Editorial policy

Sourcing

Health claims are sourced to NHS or NICE guidance wherever possible, and to peer-reviewed research otherwise. Every source is listed at the foot of the page it supports, with the date it was checked.

What we will not publish

• Invented or unchecked citations.
• Claims about how much weight an individual will lose, whether through diet or medication.
• Before-and-after imagery, testimonials or transformation claims.
• Structured data implying reviews, ratings or clinical review that do not exist.
• Content written to fill a page rather than to answer a question.

How a source is chosen

In order: NHS guidance written for the public, then NICE guidance, then the primary research paper. A summary of a paper is not treated as the paper. Where only a summary could be read, the figure is marked as unconfirmed and stays marked until someone reads the original.

Every source carries the date it was last checked. A citation is a claim that someone opened that page and read the sentence being relied on, which is why the register records when, and why figures nobody has been able to open are labelled rather than quietly used.

Where conventions are used instead

Some numbers a calculator needs have no guideline behind them at all. The figure of roughly 7,700 kcal to a kilogram of body fat is a long-standing convention rather than a measurement, and it is known to overstate long-run loss. Where the site leans on a convention it says so on the page that uses it, names it as a convention, and explains which way it is likely to be wrong.

Tone

Weight is a subject people arrive at with history. Content here aims to be plain, calm and non-judgemental. We avoid language that frames bodies as problems, and we avoid urgency and alarm, including in our safety messages, which are the moments it matters most.

Updates

Every page shows when it was last updated. Where guidance changes, we update the page and, if the change is material, note what changed.