Originally Posted by
Ekdog
I know a beautiful young Spanish girlwho went to the United States of America for a year to study. She practiced gymnastics over here, cycled around town and ate a Mediterrean diet. She was slender and had a lovely, hard body, but after one year of the American lifestyle, she became obese. She was mortified when she got back, poor thing, but after a few months over here away from all of that junk food and the sedentary lifestyle, she was back to normal.
It is easy to gain weight in the US, but once you know what to expect it's also easy to not gain weight.
I remember gaining something like 15 pounds over the course of a three-week trip to the US (although that time did include Christmas). More recently I took a six-week trip to the same area and gained no weight at all. For me the biggest difference was drinking unsweetened iced tea rather than Coke or Dr Pepper - when you get free refills it's terrifying to think of the amount of sugar you're taking on.