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Boring and repetitive eating patterns can help people lose more weight
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People who follow a regular diet lose more weight than those who follow different diets
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A repetitive diet can make it easier for people to make healthy choices
MONDAY, March 30, 2026 (Health Day News) – Want to lose weight? A boring, repetitive meal plan can help, researchers say.
Researchers report in the journal that sticking to the same type of food day in and day out helps people shed more pounds. Health psychology.
Researchers found that people who followed a regular eating pattern—repeating many of the same meals, keeping calorie intake moderate—lost more weight over three months than those who followed a different diet.
“Maintaining a healthy diet in today’s food environment requires constant effort and self-regulation,” said the lead researcher. Charlotte Hagermansocial/health psychologist from the Oregon Institute in Springfield, Oregon.
“Creating routines around eating can reduce this burden and make healthy choices feel more automatic,” she said in a news release.
For the study, researchers analyzed the food logs of 112 overweight and obese adults participating in a weight loss program. Participants were asked to track everything they ate each day using a mobile app.
The research team measured how normal each person’s diet was based on how their calorie intake varied from day to day and how their meal and snack choices varied over time.
Those who dieted repeatedly lost an average of 6% of their body weight, compared to 4% among those whose diet was more varied.
Similarly, consistent daily caloric intake was associated with successful weight loss. For every 100-calorie increase in daily variation, people had about a 0.6% weight loss.
The results suggest that simplifying food choices can help people develop sustainable habits, the researchers said.
“If we lived in a healthy food environment, we could encourage people to have more variety in their diets,” Hagerman said, noting that previous research has linked dietary variety to better health.
“However, our modern food environment is very challenging,” he said. “Instead, people may do better with a repetitive diet that helps them consistently make healthier choices, even if they may sacrifice some types of food.”
More information
Atlantic International University has more information eating patterns for healthy weight loss.
Source: American Psychiatric Association, news release, March 24, 2026
What does this mean for you?
People who struggle to lose weight can rely on a small rotation of meals that are healthy and provide constant calories.
