Is it just me or is counting calories in NZ/Australia a huge headache? (Grams, kJ)

Hey everyone! Accidently deleted this post once so the sum it up - I've moved to New Zealand and am finding calorie counting tedious and near impossible. Not only is everything in kJ rather than calories forcing me to divide by four-point-whatever, but then the serving size is only in GRAMS. Not cups, never tablespoons, never "pieces," but always grams. How am I meant to know how many grams of yogurt I'm eating without carrying a food scale in my purse? I feel like I'm losing my mind! How many grams are in a tbsp of butter? Help! Lol.

Replies

sytchequeen

grams are much more accurate than cups or pieces, I always use grams. I'm surprised that things aren't labelled in both kCal and kJ though - that sounds a bit tricky

MelanieCN77

If you've moved moved there, it might just be time to use and get your head round the KJs. You can set your diary to kilojoules, I've seen posts in my feed as such.

purple4sure05

sytchequeen wrote: »

grams are much more accurate than cups or pieces, I always use grams. I'm surprised that things aren't labelled in both kCal and kJ though - that sounds a bit tricky

I love using grams when I can since it's more accurate, but it's just hard when you're out and grabbing a snack, or dishing out granola or cereal, and theres no point of reference for how many grams you're consuming. Maybe I'll get used to it but for now I feel like I have no idea.

purple4sure05

MelanieCN77 wrote: »

If you've moved moved there, it might just be time to use and get your head round the KJs. You can set your diary to kilojoules, I've seen posts in my feed as such.

Fine! Lol. I have never once heard someone say "kilojoule" out loud here though. Always calories. Makes me wonder why they use kJ in the first place.

paperpudding

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

purple4sure05

paperpudding wrote: »

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

I guess my problem is I'm not sure how to have any point of reference for how many grams what I'm eating weighs. To me, 100 grams means nothing, and with different sizes and densities for different foods I feel like its challenging to wrap your mind around what is 100 grams, 200 grams, etc. If a bag of pretzels says one serving is 13 pieces, that's much easier to keep track of then if it said one serving is 150 grams. Does that make sense?

paperpudding

Ah, ok.

Yes, in Australia (and i presume NZ ) all foods/drinks must show the kj amount per 100mg or 100ml - eg a can of coke and a 2L bottle of coke would show the same.

jesspen91

purple4sure05 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

I guess my problem is I'm not sure how to have any point of reference for how many grams what I'm eating weighs. To me, 100 grams means nothing, and with different sizes and densities for different foods I feel like its challenging to wrap your mind around what is 100 grams, 200 grams, etc. If a bag of pretzels says one serving is 13 pieces, that's much easier to keep track of then if it said one serving is 150 grams. Does that make sense?

The UK also labels nutrtion in grams too. Usually the total grams of the container is listed somewhere on the packaging so If I don't have scales to hand I use this. So if I've used about a quarter of the packaging divide by 4 etc. It's not exact but neither are tbsps and cups really.

strongwouldbenice

In aus it will have the kj for "per serve" and "per 100g". It also states the amount of serves per pack, so I will know the amount for "one serve" will be one half, or one quarter, or one tenth etc.
If it doesn't have that over there, I would look at the weight of the total package and mentally split it into 100g amounts to judge whether it is worth spending calories on.

The kj versus cal thing is annoying though. About a quarter of our foods list calories in brackets after the kilojoules. Don't know why we bother with kj.

yirara

purple4sure05 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

I guess my problem is I'm not sure how to have any point of reference for how many grams what I'm eating weighs. To me, 100 grams means nothing, and with different sizes and densities for different foods I feel like its challenging to wrap your mind around what is 100 grams, 200 grams, etc. If a bag of pretzels says one serving is 13 pieces, that's much easier to keep track of then if it said one serving is 150 grams. Does that make sense?

Yes, I can understand it. had to wrap my head around those odd miles when I moved to the UK. But you'll get used to it. And believe me: weighing in grams is much more accurate than using pieces or cups. I mean, you can put a very huge strawberry into a cup and it's full. Or you can use tiny forest strawberries and you get a much higher calorie amount into this cup. Also rasped cheese lightly and densly packed as a different amount of calories. 100gr are also 100gr.

