Common Calorie Counting Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)
"I'm tracking everything but not losing weight!" Sound familiar? You might be making one of these common mistakes.
❌ Mistake #1: Not Using a Food Scale
Eyeballing portions is wildly inaccurate. "1 tablespoon" of peanut butter can easily be 2-3 tbsp.
Fix: Invest in a $10-20 food scale. Weigh everything for at least a few weeks to calibrate your eyes.
❌ Mistake #2: Forgetting Cooking Oils
That "healthy" stir-fry might have 400+ calories just from oil. 1 tbsp = 120 cal.
Fix: Measure cooking oils. Use spray oils for lower-calorie cooking.
❌ Mistake #3: BLTs (Bites, Licks, Tastes)
A bite of your kid's food, finishing leftovers, tasting while cooking. These add up to 200-400 untracked calories daily.
Fix: Log EVERYTHING or adopt a "if I bite it, I write it" rule.
❌ Mistake #4: Trusting Restaurant Nutrition Info
Restaurant meals are often 20-100% higher in calories than listed. Extra oil, bigger portions, etc.
Fix: Add 20-30% to restaurant meal estimates or round up.
❌ Mistake #5: Not Tracking Drinks
Lattes, juice, alcohol, smoothies — liquid calories count but are often forgotten.
Fix: Track every drink. Switch to water, black coffee, or diet drinks to save calories.
❌ Mistake #6: Weekend Amnesia
Tracking perfectly Mon-Fri then "taking a break" on weekends. Two days of overeating can erase a week of deficit.
Fix: Track weekends too. Even rough estimates maintain awareness.
❌ Mistake #7: Eating Back Exercise Calories
Your fitness tracker said you burned 500 cal, so you ate 500 extra. Problem: exercise calories are often overestimated by 30-50%.
Fix: Don't eat back exercise calories, or eat back only 50% at most.
❌ Mistake #8: Choosing Wrong Database Entries
Picking user-submitted entries that show lower calories. That "100 calorie burrito" isn't real.
Fix: Use verified entries, USDA database, or brand-specific data. When in doubt, pick the higher estimate.
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