Why You Might Lose Weight When You Travel To Europe This Summer in 2024

As summer approaches, you might be looking forward to your upcoming vacation to the European continent. 

Whether you’re curating the perfect itinerary for a weekend in Rome, putting together a vision board for an idyllic trip to the Greek Isles, or, better yet, just winging it, there’s one travel experience you may not be anticipating—not gaining weight (or even losing weight) despite eating far more than you normally would.

Though it’s not often the primary focus of travel blogs, it is frequently mentioned as a shared experience among travelers from the US.

Many claim this is due to the “European diet”, in other words, the higher quality of food abroad compared to what we can find in grocery stores in North America.

But is this true? 

If so, what does that mean about the food we’re consuming? If not, what could be the explanation for this phenomenon?

How Do People Lose Weight When They Travel?

Long story short: yes, it’s possible. But, no, it’s likely not because the food in Europe is “better.” It’s probably because you’re walking more and eating smaller portions!

If you search this question, the results might turn up a number of articles about how to avoid weight gain or lose weight when traveling.

And this makes sense! What’s one of the three things you hear someone say they loved about their trip? The sights. The people. And… the food!

And for good reason, too. It’s far different and usually better than anything we can get in the US. Unless you live in a big city, of course.

With so much good food to try and the inevitable daily outings to the best eateries nearby, you’d expect things to fit a bit tighter than they did when you left.

While this might happen to some (and is totally worth it, in my opinion), there’s a pretty decent percentage of people who don’t gain any weight at all. There are even some who even lose weight, despite seemingly eating far more than they normally would.

If this sounds too good to be true, this is one instance in which the truth is stranger than fiction: yes, people can and do lose weight despite eating more while traveling.

But why?

Some articles claim the lack of processed food, the bans on additives, and the higher-quality grains cultivated in Europe cause travelers to lose weight.

Others say it simply comes down to the amount of calories you inevitably burn from walking so much.

To make a long story short, we can pretty confidently say that your weight loss isn’t due to the food in Europe being “better.” A calorie is a calorie no matter which way you grow it, cook it, or eat it. 

Rather, you’re likely burning a lot more calories than you normally would from walking, eating smaller portions, and, potentially, not drinking enough water.

Let’s dive into these competing theories.

Theory One: The Food in Europe is Better

Before I dig into this section, I’d like to preface with a bit of background about myself that you may find relevant as a reader.

I’m a US-Italian dual citizen who lived in Rome for over four years. I have traveled the world (though mostly in Europe) and have a graduate degree in Food Sustainability. I have also worked at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO or FAO).

I hope this is sufficient to support my saying that I know a thing or two about the differences between the US and European food systems. As a self-professed foodie, I also know a thing or two about the two food cultures.

Now, you can make your own assumptions about my potential biases here, but I’ll tell you frankly: When someone says, “The food in Europe is just better. That’s why I’m never bloated eating pasta, and I lose weight!” It sounds a bit like a conspiracy theory to me.

Let’s look into the frequent claim that the food in Europe is, simply, better than what we can get in the US.

To thoroughly discuss this statement would take an entire book. So, let me just break this down into a couple of key points.

First, yes, the European Commission bans numerous additives, antibiotics, and pesticides. The FDA also regulates the use of chemical compounds and medicines in our food. The key difference is that the FDA takes an innocent-until-proven-guilty approach (in some cases) rather than banning first and asking questions later like the EU. There are pros and cons to both of these approaches.

Second, though the American food and agricultural system has many flaws,—there is no doubt about that—it remains one of the most efficient in the world and supplies Americans with more choices than we could probably ever try in a lifetime. Now, this obviously doesn’t make American food “better” in quality. However, the idea that American food is making us “sicker”—directly causing obesity, heart disease, and diabetes—is not because of the quality of the food but rather poor diet: the quantity of food available to us, the increased consumption of added sugars and refined grains, and the lack of education about healthy eating and exercise.

