Henry the Conqueror, after the Battle of Hastings in 1066, went on a liquid diet consisting of bed rest and a ton of alcohol. Thomas Short, a diet writer from 1727, recommended that overweight people move away from the swamps and closer to dryer climates. Lord Byron popularized the Vinegar Diet (a cup of water and vinegar before every meal) in 1820. In 1830 Sylvester Graham invented the Cracker Diet (no caffeine and a lot of whole grain breads and crackers). In 1857 Dr. Gustav Zander invented the mechanized fat massager belt which was supposed to massage the fat off of you.
Calorie counting became popular at the turn of the 20th century. Cigarette diets popularized in the 1920s. The 1930s saw separating food groups and eating different groups at different meals and also the use of diet soap (yes, you read that right—soap that slims you down as it cleans your body).
Perhaps the craziest of all, in my opinion and probably in most medical professionals’ opinions, was the Tapeworm Diet of the 1950s. A special diet pill with a parasite in it was available for the rich and famous who were looking to effortlessly shed some pounds. The little tapeworm eats up your fat and then when you’re satisfied with your weight loss, you take another pill to rid yourself of the worm. Yuck.
Weight Watchers was founded in 1963, around the same time that diet pills picked up more popularity, like Phentermine.
The Low Carb Revolution really started in the 1960s with the Calories Don’t Count Diet (just as long as you stay off the carbs) and the Drinking Man’s Diet (aren’t vodka and gin low carb drinks?). Atkins followed shortly after, and then made a revival, along with the South Beach Diet, in the 1990s and early 2000s.