losing weight overseas? (struggle to track in china)

astr323

so i'm 5'6, about 175, female. i've always liked the idea of just trying to eat healthily/not tracking bc i think it makes sense to try to do things in a way that you'll be able to maintain.

but obviously that's not working for me. when i arrived here in june last year i weighed about this much and dropped 30lbs like it was nothing because i'm vegetarian-leaning-vegan and didn't know wtf i could eat. now i know how to use the food ordering apps and i know how to order my favorite foods from pizza hut and dunkin donuts. clearly "just eating healthy" isn't working for me because i've put all the weight back on without even thinking about it and i'm so frustrated with myself for not being able to maintain the ability to resist indulging in things.

i'm trying to track now and breakfast has been alright, but...man most of the stuff i eat i feel like is hard to track because it's just weird. how can i track stuff when i eat at like, a local vegan restaurant with faux chinese kebabs? i don't even know what's in them. i don't even know the english names of some of the vegetables i eat in stir fries. and i mentioned pizza hut earlier...i don't know that all of the pizza options here are truly equivalent to their counterparts back home. they certainly taste different, so i don't know if that's because there's more cheese, more oil, more fat etc...how is that going to affect the amount of calories i consume?

i'd like to just incorporate more fruits and veggies and beans and rice etc but i want to start slow so i can make my goals not only achievable, but maintainable in the long-term. so for now i just want to cut back on my overall eating, and later move onto actually eating higher quality things. or do you think it would be easier for me to switch now so i can eat more in general? to be honest i have not really learned to cook because cooking recipes from back home can get so expensive (imported stuff isn't cheap, and most of it tastes different anyway because it's largely imported from eastern europe), and cooking local ingredients in a local style is just not something i'm familiar enough with to be comfortable doing. my husband is chinese and he does most of our cooking, but he's still learning too, so...not everything tastes spectacular lol. most recipes i can find for chinese meals in english don't really taste very authentic and while i can speak a little mandarin i certainly can't translate entire recipes when i don't even know what half the ingredients are called. still...i could probably work harder to at least try.

i still want to track because i know it will be a better way of keeping tabs on my eating habits and making sure i don't go out of control when i do eat. but for those of you who can't find specific brands of things or eat strange foods that aren't options in mfp...how do you estimate? do you wildly overestimate? does that work? what are your strategies for keeping track of what you eat? how do you log the unloggable?

jelleigh

I've run into a similar situation as I'm living in Thailand at the moment. Last year was my first year here and I just tried my best to estimate amounts and stick to meals that I knew what was in it. Otherwise I would use entries for common Thai dishes And hope it was close. 8f you use the pinyin name for Chinese dishes you maY find entries in the database that you can use. It won't be perfect but it's a start. I lost 26 lbs last year doing this so it can work even though it's not ideal.

This year I have purchased a scale. I still eat a lot of meals out but once in awhile I will take a meal I often order to go, bring it home and deconstruct / weigh it. That way in the future when I order it, I have a reasonable guess. Not sure how your Chinese is but if you can ask how a meal is made, it will let you know whether you need to add in some for hidden oils etc in sauces. The other option is to learn how to order some healthier options at some favorite places. Something veggie heavy (hard I know in China) and grilled protein. (Hot pot 火锅 is a really good option) When you are using restaurant options , search for the item and then out Asia on the end. Ie: pizza but small ham pizza Asia. Often these restaurants have their Asian counterpart menu options posted as well.

Don't get discouraged. Its possible to do although may take some creativity. Just try making incremental changes and guess best you can. I suggest especially weighing rice at home and getting used to what X amount of rice looks like.

jemhh

If you are eating the same foods on a regular basis, just log serving sizes (or approximations) and then reduce those if you are not losing weight.

astr323

jelleigh wrote: »

I've run into a similar situation as I'm living in Thailand at the moment. Last year was my first year here and I just tried my best to estimate amounts and stick to meals that I knew what was in it. Otherwise I would use entries for common Thai dishes And hope it was close. 8f you use the pinyin name for Chinese dishes you maY find entries in the database that you can use. It won't be perfect but it's a start. I lost 26 lbs last year doing this so it can work even though it's not ideal.

