It’s really the little things… little bites, licks & tastes.
UGH. I love that saying until moments like this… the little things bit me in the butt. Not wanting to pay attention to my habit of grabbing little bites. Not wanting to stop having little licks of the spatula. Not wanting to stop grabbing that last little taste off of the kids plate. Those habits returned. They returned pretty quickly when I pulled back from some of the things that got me through the 135 pounds lost.
Over the last 2 years while I attempted deficits, I was not wanting to pay attention to the habits that I had fallen back into fully. I did not want to pay attention to the bites, licks and tastes. I did not want to dial things back in. Not fully. I felt like that would just be unnecessary. It made sense that I had to do that to lose 135 pounds. But I already put in the hard work. Why would I have to do it again?
And that. That statement is what held me up.
The bites, licks and tastes… The habits that get you somewhere. Those are the ones that will get you back there again. Whether that is good, or that is for the worse.
Me, personally
Not only was I not ready to change up my habits around the bites, licks and tastes…. I was still in the headspace of not wanting to meal prep fully. Not wanting to weigh my food fully. Not wanting to accurately track fully.
I am not saying that these are the things that are absolutely necessary in order for somebody to lose weight in a calorie deficit. I am saying that these are the things that I need because they counter a lot of the reasons that I needed to go through a major life change of losing 135 pounds.
My meal prepping helps me not deal with my decision fatigue and need for possible instant gratification in a moment. If I have something ready, I’m more than likely to just eat that even if I don’t necessarily like it because it’s ready. I don’t have to think about it. It is already there. It is part of the plan. And I am desperate for more things that simply don’t make me have to decide.
My calorie tracking is actually what helped me in the very beginning. I was not aware of how many things I was eating throughout the day. I was not aware of the portion sizes that would be better for my body. I was not aware. My journey of 135 pounds lost is really a testament to the awareness that tracking gave me.
When I upped my game to weighing everything as I was accurately tracking… I broke through a plateau right at the end of my weight loss to be able to get onto a bodybuilding stage in the transformation category and in bikini category. It was amazing! It was everything that I had hoped for as my 40-year-old bucket list item. But I know that this tracking and weighing helps me more than it hinders me. More than it takes up. My portion sizes quickly get distorted. I know this about myself now. I tend to go back into a default mode… my portions grow to the portions I once had quickly.
Finally, my habits… I like sweet treats. I like little nibbles. I like tasting some of the food as I’m cooking and licking the spatula. I don’t like wasting food and have been known to eat the remaining pieces off of my kids’ plates. If I have a container where I am leaving a very small amount behind, I would rather eat it and be able to throw the container away. The space in my cabinet and the organization was a bigger deal than me eating something for hunger or not.
I know I’m not the only one. And I know that from my years of coaching.
I’ve noticed that some of the biggest roadblocks to progress are not really the major meals or obvious indulgences. It tends to be the little things.
The things that we don’t think twice about. Things that we repeat. Habitual things that grow over time. The mindless actions.
Even the most diligent of us can find ourselves stalling despite “doing everything right” and this tends to end up being one of the main reasons.
Let’s talk Bites, Licks, Tastes & Other “Hidden” Calories…
Seriously, let’s talk about it. I want you to read through this and start to think about what you might do throughout the day, week or month. Are there little things that are just mindless? Habitual? Automatic? Things that you feel don’t really matter?
- You taste a spoonful of dinner while cooking.
- You pour coffee creamer without paying attention to how much.
- You grab a few crackers or nuts while standing in the kitchen, waiting for something else to finish.
- There’s a candy bowl at work… just a couple pieces, right?
- You finish your kid’s fries because they didn’t.
- You eyeball “olive oil, 1 tsp” but what you poured could easily be closer to 2–3.
None of these are dealbreakers individually. But when they become regular, unconscious habits, they can shift your calorie consumption significantly.
And no, I am not automatically saying that this is a thing about calorie tracking or a thing about accurate tracking and weighing everything out. I’m talking about the habits that we have and how they slowly pull away from the awareness that we have around food and what our body needs.
