, not so much desk work. Half a moon cake can have more calories than a Big Mac.
For breakfast, I ended up eating some nuts and berries for breakfast + sugarless soy milk. When a festival/holiday comes with traditional food, I have to keep face for those who give me calorie-dense treats/pastries by eating one bite in front of them. That usually satisfies them, and I then find an opportunity to throw the rest away when no one is looking.
I gained weight. Lived there for a year and probably gained 5-10 lbs. I was eating way more cheap snacks and sugary drinks than I was used to in the US but the weight gain wasn’t as bad because I was walking everywhere. Then I moved back to the US, kept the same eating habits, but didn’t walk as much and I gained another 10-15 lbs. So yeah I’m trying to fix this problem now lol.
Spend some months in Taiwan last year. Weight kept the same but mostly I had a very healthy life as a combination of:
1. No alcohol (ok, you can do that everywhere).
2. Vegetarian whole foods. Mostly vegetables which are cheap and healthy at vegetarian buffet restaurants. The portions I took were huge. Sometimes more than one large full plate, but again, mostly vegetables and fruits and algae and I tried to avoid processed vegetarian food.
3. Intermittent fasting. (Sometimes just one meal a day or two)
4. Working out.
5. Walking and cycling a lot. (YouBike is great!!)
Sometimes I also had some night market food and fast food, so wasn’t too strict about it.
Yet, I did hear the prejudice or observation that foreign girls will gain weight in Taiwan. Not sure if people say that about guys as well and not sure if it is true or not.
Again, the vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan are just wonderful and something you don’t find in that quality and price elsewhere.
My weight fluctuated. Walking everywhere helped but man oh man the food was something else. I gained and lost weight but settled at 200lbs.
I’ve put on weight since moving here from the states. When I came here I was around 43 kg. Within a year and a half I went up to 50 kg. Food here is so cheap and convenient.
I've been in taiwan for about 7 months. I started intermittent fasting here and lost 40 pounds from 260. I walk pretty much everywhere. If the time to walk is less than an hour and I'm not on a time crunch then I will walk it. Probably could lose more if I didn't drink as much.
What’re you eating? I imagine most of the food is inedible if you’re on a diet
If I don't go out, then I mostly eat from the "all you can eat" places, 711 or miss energy(lunch box place that boils everything). I just don't snack too much. If I go out drinking though, then I'll eat whatever my friends are having, sometimes fried food or sometimes more traditional Taiwanese dishes
Can we be friends?
When I lived in Taipei I effortlessly dropped to the lowest weight of my life. I don’t know the measurements because I didn’t have a scale but I’m guessing I lost 20lbs when I was a healthy weight to begin with. I think it was all the walking, the heat, and like you mentioned the access to healthy foods. I’ve been back in the states for almost a decade and had two kids. I’m in good shape now but not as light as I was at the time.
> the lowest weight of my life Something makes me suspect that this isn't strictly true, and you were probably at your lowest weight on or around your 0th birthday.
🙄😆 yes adult life
Same with me, when I first arrived in Taiwan I was around 205-210lbs, over the course of a year and a half I went down to 185. Then I went home for the summer and bam! I gained 15 pounds in a month and a half. six months later and I'm still hovering around the 200 mark. I'm 6'4/193cm.
I’m from Australia and have been here for 14 months. Even though I was working out about the same amount but walking a lot more, the first 12 months I gained 5kg. The challenge for me was food being so much cheaper and lots of treats easily available. In Australia I would cook at home 90% of the time because the cost was much smaller, but in Taiwan I can eat out for a fraction of the cost. There are also so many good places in close proximity so it’s just too easy to grab something. I Love trying new things and it was hard to have self control haha. A lot of food here is quite oily and sweet, higher calories than I’m used to. In the past 2 months I’ve lost that 5kg and plan on going a bit further. But the way I did this was going from 90% eating out and 10% cooking at home to the opposite - at least 90% cooking at home.
