Restricting calorie intake to achieve weight loss has been done for thousands of years, generally by wealthy and prosperous who had access to a surplus of different food and therefore an increase of bodyweight
The first recorded instance is said to have been by the Greeks (Hippocrates) who encouraged a balance of light and rich food, paired with much physical activity.
But still, there was never a real concept of “dieting”.
For the Ancient Greeks, health of the mind was directly affected by the state of the body, internally and externally, and being greatly overweight was a sign of moral and physical corruption. So reducing foods was used for purifying.
However the statues of these ancients that we often see today would be considered overweight by today’s standards.
There is a reason we don’t see women with six-packs on these magnificent statues and that is because it is inherently unnatural (there is a distinction between“tone” and“six-pack”).
A higher body-fat percentage is necessary for proper hormone function and therefore good reproductive health.
That isn’t to say having a toned body is necessarily bad.
It is common knowledge that a sign of health, wealth and beauty was indicated by a slightly pudgier stomach. The problem is, today, this is often used to justify morbid obesity.
Yes, the standard of beauty and health probably was to eat more food; a sign of fertility, which is a woman’s ultimate healthy glow.
But remember the quality of food which they ate and we eat are vastly different.
The issue with dieting in the modern day, comes from too much choice.
For starters we, like the rich and wealthy of the past, often have a surplus of food, and so survival is no longer part of the equation, natural restriction no longer exists, nor the natural hunger gap which exists in the colder months of the year.
WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?
In a similar way to the food surplus, there is also a diet surplus. If you look around there are so many ways you can cut down your energy intake, many of which are detrimental to health and many that neglect the fundamentals of nutrition.
in simple terms, Dieting is a luxury of the past rich and wealthy and the modern day man or woman.