FRIDAY, March 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Following routine eating patterns and keeping calorie intake steady over time is associated with more weight loss among participants enrolled in a 12-week behavioral weight loss program, according to a study published online March 26 in Health Psychology.
Charlotte J. Hagerman, Ph.D., from Drexel University in Philadelphia, and colleagues used daily food logs from the first 12 weeks of a behavioral weight loss program to examine whether caloric stability and dietary repetition predicted weight loss among 112 participants. Caloric stability included daily caloric fluctuations and weekday-weekend fluctuations, while dietary repetition included percentage of unique foods and percentage of foods logged 10+ times.
The researchers found that weight loss was higher in association with greater dietary repetition (both metrics) and more daily calorie stability. Participants with higher weekend-weekday deviations also had higher weight loss, contrary to hypotheses.
"Maintaining a healthy diet in today's food environment requires constant effort and self-control," Hagerman said in a statement. "Creating routines around eating may reduce that burden and make healthy choices feel more automatic."