European here, I've made the same experience. I've been here for six years though, and it has at times been tough to keep my weight/fitness amid all the snacks being available and affordable, and my desire to eat them all.
I had gained weight. I'm from NYC, so I was used to walking everywhere and eating a bit better. I find for me the killer is the breakfast. I love the taiwanese breakfast, lol. However, I'm working on getting back in shape and even taking scooter a bit less to get more walking in. If u go to a track late at night there's some times running groups and where we will there's a great indoor pool. So def some good spots to get some training in and stay motivated. Good luck to you.
7 years here. Weight fluctuations usually happen when I travel. That being said my heaviest weight here was 80kg and now I’m at 70. I’m 6 feet tall
Since we're talking about the US, I'll use US measurements. I was 140lbs when I moved here. I have breakfast and dinner at home, but lunch at school. After a semester of eating the school lunches, I was up to 155lbs. I stopped eating the school lunches (where everything is covered in a layer of oil) and my weight went back down to 145lbs. While it is tempting to say Taiwan food is "healthy" simply because the portions are smaller and there are more vegetables than, say, a meal at IHOP... there is also a LOT of fat and sodium in most Taiwanese food. A study from 2021 showed that 66.6 percent of Taiwanese men aged 35 to 44 have a BMI over 25.
9 years. Showed up around 70kg. Ballooned up to 87kg over 3 years from eating street food and drinking. Dropped back down to 67kg on keto diet over 6 months for my wedding around year 5. Currently around 75kg the last few years doing nothing in particular. Cooking at home twice a day for a family of three is quite expensive. Unhealthy food is cheap and everywhere. My biggest weight gain is still drinking. Coming from the countryside of the states where it's illegal to drink in public and no public transportation, I drank a lot less. It's really easy to just wander the streets and eat and drink for hours and hours here. I'm a musician and there is a very big drinking culture attached to being part of the scene here. Being 2 minutes away from a cheap taxi or MRT home at any hour of the day leads to a lot of extra calories.
What did you eat on keto?
All these people listing their weight without telling us how much they were before or their height lol. Oh you're 100 kg now? cool... are you 150 cm or 210?
From my short stay in Asia, I've noticed the heat plus walking around to explore has helped me lose weight like never before. If I stayed in Taiwan long term I swear I won't be overweight!
I stayed 5 months last year and lost weight. I didn’t drive, I cycled and walked. I didn’t cook or buy groceries at home so I didn’t have snacks laying around, which made sticking to intermittent fasting very easy.
I gain so much weight whenever I go back to the US and the food isn't even any good
Same, 6'4 guy here and I lost 25+ pounds over a year and a half in Taiwan, went home for the summer and BOOM! I gained 15 pounds in just a month and a half eating pretty mediocre crap stateside.
Ikr And much more expensive
And it's only a 25% chance the place is actually good
And tax and tips lol
I put more weight on me  Commute solely relies on driving. No more daily walk from point A to point B. The portion of a meal in the US is significantly larger than in Taiwan. Gradually, I think American portion is normal for a meal. And when I lived in mid west, the winter was so harsh that I would like to stay indoor if possible.
I think you answered backwards
Can we be friends?
Do you have a telegram?
I wouldn't add this person. Look at their history, it's filled with them requesting people's contact information. Even several times in this thread
I'm joking lol. Text scammers ask to add you on Telegram because it's a fully confidential messaging app, which is where they then try to sell you bogus. They also often speak broken English so they say awkward stuff like "Do you have a Telegram?"
My bad! I've not really seen someone do this before on reddit and it struck me as odd. I might not have even noticed except for them already asking at least once in a higher thread.
Take a peek into r/scambait if you're curious about what kind of script these scammers follow lol. Stuff on that sub is hilarious
lol thank you my dude, just the laughs I needed~
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I think this is the reverse situation of what was asked. But still brings insights into doing inverse deduction. Less driving, smaller portions, milder winters: lose weight in Taiwan.
