Eating the same meals every day may sound boring, but researchers have found it could be the key to losing weight.
Adults who follow routine eating patterns, such as repeating the same meals and keeping calorie intake steady, lose more weight than those who eat a more varied diet, according to a study by the American Psychological Association.
Although nutritionists recommend eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy, balanced diet, researchers found that sticking to a routine can help people build healthy eating habits.
“Maintaining a healthy diet in today’s food environment requires constant effort and self-control,” said lead author Dr Charlotte Hagerman, from the Oregon Research Institute.
“Creating routines around eating may reduce that burden and make healthy choices feel more automatic,” she added.
For the study published in the journal Health Psychology, researchers analysed food diaries from 112 overweight or obese adults enrolled in a weight-loss program.
Participants were asked to track everything they ate each day using a mobile app and complete daily weigh-ins.
Researchers focused on the first 12 weeks of the programme for their data and looked at how much participants followed a routine.
Those who repeated many of the same foods rather than eating a wide variety lost an average of 5.9 per cent of their body weight, compared with 4.3 per cent among those whose diets were more varied. The study also found that calorie consistency was linked to better results.
The findings suggest that simplifying food choices, such as creating a rotation of go-to meals and maintaining a steady calorie intake, may help people build sustainable habits.
However, the researchers cautioned that the study shows a correlation, not cause and effect, and that factors such as motivation or self-discipline may also play a role.
“Keeping meals and calorie intake relatively consistent can make weight loss feel more manageable because it reduces decision fatigue. When people know what they are going to eat, they are less likely to default to convenience foods or overeat,” Kim Pearson, a nutritionist specialising in weight loss, told the Independent.
“Repeating meals can also make it easier to stay within an appropriate calorie range without needing to track everything closely,” she added.
The study authors acknowledged that dietary variety is thought to be healthier because it offers nutritional variety.
“If we lived in a healthier food environment, we might encourage people to have as much variety in their diet as possible,” Dr Hagerman said. “However, our modern food environment is too problematic. Instead, people may do best with a more repetitive diet that helps them consistently make healthier choices, even if they might sacrifice some nutritional variety.”
Ms Pearson stressed that while repetition can be an effective tool for weight loss, variety is essential for long-term health.
“I would be cautious about interpreting this as a reason to eat the same foods every day long term. Different foods provide different nutrients, and a more varied diet supports a more diverse gut microbiome, which is linked to better metabolic health, digestion and even appetite regulation,” she added.
Nutritionist Rob Hobson said there was a “middle ground” to reducing decision fatigue without having to eat the same foods.
“Having a core set of go-to meals that you rotate regularly can provide structure and make healthy eating easier while still allowing for enough variety across the week to meet nutritional needs,” he told the Independent.
