Research paper
Gorin AA, Phelan S, Wing RR, Hill JO. Promoting long-term weight control: does dieting consistency matter? International Journal of Obesity. 2004 Feb;28(2):278-81. doi:10.1038/sj.ijo.0802550
Why we cite it
Prospective evidence that dietary consistency across the week and the year **predicts** long-term weight maintenance — the authors' own word: *"Dieting consistency appears to be a behavioral strategy that predicts subsequent long-term weight loss maintenance."*
**The odds ratio only means anything with its comparator, and the comparator is specific (recorded 2026-09-02, card SP97Y7).** OR = 1.58 (95% CI 1.2–2.2) is people who reported **the same diet regimen all week** against people who reported **dieting more strictly on weekdays** — *not* against everyone else, and *not* against an average. Participants picked among three positions on an eight-point scale: stricter on weekends, same throughout, stricter on weekdays. **A page that writes "1.5 times more likely" without naming the second group has published half a ratio.**
**What this record may not be used to say.** The Contribution formerly read that the study *"shows that people who allow themselves 'weekends off' or 'holiday exceptions' are significantly more likely to regain weight, quantifying the risk."* **It is an observational association inside a self-selected registry, with both the exposure and the outcome self-reported** — an eight-point self-rating of one's own dieting consistency, and self-reported weight change over the following year, among 1,429 people who had already succeeded at maintenance. It supports *consistency goes with maintenance in this group*. **It does not quantify a risk anyone runs**, and it cannot show that becoming more consistent would change an outcome.
**And the holiday finding carries no number of its own**: the abstract reports only that *"a similar relationship emerged"* across the year. The 1.58 belongs to the weekday/weekend question alone.