How Long Before a Diet Change Leads to Weight Loss?

1/9/2020

Do you want to make that New Year’s Resolution “stick” this year? The key might be as simply as making sure you do it for at least 25 days.

In our National Mindless Eating Challenge study, people were asked to make one small change –such as not eating with the TV on or eating off a small dinner plate –for as many days as they could for one month. Those who made their change for25 or more days were three times more likely to lose weight than those who did it for only 20.

Just “doing it” works better than thinking about it. It’s too easy for today to the an exception.

Source: Presented at the Experimental Biology Conference in Anaheim, CA in April 25. The forthcoming abstract will be published as: Patterson, Richard Wells and Brian Wansink (2011), “Decoupling the Independent Effects of Multiple Simultaneous Behaviors,” FASEB Journal, 2:878.7, forthcoming.

4 Comments

Soumya B Hegde link

4/17/2021 02:38:29 am

Hi Author,
Thank you for posting such an insightful article. I am a fitness trainer myself and for weight loss which is sustainable nothing works better than a combination of strength training, calorie deficit, nutritious meal and a good sleep. To answer your question, fitness is and should be long term activity. It takes at least a month to see considerable difference. But it also differs body to body. Some people start showing changes very fast and some show at a moderate speed. So on an average it takes around a month.
Thanks.
Soumya B Hegde

fatima link

1/1/2022 05:52:01 am

great tips for weight loss

melissa link

1/8/2022 07:45:50 am

Woaah ! thanks for sharing such a great content, keep up it.

the fitness destiny link

2/13/2022 03:28:30 am

very Interesting post about weigh loss. Please share more interesing content like this.

The Mission:

For 30 years my Lab and I have focused on discovering secret answers to help people live better lives. Some of these relate to health and happiness (and often to food). Please share whatever you find useful.

Some parts of these answers may have also been been adopted from my articles and books, like Mindless Eating or Slim by Design.