So how do we end up here?
Resistance to doing the things (like me)
I’m gonna get real here. Some of us are here naturally…
We have resistance to looking at solutions to what we need to help us get to where we wanna go. Some of us don’t want to go through things like I mentioned above. We don’t want to meal prep because it’s going to take too much away from us on a daily basis or on a weekly basis. But maybe that really is the solution. If we humble ourselves to that process and we see what’s possible, we might not think of it as such a big thing anymore. I feel like this is one of those moments where we say never say never.
But there are definitely other reasons.
Tracking Fatigue Is Real
For those who’ve been tracking their food intake for weeks, months or even years… there can definitely be a slow but steady mental burnout can creep in.
At first, you might have weighed everything down to the gram.
But over time, estimating becomes more common, and “close enough” becomes the norm.
This is totally normal… it’s part of being human. But small, consistent inaccuracies can compound.
Even Professionals Can Be Off
We can think that we are giving the process everything we’ve got but… we might still be off.
Surprisingly, even registered dietitians…despite their training… can sometimes miscalculate. That’s not a jab at the profession, just a reminder that no one is immune to human error.
In one study from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, researchers compared registered dietitians with non-dietitians. All participants were trained to log everything they ate for 7 days. The result?
- Dietitians underreported by an average of 223 calories/day.
- Non-dietitians underreported by an average of 429 calories/day.
Even within the group of dietitians, some underreported by nearly 800 calories per day. So while their training helped improve accuracy, it didn’t eliminate the problem.
What this tells us: If the professionals, the people with years of training, still have blind spots then the average person absolutely will too.
This isn’t about guilt. It’s about being realistic.
You might feel like you’re in a calorie deficit, but if results aren’t happening… there’s a good chance something’s being missed.
It really is as it is in this graphic below. And when things aren’t happening, it’s time to take action. It’s time to look at things. To audit. To reflect. To analyze. To dig in and see where there is a break in the chain. Not beat ourselves up.
Mindless, Habitual, and Emotional Eating
Finally…. we need to get out of the thought process that food is just fuel because it’s not. It’s connection, comfort, relief, distraction… especially during stress or boredom. Sometimes, we don’t eat because we’re hungry, but because it’s there or it feels good in the moment.
Think about some of these different things.
- Habitual eating: walking past the fridge and grabbing a slice of cheese without thinking.
- Emotional eating: reaching for chocolate during a stressful day.
- Mindless eating: finishing chips while watching TV and not even remembering how many.
Now the real question here… is this something that you want to do? Is this something that you’re OK with in your life? Are you OK with what happens because of these things? If you are, cool! That works for you. That’s the way you wanna live your life. As long as you can be OK with it in the moment and you can be OK with it afterwards, you do you boo.
But if it isn’t. It’s time to take a look at things… and one of my favorite ways of doing that is pausing before grabbing something and asking… Are you feeling BLASTED (Bored, Lonely, Angry, Stressed, Tired, Emotional, or Distracted)?
Resource: A Guide on Mastering Your Hunger
This work takes time. I’m still working on a lot of these. I still sometimes grab for something comforting when I’m feeling emotional or I’m stressed out. But it’s not the only thing that I’m grabbing for.
BUUUUUT when I’m trying to lock it in on a calorie deficit phase, I pay attention way more to these things so that I don’t succumb to them and don’t like the later consequences of my actions.
How do we fix it?
Sometimes we have no idea where to start when it comes to looking deeper into all of these things. It can be overwhelming to analyze your own actions and habits. What I suggest in these different situations… going through an audit.
Habit Audit
I absolutely love the habit scorecard that James Clear has put out as part of his book Atomic Habits. It’s something that I have done myself for multiple reasons. It’s helped me with my time management, but it also helped me have a better understanding of my habits. When I did the habit audit, I did include when food was involved and I tried to see if I could see a pattern over the course of a week.
