Portion size of couse, but that's also because of the cooking. Or lack of. People who stop cooking, buy frozen meals and take aways tend to eat worse than people who actually cook. And the familly diner is still more of a thing in Europe. More people cook and eat together. We control more the ingredients we use and the portions that way. (this is statistical, don't come and say "I'm European and never cook", "I'm American and cook my own meals every day". I know. Statistics.)

But let's be real, we have fatties here too. I'm not exactly an underwears model. We have fast food, burgers, kebabs and currywursts, we have snacks, sodas, etc but probably to a less extent, and rarely as an exclusive diet.

Do they, or did they, have 'Super Size' at McDonalds in Europe?

Yes we do have McDonalds.

OOOPS! :P

Let me fix that. XD

Man It's been one brain fart after another for me today.

A lot of American places don't even have small sizes available. Starbucks pretty much just says "You can have big, bigger, or biggest. Small is available, but not actually on the menu." And good luck ordering a small pizza, most chains start at medium.

From my personal experience, I have never heard a Romanian say that Americans are fat or so, I think this stereotype is more popular in Western Europe.

We get bigger portions for less money and we spend more time driving around than actually walking. We also get more things delivered to us, making us conserve more calories. Also, there's social and peer pressure to finish our portions. You get stuffed on Thanksgiving or you eat as much pizza and KFC as you can because you paid for it all.

The rest of the world is physically more active and they get smaller portions at higher costs typically. This means they're also less likely to binge on junk while us Muricans will easily give in to a dollar menu if we have the munchies.

That's not to say that obesity doesn't exist elsewhere, but it's more prevalent in the US because of these factors. It's an attitude problem and a value problem. We value the full portions that we spend our money on over any health factors associated with the items.

And all of that is aside from the lack of proper education on nutrition and exercise. It's a mess and there's a lot of misinformation out there that I've spent years sifting through and bouncing off of professionals. It just makes it harder for people to start out. It's similar with education, how we pace everyone the same and call the passers successful and smart and the flunkies failures and stupid. And that's why America has fallen behind in my opinion.

Americans eat on average one European per month.

Self-serving corporations have reduced the cost of sedentary entertainment to the point where physical activity simply cannot compete. So it's refreshing to see the why-not-go-play-outside-instead pricing strategy recently adopted by Paradox Interactive.

GENERALLY SPEAKING....

We super-size everything we eat, we're far too engrossed in sitting on our asses while partaking in entertainment (movies/tv/gaming), we don't bike anywhere like citizens of other nations do, additives/preservatives in our food for the sake of making it "taste better"...I suppose essentially, I think we've become a glutinous society in virtually every aspect of our lives. If it gives us pleasure, we overindulge.

I eat approximately 0 keira knightley's a week. Is that ghostwise?

Thing is, I could be wrong but I was under the impression this was more a Western society (including Europe) thing in general, not just an American thing. At least as far as the "junk food and loads of sedentary entertainment" thing goes.

Eating too many calories, not doing enough to burn them off. The exact opposite of my bank account.

There we go.
Anymore questions? No? Cool!

See you all at the buffet!

Oh and...I'm Batman!

Here in Malta, even as a small country we have almost everything other countries do - McDonalds, Burger King, KFC...you name it and there's a good portion of the population that is overweight/obese.

Up till December 2013 I weighed 105kg myself, used to eat all kinds of junk food. I started dieting and eating the right food and by the end of summer of 2014 I weighed 75kg.

I think lifestyle is the main factor that leads to excessive fat. If you don't exercise or at least eat healthy and smaller portions, you're just going to grow bigger and bigger.

I haven't touched a pizza, burger, fries or other fried food and soft drinks in 1 year.