An American asked how Londoners can walk so fast without sweating and the answers were dripping with humour

The differences between Americans and Brits is an endless source of fascination and amusement for both nationalities, especially when a member of one group is resident in the country of another and general bemusement ensues.

Some of this transatlantic bamboozlement reared its head on the AskUK subreddit when user Other_Following_538 posted this:

How do Londoners walk so fast without sweating?

US expat (61M) living in London for the last 11 months. I am in reasonably good shape and walk or run 4-5 miles every day in zone 1. Although I have been trying to walk faster, I am constantly passed by men in suits and women in skirts/heels. How do these people walk so fast without sweating like fiends?? If I try to keep up, I am soaked within minutes.

And lots of people who have experience of living in the capital chipped in with their thoughts, which were of varying levels of seriousness.

1.

‘We have walked most places most of our lives. Americans, not so much.’
–AstroBlush8715

2.

‘We are driven by the fear of making eye contact with strangers, so move at warp speed.’
–InterestingWin3627

3.

‘We’re all secretly royalty. Therefore can’t sweat.

(Genuinely most English people are descended from Edward iii).’
–Sea-Possession-1208

4.

‘The repeated low-intensity but lengthy exercise by people who have walked long distance for their whole lives has increased their number of mitochondria, which means they can do the walking almost entirely aerobically for long distances.

An untrained person will have to use anaerobic pathways sooner as their fewer mitochondria reach their limit sooner, and this is far less efficient and produces way more heat.’
–Crandom

5.

‘They’re Londoners. They are the crème de La crème of humans beings in the UK. Everyone else in the UK is just inferior and hence why they’re treated so.’
–CraigL8

6.

‘London is more humid than people expect – if you’re used to a less humid region of the US, then maybe that’s what’s happening?’
–WorldIsYourOxter

7.

‘They know what happens if you stop…’
–Miserable-March-1398

8.

‘Someone with a clipboard will ask you if they can ‘Have a minute of your time to talk about donkeys with cancer who need new hooves?’ or something. And when you say you have no shrapnel they’ll get out a card reader.’
–South-Bank-stroll

9.

‘That’s the secret, they are sweating. You just kinda make peace with being a sweaty betty if you travel on the tube in summer enough. I hate it.’
–GodDamnShadowban

10.

‘We’re a colossal bunch of walkers.’
–dazedan_confused

11.

‘As soon as they get indoors or in the lift or in the tube carriage… the sweat pours out.’
–Agitated_Parsnip_178
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12.

‘Londoners still practice persistence hunting. It might be a toned down form of just power walking rather than jogging but it’s still practiced.

Day in, day out. Millions of Londoners moving ever towards their goal. Step after step. There is no end, just the next mile.’
–GroundbreakingRow817

13.

‘The slower the people around us are the more annoyed we get and the faster we walk. So technically given enough annoyingly slow people we could breach the speed of light.’
–fezzuk

14.

‘Surely the same is true in New York? The New Yorkers cut in front of you and show poor manners. Similarly when the traffic lights show go the cars start hooting immediately.’
–Pircster38

15.

‘The unrelenting rage of being in London fuels them.’
–_abean

16.

‘You know in The Avengers when Hulk says he’s always angry? That’s me with sweat.’
–havingmares

17.

‘Foreign Londoner here – it’s definitely a London thing. Step outside the city and you won’t see people sprinting off the train towards the barriers like they’ve left the oven on.’
–Daniyaloflondon

18.

‘Sheer contempt for the fellow man.’
–First-Designer-7925

19.

‘We’re soaked in sweat from packed tube carriages so walking outside the station is like drying off really.’
–Massive_Sky4589

20.

‘The simple answer is that even the fat ones are fitter than you due to walking everywhere habitually. I’m 20st at 6’2 and walk everywhere. My legs are IRON under the jiggle and you’ll find that with any chubby city Brit.’
–NOFEETPLZXOXO

To sum up…

21.

‘You’ll get used to it!’
–introspective-1632

Source r/AskUK Image Screenshot