Blog
Writing about calories, portions and what a food estimate can and cannot tell you.
Bites, Licks and Tastes: The Calories You Never Logged
The handful of nuts while cooking, the child's leftovers, the office biscuit tin — why these go missing from a food log every day, and what to log instead.
How Long Before You Know If a Change Worked?
A diet or training change needs about two to three weeks before the scale can answer. Here is why the first few days lie, and how to judge fairly.
How to Count Calories When Someone Else Cooks the Meal
No scale, no label, no control over the portion. Log one deliberately generous estimate for the whole plate, mark it as a guess, and move on.
How to Count Calories on Night Shifts and Rotating Hours
Midnight cuts a night shift's eating in half. Use a waking-time day boundary and a rolling average, and watch logging coverage, not daily totals.
Is It Bad to Eat the Same Thing Every Day? The Accuracy Case
Repeating breakfast and lunch isn't a failure of imagination — it's the cheapest way to make your calorie numbers mean something. Here's the mechanism.
Do Drinks Count? Coffee, Juice, Milk and Soft Drinks
Drinks count the same as food, and because you order the same one daily the error compounds. How to estimate a coffee order and budget for it.
Why Weight Loss Is Fast in Week One, Then Slows
The big first-week drop is mostly glycogen water, gut contents and salt. Here's the arithmetic that proves it, and what rate to expect after it settles.
Am I Losing Fat or Muscle? What the Scale Can't Tell You
A scale weighs fat, muscle, glycogen and fluid as one number. Here's how to work out what you're actually losing, using tape, clothes and strength.
Should You Log Food Before You Eat It?
Logging a meal after you've eaten it can only be graded. Logging it beforehand can still be changed. Here's how to sketch a day, and where plans break.
How Much Protein a Day, and How to Hit It Without Powder
A sensible protein target scales with your body weight, not a universal number — plus what it costs in calories and how ordinary food gets you there.
How to Count Calories in Cooking Oil, Sauces and Dressings
A tablespoon of oil is about 120 kcal and most free-hand pours are two. How to log the fat, sauces and dressings that never get recorded.
Raw or Cooked? Which Weight to Use When You Log Food
Rice nearly triples in weight when boiled; chicken loses about a quarter. Here's which state to weigh in, and the arithmetic when you get it wrong.
Still Hungry on the Same Calories? What Actually Differs
Two days at the same calories can feel completely different. Here is what changes hunger at a fixed number — and how to find it in your own log.
How to Come Off a Calorie Deficit on Purpose
Maintenance is a target, not the absence of one. How to work out the new number, what the scale does in the first fortnight, and when to act.
How Big Should Your Calorie Deficit Be? What Each Size Costs
A deficit of roughly 10–20% below what you actually burn suits most people. Here is the week-by-week arithmetic, and what a steeper one really costs.
Do Maintenance Calories Change as You Lose Weight?
Yes — and mostly for unglamorous reasons. Here's why the maintenance number you measured months ago drifts, and how to re-measure it instead of cutting again.
How to Count Calories in Batch Cooking and One-Pot Meals
Cooked a pot of chilli for six? Here's how to log your actual portion: total the ingredients once, weigh the finished dish, then log by grams taken.
Where Calorie Numbers Come From, and How Wrong Each Is
Labels, menu boards and database entries are all estimates with different failure modes. Here is how each one goes wrong, and how to sanity-check a number.
How to Count Alcohol Calories Without Kidding Yourself
Alcohol carries about 7 kcal per gram. How to estimate any drink from its strength and volume, and how to log a night out you didn't count.
Why Your Weight Went Up Overnight (It Isn't Fat)
A kilo of fat takes about 7,700 kcal to build. Here's the arithmetic that proves your overnight gain was water — and how to read the trend instead.
How Long a Weight Loss Stall Has to Last Before It Means Anything
Four flat days tell you nothing, and even a flat week is close to nothing. Here is the arithmetic of how long to wait before a stall counts as evidence.
Do Weekends Ruin Your Calorie Deficit? The Weekly Maths
Five disciplined days build a finite total. Here is the arithmetic of how two loose days spend it — and why the scale then tells you a confusing story.
How to Count Calories in Homemade Food Without a Label
A component-by-component way to estimate meals with no packaging: home cooking, restaurants and other people's food — including the invisible oil.
Should You Eat Back Your Exercise Calories?
Most calorie targets already include your training, so adding a watch's burn on top can cancel the deficit twice. Here is how to tell which applies to you.
How to Find Your Real Maintenance Calories (Not a Formula's Guess)
Calculators give you a population average. Here's how to work out your own maintenance calories from three weeks of logged intake and a weight trend.
Tracking Calories but Not Losing Weight? Where the Energy Is
You are logging honestly and the scale hasn't moved. Here's where the missing energy usually hides, in order of likelihood, and how to find yours.
How Accurate Does Calorie Counting Actually Need to Be?
You do not need to be exact — you need to be consistent. Which errors cancel out over weeks, which quietly ruin your numbers, and what is worth weighing.
How to Start Logging Again After a Break (and What Gaps Cost)
Skipping the messy days doesn't just break a streak — it biases your record toward the tidy days and quietly inflates every number built from it.