I'm not sure about Europe but I suspect one of the issues is similar to Japan. The food isn't necessarily that much more expensive, especially if you're eating

I'm not sure about Europe but I suspect one of the issues is similar to Japan. The food isn't necessarily that much more expensive, especially if you're eating food similar to a native, but the serving size is much much smaller. In the US most people will leave a restaurant upset if they aren't completely and totally stuffed with leftovers for the next day and this is combined with people here easily able to eat more on average already. When I first lived abroad I was spending alot of money in my first couple months trying to eat like an American, until I embraced eating more local food and accepting the smaller serving size. Then I loss tons and tons of weight without even going to the gym.