| 1898 |
Horace Fletcher loses 42 pounds by chewing his food one hundred times per minute. He describes this technique as helping the digestive system and becomes known as "The Great Masticator." |
| 1918 |
Dr. Lulu Hunt Peters writes the first best selling diet book. Diet and Health With a Key to the Calorie. Dr. Peters says that we should all count calories our entire life. |
| 1919 |
The Continental Scale company produces the first bathroom scale named the Health O Meter. |
| 1929 |
A cigarette advertisement tells women to reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet. |
| 1930 |
The Hollywood Diet (aka the grapefruit diet) is introduced. This diet involves eating 585 calories a day for 18 days, only dining on grapefruit, hard-boiled eggs, green vegetables and melba toast. |
| 1936 |
Diet guru Victor Lindlahr inspires thousands of radio listeners to tune in to his regularly broadcast reducing party. |
| 1942 |
The Metropolitan Life Insurance company publishes the tables which will create the standards for an ideal weight. These charts are based on gender, height and frame size, and describe weight related health issues as a national health problem. |
| 1948 |
By this time, over 50 percent of all patients being treated for obesity are prescribed amphetamines. Evidence begins to accumulate suggesting that this method of dieting is very dangerous. |
| 1958 |
Saccharin, manufactured in granules, becomes a popular sugar substitute. |
| 1961 |
Jean Nidetch and several friends meet in her apartment to counsel each other about dieting. Her support system eventually becomes Weight Watchers |
| 1963 |
The sugar-free soft drink Tab is introduced. |
| 1967 |
Twiggy, 5'7" and weighing just 92 pounds, becomes a supermodel. |
| 1968 |
The Perma-Slim Plan, a group therapy weight control organization is founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. |
| 1972 |
Dr. Atkins introduces his Diet Revolution. A high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate diet. |
| 1974 |
Richard Simmons opens Ruffage and the Anatomy Asylum, a Beverly Hills restaurant and exercise studio. Richard rapidly becomes a fitness guru. |
| 1975 |
Perma Slim introduces their Stay Slim System. The first weight control and weight maintenance system based on tracking numbers or points. Each dieter is assigned a bonus number and can then choose any desired food each day from a list of foods. |
| 1978 |
Dr. Herman Tarnower introduces the complete scarsdale medical diet. This is another version of the high protein, low carb diet. |
| 1979 |
The Wendy's Hamburger chain introduces salad bars. |
| 1981 |
The Beverly Hills Diet is introduced. It recommends eating nothing but fruit for the first 10 days. |
| 1982 |
Aspartame, another sugar substitute, is introduced in the form of NutraSweet in the United States. |
| 1983 |
Jenny Craig is formed. Jenny Craig sells her own line of food and offers advice and counseling to people looking to lose weight. |
| 1988 |
Oprah Winfrey loses 67 pounds on the liquid diet Optifast. |
| 1993 |
Susan Powter, in her infomercial and best-selling book, urges women to throw away the scale, stop starving themselves, and exercise 30 minutes a day. |
| 1995 |
The Zone Diet is introduced by Barry Sears. This involves eating plenty of protein, fruits and vegetables, and staying away from breads and pastas. |
| 1996 |
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute reports that 40 percent of nine and ten year olds are dieting and trying to lose weight. |
| 2000 |
It is reported that about 1.2 billion people around the world are eating too much or too much wrong food. For the first time in history, this number equals the number of underfed and undernourished. |
| 2002 |
myScaleDown is introduced on the Internet. It is the first online system that allows dieters to use an electronic scale to weigh in online. It also offers a host of dieting support and resources through its website. |
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