• 29 Sep, 2025*

There is a lot to say about being overweight, but one thing is undeniable: the issue has become deeply complicated, politically charged, and emotionally difficult. Yet physiologically, the fundamentals remain straightforward. Public health guidelines consistently show there is an optimal weight range for human health. While this varies somewhat between individuals, the principle is simple and largely unchallenged: if we consume more calories than we burn, we gain weight.

This “calories in, calories out” (CICO) model is widely accepted in nutrition science. What it does not capture, however, are the heap of messy stupid practicalities of human life — and how we often cannot realistically work CICO into our daily habits.

I struggled with this question for most of my life. What started as an extra 20 pounds in childhood snowballed into 50, then 100, and eventually 150. Along with the weight came hypertension and insulin resistance — signs of chronic disease and a significantly shorter healthspan. I tried exercise but had no energy for daily workouts. I tried crash diets, but hunger always caught up. I even tried Ozempic, one of the new weight-loss drugs, but a side effect barred me from further treatment.

All of this was really a battle against one culprit: hunger. It was constant, unrelenting, and physiological. CICO explained why I gained weight, but it felt like an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object. Somewhere in that collision was my health. Pretty hopeless, if you asked me.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Six months ago, I discovered the Japanese diet culture. Japan is among the leanest developed nations in the world. According to the OECD, only about 4% of Japanese adults are obese, compared with nearly 30% in the UK and over 40% in the US1. Many researchers attribute this difference to cultural eating habits rather than genetics: portion sizes, eating norms, and what kind of food is immediately available.

There is also an abundance of YouTubers who say moving to Japan resolved their struggles with overweight, while moving back to the West restarted the relentless climb of the bathroom scale. Could it be that food culture itself underpins Japan’s health and world-leading life expectancy? A question for later — I was already convinced I had to give it a try.

The first cultural shock was portion size. In Japan, people happily pay for small, single-serving snacks and meals — often 150–200 kcal. Back home in the UK, the value of a good meal is measured in calories for cash. I would stock up at Costco, calculating the best “deal” by calories per pence. In Japan, the real value lies in satiety and health, and calorie density is somewhere much further down the line. At first, the idea of paying more for less seemed absurd. But now I see it differently: a cultural blind spot on our side, and a cornerstone of health on theirs.

Contrast this with Britain’s approach. A full English breakfast is usually over 1,100 kcan and can easily run 1,700–2,000 kcal — nearly an entire day’s energy in one sitting — yet we prize it for its beastly instant satisfaction. It’s just so GOOD! But is it, actually, you know… good? Is it good if 8 hours later we’re hungry again?

Meal deals hover around 800–900 kcal, restaurant portions are designed to overshoot, and family dinners are judged successful when “everyone had more than enough.” And of course, it’s considered rude to leave food on your plate. The Western idea of a proper meal is one we enjoy and perceive as a bargain. No wonder we scoff at shrinking portion sizes. Even when we know better, it still feels wrong.

The Japanese metric, by contrast, is satiety-per-calorie: how full you feel relative to the energy you consume. Although it’s not our culture, we do know it in the West too. The Holt Satiety Index, published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition2, ranked foods by their ability to satisfy hunger. Boiled potatoes topped the list, scoring over three times as filling as white bread per calorie. Fish, porridge, and beans ranked highly too. By contrast, croissants, cakes, and pizza scored at the very bottom. In other words, our Western staples often give us satisfaction in the moment but poor satiety long-term.

And the differences add up quickly. A Japanese bento box typically clocks in at 300–500 kcal, whereas an average UK restaurant main course is closer to 700–900 kcal in my experience. Even soft drinks reflect the contrast: small drink cans of 150–190 ml are popular in Japan; Western ones, 330–500 ml. Same single product, similar affordability, double the calories. It’s a good deal, but I pose the question again – is it actually, you know... a good deal?

I can supplement that with my own experience: rice, beans, salmon, tuna, salad greens, soups, and buckwheat have always filled me much more than a sugary latte, even if the portion had half the calories. Salt, sugar, oil, and spices in small quantities enhanced the flavour so it was as good as anything out of Starbucks.

So I leaned into this model. I bought a rice cooker, shifted 80% of my meals to rice paired with spices, vegetables, and fish, and cut out foods that only made sense in oversized portions, like supermarket cakes where a single slice may have nearly half a day’s calories, or ready-meals where a reasonable amount of food is insidiously split up into 2 or 3 portions on the nutrition label. Within weeks, my hunger had quieted. For decades I thought my body was craving calories. It wasn’t. It was craving satiety.

But look, this isn’t to say Japan is a utopia. The Japanese diets are often higher in salt3, and metabolic issues like insulin resistance exist. They can also be difficult for newcomers to adapt to. But the cultural baseline matters. From school lunches to convenience stores, the expectation is different: food is about health and satiety, not bang-for-buck.

All Said and Done

I am now losing between 5 and 22 pounds per month — without Ozempic, without hunger, and with far less struggle. My story is anecdotal, but I doubt it’s the only one. Western food culture sets us up for failure, and many of us don’t realise how deeply we’ve been conditioned. We are taught from childhood to prize calorie-dense “value” meals that gloriously satisfy us in the moment but sabotage us in the long run. This instant satisfaction is what we learned as kids, and we carry it into adulthood, building our society around it.

If the West is serious about tackling its obesity crisis, we need to confront this cultural issue alongside pharmaceutical solutions. We need to redefine “value” in food and re-educate ourselves on satiety. And if you personally struggle with weight, you don’t have to wait for society to change. You can experiment with food culture now.

Or that’s what I wanted to yap about today. If you found it interesting, it would be cool if you hit that upvote button to say “thanks.”

Sources

OECD. (2019). OECD Reviews of Public Health: Japan – A Healthier Tomorrow (pp. data on overweight/obesity). OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264311602-en, NHS England Digital. (2020). Statistics on Obesity, Physical Activity and Diet – Part 3: Adult Obesity. https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-obesity-physical-activity-and-diet/england-2020/part-3-adult-obesity-copy↩ 1. Holt, S. H. A., Brand Miller, J. C., Petocz, P., & Farmakalidis, E. (1995). A satiety index of common foods. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 49(9), 675–690. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7498104/↩ 1. Okuda, N., Okayama, A., Miura, K., Yoshita, K., Saito, S., Nakagawa, H., Sakata, K., Miyagawa, N., Chan, Q., Elliott, P., Ueshima, H., & Stamler, J. (2017). Food sources of dietary sodium in the Japanese adult population: The INTERMAP study. European Journal of Nutrition, 56, 1269–1280. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-016-1177-1↩