Maintaining new healthy habits can require how long?

Maintaining new healthy habits often requires a significant time commitment, typically ranging from six months to five years. This is primarily because forming a habit involves a progression of consistent behavior changes that become ingrained over time. Research suggests that it can take, on average, about 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic, but it varies based on the individual and the complexity of the habit being adopted.

Long-term adherence to healthy habits often necessitates not just the initial learning and practice phase but also ongoing reinforcement and adjustments to lifestyle choices, environmental factors, and personal motivation. The longer period allows individuals to integrate these habits fully into their daily lives, making them sustainable over time.

Shorter timeframes mentioned in the other options are generally not adequate for establishing deep-rooted changes in behavior, which is why they do not reflect the true time required for maintaining a new healthy lifestyle successfully.