Remember that the success test for diets is not 'lose weight', which almost any diet will do (I once lost a significant amount of weight on a diet that was characterised by one of my friends as 'the four cream egg and a vitamin pill diet'), or even 'keep weight off for a little while; it's 'keep the weight off for five years'. Because well over 90% of dieters gain all back and more in five years. Perhaps 99%.

Which is certainly dispiriting.