Resource: The Habit Scorecard
Food Intake Audit
After you take a look at habits to really hone in on some of the different things, we might do habitually, mindlessly, or emotionally, I would then have you take a look at some of the fine-tuning around your food.
- Do you have an understanding of your bodies caloric needs?
- How are your portion sizes? Have they changed overtime?
- Are you estimating your food portions/calories?
- Do you track your calories/macros? Do you track them in real-time, or try to remember later?
- Are there things that you may grab & eat throughout the day? How’s your food environment? Do you have things there that are hard for you to resist?
- Do you find yourself needing a snack whenever you do XYZ (even if you’re not necessarily hungry)?
This isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness.
Calorie/Macro Tracking Audit
Finally, for those that are doing all of the things. Doing them to the best of their ability. There may still be a point where you feel like you’re getting stuck. And that’s when you wanna look a little bit deeper. You wanna audit a little bit more nitpickingly.
Disclaimer: this is not necessary for everybody. You get to choose how you move through any of the journeys in your life. You do not get to choose the outcome and your processes though. Sometimes we have to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do in order to get to someplace that we want to be.
Questions to Ask If Progress Has Stalled
1. Are you tracking everything accurately?
- Every single bite and sip counts… even small tastes and snacks.
- Are you including things like supplements, fish oil, fiber, vitamin gummies, etc.?
- Are condiments, sauces, dressings, creamers, cooking oils, and butter included?
- Have you accounted for gum, hard candies, and mints?
- Are you tracking alcohol? (Tip: Track as fat using custom entries based on calorie content.)
- When eating out, are you estimating portions, sauces, and added fats?
2. Are you tracking your food daily and reviewing it consistently?
3. Are you following your macro targets within 5g of each goal?
4. Are you weighing and measuring food accurately? Weighing solids in grams and measuring liquids with cups or spoons. Weighing pre-packaged items as well… not relying solely on the label.
5. Are you verifying entries against nutrition labels? Using barcode scans when available, but always cross-checking with the label & editing when necessary.
6. Are you matching food weights correctly (raw vs. cooked)? Using raw entries for raw weights, and cooked entries for cooked weights.
7. Are you tracking total carbs… not just net carbs (carbs – fiber = net carbs)?
8. Are you avoiding subtracting exercise calories from your intake? Your calorie goals likely already account for your activity level.
9. Are you unintentionally increasing your deficit? Constantly under-eating or increasing activity without adjustment can lead to excess stress and water retention as well as other possible issues.
10. Are you weighing yourself correctly?
- First thing in the morning, after the bathroom, before food/water, and with no clothes.
- Using the same scale in the same location?
- Has the scale been calibrated?
11. Are you tracking progress in multiple ways?
- Weekly measurements?
- Progress photos?
- A specific item of clothing for fit checks?
- Performance or training benchmarks?
12. Are you tracking your menstrual cycle? This helps explain fluctuations in water retention, cravings, and energy.
13. Are you staying hydrated? Aiming for light yellow or clear urine in the morning.
14. Are you mindful of sodium intake? Regularly consuming 1500–2000 mg is fine, but be aware of multiple high-sodium days. Are you balancing with potassium-rich foods?
15. Are you considering factors that can affect the scale?
- Eating late?
- Digestion regular?
- Sleep quality consistent?
- Changes in training or activity?
- Illness, allergies, medications, or inflammation?
16. Are your meals too complicated to track easily? Simplify when possible because simpler meals are easier to log accurately.
17. Are you being patient with the process? A “stall” is often just slower-than-expected progress. Consistency is key.
18. Have you been in a deficit for 8–12 weeks? It may be time for a short maintenance phase/diet break (2 weeks) while keeping protein high, then returning to a deficit with renewed energy and adherence.
Takeaway
The best way through is to audit your daily and weekly actions.
Dial it in. With no judgement.
Get curious.
And just remember that it’s a learning process, and even experienced trackers need to reset sometimes.
You may just find the little things… they are the things that matter, don’t they?
I know… I couldn’t help myself.
I hope it helps!
With Love, Coach Nik
