VARIETY is the spice of life, they say, but when it comes to weight loss, constancy is your friend.
New research out today has found that sticking to the same meals and eating a consistent number of calories each day may help people lose more weight compared with those who ate a more varied diet.
"Maintaining a healthy diet in today's food environment requires constant effort and self-control," explained lead author Dr Charlotte Hagerman of the Oregon Research Institute in the US.
"Creating routines around eating may reduce that burden and make healthy choices feel more automatic."
Researchers analysed food logs from 112 overweight or obese adults who were enrolled in a structured behavioural weight loss program.
Those who repeated many of the same foods rather than eating a wide variety lost an average of 5.9% of their body weight over a 12-week period, compared with 4.3% among those whose diets were more varied.
"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," she suggested.
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