Does anyone know the real reason why Japanese women are usually thinner than the average western woman?

Question

I've heard that it's just because of genes that Japanese people are generally petite and don't tend to put on a lot of weight. But surely that can't be the only reason for such a dramatic difference between the average weight of UK women and Japanese women? ...Or is it? siiigh, japanese girls are so lucky :)

Answer 1

It is a combination of things. Japanese diet is much lower in calories and fat, and Japanese women tend to be a lot more active (walking to and from public transportation etc.). Most walk much more then Westerners. It is really a big difference in lifestyle.

Answer 2

In Japan, the portions are smaller.  Dairy and red meat is not  staple and they have no aversions to vegetables.  The food is fresher and healthier.  They do not overuse salt or sugar.  You walk a lot in Japan.  There is much more peer pressure.

Oh and I am a Japanese-American and I am overweight....but as soon as I am in Japan, I lose weight.  

Some of it is genetic predisposition, but 95% is lifestyle.

Answer 3

Asians in general are smaller, so that's one of the reasons why they are usually slimmer than Western women.  And American portions are huge!  It took my kids a while to get used to the "smaller" Japanese portion.  Also, Japanese walk all the time, to the market, to the train station, to the bus stop and etc.  Of course, the food is usually less greasy (less cheese, butter and etc.).  I must disagree with kb over her comment on American women not knowing how to cook and claiming they don't have time to cook.  I am American, I may not be the best cook but I cook 3 meals a day.  And I know there are Japanese women who don't cook.  BTW, my mother-in-law is Japanese and she is fat.

Answer 4

Yeah, that's somewhat true. For one, their frames are smaller than wester women. Two, their diet is different. It consists mainly of rice, fruits, vegetables, meat ( usually pork or chicken) and seafood. Rice and fish will almost be with every meal, and fish keeps you nice and healthy lolz. And meat is not a big thing in Japan. Instead of being a main course like most western meals, meat is usually treated as a side dish. And rice is ALWAYS there.

Another reason is because they eat very light. Breakfast normally consists of soup, rice, or fish. And most other meals have some sort of soup as well. And Green Tea is served with almost every meal, which has lots of antioxidants, which ALSO keep you healthy :D.

And portions are smaller. Their meals are usually 1/3 smaller than a western meal, and chopsticks help them to eat slower. They believe that it is better to slow down and taste every bite, rather than to keep shoveling it in.

And Japanese women also like their foods to be as fresh as possible. No frozen food is accepted lol. No frozen fish, chicken, nothing. They normally go out to the fish market every morning and sort through the freshest of the fish, just brought in that day, or the night before. And since most Japanese kitchens are very small and have no or a very tiny oven, sweets, such as cakes and cupcakes, or baked goods, aren't that popular in Japan. The average Japanese kitchen is the size of a decent walk in closet. (seriously) If there's more than one person in the kitchen, you feel suffocated. So, Instead of sweets for dessert, the average home has a small bowl of fruit for desert, sometimes arranged in an artistic pattern to be enjoyed by the mouth and eyes.

Their food is cooked with the least amount of fats and grease possible. They like for their food to be cooked nice and clean. When deep-frying (very popular), they use rice bran oil or canola oil (always fresh and clean), and they only put a handful of bite sized food in at a time, so they dont stick together and absorb more grease.

And, unlike western women, they DONT DROWN THE FOOD IN SOY SAUCE. lol. Instead of being poured directly on the food, they pour a small amount on the side so food can be dipped into it.

Also, japanese women are a lot more active than western women. They walk almost everywhere they can. Market? Walk. Work? Walk. Restaurants? Walk. Train Station? Walk. or bike. lol

There is a 100year old man (hes probably older than that now), named Keizo Miura, who gets up every morning at the crack of dawn for a power walk. Im not sure if he's alive still or not (probably is), but I found that amazing lol, and the fact that he skiied down Mount Blanc (in the italian alps) when he was 99. Im too lazy to think about that lol

Well, this is as much as I could think of for the time being, if I think of more I'll edit it in later.

Good Luck!!

~iLoveGaara

EDIT--

OMG Whats with all the thumbs downs?!?!! It's not like a copy and pasted! or lied or something >_<

Answer 5

It's not just Japanese women. Other Asian girls are as slim as Japanese.

If there is other reason, it would be food. Japanese food does not contain much calories.  Some Japanese get fat after they go to US or Europe.

Answer 6

Do you know why many people in this country are overweight? Basically because they take more calories than what they should take normally. And they don't burn the excess calories by working out.

But, even in the states, there are people who are not overweight. Do you think that these people are genetically thin? No, it's because what they eat and what they do:being active.

My American husband's grandfather died at the age of 91. He didn't want to live and he stopped eating food because his wife passed away three months before he died.

Anyway, he lived in SF and he loved to eat fish. He hated to eat butter and cheese but loved to eat something simple and fresh vegetables. He was very active so he was thin and healthy. He renewed his driver's license at the age of 90 and he was driving his car when he was 90. Everybody was surprised how healthy he was until he encountered his wife's death....

