Living in China

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lilawolf
lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
in Food and Nutrition
If any of you are in China and are still tracking calories, especially if you eat out, I would be VERY interested in how you are managing it. I am in Zhu Hai.

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  • Rabbit914
    Rabbit914 Posts: 246 Member
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    I have the same issue living in Japan. I try not to eat out as much anymore because of the difficulty of finding the foods in the database, but when I do I look for something similar and then just leave some calories at the end for wiggle room. Hopefully you can find others that can help you out.
  • AwakeinThai
    AwakeinThai Posts: 5 Member
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    I am currently living in Thailand. I am lucky to work in a school that has a kitchen so I can prepare a lot of my food there. There is a decent grocery store with some imported food (super expensive) so I will use that and I had one label in Thai translated and now I can read the calories per serving on the labels. However, my colleagues and I do go out to eat and often. I usually just try to find the healthiest thing on the menu that I can log on MFP, it is guessing, but at least I am choosing wisely. Additionally, we often go out on the same night every week so I will either make those days my "cheat" meals, eat something healthy before we go and not eat, or I will have an extra tough workout that day.
  • melissa5604
    melissa5604 Posts: 43
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    I have lived in both Malaysia, and far eastern Russia, spent alot of time in The Philippines, Japan, S. Korea, Thailand ....what is considered diet food for the Asian body and metabolism , is not good for Westerners , especially Americans.
    Its almost impossible to count calories , while eating out ...most places do not even go by a recognized recipe, it is home style cooking, and they use what is available that day at market. If you must eat out , try to order a steamed fish or grilled fish, maybe steamed chicken dish. Good luck to you.
  • pixiestick
    pixiestick Posts: 839 Member
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    Living in S. Korea right now. Avoid "mixed" food... the less mixed up stuff is, the easier it is to "eye-ball" your portions. Honestly, I would make eating "unknown/uncountable" portions an exception and make your own food as a rule. Our school serves us lunches every day, but I make my own soup instead. :)
  • kinrsa
    kinrsa Posts: 111 Member
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    South Africa is the same way- I can find a few foods in the database but mostly I have to either add it myself or go with an American brand.

    When I eat out I tend to overestimate how much I've had just in case. South Africans love butter- they'll sneak it into anything (even peanut butter and jam sandwiches).
  • karmahunger
    karmahunger Posts: 373 Member
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    I am back in Canada now, but I was in China just a few months ago.

    Anyway, for tracking calories, it's not as difficult as one might think - unless you're eating street vendor food EVERYDAY for EVERY meal, a lot of the foods are already in the database.

    I also found that just simple portion control helped me a lot.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    I work from 8am to 8pm every day. Saturday is 8am to 3pm. We are served lunch at 12 and a 5pm snack. I try to stick to mostly protein and veggies and very little rice or carb heavy sides. Sometimes the fish/chicken/steak/pork is just steamed, but sometimes I relize after it is on my plate just how oily it is.

    I have no idea how to estimate how much oil I am getting. I also do not know the names of many of the veggies I am eating (though I could probably just say spinach or kale or something and be close.) Even when I cook for myself, I don't know which cut of meat that I am purchasing/eating.

    By the time I get home from work, I have less than 2.5 hours to cook dinner, do my dishes, clean my apartment, do laundry, work out, shower, etc. Trying to cook for all of my meals would be difficult and expensive (compared to free anyway). It would be even harder since there are no microwaves, refrigerators, or stoves available to me at work and it is WARM.
  • lilawolf
    lilawolf Posts: 1,690 Member
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    So far just listening to my hunger, the fact that I am much more active in my job here, and starting few days ago I've been trying to do at least a short workout every day and that seems to be working.

    I appreciate your comments and suggestions!
  • osualex
    osualex Posts: 409 Member
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    I'm in Romania...luckily it seems that Romanians are using MFP because I've been able to find things in the database 90% of the time! I also have an active job that takes up a lot of my time, so here are my suggestions.


    -If you are on your own, cook in advance for the week, I'd eat fast food all the time if I didn't carefully pre-plan
    -As for workouts, there's a lot of good ones you can easily squeeze in. Right now I do 30 day shred.
    -When you're out, just try to keep a mental note of the basic ingredients - should be pretty easy as most of the world doesn't eat processed foods like Americans do.

    Hope some of this helps!
  • Ge0rgiana
    Ge0rgiana Posts: 1,649 Member
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    I work from 8am to 8pm every day. Saturday is 8am to 3pm. We are served lunch at 12 and a 5pm snack. I try to stick to mostly protein and veggies and very little rice or carb heavy sides. Sometimes the fish/chicken/steak/pork is just steamed, but sometimes I relize after it is on my plate just how oily it is.

    I have no idea how to estimate how much oil I am getting. I also do not know the names of many of the veggies I am eating (though I could probably just say spinach or kale or something and be close.) Even when I cook for myself, I don't know which cut of meat that I am purchasing/eating.

    By the time I get home from work, I have less than 2.5 hours to cook dinner, do my dishes, clean my apartment, do laundry, work out, shower, etc. Trying to cook for all of my meals would be difficult and expensive (compared to free anyway). It would be even harder since there are no microwaves, refrigerators, or stoves available to me at work and it is WARM.

    If you don't mind one of your friends helping you who's never left the US... http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/seasonalcooking/farmtotable/visualguideasianproduce :flowerforyou:

    I recently got the Asian veggie pack my co-op offered. I freaking LOVE Asian food, and I love making my own homemade stir fries. I got some stuff I couldn't identify, so I took to the Internet. From what I read, the different kinds of Chinese cabbages are all basically different strains of the same plant. All are low cal and healthy and all that jazz. *HUGS*

    Oh, BTW... I tease you, but dim sum is pretty much NOT healthy. :laugh:
  • Peaches516
    Peaches516 Posts: 104 Member
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    I studied abroad in China for two months, and separately in Taiwan for six months. It wasn't a permanent move, so not exactly the same as your more permanent situation, but I actually lost a ton of weight after both stints without even trying. I came back to the U.S. and was put on a diet to gain weight! I ate out for every single meal in both countries. I think that the fact that Chinese/Taiwanese cuisines don't have any processed foods, cheese, or butter really helped. The portions are also much smaller, so it was easier to prevent overeating. I'm not really answering your question about how log foods into MFP, but I guess my point was more to alleviate your concern about weight gain (assuming that is your main concern).

    I have actually found dim sum dishes listed in MFP, simply by tying in the phonetic sounds. You could give that a try.

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