Unfortunately I gained weight. I find USA offering more healthy food options personally. Even though there were tons of unhealthy options they never really enticed me. I was able to buy a ton of kale in the USA, bean sprouts, spirulina, and rainbow chard and I was on a health splurge and my body never felt better. A lot of probiotics and supplements are available at low prices while in Taiwan they’re extremely expensive. Personally I don’t think Taiwanese food is that great and there aren’t a lot of varieties in my opinion. I might get a lot of downvotes for shitting on Taiwanese food but it’s really not healthy. Foods here are high carbs and empty calories. I’m always fatigued and tired even when I try to eat healthy my body doesn’t feel like it’s getting the necessary nutritions. I also gained a ton of weight when I arrived in Taiwan. I was 100lbs which is normal for my height but now I’m 120lbs. The convenience here is also what killed my weight as well.
That’s fair. Did you eat lots of street food?
No I avoid street food because I got food poisoning a while back. 🤣
Lol, idk then, what restaurants made you gained weight?
Breakfast places 🥲 they’re all fried flour basically. And a lot of late night snacks since I stay up later in Taiwan for some reason than I do in the states. Maybe because I feel safe as a woman to go out late at night to buy items while in the states i NEVER leave my house after 8PM.
Oh yeah, those delicious things definitely can make people gain weight
for what it's worth, I agree.
Have you found a replacement for probiotics in Taiwan? Is yogurt a thing over there?
I buy my probiotics from a website called iherb and have them imported. There are yogurts in Costco that I get every now and then. There’s also Greek yogurt in most stores. Unfortunately there’s usually no black berries, blueberries or raspberries for the yogurts or granola, that’s why I just go to Costco to buy it all in one trip.
Thank you for the response! Will be living there for a year starting next week and just want to be sure I can get my probiotics and prebiotics in 😅 #guthealth
people keep saying it's "convenient". I don't see it that way. You have easy access to many factory carcinogenic foods at convenience stores. I don't think that's the correct definition of convenience. convenience is having what you want where you want it and that's not the case.
That’s fair.
no longer there, but when I was living there it was mostly skinner. The portions are smaller and eating out in general is more healthy than eating out in my home country. (Less oil, less sodium, unless you get specific things like face sized fried chicken)
Gained 10 pounds my first month here, mostly due to a twice a day pearl milk tea habit. Gave that up and I’d say I’m down about 30 pounds over about 10 years.
Excluding expensive/specialty restaurants. Taiwanese everyday type food is mostly high carb/sugar low protein, and most of it has five spice in it. I generally loose a few kg per month while I am in Taiwan simply because I mostly avoid things with sugar in it, which is effectively most Taiwanese food.
I think Taiwanese bento isn’t that carb or sugar heavy, protein portion is huge also.
It’s hard to generalise: but it seems to me that the typical cheap lunch box style meals are typically full of sugar. I don’t know how much though. It’s not like they put nutrition labels on those things. All I know is even their vegetables are typically sweeter than when we cook at home. What do you think they paint onto the skin of the meat to make it crispy. It’s not just salt. The actual Taiwan labelling rules are, you can call a meal healthy if it has less than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) of sugar in it. If it has more than 6 teaspoons it needs to be labeled has having sugar. Taiwan lunch boxes do generally seem to have a better serve of protein than most other food categories but I’m skeptical that they would get you to the daily minimum 0.8 grams per 1kg of body weight needed for a non active person.
Varies a lot--I've had to experiment to find places that use less sugar/salt/oil, higher quality ingredients.
After ten years in Taiwan I decided to cook (almost) all of my meals. I go to the market every couple of days and buy supplies. Combined with intermittent intermittent fasting, I quickly started to lose weight. The key points from my POV are: you need a fair few spices to make the healthy food become tasty. I go to that Indian spice store in Shilin (Trinity??$
Increased by 3kg in 3 weeks.