ChrysalisCove

I’m in Hong Kong, but we import a lot from AUS / NZ and yes, the different labelings from various sources drive me bananas!

Muscleflex79

purple4sure05 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

I guess my problem is I'm not sure how to have any point of reference for how many grams what I'm eating weighs. To me, 100 grams means nothing, and with different sizes and densities for different foods I feel like its challenging to wrap your mind around what is 100 grams, 200 grams, etc. If a bag of pretzels says one serving is 13 pieces, that's much easier to keep track of then if it said one serving is 150 grams. Does that make sense?

but doesn't it tell you how many grams are in the whole thing? so you would just divide that by however many servings you are having to know grams per serving? I think grams are far more accurate and wish everything was this way!

purple4sure05

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

purple4sure05 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

I guess my problem is I'm not sure how to have any point of reference for how many grams what I'm eating weighs. To me, 100 grams means nothing, and with different sizes and densities for different foods I feel like its challenging to wrap your mind around what is 100 grams, 200 grams, etc. If a bag of pretzels says one serving is 13 pieces, that's much easier to keep track of then if it said one serving is 150 grams. Does that make sense?

but doesn't it tell you how many grams are in the whole thing? so you would just divide that by however many servings you are having to know grams per serving? I think grams are far more accurate and wish everything was this way!

Maybe I'm just an idiot but I struggle to accurately figure out what 1/8th of a tub of yogurt looks like. Sounds like there is no answer though and I'll have to practice with a food scale to get a better idea of what all the food items I eat usually like like in grams. I still think it's annoying though Haha.

paperpudding

well, yes - eyeballing portions can be tricky.

Not getting how that relates to grams or metric though - wouldnt it be exactly same issue if you were in imperial measurements?

Francl27

Cups are very inaccurate anyway. Use your scale when possible, if you can't, find an entry in cups and use that I guess.

Doesn't MFP have an option to use Kj instead of calories?

TrishSeren

I live in NZ and use calories, if you scan the product into the app then it will give you calories instead of kjs. I've never had any issues.

Lillymoo01

I have my diary set for kilojoules as that is the easiest way to see if the food I enter is correct according to the nutrition label. I can understand that gram would mean very little to you at the moment but the more you use a scale to measure your food the more success you will have with guesstimations when scales are not available. Also, if you are the only one eating the yoghurt it won't matter a huge amount if a guesstimate is out a bit here or there for a serving size, as long as the total servings from that tub are about the same as the total number of grams on the label. A bit more one day and a bit less the next won't make a blind bit of difference in the long run.

Also, I think once you get used to metric you will find it much easier to work with than imperial.

Machka9

purple4sure05 wrote: »

Hey everyone! Accidently deleted this post once so the sum it up - I've moved to New Zealand and am finding calorie counting tedious and near impossible. Not only is everything in kJ rather than calories forcing me to divide by four-point-whatever, but then the serving size is only in GRAMS. Not cups, never tablespoons, never "pieces," but always grams. How am I meant to know how many grams of yogurt I'm eating without carrying a food scale in my purse? I feel like I'm losing my mind! How many grams are in a tbsp of butter? Help! Lol.

I quit using the old imperial system back in Grade 4 when Canada switched to the metric system. So when I moved to Australia, I found counting calories pretty straightforward.

Once you get onto it, you'll never want to go back to the imperial system.

Machka9

sytchequeen wrote: »

grams are much more accurate than cups or pieces, I always use grams. I'm surprised that things aren't labelled in both kCal and kJ though - that sounds a bit tricky

Some are.

For the rest, it's a quick and easy calculation ... just divide by 4.

Machka9

Muscleflex79 wrote: »

purple4sure05 wrote: »

paperpudding wrote: »

I am in Australia and I have used MFP for 5 years and I dont find it hard.

You can set your app to use calories or kilojoules - if you set it to kilojoules things you scan in will show their kj amount or if you set it to calories they will show in calories.

I left mine in calories as my mindset thinks that way and smaller numbers so less maths.

But I enter weights in grams.

If I eat yoghurt I scan the container in and enter it as that many servings.

If I eat yoghurt any other way and i cant weigh/measure it, I just estimate how much it is by comparing to my usual size container - ie my usual yoghurt container is 200ml, and this seems about half of that.