This year I have purchased a scale. I still eat a lot of meals out but once in awhile I will take a meal I often order to go, bring it home and deconstruct / weigh it. That way in the future when I order it, I have a reasonable guess. Not sure how your Chinese is but if you can ask how a meal is made, it will let you know whether you need to add in some for hidden oils etc in sauces. The other option is to learn how to order some healthier options at some favorite places. Something veggie heavy (hard I know in China) and grilled protein. (Hot pot 火锅 is a really good option) When you are using restaurant options , search for the item and then out Asia on the end. Ie: pizza but small ham pizza Asia. Often these restaurants have their Asian counterpart menu options posted as well.

Don't get discouraged. Its possible to do although may take some creativity. Just try making incremental changes and guess best you can. I suggest especially weighing rice at home and getting used to what X amount of rice looks like.

thanks! all good ideas. i also just looked up how to convert kilojoules to calories (most things here don't have calories listed on them, instead kilojoules for some reason?) and it's actually way simpler than i was expecting. now i just need to figure out how to read how much a portion size is lol

ahh yes hot pot! it is too bad i'm not a fan of soup. but at least now i'll try to stop turning down invitations to go; it's really not my favorite, since i only ever eat boring veggies, but it is a good option for something healthyish and lightweight for sure. my husband actually wanted to buy one for the apartment about a month ago and i said i thought it would be a waste of money haha.

just swapped out the battery in my food scale. i can do this!

astr323

jemhh wrote: »

If you are eating the same foods on a regular basis, just log serving sizes (or approximations) and then reduce those if you are not losing weight.

also a good idea. thanks for your input, i will totally use it if/when other methods fail. appreciate the help

jelleigh

astr323 wrote: »

jelleigh wrote: »

I've run into a similar situation as I'm living in Thailand at the moment. Last year was my first year here and I just tried my best to estimate amounts and stick to meals that I knew what was in it. Otherwise I would use entries for common Thai dishes And hope it was close. 8f you use the pinyin name for Chinese dishes you maY find entries in the database that you can use. It won't be perfect but it's a start. I lost 26 lbs last year doing this so it can work even though it's not ideal.

This year I have purchased a scale. I still eat a lot of meals out but once in awhile I will take a meal I often order to go, bring it home and deconstruct / weigh it. That way in the future when I order it, I have a reasonable guess. Not sure how your Chinese is but if you can ask how a meal is made, it will let you know whether you need to add in some for hidden oils etc in sauces. The other option is to learn how to order some healthier options at some favorite places. Something veggie heavy (hard I know in China) and grilled protein. (Hot pot 火锅 is a really good option) When you are using restaurant options , search for the item and then out Asia on the end. Ie: pizza but small ham pizza Asia. Often these restaurants have their Asian counterpart menu options posted as well.

Don't get discouraged. Its possible to do although may take some creativity. Just try making incremental changes and guess best you can. I suggest especially weighing rice at home and getting used to what X amount of rice looks like.

thanks! all good ideas. i also just looked up how to convert kilojoules to calories (most things here don't have calories listed on them, instead kilojoules for some reason?) and it's actually way simpler than i was expecting. now i just need to figure out how to read how much a portion size is lol

ahh yes hot pot! it is too bad i'm not a fan of soup. but at least now i'll try to stop turning down invitations to go; it's really not my favorite, since i only ever eat boring veggies, but it is a good option for something healthyish and lightweight for sure. my husband actually wanted to buy one for the apartment about a month ago and i said i thought it would be a waste of money haha.

just swapped out the battery in my food scale. i can do this!

You can totally do this!

Also, when I was living in China and we did hot pot, we didn't really drink much of the broth the way you would soup. It was more of just a method to cook things. So we would always order a small bowl of rice and then a huge selection of different veggies. Avoid the oil hot pot as that will add a lot of calories. But the spicy broth adds a lot of flavour and you can just eat the veg with a bit of rice.

Also i just asked my Chinese friends their suggestion for healthy traditional Chinese food and they said to find a Cantonese restaurant. They say it tends to be simpler food, vegetarian friendly, and healthier options.

