Notes

This book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical or dietary advice, and it's no substitute for a GP, a dietitian or an eating disorder service that knows you. The NHS guidance I mention is for England as I found it in September 2026. The book takes no position on what you should weigh.

I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 1, 2, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24 and 25. The Sunday night, the Thursday biscuit, the office diet and the sister are invented.

Before you start. The signs of an eating disorder are put in plain words and aren't a diagnostic list. Beat is the UK eating disorder charity. The NHS page "Tips to help you lose weight" gives the self-referral route for weight management services.

Chapter 3. Polivy and Herman, "Dieting and binging: a causal analysis", American Psychologist 40, 1985, pages 193 to 201, for the theory, and no specific finding is attributed to it. Herman and Mack, "Restrained and unrestrained eating", Journal of Personality 43, 1975, pages 647 to 660. The "might as well" reading is the standard account and I've presented it as such. An earlier book in this series, Eat when you're hungry, and another, on eating past full, also use this study.

Chapter 4. Urbszat, Herman and Polivy, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we diet: effects of anticipated deprivation on food intake in restrained and unrestrained eaters", Journal of Abnormal Psychology 111, 2002, pages 396 to 401. A single laboratory study with a taste test. The reading of Sunday night as the diet's first effect is mine.

Chapter 5. Mann, Tomiyama, Westling, Lew, Samuels and Chatman, "Medicare's search for effective obesity treatments: diets are not the answer", American Psychologist 62, 2007, pages 220 to 233. A review written to answer a policy question, and it argues a position. The one-third to two-thirds figure is theirs. The claim that the problem is rules rather than which rules is mine.

Chapter 6. Anderson, Konz, Frederich and Wood, "Long-term weight-loss maintenance: a meta-analysis of US studies", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 74, 2001, pages 579 to 584. Twenty-nine studies. The average maintained loss at five years was a little over 3 kilograms and 3 per cent of starting weight. Follow-up rates at four to five years were 55 to 80 per cent, and the authors note the concern about dropouts that the chapter repeats.

Chapter 7. The NHS page "Tips to help you lose weight", for not losing weight suddenly. The rest is mine.

Chapter 8. Sumithran, Prendergast, Delbridge, Purcell, Shulkes, Kriketos and Proietto, "Long-term persistence of hormonal adaptations to weight loss", New England Journal of Medicine 365, 2011, pages 1597 to 1604. Fifty patients, a ten-week very low energy diet, measurements at 62 weeks. Fothergill and colleagues, "Persistent metabolic adaptation 6 years after 'The Biggest Loser' competition", Obesity 24, 2016, pages 1612 to 1619. Fourteen people after an extreme intervention, which the chapter says.

Chapter 9. Sumithran and colleagues as above. Tomiyama, Mann, Vinas, Hunger, Dejager and Taylor, "Low calorie dieting increases cortisol", Psychosomatic Medicine 72, 2010, pages 357 to 364. One hundred and twenty-one women, three weeks. The NHS page as above, for skipping meals.

Chapter 10. Pietiläinen, Saarni, Kaprio and Rissanen, "Does dieting make you fat? A twin study", International Journal of Obesity 36, 2012, pages 456 to 464. Over four thousand Finnish twins. The discordant identical twin difference was 0.4 BMI units. Neumark-Sztainer, Wall, Guo, Story, Haines and Eisenberg, "Obesity, disordered eating, and eating disorders in a longitudinal study of adolescents: how do dieters fare 5 years later?", Journal of the American Dietetic Association 106, 2006, pages 559 to 568. American adolescents, and the weight-control behaviours included severe ones, which the chapter says.

Chapter 11. Herman and Mack as above. The account of the write-off as the moment the diet ends is mine.

Chapter 16. The NHS pages "Tips to help you lose weight" and NHS Better Health "Lose weight", for the rate of loss, not losing suddenly, not skipping, activity, drinks, sharing the plan, the app and self-referral.

Chapter 17. Tomiyama and colleagues, Pietiläinen and colleagues, Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues and Mann and colleagues as above. The rest is mine.

Chapter 22. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.

Chapter 23. The NHS pages as above. Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues as above, for teenagers. The book on self-blame in this series is You wouldn't say it to a friend. The book on eating as a remedy for feelings is The feeling will pass without help. The book on snacking from the packet is a later one in the series.