Slimming company Weight Watchers has done a deal with the fast food chain McDonald's to endorse some items on its menu.
McDonald's branches were now offering three meals that each added up to 6.5 Weight Watchers' points.
The system allowed people on the Weight Watchers' programme between 18 and 40 points each day, which they must stay within to obtain and retain their goal weight, The New Zealand Herald newspaper reported today.
Salads and water or diet soft drinks were served with the meals.
A Filet-O-Fish, Chicken McNuggets and a Sweet Chilli Seared Chicken Wrap, were the same meals McDonald's customers are used to but staff in 150 restaurants around the country had been trained to make the meals more consistently, with the same amount of sauce each time, so they fell within the points system.
Weight Watchers said the deal followed similar arrangements with restaurant chains in Britain and America.
People had a greater chance of losing weight and keeping it off when they did not deprive themselves of every indulgence, said spokesman Chris Stirk.
McDonald's New Zealand managing director Mark Hawthorne said the Weight Watchers menu items would be extended.
He said the points for each meal had been calculated based on the maximum amount of sauce that could be shot out from the company's 'sauce guns'.
Dr Robyn Toomath, from the Fight the Obesity Epidemic group, said the move was acceptable if it convinced McDonald's customers to pick a less-fatty food option but it was more likely to attract new customers and normalise the regular eating of McDonald's.
NZPA