Nutrition Nugget! Bite-sized bonus episodes offer tips, tricks and approachable science. This week, Jenn is talking about meals on repeat and whether eating the same foods over and over aids in weight loss. A new study claims that less variety in your diet is associated with better results, but is that the full picture? Jenn dives into the research, the numbers, and what they really mean, while questioning whether a 12-week study tells the whole story. Does sticking to the same meals set you up for long-term success, or could it backfire down the road? Tune in to hear Jenn break it all down and find out what she really thinks. Like what you're hearing? Be sure to check out the full-length episodes of new releases every Wednesday. Have an idea for a nutrition nugget? Submit it here: https://asaladwithasideoffries.com/index.php/contact/
KEYWORDS: Jenn Trepeck, Nutrition Nugget, Salad With A Side Of Fries, Health Tips, Wellness Tips, Meals on Repeat, Weight Loss Research, Weight Loss Tips, Weight Loss, Meal Planning, Dietary Repetition, Caloric Stability, Calorie Tracking, Behavioral Weight Loss, MyFitnessPal, Food Logs, Weight Loss Program, Health Psychology, BMI, Overweight, Obesity, Meal Prep, Healthy Eating, Nutrition Tips, Wellness Coach, Diet Routine, Food Variety, Repetitive Meals, Self Control, Weekend Eating Habits, Weekday Eating Habits, Correlation Vs Causation, Diet Studies, Sustainable Weight Loss, Yo Yo Dieting, Healthy Habits, Food Tracking, Calorie Deviation, Diet Boredom, Real Food Coaching, Weight Loss Strategies, Nutrition Myths, Diet Research, Eating Patterns, Salad With A Side Of Fries, Jenn Trepeck, Health Coaching, Body Weight Management, Does Eating The Same Meals Help You Lose Weight, Benefits Of Meal Repetition For Weight Loss
Transcripts
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[00:00:27] So given what I do, I receive, uh, requests from media looking for experts to quote in their articles. And not long ago, there was one asking for experts to comment on a study that they say concluded eating the same meals on repeat aided weight loss. Now, I was traveling, so I missed their deadline. Lucky for us, though, we can look at it together now.
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[00:01:24] The average BMI of the participants at the beginning of the study was 34.5. The researchers then monitored them for 12 weeks of a behavioral weight loss program. The participants submitted food logs and the researchers looked at two factors. The first... Actually, I think we'll come to this in a second in my notes.
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[00:02:13] So that's caloric stability. The second thing was dietary repetition measured by the percent of unique foods tracked versus the percent of foods logged 10 or more times. So they wanted to know whether these two factors, the caloric stability and the meals on repeat, the repetitive foods, predicted weight loss.
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[00:02:57] So participants were randomly assigned to either, [00:03:00] A, standard condition in which they attended weekly group sessions, or, B, an optimized group where an algorithm said whether they should have a group session, a call, or a message in any given week. Now, before I get to the findings- I think that's weird.
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[00:03:41] So I really have no idea on that. But okay, what'd they find? So the mean or the average weight loss was 5.6% of their body weight, and they had an average of 78.8 days of valid tracking over the 12-week [00:04:00] period. Excluding beverages and condiments, 41% of the entries were unique foods. About 60% of entries were then tracked multiple times.
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[00:04:36] And I'm sort of like, great, we know that. That also wasn't part of what you were looking at in the study, but whatever. Okay, going to their hypotheses. So caloric stability and weight loss. They found that lower average calorie deviation predicted higher 12-week weight loss, but then they also saw that greater weekend [00:05:00] versus weekday calorie discrepancy was associated with higher weight loss.
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[00:05:33] They also saw the percentage of foods logged more than 10 times was positively associated with weight loss. For every 10% increase in proportion of foods that were tracked more than 10 times, weight loss increased by 1.6%. Participants whose food entries were the majority repeats, they had an average weight loss of 5.9%, versus those whose entries were the majority [00:06:00] unique foods had an average weight loss of 4.3%.
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[00:06:38] So a few flags for me in this. The current study did not look at the quality of the foods At all. So they're not accounting for the healthfulness of the repeated foods. They just said that lower variety predicted weight loss when all the foods are considered [00:07:00] together. They do admit that more research is g- is needed, and they do admit that they didn't look at this.
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[00:07:30] After 12 weeks, they only did it for 12 weeks because after 12 weeks is when tracking tends to fall off. That's also when people are going to get bored. So like, if we're not looking at this, and the 4.3% versus 5.9% weight loss, so we're looking at those first 12 weeks of a program. Well, what if, if you had more variety and it was 4.3% in 12 weeks over and over and over, versus [00:08:00] 5.9% in the first 12 weeks and then it went to 2 or 3% the 12 weeks after that, which one actually, this is like a bad math problem from middle school, right?
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[00:08:40] Because if I'm not eating those handful of meals or foods, then I must be off. You know, we start to associate it that that's what looks like when we're on, and anything other than that is off. I think for them to not look at the quality of the calories and only to look at the calories themselves [00:09:00] as totals is a major caveat.
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[00:09:29] The other piece that they do include there as a qualifier is that there might be certain personality traits of the people who still tracked on the weekends that then skews the data of what they have of the difference between weekdays and weekends. So I think this study comes with a major caveat. At the same time, I think if they were to repeat this or do something again, I would love a lot more qualitative data.
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[00:10:20] And the last piece, finally, I'll say, I appreciate that they do remind us That this study is correlational, not causal. They say causality cannot be assumed in the observed relationship. So again, things that tend to move in the same direction are correlated, not necessarily that one creates the other. And maybe that's the takeaway is that all of the headlines that come out of the studies make us think or sort of imply this causal relationship, but like this one, that's not quite the case.[00:11:00]
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[00:11:18] options too in the long run. And yet for a period of time, I think it can be really helpful. Well, there you have it, meals on repeat, or don't. Well, as always, everybody, I'm your host, Jenn Trepeck. Connect with me on Instagram or all social media. I'm @jenntrepeck, J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Website is asaladwithasideofries.com.
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[00:12:01] You'll go to asaladwithasideofries.com/membership. This shows your support for this podcast, this community, and above all, it supports your health. On top of access to the community board where we can interact, ask and answer questions, and so much more, you get discounts, curated content, and then of course, this week's recipe for chopped salad with chickpeas, feta, and avocado.
