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PLUS: 10 diet habits which keep weight off

Most people who diet will regain 50 per cent of the lost weight in the first year after losing it. Much of the rest will regain it in the following three years.

Most people inherently know that keeping a healthy weight boils down to eating healthy, eating less, and being active. But actually doing that can be tough.

We make more than 200 food decisions a day, mostly automatic or habitual, which means we unconsciously eat without deliberation or awareness of what or how much food we consume. So often habitual behaviours override our best intentions.

A new study has found the key to staying a healthy weight is to reinforce healthy habits.

Imagine each time a person goes home in the evening, they eat a snack. When they first eat the snack, a mental link is formed between the context (getting home) and their response to that context (eating a snack).

Every time they subsequently snack in response to getting home, this link strengthens, to the point that getting home prompts them to eat a snack automatically, forming a habit.

New research has found weightloss interventions founded on habitchange (forming new habits or breaking old ones) may be effective at helping people lose weight and keep it off.

For a recent study, 75 volunteers (aged 18-75) with excess weight or obesity were recruited and randomised into three groups. One programme promoted breaking old habits, one promoted forming new habits, and one group was a control (no intervention).

The habit-breaking group was sent a text message with a different task to perform every day. These tasks were focused on breaking usual routines and included things such as “drive a different way to work today”, “listen to a new genre of music” or “write a short story”.

The habit-forming group was asked to follow a programme that focused on forming habits centred around healthy lifestyle changes. The group was encouraged to incorporate 10 healthy tips into their daily routine, so they became second-nature.

Unlike usual weight-loss programmes, these interventions did not prescribe specific diet plans or exercise regimes, they simply aimed to change small daily habits.

After 12 weeks, the habit-forming and habit-breaking participants had lost an average of 3.1kg. More importantly, after 12 months of no intervention and no contact, they had lost another 2.1kg on average.

Some 67 per cent of participants reduced their total body weight by over 5 per cent, decreasing their overall risk for developing type two diabetes and heart disease.

Most participants also increased their fruit and vegetable intake and improved their mental health.

Habit-based interventions have the potential to change how we think about weight management and, importantly, how we behave.