Notes
These notes give the sources behind the claims in each chapter, and say where I'm giving my own interpretation. The book isn't medical advice. If a doctor or nurse has asked you to weigh yourself daily, keep doing so, and if your relationship with food or your weight is causing you distress, your GP is the person to see. The examples throughout, the jeans on the chair, the curry on Saturday, the partner who says the number out loud, the scale that reports body fat, the teenager on the landing, are invented to illustrate and aren't drawn from real people.
Studies were checked on 26 September 2026 by reading their published abstracts, and two by their Crossref records. None was read in full, and none carried a retraction notice at that date. Where a paper is cross-sectional it describes an association at one point in time and can't show what causes what, and I've tried to say so each time. Two of the studies cited, Orsama 2014 and Helander 2014, have Brian Wansink as a co-author. Several of his own later papers were retracted for data problems. These two are analyses of a Finnish dataset led by other authors and carry no notice, and I've used them only for the shape of the week and for one sentence on breaks in weighing.
Chapter 1. No sources. The terms are the book's own.
Chapter 3. Kreitzman, Coxon and Szaz, "Glycogen storage: illusions of easy weight loss, excessive weight regain, and distortions in estimates of body composition", American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 56, 1992, pages 292S to 293S. A short paper on very low calorie diets, with eleven subjects. The extension to ordinary eating is mine. Kanellakis and colleagues, "Changes in body weight and body composition during the menstrual cycle", American Journal of Human Biology 35, 2023, e23951. 42 women measured twice a week. Bunt, Lohman and Boileau, "Impact of total body water fluctuations on estimation of body fat from body density", Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 21, 1989, pages 96 to 100. Seven women selected because they reported large swings, so not typical. The claims about salt, gut contents and time of day are general physiology and I've given no figures for them.
Chapter 4. Kreitzman and colleagues, as above. Orsama and colleagues, "Weight rhythms: weight increases during weekends and decreases during weekdays", Obesity Facts 7, 2014, pages 36 to 47. 80 adults, 4,657 daily weights, retrospective. The remark about a Monday reading is mine.
Chapter 5. Steinberg, Bennett, Askew and Tate, "Weighing every day matters: daily weighing improves weight loss and adoption of weight control behaviors", Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 115, 2015, pages 511 to 518. 47 adults in the intervention arm of a six-month trial, a secondary analysis. Two letters were published about it in the same journal in 2016 and I haven't read them. The claim that the good morning is as unearned as the bad is mine.
Chapter 6. Zheng and colleagues, "Self-weighing in weight management: a systematic literature review", Obesity 23, 2015, pages 256 to 265. 17 longitudinal studies of adults seeking weight-loss treatment. Wing, Tate, Gorin, Raynor and Fava, "A self-regulation program for maintenance of weight loss", New England Journal of Medicine 355, 2006, pages 1563 to 1571. 314 participants over 18 months. Pacanowski and Levitsky, "Frequent self-weighing and visual feedback for weight loss in overweight adults", Journal of Obesity 2015, 763680. 162 adults over two years. Madigan, Daley, Lewis, Aveyard and Jolly, "Is self-weighing an effective tool for weight loss: a systematic literature review and meta-analysis", International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 12, 2015, article 104. An erratum was published in the same journal in 2016 and I haven't read it. The claim that honesty lives in the response is mine.
Chapter 7. Helander, Vuorinen, Wansink and Korhonen, "Are breaks in daily self-weighing associated with weight gain?", PLoS One 9, 2014, e113164. 40 people, 2,838 weights. Madigan and colleagues, as above. The alarm and brake distinction is mine. The earlier book referred to is Breakfast isn't the problem.
Chapter 8. No research sources. The tide comparison and the account of signal and noise are mine.