With the excess of choice available to us, we tend to have easier access to nutrient-poor, calorie-dense foods such as fast food, packaged foods, and processed foods. In some places in the US, such as “food swamps,” these may even be the only choices for food.

We can see this play out in the difference in life expectancy, the obesity epidemic, and, as a result, the comparatively higher body mass index of American adults.

Finally, there is also the claim that our food is making us sick—such as with cancer, chronic illnesses, autoimmune disorders, digestive issues, hormone imbalances, allergies, etc.—due to the chemicals, antibiotics, and genetically modified organisms used in our agricultural system.

However, this is not a problem limited to just the U.S. Nearly every developed region in the world experiences increased rates of chronic disease and cancer (according to the World Health Organization) due to various reasons including, but not limited to, what we’re eating and where it’s coming from. It’s also how much we eat, where we are eating (cities vs. suburbs vs rural areas), what we’re adding to our food (salt, sugar, and fat), and our lifestyles surrounding our dietary habits.

On that last point, this leads us to theory number two.

Theory Two: You Burn More Calories When Traveling

Besides boasting about the food and the history, there is one other thing that makes us Americans gush when touring European countries—the walkable cities and access to public transportation!

Thanks to the endlessly quaint little streets and easy access from one part of the city to the other with buses, trams, and subways, you are likely to walk far more when traveling than you normally do at home. 

This may not be true for those who make walking a part of their daily routine but, even then, you might rack up more miles than you’re used to.

This is likely because when you only have two weeks to travel, the truth is that what you’ll get to see is only a fraction of all the wonderful things there are to experience in Europe.

So, what do you do? You pack in as many activities as possible, racking up even more steps and burned calories.

This is important since walking is extremely beneficial for your health and can expend a fair amount of energy (aka calories). In fact, just 30 minutes of brisk walking can burn around 150 calories.

After walking around a city all day, you can imagine how that adds up, leading you to burn way more calories than you might realize.

So, if we think about the calories in, calories out rule (aka, CICO), where we lose weight when we’re burning more calories than we’re consuming, it makes sense that we might lose a few pounds when traveling.

Consider the fact that you’re also probably not drinking nearly as much water as you need—along with drinking alcohol and caffeinated beverages which dehydrate you further—leading you to lose a bit of water weight, too.

Theory Three: Portion Sizes

Remember when I was talking about the quantity of food we have access to in the US? Here’s some more data on that.

According to the FAO, the calorie supply per person, per day (meaning the calories available, not necessarily the calories consumed), is about 3,800 in the US.

Compare that to Europe, which is still high in comparison to less developed regions, but comes in at about 3,400 calories per day. 

While there are many reasons for this lower caloric supply, there is one that could be relevant to travelers.

As someone who lived in Europe for several years, I can personally attest that the portion sizes—maybe with the exception of Czechia and Germany—are generally significantly smaller.

Though the difference in the availability of calories is not so substantial, this change in portion size, in combination with the increased calorie expenditure from walking, is likely more than enough to offset our overall calorie intake—even if we feel like we’re eating more food that is calorically dense.

Final Thoughts About Why Americans Lose Weight When Traveling

If you’re reading this and wondering why you didn’t lose weight on your last trip to Spain or are buying a size down in anticipation of your vacation to France, just hold up a second. 

Without a carefully crafted research study, no one can say with certainty what causes this phenomenon or that it’s even real in the first place and not just a small percentage of people making this claim.

It does occur with enough frequency to make headlines, though, so do with that information what you will.

To summarize, here’s what we know.

• Americans have greater access to more food and calories than any other nation in the world. 
• Americans also live in cities that are highly dependent on vehicles and lack access to public transportation and tend to be less walkable.
• Data shows that Europe has a lower caloric supply compared to the US. This could be due to comparatively smaller portion sizes.
• European cities are more walkable and have greater access to public transportation which you still have to walk to access.

As a result of these conditions relative to each country, if you’re traveling in Europe, you may find that you lose weight due to the decrease in caloric intake and the increase in walking which burns a fair amount of calories.

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