When Did Dieting Become a Thing? A History of Weight Loss

December 12, 2025 •

3 min read

While modern diets seem like a new invention, historical records show that ancient Greek physician Hippocrates wrote about weight loss with diet and exercise as early as 400 BC. The question of when did dieting become a thing is more complex, evolving from a holistic health practice into a weight-focused obsession shaped by cultural shifts over centuries.

Quick Summary

This article explores the long history of dieting, starting from ancient Greek health philosophy and medieval fasting. It chronicles key milestones, including the rise of low-carb diets and calorie counting, tracing how cultural values and industrial changes transformed eating for wellness into a modern preoccupation with body image and size.

Key Points

Ancient Roots: Dieting, originally conceived as a holistic lifestyle (Greek diaita), involved exercise and specific foods for overall health, not solely weight loss.
Moralistic Shift: During the Middle Ages, food restriction was tied to spiritual purity and moral virtue, setting a precedent for linking diet with character.
Industrial Catalyst: The 19th-century Industrial Revolution led to a more sedentary lifestyle and increased availability of food, creating the first widespread need for weight-loss focused diets.
Commercialization: The 20th century saw the birth of the modern diet industry, with calorie counting, fad diets, and commercially produced products becoming prominent.
Cultural Influence: Shifts in beauty standards, particularly for women, from the opulent Victorian ideal to the slim flapper, drove increased societal pressure to diet for aesthetic reasons.

Dieting in Ancient and Medieval Times

Long before commercial products, the concept of regulated eating existed. Ancient Greek society linked physical fitness and a healthy body with a healthy mind. Figures like Hippocrates prescribed specific foods and exercise to combat obesity, viewed as a medical condition. However, the Greek concept of diaita encompassed an entire way of life, including diet, exercise, and lifestyle, not just calorie restriction.

In the Middle Ages, dieting took on a new, moralistic dimension. Fasting and restricted eating were practiced by religious practitioners for spiritual purification, not weight loss. This period established a cultural tie between food restriction and moral virtue, a theme that would resurface in later eras.

The Industrial Revolution and a New Motivation for Dieting

The 19th century marks a significant turning point in the history of dieting. With industrialization, more people moved from physically demanding agricultural jobs to more sedentary office roles. Concurrently, food production became more efficient, and cheap, high-calorie foods became widely available. This led to a rise in obesity, especially among the middle and upper classes.

In 1863, English undertaker William Banting published "A Letter on Corpulence," detailing his successful low-carb diet. His publication popularized dieting for weight loss and became so influential that the term "to bant" became synonymous with dieting. Around the same time, cultural ideals of beauty began to shift. Whereas plumpness was once a sign of wealth and health, thinness started to gain favor.

The Era of Fad Diets and Scientific Measurement

The early 20th century saw the explosion of fad diets and the commercialization of weight loss. The rise of new media like magazines and films accelerated the spread of beauty ideals, like the slim "flapper" silhouette of the 1920s.

Key 20th Century Dieting Innovations

The Calorie Counter: In 1918, Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters published Diet & Health: With Key to the Calories, making calorie counting a widespread weight-loss method. She weaponized wartime rhetoric, characterizing hoarding fat as unpatriotic.
The Grapefruit Diet: Popular in the 1930s, this extremely restrictive diet involved eating grapefruit with every meal.
The Great Masticator: Early 1900s health guru Horace Fletcher promoted chewing food until it was liquid, believing this would prevent weight gain.
Slimming Salons and Pills: The mid-20th century saw the rise of weight-loss salons with "reducing machines" and the marketing of dangerous substances like amphetamines as diet pills.

The Modern Diet Industry and Cultural Shift

After World War II, a booming consumer economy and advancements in food technology further expanded the diet industry. Programs like Weight Watchers, founded in 1963, turned dieting into a lifestyle and social activity rather than just a fad. The late 20th century saw the introduction of low-fat foods and exercise trends, further cementing the association between weight loss, health, and social status.

Early Diets vs. Modern Diets


Feature	Early Dieting (Ancient Greece, 19th Century)	Modern Dieting (Post-WWII to Present)
Primary Motivation	Holistic health, spiritual purification, combating disease.	Aesthetic goals, self-improvement, health linked to thinness.
Methods	Exercise, specific food types (Banting), fasting, mechanical devices.	Calorie counting, low-fat/low-carb rules, specific brand products, pills, surgery.
Social Context	Often associated with upper-class privilege; moralistic undertones.	Mass-marketed, fueled by celebrity culture and advertising, widespread public participation.
Scientific Basis	Often based on anecdotal evidence or flawed theories (e.g., Fletcherism).	Supported by extensive research, but also prone to misinterpretation and marketing fads.

The evolution of dieting reflects a society that has increasingly moved away from the holistic, natural approach towards a more commercialized, rapid-fix mentality. The modern diet industry offers thousands of different approaches, yet the core desire to control one's body weight remains.

Conclusion

From ancient physicians' advice to modern pharmaceutical interventions, the history of dieting reveals a complex and ever-changing relationship with food and body weight. The initial practice of regulating food intake for health or spiritual reasons gradually transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry driven by social pressures and evolving beauty standards. While dieting has roots in genuine health concerns, its modern iteration is deeply influenced by cultural shifts that began with the Industrial Revolution and accelerated throughout the 20th century. Today, understanding this history is crucial to navigating the often-conflicting messages about nutrition and body image.

For more insight into the medical history of obesity, a review published in the National Institutes of Health provides further detail on past and present approaches.

Frequently Asked Questions

The practice of dieting specifically for weight loss gained widespread popularity in the mid-19th century, spurred by the publication of William Banting's famous pamphlet on his low-carb diet in 1863.

Not primarily. While Ancient Greeks valued a healthy body, their focus was on physical capability and holistic health (diaita), not the aesthetic of thinness that is emphasized in modern diet culture.

William Banting was an English undertaker who, in 1863, detailed his successful low-carb, low-sugar diet in a widely distributed pamphlet. His method was so influential that "to bant" became a synonym for dieting.

The popularization of calorie counting for weight loss can be traced to 1918, with the publication of Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters' best-selling book, Diet & Health: With Key to the Calories.

Popular in the early 1900s, 'Fletcherism' was a diet fad promoted by Horace Fletcher, who insisted on chewing food until it was liquid before swallowing, believing it would prevent weight gain.

The Industrial Revolution led to more sedentary jobs and a surplus of calorie-dense, inexpensive food. This caused a rise in obesity and, in turn, spurred the development of diets focused specifically on weight reduction.

While some women dieted earlier, it became more widespread in the late 19th century as beauty standards began to favor thinner, more corseted figures. The trend intensified with the popularization of the slim "flapper" look in the 1920s.