Doctor shares the biggest weight-loss blocker, and it's not just calories
Nephrologist Dr. Jason Fung says that a constant desire to eat, rather than a lack of discipline, is the main obstacle for people trying to slim down.
Losing weight might be as simple as sticking to the meals you know, a new study found.
People who ate the same meals more often lost more weight during a 12-week weight-loss program, according to a new study published in Health Psychology.
"Maintaining a healthy diet in today’s food environment requires constant effort and self-control," lead author Charlotte Hagerman, PhD, of the Oregon Research Institute, said in a statement.
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"Creating routines around eating may reduce that burden and make healthy choices feel more automatic," she added.
Experts say maintaining muscle after 50 may require more protein than the minimum federal guideline. (iStock)
Hagerman and her fellow researchers from Drexel University and the Oregon Research Institute analyzed food logs from 112 adults with overweight or obesity who tracked their meals in an app and weighed themselves daily, according to the study.
The researchers measured "routinized" eating in two main ways: how much participants' daily calorie intake fluctuated and how often they repeated the same meals and snacks over time, according to the paper.
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Those whose diets included more repeated foods lost an average of 5.9% of their body weight, compared to 4.3% for those whose eating patterns were more varied, according to a press release from the American Psychological Association.
A man shows how much weight he has lost by holding out the waist of his jeans, symbolizing his successful diet. (iStock)
People who kept their daily calorie intake more consistent also lost more weight, according to the researchers.
Liza Baker, a Vermont-based nutrition expert and founder of Simply: Health Coaching, said the findings line up with what she has seen firsthand in more than a decade of working with clients.
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"Removing the mental load of 'What's for breakfast, lunch or dinner?' can make the wellness journey much more sustainable," Baker told Fox News Digital.
Morning meal. Female eating healthy breakfast with oatmeal porridge with summer berries - cowberry, blueberry, slice of butter, herbal tea. Clean eating, dieting, weight loss. Shallow depth of field (iStock)
She said repeat meals can reduce decision fatigue and make it easier for people to stick to healthier habits, especially when they are packing lunches, cooking at home and following a simple routine.
Baker said people do not necessarily have to repeat every meal to see benefits.
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"One can start by eating one meal that is repetitive, usually breakfast or lunch," she said. "As results start to show, it's then more conducive to increasing to two to three repetitive meals a day."
At the same time, experts cautioned that the findings do not prove cause and effect. The study was observational, meaning it found an association between routine eating and greater weight loss, but could not show that repetition alone caused the better results, according to the researchers.
Consistency — not variety — may be key when it comes to weight loss, researchers found. (iStock)
Baker also warned that repeat meal plans can backfire if they are not nutritionally balanced or if they trigger perfectionism.
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"Unless someone is well-versed in nutrition, setting up a repeat meal plan can quickly become a nutritional nightmare that leads to becoming deficient in one or more nutrients," she said.
The study authors similarly noted that too little variety could come with trade-offs. Future research is needed to determine whether a more repetitive diet should be actively recommended as a weight-loss strategy, they said.
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Fox News Digital reached out to the study's authors for comment.