Or, if I must, use a data base entry for xxx, 1 cup

Like I do with any foods.

and like you would have to do whether you were using metric or imperial or cups or pieces.

Not really getting what the problem is?

I guess my problem is I'm not sure how to have any point of reference for how many grams what I'm eating weighs. To me, 100 grams means nothing, and with different sizes and densities for different foods I feel like its challenging to wrap your mind around what is 100 grams, 200 grams, etc. If a bag of pretzels says one serving is 13 pieces, that's much easier to keep track of then if it said one serving is 150 grams. Does that make sense?

but doesn't it tell you how many grams are in the whole thing? so you would just divide that by however many servings you are having to know grams per serving? I think grams are far more accurate and wish everything was this way!

Yes!

Caralarma

I live in South Africa and have the same problem but I cant bring myself to use kj. I just roughly divide by 4 or scan barcodes on here which will automatically convert to calories 😊

thisPGHlife

paperpudding wrote: »

well, yes - eyeballing portions can be tricky.

Not getting how that relates to grams or metric though - wouldnt it be exactly same issue if you were in imperial measurements?

Imperial units are generally volume based where metric is weight based. Theoretically, you'd be able to eyeball imperial units because it's a sizing issue. That's actually where the inherent problem is. Since it's by volume, the calories are variable because density is a thing. Metric units are based on weight which accounts for size and density. (1 cup of brown sugar will be X calories when packed and Y calories when not packed. Even then it's a coin toss because your measuring cup may not even be a cup. But, 100 grams is 100 grams is 100 grams.)

I don't know if that helps.

I guess the point is, the whole reason op is having the issue in the first place it's because imperial units are based on an inaccurate system of volume which, while way to estimate, doesn't accurately correlate to weight. Weight, which is more accurate and what metric is based on, doesn't necessarily lend itself to eyeballing unless you have a good idea what X grams of Y food looks like with respects to volume.

lemurcat2

Imperial units can be weight-based (ounce, pound). Metric can be volume-based (liter).

US labels ordinarily use grams for the weight, however, not oz. Meat often gets sold in oz. I agree that weight is better if one has an ability to measure it or can estimate it.

I can't eyeball a cup accurately anyway, however, so if eating a yogurt outside my house (or some cottage cheese) would go with the proportion of the whole I ate. (I guess I don't really eat stuff outside my house that I didn't prepare for that purpose at home, so this would be more likely to come up at a restaurant or someone else's house where I was staying, and obviously at a restaurant packaging would not make a difference.)

23rochelle23

I understand the confusion - I moved to the U.K. 2 years ago and still have no idea what it means when someone tells me their weight in stone - is that a lot? A little? (I work in healthcare and still have no idea lol)

However you will come to love grams because they make sense

I can eyeball most things I eat all the time fairly regularly (for instance I can pretty much nail 30gm of cheese to the gm without a second thought).
Otherwise just do the splitting thing if you’re eating it yourself (I do this a lot) - if something has x calories in total and I eat half one day and half two days later I’m happy to just call it half the amount of calories and not worry if one day is 60% and one day 40% - it balances out.

thisPGHlife

I apologize, they both can be both. However for OP's situation my original statement holds true. At least in the US (where I am) pounds and ounces ate generally used for meats and beverages in the context of how much you consume at one time. Yes you can purchase a pound of nuts but you generally see a serving size listed as number of pieces or portion of a cup. I may be wrong and over generalizing as there probably are cases where servings of solid foods, or even semi solid, that are listed in ounces. The only time I've personally seen that to my recollection has been in pre portioned foods. However I have seen all food items list both a volume and a weight measure with the weight measure in grams.

While ounces of a portion of meat is common practice in the US, there are numerous places that I've seen "handy guides" that will tell you roughly the size/volume of that portion of meat. (Portion being the size of your pain or the size of a deck of cards, etc)

I agree that weighing is the ideal and I weigh all of my food in metric. That being said, since I grew up visualizing my food in terms of volume, visualizing in terms of weight does not come naturally to me. Then again, visualizing for me is weird anyway.

lemurcat2

skram01 wrote: »

I apologize, they both can be both. However for OP's situation my original statement holds true. At least in the US (where I am) pounds and ounces ate generally used for meats and beverages in the context of how much you consume at one time. Yes you can purchase a pound of nuts but you generally see a serving size listed as number of pieces or portion of a cup.

