Facts: After six weeks, I left France eight pounds lighter than I entered. And I ate as much as a person can: pizzas, ice cream, croissants, many pains au chocolat and a last-night meal closed by a dessert crêpe with ginger ice cream, caramel sauce, and cream. I ate so much ice cream I literally said, “I think I’ve had enough ice cream” and then went and got more.

A couple caveats: “Losing weight” obviously isn’t the same as “being in optimal health” — I’m happy to be home, where I typically eat (much) less cheese and ice cream. I love running big changes by my doctor (who I presume who is always delighted to hear from me) — these adjustments below won’t work for everyone, so please use your own best judgment and where that is lacking, seek out a professional’s. And scales do lie, though it’s clear I’ve returned home trimmer than I left.

To be honest, though, I’m not surprised, because I made some big changes that were both easy to execute and actually made a fun trip even more so. Here’s what worked for me:

#1: 20,000 Steps Per Day

I love to walk and I know that I lose weight every summer I spend in Paris, where it’s easy to rack up 10,000 steps just going about your daily business. This summer, which I spent mostly in Marseille, I upped my target to 20,000 steps. I’d say I hit it about three or four days a week and maybe just missing (+-18K) a couple days. I usually spent one day completely wiped out and didn’t pay much attention to my steps.

Some days this meant a few small trips through the city; other days it meant long walks to the beach and back (or as my roommate described them, “solo Diane adventure days” (lol). I did use a Fitbit most days, and I didn’t do much other cardio while I was there, a lack I’ll address as soon as I’m back in grad school — walking is great but I can tell that my aerobic conditioning needs some work.

It did take a *lot* of time. Instead of taking the tram to the gym in the morning, I’d walk, mindful of the 3K-step trip each way — but the tram took 5 minutes, while the walk took 30. That’s time I didn’t spend working on projects, with my friends, or exploring the city in a more considered way.

Notably, I didn’t see any particular increase in hunger. I also didn’t observe any joint pain or discomfort until returned home and started adding some running segments to my longer walks.

#2: Strength Training 4X Per Week

I don’t think this contributed much to my weight loss, as I’d been doing it faithfully before leaving for France and saw no discernible movement in the scale. Nevertheless, it was a big part of my day: I trained upper and lower body two times a week, each, using a straightforward program I found on Boostcamp.

You might not want to join a gym (or pay for a succession of day passes), but since we were in Marseille for a month, I signed up for a €60 30-day pass (no commitment) at Fitness Park. (Delightfully, the pass was good at all their locations nationwide, so I was able to use it in Paris for a couple days before it expired.) I went 22 times, so I ultimately paid under €3 per visit. The gym was well equipped and clean, and it gave me a chance to mix ‘n’ mingle with the local gymgoers.

#3: ChatGPT Food Diary

Every night (usually after doing the NYT crossword puzzle) I dutifully entered my food and exercise diary into ChatGPT, asking it to tally up my caloric expenditure and intake.

I did not treat this as gospel — I wasn’t traveling with a food scale, and I did some pretty lazy ball-parking (i.e. “handful of Haribo candy”). But there were times when just the thought of including a particular food on my list was enough motivation to skip it.

Weirdly, though, while my food diary shaped how I ate, it didn’t shape it like I expected. Instead:

#1: When I felt like I’d eaten more than ideal (for example, a memorable double trip to the ice cream counter for a second cone), I discovered that thanks to all my walking, I was only maybe at maintenance or slightly over. If past behavior is any indication, I typically would have gotten way more lax without that reassurance — why keep trying when I’d screwed up so badly??? ChatGPT’s math kept me from overreacting, and it was easy to get back into the swing of things the next day. It short-circuited the real problem — which wasn’t overeating per se, but throwing out the baby with the bathwater after a smallish detour.

#2: It also kept me from massively undereating and then boomeranging back. I am dispassionate about food by nature — one of those people who can look up at 4 p.m. and realize I haven’t eaten all day. (Official term: “low food drive.”) I also have low food conscientiousness, which means that when I am hungry, I’ll eat whatever’s closest. ChatGPT flagged it when I was too far into deficit, so I’d run out to the kitchen and have a yogurt or an apple. All that meant the next day I would eat in a more measured way, because I wasn’t absolutely ravenous.

Also, if I felt super stressed about disclosing what I ate (to a robot, I know — but really to myself lol) I just skipped it.

#4: An Active Vacation

Marseile made this easy, but we took advantage of active (and super low cost) way to explore the city. We hiked up to Notre Dame, set off for the calanques, and walked from one end to the other of the Frioul islands. We went dancing! And swimming! I went to the gym! And we walked absolutely everywhere, even though Marseille has a great public transport system. All that exercise added up.

#5: Set It and Forget It

I was married to my step count, my food diary, and my strength workouts, but with big caveats: I didn’t worry about my steps if I was tired, I took a week off of lifting when I first arrived, and I’d skip my diary if I wasn’t feeling it.

I also didn’t see a scale for the whole five weeks I was away. I’m actually not sure if that was ultimately good or bad for my anxiety. Basically, I did my best and forget the rest (#tonyhorton), and it worked — I didn’t want to spend my entire vacation stressing about water weight or a querulous scale.

#6: A Culture of Fresh Food

There’s a reason this comes last.

It’s obvious that France has an exceptional culture around food, and its elevation of fresh and seasonal produce.

I don’t think I know anyone there who would equate eating with “fueling,” like I do here. Snacking is not such a thing there, and convenience foods certainly don’t exist in the same quantity, variety, or lab-honed “deliciousness” as they do in the U.S.

It is easier, and cheaper, to eat well in France than in the U.S., where eating is just another way for giant corporations to earn more money selling us garbage. And don’t even get me started on the relative quality of the water — as someone who lives part-time in a state with an ongoing water pollution crisis, I almost cried the first time I drank water out of a tap without worrying that I should have filtered it.

Still, I don’t entirely believe the belief out there that all American food is poisoned, and all European food pristine: At least in terms of weight loss, I think it’s mostly about the walking.