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.”
Worth noting: that doesn’t mean eating the exact same thing for each meal. Instead, it can include a rotation of go-to meals.
There are a few reasons why this can be helpful for weight loss.
It’s important to get this out of the way now: The study didn’t find that lack of variety in a person’s diet caused more weight loss. Instead, it found a link. The reason for that association could simply be that the people eating these low-variety diets have more self-discipline or motivation to lose weight, per the researchers.
But it’s also entirely possible that sticking with the same meals makes it easier to lose weight. “Consistency reduces decision fatigue,” Scott Keatley, RD, co-owner of Keatley Medical Nutrition Therapy, tells SELF. Most people on a weight loss journey struggle to navigate what Keatley calls a “noisy food environment,” which can make it hard to make healthy choices. “When meals are standardized, calories become more predictable, portions stabilize, and the number of micro-decisions drops,” he says. “That typically leads to fewer unplanned calories. It also improves tracking accuracy.”
Sticking with the same nutritionally-sound meals helps to create new habits that support healthy choices that could lead to weight loss, Stephani Johnson, DCN, RDN, an adjunct professor in the Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences at Rutgers University, tells SELF. “It also makes meal planning and prep a lot easier,” she says. “Some meals really lend themselves to being prepared at the beginning of the week, which makes choosing to eat healthier during busy weeks a lot easier.”
This strategy can also simply help you keep better track of what goes in your mouth, David Cutler, MD, board certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, tells SELF. “Many people are not aware of what they’re eating,” he says. “Becoming aware of what you’re eating is a key aspect of weight control.”
There’s also this to consider, Keri Gans, RDN, dietitian and host of The Keri Report podcast, tells SELF: “Sticking to the same meals helps limit impulsive choices.” Ultimately, this strategy helps to make healthy choices more automatic, she says.
There’s a right and wrong way to approach this.
Some people are OK eating the same thing at every meal, but most aren’t, Keatley points out. “You don’t want monotony at the expense of nutrition,” he says. “The best version is a structured rotation, not a single meal repeated indefinitely.”
If you like the idea of a low-variety diet, Keatley suggests following a few nutritional basics when building your meals. Each meal should have a 20- to 40-gram “protein anchor” for most adults, along with plenty of fiber, and a healthy fat source. From there, you can rotate proteins or vegetables within a consistent calorie framework to get in a range of nutrients while keeping your eating system simple.
While you’re planning out these meals, it’s crucial to choose foods you actually like and feel OK with having regularly vs. just planning to have something that seems healthy, Johnson says. Not only that, you need to make sure these foods will fit into your lifestyle. “They should choose meals that fit their budget and that they realistically have time to make,” Johnson says.
People don’t usually get bored as quickly if their meals are satisfying and low-stress, according to Keatley. “The failure point isn’t usually boredom; It’s when the system feels too rigid or nutritionally incomplete,” he says. That’s why he recommends having a small rotation—three to five breakfasts and five to seven lunches and dinners—instead of a single repeated meal. You can slowly introduce new meals or swap some out over time, Hagerman says.
“A routine can be helpful initially but, over time, you’ll want more variety for both nutrition and enjoyment,” Gans says.
You’re probably going to want to mix things up eventually.
Again, this study only focused on the first 12 weeks of a diet when people tend to be the most motivated. It’s not clear what would happen over time.
“This approach is most effective in the active weight loss phase, where consistency drives adherence and results,” Keatley says. “Long term, some flexibility needs to be reintroduced, but selectively.” The goal should be to keep a stable default diet (or your repeatable meals) while expanding it for social eating, travel, or seasonal foods, he explains. “People who maintain weight loss tend to keep a core set of repeat meals, even years later,” Keatley says.
But Johnson stresses that this approach may not work for everyone—and that’s OK, too. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and nothing magical about eating the
same things day after day to promote weight loss,” she says. “This is one behavioral intervention that can help provide people with the tools they need to succeed.”
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