I only have 8 pounds left and it is really messing with my head

The stall isn’t mysterious yet. Eight weeks at the same weight usually means energy balance is closer to maintenance than you think, and cafe tasting is a classic hidden variable.

Track tastings as a separate line item for 5–7 days: count each spoon/bite and assign rough kcal (broth 5–10, lemon bar bite 25–40, scone 40–60). Those micro-tastes can easily total 150–300/day. Not saying that’s your whole story, but it’s the first dataset I’d want. How

First, 42 lbs is huge — congrats. I feel you on the tasting part.

I worked near a bakery and kept a tiny notepad by the register. Every spoonful, half a lemon bar, whatever — I logged it as "taste bites." It was wild how it added up to almost a full snack by 2pm.

Not saying that's your issue, but it gave me data instead of guilt.

What does a typical tasting day look like for you — like 5 tiny spoons or 15? And are you doing any strength stuff? The last bit moved for me when I prioritized protein and sleep over cardio. You're not broken — this part is just slower and weirder.

The tasting piece is genuinely difficult. One thing that helped me during a long stall was writing down every taste in my Notes app as it happened—two spoons of soup, a corner of scone—and giving it a rough calorie range at the end of the day. It was humbling, but it stopped me from guessing.

I also switched to comparing Sunday-to-Sunday averages instead of daily weights; mine moved only 0.2–0.3 lb per week for a while, then finally dropped. Have you tried looking at your weekly average rather than the daily number?

Fellow road warrior here — airports are basically a tasting menu of sad pretzels. The last-bit stall hit me too, and what finally moved things was tracking the “invisible” stuff: two bites of hotel oatmeal

cafe tasting is the final boss lol, tiny spoonfuls still add up but I get it

Tbh i remember a 2022 thread called “scale stalled, tape moved”—the OP was a chef and did exactly what you’re describing. She stopped daily weigh-ins for a month and tracked waist + how her aprons fit instead. Turned out she’d lost two inches while the scale sat still.

Cafe work (salty soups, being on your feet, early mornings) can mask things. Are you measuring anywhere besides the scale? And do your aprons/jeans feel any different since October? That might tell you more than the last 8 right now.

The cafe tasting tax is real—tiny spoons still count, but the trend line sees the whole month, not the scone.

Hi — total newbie here, literally week one, so I’m mostly here to learn. First, 42 lbs while running a cafe is seriously impressive. A question: are you counting the tasting spoonfuls at all, or just logging actual meals/snacks? I used to work in a bakery, and my “tiny

I’m a dorm rat, so my version of your lemon bars is the dining hall cookie tray and whatever my roommate microwaves at 11pm. What helped me was brutally boring honesty: I made a note on my phone and gave myself a tally mark for every taste/lick/bite while prepping. Not calories, just awareness.

It was grimly funny—I hit 16 by lunch one day.

Now I pre-portion a tiny bowl of the thing I actually want and sit down with it instead of grazing over the pot. Cheap protein side quest: cottage cheese + chili crisp + whatever sad veg is in the fridge.

Are you tracking the tastes at all, or calling it “chef tax” and moving on?

Are you tracking tape/strength or just the scale? I lift 4x and when I stalled at the end, my waist kept dropping for weeks while the scale didn’t.

Concrete check: measure waist at navel, same morning, and compare your top set on squat/bench/row from early Oct vs now. If those are moving, it’s recomp, not a dead stall.

If they’re flat too, the cafe tasting is the likely leak. Try weighing your actual tasting bites one shift—just once.

Tiny spoonfuls of lemon bar/scone/soup can add up way faster than they feel, and at 8 lbs out that’s enough to hie progress.

Cafe owner tasting soups and lemon bars daily is such a specific circle of hell, I'm sorry 😅

Since you are tasting for work, one concrete thing that helped me was to weigh the tastes instead of estimating—my “tiny” bites were sometimes 40–60 calories across a morning, which is not a problem, but it was invisible in my weekly average. I added a line called “recipe tastes” to my tracker and stopped trying to count it perfectly; even a rough tally made the stall feel less personal.

Are you comparing daily weights or seven-day averages right now?

When I switched to weekly averages, I could see slow changes that a single morning number completely hid. The emotional part got quieter once I had that wider lens.

I feel this. I help run a bakery and my plateau broke when I stopped treating “tiny spoonfuls” as free.

I started putting every taste on one saucer — quarter tsp of soup, fingernail of lemon bar, corner of scone — and if it wasn’t on the saucer, it didn’t go in my mouth. Sounds fussy, but I was grazing all day without realizing it.

Also took waist measurements because the scale sat flat while my apron fit changed. What’s your typical tasting volume on a busy morning?

Like how many items do you actually taste, even tiny?

Fellow daily weigher here. The cafe tasting is its own weird food group — not a meal, definitely not zero.

When I stalled for ~10 weeks while cooking a lot, I kept a sticky note by the cutting board and made one tally mark per taste. Hit 17 by 2pm one day and was honestly shocked. I didn't convert it to calories; just seeing the frequency made me more intentional.

The scale stayed flat another few weeks, but my 14-day average finally started creeping down. Have you tried tracking the tastes as a simple tally instead of estimating them? The last bit is noisy, not proof you're broken.

The taste-test spoon tax is real lol — 42 lbs while running a cafe is no small thing!

The emotional part tracks: 34 lbs was a project, last 8 is maintenance wearing a disguise. One systems check — are you comparing daily weights or a 7–10 day rolling average?

October plus cafe soups equals enough sodium/water noise to camp 2–3 lbs for weeks. I only trust the rolling average and one pair of non-stretch jeans. If the average is flat for 3 weeks, it’s the system, not your head. What’s your weekly average doing: flat, drifting up, or just daily chaos?

The lemon bars would personally end me. Tiny-spoon discipline is an Olympic sport, honestly.

One thing I didn’t expect at the tail end: my brain started treating “I tasted it” as “I ate it,” and I’d under-eat at real meals, then feel ravenous later. I started noting two things — whether I was actually hungry before a taste, and how my next meal felt.

The stall didn’t budge until I sorted that out. Since yours started in October, has your cafe schedule or sleep changed too?

I ask because for me, shorter days and later closes made the scale weird even when my habits looked the same.

Fellow cafe owner-ish (I do farmers markets). The weird thing that helped me was separating “QC tastes” from “hungry tastes.” I now do all recipe checks right after a real breakfast, not at 2pm when I’m running on cold coffee.

Same QC nibbles, but I’m not primed to keep going back for “just one more” lick of frosting. Also I put the reject tray across the kitchen, not next to my prep list.

Are you tasting mostly before you’ve eaten or during the afternoon slump? That was my hidden trigger.