Chapter 9. Quick, Larson, Eisenberg, Hannan and Neumark-Sztainer, "Self-weighing behaviors in young adults: tipping the scale toward unhealthy eating behaviors?", Journal of Adolescent Health 51, 2012, pages 468 to 474. 2,287 young adults, cross-sectional. Neumark-Sztainer, van den Berg, Hannan and Story, "Self-weighing in adolescents: helpful or harmful? Longitudinal associations with body weight changes and disordered eating", Journal of Adolescent Health 39, 2006, pages 811 to 818. 2,516 adolescents over five years. The description of the skipped breakfast and the four o'clock is my observation. The earlier books referred to are Eat when you're hungry, The feeling will pass without help and Breakfast isn't the problem.
Chapter 10. Quick and colleagues, as above. Pacanowski, Linde and Neumark-Sztainer, "Self-weighing: helpful or harmful for psychological well-being? A review of the literature", Current Obesity Reports 4, 2015, pages 65 to 72. Twenty papers. Klos, Esser and Kessler, "To weigh or not to weigh: the relationship between self-weighing behavior and body image among adults", Body Image 9, 2012, pages 551 to 554. 268 students. The claim about which group the reader is in is mine.
Chapter 11. Ogden and Evans, "The problem with weighing: effects on mood, self-esteem and body image", International Journal of Obesity 20, 1996, pages 272 to 277. 74 people of normal weight, experimental. PubMed gives initials only for both authors, so surnames are used. The extension from clinics to bathrooms is mine.
Chapter 12. Pacanowski, Loth, Hannan, Linde and Neumark-Sztainer, "Self-weighing throughout adolescence and young adulthood: implications for well-being", Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 47, 2015, pages 506 to 515. 1,868 people over ten years, three time points. The earlier book referred to is You wouldn't say it to a friend.
Chapter 13. No research sources. The account of why two readings differ is general and I've given no figures. The earlier book referred to is You've checked already.
Chapter 14. No research sources. The costs are my observations. Pacanowski 2015, as in chapter 12, for the longer view.
Chapter 15. Madigan and colleagues, Orsama and colleagues, and Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues, as above. The whole chapter's argument is my interpretation and is said to be.
Chapter 16. Orsama and colleagues, as above. The four-week figure is my judgement.
Chapter 17. No research sources. Madigan and colleagues for the daily against weekly finding, as above.
Chapter 18. Orsama and colleagues for avoiding Monday. What to expect is my expectation.
Chapter 19. No research sources. What to expect is my expectation.
Chapter 20. The NHS page on overweight and obesity in adults, at nhs.uk, read on 26 September 2026, for BMI not distinguishing muscle from fat and for the waist to height ratio.
Chapter 21. 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. Lally, van Jaarsveld, Potts and Wardle, "How are habits formed: modelling habit formation in the real world", European Journal of Social Psychology 40, 2010, pages 998 to 1009. 96 volunteers, 82 with usable data. The rule hasn't been tested as a package.
Chapter 22. Madigan and colleagues, as above. Neumark-Sztainer and colleagues 2006, as above. The NHS page on overweight and obesity, as above, for the statement that losing a small proportion of weight can improve health. The account of how body fat scales work is general and I've given no figures. The NHS eating disorders page, as in chapter 23.
Chapter 23. The NHS pages on eating disorders and on the symptoms of depression in adults, at nhs.uk, read on 26 September 2026. The British Heart Foundation page on heart failure, at bhf.org.uk, and the NHS page on heart failure, read the same day. The earlier book referred to is You've checked already. No claim is made about the effectiveness of any service.
Chapter 24. Lally and colleagues, as above. The extension from a missed day to a morning back on the scale is mine.
Looked up and not used. Ogden and Whyman, "The effect of repeated weighing on psychological state", European Eating Disorders Review 5, 1997, would have been the natural source for chapter 11 but no abstract was available to me and it isn't cited. Mercurio and Rima, "Watching my weight", Sex Roles 2011, on self-weighing and body surveillance in women, likewise. Bertz, Pacanowski and Levitsky 2015 found daily weighing with feedback prevented weight gain in first-year students, and Gokee-Larose, Gorin and Wing 2009 found daily weighing in 40 young adults on a programme wasn't associated with adverse psychological change, both consistent with chapter 6 and left out for space. I looked for a study giving a plain day-to-day weight range for ordinary adults and didn't find one I could read, so the book says "mostly noise" without a figure.