The poem begins by placing ‘The Diet’ as the central focus, Duffy instantly drawing attention to the extreme diet. The use of asyndeton following this diet exposes the ridiculous nature of the fasting, the woman cutting out essentially everything, ‘sugar, salt, dairy, fat, protein, starch’ covering every single food group. The use of asyndeton within this list allows for the list to flow quickly, Duffy moving through food groups as if they were insignificant, reflecting the woman’s attitude towards food.
The internal rhyme furthers the speed of the meter, emblematic of the quick weight loss the woman is going through. Linking ‘dinner, thinner’ through this internal rhyme signals that the skipping of meals is linked to the shrinking size of the woman. Yet, the woman takes this too far, fasting until she is ‘skin and bone’ by the end of the stanza. The first stanza takes away all weight that is humanly possible, with the rest of the poem sinking into unrealistic exaggeration. "The diet worked like a dream" presents a common cliche, creating a light tone, juxtaposing with the reality of the remaining stanzas.