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Comment by r00fus | Hacker News Reader

> at some point they will mention how portion sizes are gigantic.

Do you generally have doggy-bags (leftovers carry-out) outside the US? The portions sizes are large for a few reasons: 1) pricing needs to stay high as rents are still high or the restaurant will fold (most do anyway). 2) people often take leftovers home

So you pay higher prices for more food, and a 2nd (or sometimes 3rd) meal at home.

I think the bigger issue is that due to sprawl and walk/bike-unfriendliness, people take their cars everywhere. As a part of COVID restrictions my family has started using bikes to things we would normally get in a car for - e.g. get takeout or library - but most people don't.

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My parents ran a restaurant, and my extended family run restaurants in different countries.

In most places I'd say you can get a doggy-bag, but unless it's because your kids won't eat, you won't. Unless you're going to take-away most of the meal, you probably won't need a box. People do sometimes not eat everything, but there's not a lot of point in saving two or three bites.

My sense is that most restaurants in the US could just charge more for the same, and people would just pay it. Perhaps the doggy-bag thing has changed expectations so that won't work, who knows.

I'm not sure cycling is going to fix obesity. If you're getting a meal that's 2x what it's supposed to be, which seems to be what happens in the US, and a normal meal at a restaurant is maybe 1000-1500 calories, cycling isn't gonna be enough to help you. For reference I can do maybe 10 calories a minute on my elliptical, and I can hold that pace for maybe an hour. And that's some workout, quite a lot harder than a bike ride.

> I'm not sure cycling is going to fix obesity

Agree, but it helps. You can burn a few hundred kcal everyday with light exercise which helps to maintain a healthy weight. But of course, no realistic amount of exercise will help to compensate for a junk food diet (especially if you're already overweight and unable to exercise safely).

The whole world uses take-home bags. They are just smaller in other countries.

I thought it was considered rude to ask for take-home bags in countries like France. However, looks like that might be changing [1].

[1] https://www.frenchtoday.com/blog/french-culture/french-doggy...

It is changing and it's great. It used to be unheard of (or even made fun of), but nowadays it's acceptable in most places. That being said, I rarely have the need for one except in Indian restaurants.

In the UK, I don't think I have ever seen someone ask to take food home served in a restaurant, except people with an american accent.

I’ve never heard of using doggy bags in Spain and it sounds, quite frankly, weird to take leftovers back home.

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