The Diets That Time Forgot

PLEASE NOTE:
All the main contributors in the series were medically assessed to ensure the diet experiment they took part in was suitable for them. Remember that any diet may impact on your health so you should always consult with your doctor before following a diet regime that you have any concerns about.

If you think diets are a recent invention, think again. In this unique historic experiment, nine volunteers spend 24 days testing the weight loss diets and fitness regimes that were popular in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods and the 'roaring' Twenties.

This six-part series examines which plan works best. Is it the Banting diet, first published in 1863, the 'chew chew' diet of the early 1900s, or the first calorie counting Lulu diet, one of the best selling non-fiction publications of the 1920s?

Series guide
Preview episodes from the series

Diets from the past
The first diets in history?

Dieters' profiles
Get to know the volunteer slimmers

Get the facts on obesity, dieting and losing weight

Your five minute guide to the history of dieting, from Rubens to Feminism

How to set realistic goals to beat obesity

Atkins, detox, vegetarian and more

Calculate your own body mass index

The series which looks at our increasingly dysfunctional relationship with food