Keep in mind too that you can still eat the foods you are currently eating, just track the portions as best you can and make sure it fits in your calorie allotment for the day or week.

astr323

jelleigh wrote: »

astr323 wrote: »

jelleigh wrote: »

I've run into a similar situation as I'm living in Thailand at the moment. Last year was my first year here and I just tried my best to estimate amounts and stick to meals that I knew what was in it. Otherwise I would use entries for common Thai dishes And hope it was close. 8f you use the pinyin name for Chinese dishes you maY find entries in the database that you can use. It won't be perfect but it's a start. I lost 26 lbs last year doing this so it can work even though it's not ideal.

This year I have purchased a scale. I still eat a lot of meals out but once in awhile I will take a meal I often order to go, bring it home and deconstruct / weigh it. That way in the future when I order it, I have a reasonable guess. Not sure how your Chinese is but if you can ask how a meal is made, it will let you know whether you need to add in some for hidden oils etc in sauces. The other option is to learn how to order some healthier options at some favorite places. Something veggie heavy (hard I know in China) and grilled protein. (Hot pot 火锅 is a really good option) When you are using restaurant options , search for the item and then out Asia on the end. Ie: pizza but small ham pizza Asia. Often these restaurants have their Asian counterpart menu options posted as well.

Don't get discouraged. Its possible to do although may take some creativity. Just try making incremental changes and guess best you can. I suggest especially weighing rice at home and getting used to what X amount of rice looks like.

thanks! all good ideas. i also just looked up how to convert kilojoules to calories (most things here don't have calories listed on them, instead kilojoules for some reason?) and it's actually way simpler than i was expecting. now i just need to figure out how to read how much a portion size is lol

ahh yes hot pot! it is too bad i'm not a fan of soup. but at least now i'll try to stop turning down invitations to go; it's really not my favorite, since i only ever eat boring veggies, but it is a good option for something healthyish and lightweight for sure. my husband actually wanted to buy one for the apartment about a month ago and i said i thought it would be a waste of money haha.

just swapped out the battery in my food scale. i can do this!

You can totally do this!

Also, when I was living in China and we did hot pot, we didn't really drink much of the broth the way you would soup. It was more of just a method to cook things. So we would always order a small bowl of rice and then a huge selection of different veggies. Avoid the oil hot pot as that will add a lot of calories. But the spicy broth adds a lot of flavour and you can just eat the veg with a bit of rice.

Also i just asked my Chinese friends their suggestion for healthy traditional Chinese food and they said to find a Cantonese restaurant. They say it tends to be simpler food, vegetarian friendly, and healthier options.

Keep in mind too that you can still eat the foods you are currently eating, just track the portions as best you can and make sure it fits in your calorie allotment for the day or week.

oh yeah i never drink the actual broth itself, i just cook the veggies. the sesame paste you can dip them in helps a lot in terms of me enjoying the meal. i need to eat better and develop a taste for vegetables, so i will definitely try it again soon. a friend of mine recently came back to beijing and she really enjoys hot pot and invited me to go recently so i should propose the idea to her again as for eating cantonese food, yes i think it does tend to be pretty veg-friendly and vegetable based a lot of the time, it's one of my favorite cuisines to eat here! yunnan food is also veg-based and it's probably my favorite. it can just be hard to find specific restaurants that tick all the boxes but there are places nearby that i know of that i do go to when we want to eat out. just gotta avoid the pizza in the meantime lol. btw, when did you live in china? small world! also very kind of you to ask your friends for their input, i appreciate that very much.

i feel better after talking to you. we went to the grocery store earlier and picked up some western foods from companies that are actually big fixtures in china; i bought them specifically so they'd be easier to track. i jokingly scanned the barcode on a small bag of lays potato chips and hilariously enough, they came up as an option. the name was in chinese and everything. i guess there's a lot i just won't know until i try.

thanks a lot again for your help

AmericanExpat

When I lived in Europe (Switzerland), I could actually scan the barcode on a ton of foods (even non-American brands) and they were in the database. I agree with the others on going out, just do your best and focus on portion control.

jelleigh

@astr323 glad to help! And ya it's surprising how much stuff from these parts are on MFP! I lived in China back in 2013 just for a short bit. Ironically I'm still studying Chinese here in Thailand - the northern villages are actually Yunan descendents. ANYHOW - back to topic. Totally buy familiar “western“ foods wherever you can and cook food at home that you like and are comfortable with. Measure and weigh them there. Not only will it make it easier to track your intake, it will make it easier to live long term abroad.