Anyway, his wife was very healthy, too. She was the one that told him to be healthy. So if typical Americans eat like how they did, I'm sure they shouldn't be overweight. But in reality, lots of American people are not like that because they don't like to eat the kind of food. Typical Americans love high calorie foods: butter, cheese, meats, fast food, big portions of food, extreamely sweet stuff, flavored beverages with tons of sugar, flavored yogurt, soda and flavored everything. And typical American women usually don't like to cook with fresh products because they always say they don't have time. But actually they do have time but they don't want to cook, and they don't know how to cook. That's the reasons ( sorry to say this but many American women that I've met are usually like that.)

Well, some Japanese people say that if Japanese people go to America and live there for a long time, they WILL GAIN WEIGHT because of the food in the states. But I'm still thin. I'm 34 years old and my weight is 94.8 pounds (= 43 kg) and my BMI is 18.6. The average Japanese women's BMI is between 20 and 22 so my BMI is still under the average Japanese women's BMI even though I've lived in the states for 14 years.

Well, I was actually very very thin even though I ate tons of food. But when I turned 27, I could tell that my body was not the same anymore. So I needed to eat healthy food and do exercise three times a week even though I have a problem in my legs (I've visited different doctors to know why I can't walk normally and why I have pain in my legs but none of them knows what's causing it...but still I exercise because I don't want to gain so much weight and feel so miserable...)

And since I'm married to an American guy, I don't cook Japanese food usually but healthy food that includes fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, white meats, fish, brown rice, whole wheat bread and stuff like that.

Anyway, all I know is that the people who are thin in this country usually eat healthy food and work out but typical American people who are overweight usually don't eat healthy food because they always make an excuse by saying that they don't have time to cook and work out so they just eat something convenient: fast food, frozen pizza, food from boston market and so on.

Typical Americans are so used to having such high calorie foods while many Japanese people are so used to having lower calorie foods  by eating lots of fish, seafood, fresh products, seaweed, soy bean products and so on because "traditional" Japanese food is just basically low in fat and healthy. That's why, many Japanese people who like to have traditional Japanese meals are usually thin.

But of course some Japanese people who eat more dairy products, fast food and instant food and who always stay home and don't move around have a tendency to gain a lot of weight. So even in Japan, some people are overweight because of what they eat and what they do.

Anyway, it's all about what people eat and what they do.  So my anwer is that if people CHOOSE to eat healthy food and work out, they can be thin.

*Addition: I'm not saying that ALL American women can't cook. I know some American women and men can cook pretty well and they can cook much much better than I can. But many American women that I've met usually can't cook more than I can. They don't know how to make pie, pizza, and pastry doughs from scratch, they don't know how to make dressings from scratch, they can't even slice vegetables thin because they are not used to cutting vegetables with a knife. I'm not a professional chef but I can cook things more than the American women that I've met. And "the typical American women that I've met" usually go to a restaurant like Chili's to eat dinner probably twice a week or pick up some fast food for dinner or use frozen products to make dinner or just have cereal for dinner and so on...I'm not saying that ALL Amrican women are doing that but the American women that I've met are doing those things. Anyway, because of that,  their husbands who are my husband's co-workers who don't have kids come to my house sometimes to eat dinner without their wife. That's why, I've said that many Americans that I've met can't cook food pretty well.

But I've heard that many Americans don't have a class to learn to cook stuff unless they choose to take the class in school. Probably that's why, the American women that I've met and that can't cook pretty well don't know how to cook well ??? I don't know... (well, that's what my American husband told me..but he is not always correct so I don't really know the correct information of that). And also I just want to add that my American husband's aunt cooks 3 meals a day. But can she cook pretty well? NO. Cooking a meal three times a day doesn't make the person necessarily to be a good cook. But of course some people are different and a good cook, I'm sure. But anyway, his aunt is obese and her daughter who is 27 years old is obese, too even though her daughter tried to lose weight. But she didn't know how to lose weight in a healthy way so  now she has Vitamin B12 deficiency. Anyway, I didn't mean that ALL American women can't cook and also I didn't mean that ALL Japanese women are thin. My point is that if people CHOOSE to eat healthy meals and work out or be active, anybody can basically be thin ( unless they have some kind of disorder). And also I want to add that  there is no solid evidence that shows that ALL or many Japanese women are genetically thin. As a matter of fact, my mom is a bit overweight and my brother is overweight, too. And my friend's mom who was Japanese died from being obese. Her doctor told her to lose weight but she didn't so she died. And also being small doesn't mean that Japanese people are NECESSARILY OR ALWAYS slimmer. Don't you know that there are small people in the US, also? For exmaple, my husband's step-mom who is a white American is  5 feet 2 inches tall which is the averagae height of Japanese women. Is she slim? No. She is OBESE. Her bone structure is small like me. I can see that by looking at her wrist size.  But because she loves to eat unhealthy food she is obese. Seriously, it's not being small or it's not being Japanese. It's just what you eat and do. I know what you want to believe. But THERE IS NO SOLID EVIDENCE to prove that Japanese people are genetically thin. Well, do you want to believe that many Americans or British people are genetically overweight, then ???

Answer 7

It's a matter of diet. They eat far less fatty and sugary foods. It's not a matter of 'luck'.

Answer 8

My wife is Japanese and thin, so are her sisters.  It's their diet.  My wife eats rice at almost every meal including breakfast, and fish, tofu, and other low calorie foods.  

Most of the Japanese people I know (because of her) do not drink soda, but prefer bottled water or unsweet natural tea.  Unless it's happy hour - then it's normally a hard liquor instead of beer.