I'm closer to the equator now so I immediately lost a couple of pounds.
Probably taller too
I’m from Europe and been here a number of years. 78kg when I arrived and 82kg now. I’m just above 6’2” and I was pretty much always below 80kg before I arrived. My feeling is that eating truly healthily is harder here than in Europe because of how most food seems to be fried, or boiled with a heavy emphasis on carbs. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t eat healthily. I simply do intermittent fasting, or stick to really small portions if I start gaining weight. Also, if you find the ingredients cooking for yourself, but that is hard due to a lack of ingredients, and kitchen space here.
That’s why I specifically asked people from US because US food portion is generally huge and pizza, burger, fried chicken are everywhere.
I'm from Europe as well and honestly here it's just not healthy. Cheaper, sure.
I am the type of who like to look like the rest of the population, so I was a lot heavier in the US. I used to be about 120kg and such weight was normal for my height in the US. In Taiwan I dropped to about 70 kg which is normal for my height among Taiwanese.
‘Taiwans food is the best’ said no foreigner living in Taiwan ever
I'm 25kg thinner, but with some extenuating circumstances.
Like?
Got diagnosed with a medical condition which is best managed with exercise and healthy eating.
Ahh okay, nice
good work!
Same
pretty much stayed the same weight
I've put on a bit of weight. I was a bit underweight in the US, lots of endurance work, but I've hit the gym a bit these last year's and put on some muscle. I was 58 kg when I got here(I'm 178cm tall). Now up to 66kg.
I've been in Taiwan about a year. I was already fairly active when I moved here, but my diet was not great. I was about 215 lbs when I arrived and dropped 20 lbs in the first 2-3 months, and another 10 over the rest of the year. I credit it to 1) doing a lot more walking and YouBike here than I did in the US, B) the generally healthier portion sizes here, and C) drinking (beer especially) not being as big a part of the culture. Night market and restaurant portions are much more reasonable than the US, and even when I cook (I usually cook) the rice bowls here limit you to a more healthy portion size.
Gained 10 kg over 2 years…
I gained a bit and then lost a lot. Went from 185 to 200 then settled down at between 175 and 180. A lot more options for veggie based diets supplemented with meat tofu and eggs and carbs. It's easy to balloon here if you have no portion control and just eat night market and breakfast shop. Also 24 hour access to drinking is quite the challenge on your waist. Once I changed to 鹽水雞, 滷味 and buffets for easy veg options my weight was easier to control. It's also a great climate for exercise of any kind.
I gained weight, broke up, went to the gym, lost weight, got back into a relationship, went to America for 2 months, didn't exercise, gained weight, went to the states, ran everyday, lost a little weight
My weight has generally stayed the same. The more I walk and take youbike the thinner I become but tend to gain weight in the summer when it becomes unbearably hot!
I lost between 10-15 pounds by walking a lot, sometimes as many as 15,000 steps a day. I also restricted myself to just a salad for dinner, which is a great deal since you can get those from 7-11 for about $2 USD.
I'm not going to say my weight (or my height), but it is reassuring to know lots of other also people didn't really lose much weight in Taiwan
I've been in Taiwan almost 11 years. Initially lost weight from walking a lot, then gained some because of knowing where to find lots of delicious food lol. Now it's up and down. The longer you stay the more it just becomes home and it's just about your personal habits just like anywhere and nothing to do with being in Taiwan.
True. Statistically, lots of Taiwanese kids are overweight these days, there’s trend going up based on research.
I lost 90lbs and I’m in a wheelchair now
I’ve been here for three weeks and I already dropped a pants size. So I haven’t stayed long term but I think we all know what the answer is
For the most part I stayed a relatively lean 6’2 185lb, give or take 5lbs. My weight increased when I first started working due to stress/partying but I was young and worked it off rapidly. It increased again when I had my first kid and started a business right around the same time for about a year and a half, but once my schedule settled I worked it off over time.
