diff --git a/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/counters.go b/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/counters.go
index 0bff4c1..022e2bb 100644
--- a/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/counters.go
+++ b/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/counters.go
@@ -37,11 +37,17 @@
 }
 
 func incrementCreatorNodeCount(ctx *context.T, bt *BigTable, creator string, delta int64) error {
+	if delta == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
 	_, err := incrementCounter(ctx, bt, "num-nodes-per-user:"+creator, delta)
 	return err
 }
 
 func incrementCreatorServerCount(ctx *context.T, bt *BigTable, creator string, delta int64) error {
+	if delta == 0 {
+		return nil
+	}
 	_, err := incrementCounter(ctx, bt, "num-servers-per-user:"+creator, delta)
 	return err
 }
diff --git a/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/node.go b/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/node.go
index 3dc9a64..d428909 100644
--- a/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/node.go
+++ b/services/mounttable/btmtd/internal/node.go
@@ -326,10 +326,9 @@
 	// Adjust the server count for the node creator. Since delete() can be
 	// called directly without gc(), we need to include the expired servers
 	// in the counter adjustment.
-	if delta := -int64(len(n.servers) + len(n.expiredServers)); delta != 0 {
-		if err := incrementCreatorServerCount(ctx, n.bt, n.creator, delta); err != nil {
-			return err
-		}
+	delta := -int64(len(n.servers) + len(n.expiredServers))
+	if err := incrementCreatorServerCount(ctx, n.bt, n.creator, delta); err != nil {
+		return err
 	}
 	return incrementCreatorNodeCount(ctx, n.bt, n.creator, -1)
 }