Dietitians regularly talk up the importance of having variety in your diet to make sure you hit your nutritional needs. But new research suggests that’s actually not helpful—at least, not when you’re trying to lose weight.
The study, which was published in the journal Health Psychology, makes a strong case for sticking with the same meals when you’re on a weight-loss journey. If constantly thinking up new meals is a stressor for you, this may sound like good news.
“While this approach isn’t for everything and isn’t necessarily ideal for the long-haul, for those who are content to eat the same things for a few days in a row or having some go-to meals and snacks to rely on, it can simplify eating healthy, balanced meals that support your weight management goals,” Jessica Cording, RD, the author of The Little Book of Game-Changers, tells SELF.
But the findings also don’t mean you’re screwed in the weight loss department if you prefer to mix things up in your diet. Here’s why.
The study dove into a mix of dietary patterns.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from food logs collected from 112 people with overweight or obesity who were enrolled in a structured behavioral weight loss program. The participants were asked to track their food in an app, and to have weigh-ins on a wireless scale.
The researchers specifically focused on the first 12 weeks of the program, which is when participants are usually the most into tracking their food intake, and measured how routine-oriented the participants’ diets were. They did this in two ways: They looked at the participants’ caloric stability which is how much their daily calories fluctuated from day-to-day and between weekdays and weekends. The researchers also dove into how repetitive the participants’ diets were, looking at how often people logged the same meals and snacks over time.
After crunching the data, the researchers discovered that people who stuck with a diet that was low in variety lost an average of 5.9% of their body weight compared to the 4.3% lost by people who mixed up their diets more. Having a greater calorie consistency was linked to better weight loss results. Specifically, for every 100-calorie increase in fluctuation between days, the participants’ weight loss dropped by about 0.6% during the 12-week period.
Based on all of this, the researchers concluded that lower variety in your diet and maintaining a steady calorie intake may help people create sustainable habits to support weight loss. “The conventional wisdom around dieting says that you should incorporate a lot of different foods to avoid getting bored and that you should splurge on the weekends or special occasions so that you don’t feel as deprived,” Charlotte Hagerman, PhD, study co-author and researcher at Oregon Research Institute, tells SELF. “However, this contradicts research showing that consistency makes your behavior more habitual—that is, more automatic and effortless.”