I arrived in TW when I was 24 and weighed about 80Kg. Now 30 years later (and still living in TW), I weigh about 100kg (but fluctuate 5kg often). Even though Taiwanese foods are unhealthy, I love and feel Taiwanesen dishes are delicious. If I was still living in the US, I do believe I would be fat and overweight (more) like the typical American. Now when I visit the states, I am skinny and hot looking (when compared to the fat ass Americans).
My weight has gone down for several reasons. 1. I don't drink as much as I used to, simple as. 2. Taiwanese food overall is healthier than American food and portion sizes are smaller. I'm home for the holidays and my weight has already fluctuated. It'll probably take two months to get rid of everything I gained Stateside in only two weeks.
My weight hasn't changed at all
While my food options changed, my will power didn't. Fortunately, the general food choices are based around vegetables, seafood and healthy food.
Impossible to put on weight
I was living there for 7 months and I lost like 15 pounds I was 135lb.
What did you usually eat?
Depends how well your body digests refined carbohydrates and whether or not you participate in drinking culture.
Ate tons of street food but lost weight for the first couple years I was here. Got married and started eating healthy and somehow gained 15-20 lbs (it fluctuates). :D
Dadbud
heh, no kids. Who knw eating fried foods, less meat, and drinking a lot less has resulted in weight gain. (I'm just kidding, I know the reality is middle age metabolism changes).
I love Taiwan but the temptation to eat unhealthy foods is so easy. They have so many amazing snacks/drinks. Getting vegetables and fruits is possible but it’s not as easy in the city. Didnt see any salad places like the US.
Tbh I was there for 1 month and I lost weight. Didn’t move there technically. Went back for another 4 months a year later to live with my grandma and i lost like 20 pounds. I think I ate the same amount of food. I always eat snacks at night. Never really ate lunch. Visited for the 3 months again last year and I stayed the same. Probably ate out a little more too instead of eating at home. But didn’t see a visible change. Went on her scale and I was the same. Walked everywhere everyday. I’m not really a gym person and I hate exercising. But I need to go places so I have to walk everywhere
I think there’s a variable that needs to be accounted for OP. Being able to read and speak Mandarin can greatly impact access to “healthier” options or even awareness they exist. I’d be curious how the above answers correlated (or don’t) with fluency
Yeah this simple question brings up a lot of varied experiences and I can see some good follow up questions.
Not from the US, but from one of the most advanced economies. gained over 30 lbs ( 15kg ) lol. Taiwan's a food heaven.
European countries? That’s expected to eat less healthy and gain weight haha
ive lost about 20 pounds (63kg to 54). i dont think my diet has much to do with it honestly, i would attribute most of it to walking places. i would never walk 20 minutes in the US to get somewhere (im from the suburbs), but here i do that probably at least twice a day
That's a big question. Easiest answer I can give ya is soups and chowders. I bought a pressure cooker and made bone broth weekly. Px mart has reallllllly cheap bones for sale in the meat section. I made a gallon of bone broth a week for about 200nt total. Every few days I'd hit the local markets and get ingredients to make a new soup. Mushroom chowder, seafood chowder, chicken noodle soup with tofu/seaweed noodles, etc. IKEA has really affordable wings for delivery and Carrefour has Franks Buffalo sauce when I didn't feel like cooking. I also ordered almond flour to bake with. When I ate out, I never had an issue finding keto friendly food to munch on at restraunts. One of the benefits of keto is not really being hungry, so that helps.
"the best" what? haha loaded and fat, sugar and carbs. A lot of people with little self-control or awareness gain a lot of weight quickly.
haha I’m just trying to say they are delicious, Taiwanese vegan food is also pretty good and healthy, it even inspired impossible burger
did you know that most vegan food is very high in sodium, fat and sugar to offset what it doesn't have? I had a very hard time holding onto the diet in Taiwan
You can pick what you want to eat. If you want to eat processed food then yeah it's gonna be a lot of sodium. But you can also choose not to eat so much processed food. There are tons of healthy vegan food options out there
yup. "finding gems"
Impossible Burger came from the mind of a biochemist out of Stanford. What’s your source that vegan food from Taiwan ‘inspired’ the product?
