Living overseas- Logging in food

Habehandful

My husband and I live overseas and since I have been on myfitnesspal, it has been a rather difficult challenge for me to log some of my meals.

On occasion we go out to local canteens and eateries that of course are foreign to MFP-I have read on other posts that people substitute foods. Although I can say that I am having trouble with that as well because the cuisine is a little different here and quite frankly, I do not always know what exactly is in the meal. My German is good but it isn’t perfect.

Currently, when my husband and I go out, I am just portioning my foods and picking healthy selections on the menu. Since I live in Germany, sometimes the food selections are heavy, nevertheless, 95% of the time, a German menu can also have a healthy and lean option..so if there is a lighter option I do choose that.

When I log my foods, I just log my unknown foods into the notes section.
I do not go out a lot but when we do, that’s where it goes.
If anyone has any suggestions about logging in food I would love to hear your tips.
Thanks!

mrsweigl

Hi,
I also live in germany (i am german and my husband is in the air force)
Do you have an iphone? There is an app that will guestimate the cals if you take a pic (mealsnap)
You can google the meal and it try to find a website that will estimate the calories also (pork schnitzel with spaetzle)

boku70

I spend a lot of time overseas (Japan), myself, and speak/read the local language. The following is based on my experience in that vein.

Since you speak (and mostly likely, therefore, read) German, you should be able to take advantage of diet/calorie-info sites aimed at Germans. The information on some sites should be better fitted to the local cuisine. You can then take that info and bring it over into MFP via the "My Foods" function. This will create a handy database for yourself, over time, as well as benefit the people who follow in your footsteps. :-)

hth. good luck. :-)
b

Sezmo83

I'm also in Germany and having problems finding things in the database too. My German is terrible which doesn't help (only been here 3 weeks).

boku70

For Americans overseas, data costs are prohibitively expensive. (Though maybe for military families overseas, Uncle Sam picks up the cost?)

@OP: You probably already know this, but make sure of costs and who's paying them before going wild with the iPhone abroad. This will help you avoid some very nasty surprises. :-)

Sezmo83

For Americans overseas, data costs are prohibitively expensive.

Only if you use the same phone/sim/contract you use in America. If the OP has a phone on a German network it's not going to cost the earth. Hubby and I are changing to German ones for that very reason. British military don't pick up the cost of phone bills or anything like that unfortunately.

bregalad5

For Americans overseas, data costs are prohibitively expensive.

Only if you use the same phone/sim/contract you use in America. If the OP has a phone on a German network it's not going to cost the earth. Hubby and I are changing to German ones for that very reason. British military don't pick up the cost of phone bills or anything like that unfortunately.

Yeah, phone plans overseas aren't bad at all. I was in Italy for 7 months and got an Italian Blackberry. It only came to around $50/month, and that was unlimited data.

If you read German, see if you can look it up. If not, maybe see if there's some kind of equivalent, and bump up the cals a bit. Like kaesespaetzle being kinda like baked Mac and Cheese with lots more calories? Dang it, now I'm hungry for Bavarian food