Compliance with a low calorie diet for two weeks and concurrent and subsequent mood changes.

One hundred people intending to use the Cambridge Diet for a 2 to 3-week period were asked about their weight, dieting, eating behaviours and demographic factors and completed the Profile of Mood States, Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, Beck Depression Inventory, Locus of Control Scale, Dutch Eating Behaviour Questionnaire and Dieting Motivation Questionnaire. They were also asked to complete the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist and the Profile of Mood States daily for a period of 14 days and on a further two occasions at weekly intervals. Complete follow-up data was collected on 47 of the original participants. In these people, a slight decrease in depression occurred during the diet. Approximately one fifth of the people who attempted to use the diet for a two-week period succeeded in complying with it fully. None of the factors assessed reliably predicted compliance with the diet.