{"id":367030,"date":"2026-03-26T23:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367030\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T23:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T23:47:13","slug":"eating-the-same-meals-on-repeat-can-improve-weight-loss-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/367030\/","title":{"rendered":"Eating the Same Meals on Repeat Can Improve Weight Loss, Study Suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

A small collection of healthy, go-to meals that you rely on week after week could be key to helping you achieve your weight loss goals<\/a>, a new study suggests.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The research, published in Health Psychology, found that people who stuck to routine eating patterns \u2014 including repeating meals and maintaining a steady calorie intake \u2014 lost more weight during a 12-week weight-loss program than those who ate a more varied diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cRepeating meals helps with habit formation, which can be helpful in weight loss phases because the person gets used to eating meals that are designed to support weight loss, such as lower energy options and foods high in protein<\/a> and dietary fiber<\/a>,\u201d says registered dietitian-nutritionist Sibylle Kranz, PhD, RDN<\/a>, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Obesity Society. Dr. Kranz was not involved with the study.<\/p>\n

Repetition vs. Variety<\/p>\n

Researchers recruited 112 adults who were overweight or had obesity<\/a> to participate in a behavioral weight loss program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The program asked participants to track everything they ate<\/a> each day via a mobile app and weigh in daily using a wireless scale.<\/p>\n

Focusing on the first 12 weeks of the program, researchers examined whether the following patterns predicted weight loss:<\/p>\n

Caloric stability,\u00a0measured as fluctuations in daily total calories counts and weekday versus weekend caloriesDietary repetition,\u00a0measured as the percentage of unique and repeated foods tracked<\/p>\n

The results showed that people who ate mostly repeat meals lost an average of 5.9 percent of their starting body weight, while those who ate the largest variety of meals lost less, or about 4.3 percent.<\/p>\n

Researchers also found that when people had significant ups and downs in how many total calories they ate day to day, weight loss decreased: Specifically, for every 100-calorie increase in variability, weight loss went down by 0.6 percent.<\/p>\n

However, study authors were surprised to find that people who ate more calories on the weekend tended to lose more weight than people who ate about the same number of calories all week long.<\/p>\n

The Study Had Some Limitations<\/p>\n

One limitation of the research is that participants logged their own food, which could be inaccurate or incomplete, potentially introducing bias. However, the authors said they made \u201csignificant efforts\u201d to reduce bias.<\/p>\n

Participants may also have logged foods only on days when they adhered to their healthy eating plan, possibly leading to misleading caloric stability and dietary repetition scores.<\/p>\n

Because the study was observational, it doesn\u2019t prove that you can lose more weight by eating the same things over and over or keeping your total calorie intake consistent. Instead, the findings show a link.<\/p>\n

However, Kranz says, \u201cIt stands to reason that if a person consumed the same meals repeatedly over several months \u2014 and those meals resulted in lower energy intake \u2014 weight loss was better than when either a higher variety of meals or higher variety in daily energy intake occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why Is Repeating Meals a Good Weight Loss Strategy?<\/p>\n

Repeating meals may be helpful for people with limited capacity or resources for cooking, Kranz says. They may prepare a larger batch of a meal to eat for several days (meal prepping<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This could help people stay on a weight loss plan \u201cbecause no additional thought needs to be put towards developing or searching for lower energy options that include the ingredients the person likes,\u201d Kranz says.<\/p>\n

Additionally, establishing a routine that includes the time of eating and the meal to be consumed can help reduce food noise<\/a> \u2014 intrusive thoughts about when and what you will eat next \u2014 which research shows can be a serious impediment to weight-loss efforts, Kranz says.<\/p>\n

Studies have also found that people tend to eat more when presented with a wide variety of food choices rather than a limited number.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/p>\n

What if You Crave Variety in Your Meals?<\/p>\n

Eating the same few meals consistently isn\u2019t for everyone, Kranz adds. Some people prefer a diet with more variety.<\/p>\n

Whether you crave predictability or novelty, Kranz recommends planning meals ahead of time, which can support weight loss efforts.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving an individualized plan with meals that fit the desired energy and nutrient profile can be very helpful,\u201d she says. \u201cRepeating meals makes it easier to plan and can lead to higher satisfaction and feeling full<\/a> after the meal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small collection of healthy, go-to meals that you rely on week after week could be key to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-367030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}