Anyone from new zealand?

Hey I'm a kiwi too! More of us than I thought there'd be on here!

I find it hard to find NZ brands of things...if that's what you mean? I usually either just pick an American brand that has a measurement that's not '1 piece' or '1 serving' and that sounds about right...either that or you can add your own foods in, I've been doing that when I eat something that comes in a wrapper with nutritional info on it and I've seen some other NZ stuff added too.

Do you mean like foods you can snack on or just healthy food ideas in general?

*waves*

It's not too bad just have a calculator handy an ounce (oz) is 28.something g, so I just call it 30 when I'm approximating servings.

Pre-packaged stuff will have nutritional info on the back, at least serve size and kilojoules (4.18 kj = 1cal, or roughly 4 if you're doing it in your head) then just add it if you can't find an equivalent in the database

I mean going a few calories over isn't going to hurt, so roughly approximating your conversions is OK.

If you stick to nutritious whole foods, everything like that is already in the database, and a carrot is a carrot anywhere in the world. It's only when you start getting into fast/pre-prepared/packaged foods that it begins to differ. And those things are bad for weight loss anyway! Or just substitute, and remember some brands here are called different things elsewhere (eg you'll find a lot of Wattie's stuff under Heinz as Heinz owns Wattie's) Just check the package, and if the cals are roughly the same, so with a substitute.

Try changing your goal to 1lb per week, this will give you a higher allowance if you can't stay within 1200 cal/day. Use the BMR calculator and see what your BMR is, and you can get a rough idea of how much over your 1200 you can go without it having a negative effect, it'll just slow the loss down a bit maybe. For example my goal @ 1lb/week is 1530. My maintenance goal is just over 2000 - so I know what if I go over one day, so long as I haven't gone over 2000, I've still made a calorie deficit for that day, albeit a small one, but better than a gain.
If you exercise you get to eat more as you don't want to g under 1200 net (so if you earn 400 from a run and eat under 1600, for example, you need to eat them or you have netted under 1200).
Better to go slowly and steadily than struggle to reach an impossible target for yourself (eating under 1200 /day) and having a blow out or getting discouraged and giving up.

After a few days you'll get out of the "habit" of eating so much/snacking/having too-big meals. It's hard for those few days, but it won't be hard forever.
A good thing is to work out how long you'd have to walk/run for to burn of X snack - you suddenly decide you don't need it so much after all!

Rice cracker with light philly are a yummy low-cal snack! Take your time eating them. Spread the philly on with a knife rather than dipping the crackers in, you'll consume much much less.
And soup is good too, or something like Milo without sugar added made with hot water and a little trim milk.

Yup, them danged Americans, drive on the wrong side of the road and all kinds of crazy things!

I'm from New Plymouth (brrrrr), so hiya.

(Come to think of it, have we converted everyone on the site to vegemite yet???)

Hey I'm from Auckland , haven't had much issues with finding foods yet, great site, love it!
Add me as a friend so we can do this together!

From palmy north here. Ive just been adding food as i go but there seems to be a reasonable amount already in the database. i do miss having people in the same time zone as me though!!

From the North Shore of Auckland, I've been using this website for the past 5 and a half weeks and are very happy with how easy it has helped be loose 6.5 kg already! I'm half way to my target of around 13 kg before Xmas, great to see other NZ people here!