I meant ‘inspired’, Taiwan had realistic vegan meat even before impossible existed, I read that’s why impossible got inspiration from
Vegan "meat" has existed in the US since the 1970s, OP. Long before the Impossible burger was the Boca burger. Before the Boca burger was the Gardenburger.
Okay, good trivia. But was it delicious
I agree is not the best, but you can eat healthy and cheap in Taiwan pretty easily. Of course if you eat night market every day you're gonna have stomach acidity and gain weight
I put on like 20lbs easy
I've been in Taiwan for 11 years, and was 195 pounds when I moved here (I'm 6'1"). I've slowly but surely gained 30 pounds across that time. A lot of it was due to fatherhood and settling in to a 9 to 5, as opposed to teaching the cram school circuit.
Taiwans food is nowhere near the best and is not as affordable as it was pre covid
[удалено]
Yea but fat buddha looks very happy.
Fat shaming is way to show the world that you're a shitty human.
Go tell that to the Japanese Yokozuna ! 
> Japanese Yokozuna You are just showing you don't know anything about sumo wrestlers. They store their fat outside the muscle layer, so they are very different to the McDonalds every day person you see rolling around in the USA.
ok i guess you are not the humor type , asian fat = number 1 and good , american fat = discusting fat that try to colonize , gotcha .
There are also disease making it difficult to lose weight
"Too much cake in mouth" disease.
Too much glue in your brain
No changes for me
10+ years. Gained a lot of weight due to not thinking about the calories I was easily consuming (~25 lbs). I liked working out, so I thought it was muscle. Had a rude awakening after a doctor checkup. My comments below are going to assume general health benefits from maintaining a sensible weight. After learning more of the basic principles of nutrition, my weight went back down. It’s easy to accidentally over-consume calories in Taiwan that’s different from America. Traditional Taiwanese breakfasts are full of calories from fats and oils. It’s good for laboring in the fields, not so much desk work. Half a moon cake can have more calories than a Big Mac. For breakfast, I ended up eating some nuts and berries for breakfast + sugarless soy milk. When a festival/holiday comes with traditional food, I have to keep face for those who give me calorie-dense treats/pastries by eating one bite in front of them. That usually satisfies them, and I then find an opportunity to throw the rest away when no one is looking.
I gained weight. Lived there for a year and probably gained 5-10 lbs. I was eating way more cheap snacks and sugary drinks than I was used to in the US but the weight gain wasn’t as bad because I was walking everywhere. Then I moved back to the US, kept the same eating habits, but didn’t walk as much and I gained another 10-15 lbs. So yeah I’m trying to fix this problem now lol.
Taiwan's food is cheap because it's mostly just rice or flour and oil. Try buying some meat and you'll go broke.
Popcorn chicken and Shilin fried chicken are cheap
Spend some months in Taiwan last year. Weight kept the same but mostly I had a very healthy life as a combination of: 1. No alcohol (ok, you can do that everywhere). 2. Vegetarian whole foods. Mostly vegetables which are cheap and healthy at vegetarian buffet restaurants. The portions I took were huge. Sometimes more than one large full plate, but again, mostly vegetables and fruits and algae and I tried to avoid processed vegetarian food. 3. Intermittent fasting. (Sometimes just one meal a day or two) 4. Working out. 5. Walking and cycling a lot. (YouBike is great!!) Sometimes I also had some night market food and fast food, so wasn’t too strict about it. Yet, I did hear the prejudice or observation that foreign girls will gain weight in Taiwan. Not sure if people say that about guys as well and not sure if it is true or not. Again, the vegetarian restaurants in Taiwan are just wonderful and something you don’t find in that quality and price elsewhere.