When people try to lose weight, they often look for new diets, new recipes, and new foods to keep things interesting. However, a new study suggests that doing the opposite may actually work better.
Eating similar meals each day and keeping calorie intake steady could help people lose more weight.
The research comes from the American Psychological Association and was published in the journal Health Psychology.
It shows that consistency in eating habits may be more important than variety, especially during a weight loss program.
In modern life, people are constantly faced with food choices. Supermarkets, restaurants, and social media all offer endless options.
While this may seem positive, it can make it harder to stick to healthy habits. Making decisions about what to eat every day can be tiring and may lead to unhealthy choices.
The researchers wanted to see if reducing this decision-making burden could help people lose weight. They studied 112 adults who were overweight or obese and enrolled in a 12-week weight loss program.
Participants used a mobile app to record everything they ate and weighed themselves every day. This allowed researchers to track their habits in detail.
The study focused on two main ideas. One was how stable a person’s daily calorie intake was. The other was how often they repeated the same meals instead of choosing different foods.
The results showed that people who kept their diets simple and repetitive achieved better results. Those who ate similar meals regularly lost more weight than those who constantly changed their food choices.
On average, people with more repetitive diets lost about 5.9 percent of their body weight. Those with more varied diets lost around 4.3 percent. This difference may seem small, but it can be meaningful over time.
Calorie stability also made a difference. People whose calorie intake stayed more consistent from day to day tended to lose more weight. In contrast, large swings in calorie intake were linked to less success.
The researchers believe that repeating meals helps people form habits. When eating becomes routine, it requires less effort and self-control. This makes it easier to stick to a plan over time.
Another interesting finding was related to weekends. Participants who logged higher calorie intake on weekends actually lost more weight. This likely reflects better tracking habits, as people often stop recording their food accurately on weekends.
The study also raises questions about the role of variety in diet. While variety is important for getting enough nutrients, too much variety in a modern food environment may lead to overeating or poor choices.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight .
For more health information, please see recent studies that Mediterranean diet can reduce belly fat much better, and Keto diet could help control body weight and blood sugar in diabetes.