I'm in the US, and grams are on everything (except for meat where you usually ask for 8 oz or whatever, IME). Packages also give a volume measurement. (Cups are stupid for anything but liquids and baking, though (baking is better with a scale and weight, but I'll use cups and teaspoons for that when the recipe does).)

I think what you were talking about is that the US has gone over to including a metric measurement for weight rather than an imperial one (one tiny concession to the metric system), but that doesn't mean that metric=weights. I thought you were saying that the US (since we use imperial) only had volumes, and that imperial was inferior since it couldn't account for weight. Imperial is kind of clunky, but not because it doesn't allow for weighing (3.85 oz is as nuanced as 109 grams). We just happen to have made the switch to grams on packages.

Anyway, I think you and I are actually on the same page here, since for me having both the weight and a size estimate is preferable if I am going to eat it on the go -- half a package of nuts = 170 cal or X many nuts are Y calories. For anything else, weight, and on the whole I prefer grams. (I always had a sense of meat in oz, but now do just as well in grams. I hate, hate, hate those claims that you should eat based on the size of your hand, etc., since I think they don't work well as measures and maybe I want a smaller or larger portion anyway.)

thisPGHlife

lemurcat2 wrote: »

skram01 wrote: »

I apologize, they both can be both. However for OP's situation my original statement holds true. At least in the US (where I am) pounds and ounces ate generally used for meats and beverages in the context of how much you consume at one time. Yes you can purchase a pound of nuts but you generally see a serving size listed as number of pieces or portion of a cup.

I'm in the US, and grams are on everything (except for meat where you usually ask for 8 oz or whatever, IME). Packages also give a volume measurement. (Cups are stupid for anything but liquids and baking, though (baking is better with a scale and weight, but I'll use cups and teaspoons for that when the recipe does).)

I think what you were talking about is that the US has gone over to including a metric measurement for weight rather than an imperial one (one tiny concession to the metric system), but that doesn't mean that metric=weights. I thought you were saying that the US (since we use imperial) only had volumes, and that imperial was inferior since it couldn't account for weight. Imperial is kind of clunky, but not because it doesn't allow for weighing (3.85 oz is as nuanced as 109 grams). We just happen to have made the switch to grams on packages.

Anyway, I think you and I are actually on the same page here, since for me having both the weight and a size estimate is preferable if I am going to eat it on the go -- half a package of nuts = 170 cal or X many nuts are Y calories. For anything else, weight, and on the whole I prefer grams. (I always had a sense of meat in oz, but now do just as well in grams. I hate, hate, hate those claims that you should eat based on the size of your hand, etc., since I think they don't work well as measures and maybe I want a smaller or larger portion anyway.)

Yes. I think we are. It's a really weird hodgepodge of measurements and the packaging generally gives an imperial volume and metric weight. Very silly.

I agree that hand measurements are stupid and I think they are worse than volume measurements. They don't account for have size difference or, sometimes, the third dimension. Saying something should be the size of your palm: I have tiny hands. I know people who, when we compare hands, almost my whole hands would for in their palm. Also a piece of meat that is the size of my palm and 1 inch thick is going to be half as much as something that is 2 inches thick.

hixa30

How many grams does a tablespoon of butter weigh? You can Google it, or weigh it later when you get home. Or just guesstimate it.

If someone eats one quarter of a container of Product X, and the serving size is 20g, which has 400KJ, and the container has 100g, here's how you calculate things:

The total container has ( 100 / 20 ) x 400 = 2000 kJ. One quarter is 2000 / 4 = 250 kJ.

If people have trouble with the maths for this, a little practice helps. Maybe spend 10 minutes doing practice calculations. Alternatively ask your phone, ask here, ask a friend etc.

PS a stone weighs about 6kg.

Aaron_K123

Honestly metric is s better system, you'll just have to adjust but you'll get used to it. This is coming from an American by the way. Nothing inherently different between calories or kilojoules...they are both just units of measure for energy....like kilograms vs pounds or feet versus meters. Oh and if you really want to get confused realize that Calories as they are written on food packaging are actually kilocalories.