Almost ending the first month of 2025, there are still many New Year’s resolutions for fulfilling. But don’t worry: a new investigation by scientists at the University of South Australia (Unisa) revealed that forming a healthy habit may take longer than we thought.
Unlike popular belief, healthy habits may take a long time more than three weeks to be completely established.
The first systematic review of this genre revealed that new habits can begin to form in about two months (median 59 to 66 days), but can take Up to 335 days to set.
According to this, this discovery can be useful for promoting healthy behaviors and preventing chronic diseases.
“Adopting healthy habits is essential for long-term well-being, but forming these habits-and ending the unhealthy-can be a challenge,” said researcher Ben Singh.
“At the beginning of the year, many set goals and make plans, but although popular wisdom suggests that it takes only 21 days to form these habits, these allegations are not evidence -based,” he added.
During the investigation, scientists found that the Habit formation starts in about two monthsbut there is significant variability, with training times ranging from four days to almost a year. “It’s important that people don’t give up after three weeks.”
The same study, which had 2600 participants, also allowed to discover that there are some factors that can influence The formation of habits, namely the frequency with which we perform the new activity, the moment of practice and whether we like it or not.
“Planning and wanting to complete a new behavior can also help solidify a new habit. So make sure you continue to book time to include your new healthy habits in your daily activities. This strategy can be as easy as preparing your gym clothes the night before or having a healthy lunch ready in the refrigerator, ”said Singh.
O with the results was published in Healthcare.
