How I Became Fat in Indonesia

One thing I didn't expect would happen in Indonesia was that I would get fat.

I come from France, a country where we use sugar, syrup, butter, cream, sauces or oil in almost every single dish. And yet, in Paris my weight was a steady 70 kilograms.

While in Indonesia, I reached almost 90 kilos within a year, even though I was eating less. I tried to understand how it could happen, and I came up with a few possible explanations. Here is the 6-step story of how I became fat in Indonesia:

Step 1: Eating Indonesian Food All The Time

I love Indonesian food and I think it is one of the most underrated cuisines in the world. Needless to say, when I'm in Indonesia, I eat Indonesian food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The problem is that most dishes are extremely fat. Ingredients are rarely boiled in water, they are fried, sautéed, stir-fried or cooked in coconut milk, for instance Beef Rendang or Gulai.

Coconut milk has a 20% fat content, the equivalent of light cream. This percentage raises further as the water evaporates during cooking. In the end, a meal like Nasi Padang can easily reach 1000 kcal and 80 grams of fat (see here). That's the equivalent of a Double Whopper with Cheese from Burger King AND a can of Coca-Cola. Even a simple Nasi Goreng (without fried chicken) has 740 calories (see here)!

Some Indonesian dishes like Gado-Gado or Tempeh are considered more healthy. Yet if you look closely, they aren't.

Gado-Gado is a salad with boiled vegetables, rice and ... peanut sauce, which is made with fried peanuts, sugar and coconut milk. A typical serving of the sauce (100 grams) will have 300kcal and 25 grams of fat (see: Is Peanut Sauce Healthy?). So unless you eat it with almost no sauce, Gado Gado will also make you fat.

Tempeh is a healthy food too, but it is usually served deep-fried. If you want a fruit salad, you can also expect it will come with copious amounts of sugar and sauce.

Step 2: Doing My Groceries in Convenience Stores
When you live in Jakarta, bad food habits are easy to catch. The Government is obsessed with alcohol, but it seems unaware of the risks of high fat and high sugar diets.

Enter a convenience store in Indonesia and all you see are candies, sodas, juices, chips, cookies, ice-creams (and cigarettes). In a Circle K in Jakarta, I counted only a handful of products that didn't have added sugar or fat: Water, eggs, rice, milk, pasta, flour and oatmeal. All the rest was industrial, heavy-processed food.

For comparison purposes, this is what the equivalent of a 7-Eleven or Circle K looks like in France:

You'll find fruits, vegetables, salads, bread, dairy products, meat, pasta, sauces, condiments, eggs, etc. Actual, nutritious food. The chips, candies and biscuits section will take about half a shelf each. Oh, and yes you can buy alcohol and wine.

Even with the best intentions in the world, it is much more difficult to eat well in Indonesia when healthy food is harder to find.

Step 3: Blending in the Snack Culture
Indonesians have a great snack culture: They love to gather, discuss, smoke and try one of the hundreds of snacks available in the country. They even have a word for that: "nongkrong" (≈ hangout).

If you have Indonesian colleagues, you'll know that people here never stop eating, especially in the office. Whenever someone comes back from holiday, you can be sure she/he will bring a few of the local snacks from there. It's a fun tradition, but again more fat and more calories: 104 grams of "Krupuk" (Prawn Crackers) contain over 600 kilocalories. And trust me it does not take long for me to eat that. Indonesian "Gorengan" (Fritters) are even worse, reaching over 220 kcal each (see here).

Step 4: Visiting Bars and Clubs as a Main Activity
Honestly, there aren't many things to do in Jakarta at night apart from hanging out with other people in restaurants, lounges, bars or clubs. It's great for your social life, but again, it means more snacks, more alcohol and more sugary drinks. A typical week means at least 2 after-work drinking session, and a night out.

Technically, I could order just sparkling water each time, but I don't. I drink juices, beers, shots, spirits with mixers, etc. And when the party end, I have no better idea than having a burger or a porridge.

Step 5: Becoming Lazy

I've never really been into sports, but when you live in Paris, you easily walk several kilometers a day because the city has proper sidewalks and the weather is pleasant.

In Jakarta I barely walk 200 meters every day. In the morning, I go to the elevator, get a taxi in the lobby that takes me directly to the lobby of my office, sit down all day, then go back home in the evening again with a taxi.

Walking can help you burn a lot of calories actually. According to this paper, a 70kg man will burn around 5kcal every minute he walks, or 300kcal an hour. So by constantly using taxis, ojeks, lifts and escalators, I should have compensated by eating less. Of course I didn't.

Step 6: Dating an Indonesian Girl
One of the reasons I didn't mind being fatter in Indonesia was that my girlfriend would keep telling me that I looked better with some extra kilos. This was not only coming from her, but from all my Indonesian colleagues and friends.

The more weight I would gain, the more I would hear: "You look good Thibaud!".

When I came back from a 2-week holiday in France where I had lost a few kilos, people asked me: "Are you ok? What happened to you?.

Many Indonesians consider that being too skinny is a sign of poverty or malnutrition. A chubby person looks happy, rich and healthy. It does not help motivating you to be more careful with your diet.

Conclusion: Why Aren't Indonesians Getting Fat?

Considering what they eat, one could be surprised there aren't more fat people in Indonesia. In the street, most Indonesians are thin, especially those from the working class.

It is not difficult to understand why. Poorer people don't take the taxi, they walk. Poorer people don't sit all day behind a desk, they do hard job and chores. Poorer people also eat and drink less, particularly alcohol, fast food, candies, cakes, etc.

Among the middle class though, I've noticed there are more and more people who are overweight, especially among the middle class. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Health, the number of people who are overweight in the country has grown from 12 percent in 2007 to 21 percent in 2010. That's a massive 9 points in only 3 years!

So the truth is: Indonesians are getting fat too, just like I did.

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