anybody here from Europe??

I just joined this site and would like to use the calorie counter to really see how many calories I eat in a day and try a more structured approach then what i am used to.

However, i find it difficult because a lot of the food I eat isn't in the database because its european brands. any suggestions for how to make this a bit easier for me?

I live in the UK.

It has all the local grocery stores stuff in here - search Tesco/Asda/Sainsburys. 

Apart from that chicken is chicken and I'm pretty sure it has the same calories in north american as it does in Europe ;)

Search for what you are looking for and find something with a comparable calorie count.  You don't have log your exact brand of food - but just something with the same calorie count.

Hi and welcome! What country are you from? I live in Romania and even here we have extremely detailed nutrition info for just about everything there is (the only thing that`s not yet made the labels is trans fat amount).

However I second the original poster; this is an excellent opportunity to eat less highly processed food and fill up on groceries: whole fruit & veggies & legumes, whole wheat bread & unprocessed breakfast cereal, raw meat & fish, oils, nuts - all of these should have the same number of calories as listed on the site. Good luck!

You can enter the foods you eat regularly manually if you have the nutritional info on the label? Then tag them so you can find them again easily.

Brit here.... I'd also highly recommend moving away from 'brands' and towards wholefoods.... vegetables, fruit, lean meat, fish, grains.... if you go with generic foodstuffs and prepare/cook more from scratch your diet will automatically be healthier and you'll find it incredibly easy to control your calorie intake.

I'm in Germany.

Best advice is above.  Try to eat more natural foods and fewer processed foods.  An apple has the same calories around the world.  Easy!

When eating processed foods, try to buy products that have nutritional info on the packaging so you can enter it manually. 

For other products, you can search in whatever local language you're using to find the products and/or manufacturers on-line. 

If you can't find it and really want to know, find an expat forum and ask there.  For example, using an expats-in-Germany forum, I found some great links to Germany-specific nutritional data that I could then enter into CC manually.

I'm in Italy. For the processed foods that I do eat, the site allows you to add the nutritional specs directly from the package.  Then you can tag the item so that everytime you eat that particular food it is stored in your personal foods list.

One thing that I find is helpful is to tag the item at its 100gm equivalent. This is because if you tag for a 30gram serving, and then eat 40 grams, you need to adjust the calories manually or re-enter the food. If you tag it at 100grams you can tell CC the values are for a 100gram serving, and then enter the actual amount you ate and the system will automatically adjust the numbers.

On the positive side,  using the CC database makes it easier for me to convince myself that Buffala Mozerella I can find from the local farmers has the same calories and fat as the Whole Milk Mozerella listed in the CC database....lol

I am living in Holland and have been for about 9 years. I am from America and understand what you are saying. There are some major differences in the foods. I know that here they use alot less sugar, and no cornsyrup, which is in alot of american drinks and foods. I still use CC for all my fresh foods but when i'm just not sure I use a dutch site which lists alot dutch products.

You could always looked for the same in the country you are in.

Dutch living in the UK (South Wales)

I use the Tesco/Asda generic brands and pick the higher calorie ones if i can't find the exact ones. Fresh food is the same everywhere, so that's easy. Branded stuff usually have their own company website with nutritional value so i use those and add it to the food log via the form. Works for me!

Greetings folks from the other side of the pond.  As mentioned above using Tags is the way to go but I also use the recipe tool for meals I eat regularly.  For example my routine breakfast is Shredded Wheat cereal with raisins and milk.  Rather than log the cereal, milk, raisins separately I entered the proportions into a recipe and saved it so I can log it as one unit saving some time.  I have done this for a few of my typical meals.  There are some glitches in the data base but otherwise once you have your meals saved as a recipe it is a lot faster logging it.

I'm from the UK. This is one of the main problems I have. It means that I have a lot of tagged items that I've added myself.

Fortunately most of the main superstores such as Tescos, Sainsbury's, Asda etc have nutritional info on their sites. Some items don't so I try one or the other. For example I was looking for brownie bites online just now (some colleagues are leaving and have bought some stuff and I indulged a bit). Sainsbury's didn't have the nutritional info for it but Tescos did. The products are similar (if not identical) but are labelled as store brands. These are not listed on CC.

Of course a lot of products come with nutritional information. I often keep the wrappers and then plug it into CC as one of my tagged items.

It is always good to search the CC Database first as some items are listed. Failing that you can try the brands website, often they have nutritional info on their websites. If that doesn't work then try googling it. I always start with "Calories in ....". Its amazing what you can find.

For example, I am originally from Bangladesh and therefore eat a lot of curries. I managed to find Bangladeshi Fish curry listed!

Curries are even more difficult to find in the database. Googling gave me the a site that has recipes close enough to what we eat. (See: www.recipezaar.com)

Of course you can try the recipe analyzer on CC. Unfortunately often I don't know what ingredients have gone into something - as I don't do much cooking.

If I fail to find the correct item, I look for the nearest item. I live in London and their are plenty of fast food places that are like KFC. So I tend to log the nearest KFC equivalent (although I try to avoid fast food, I do indulge on occasion).

Yup, i am also from Europe. German living in Canada these days. I have lived in various countries, the UK, US and Canada make me put on weight...well you know, foods are different, different incredients. When I first moved to the UK i extended like a sponge. Water retention I am guessing. Since then I have learned that I feel best if my diet is german oriented and quite basic. I learned to bake 100% rye bread, reduce the wheat and make most foods from cratch now.

I also find that many american brands have added corn sirup, sugar and artificial crap. What a shame. I miss living in continental northern europe*sigh*