What does banting mean?
Banting is the practice of losing weight by following a low-carbohydrate diet — one built around meat, dairy, and vegetables while avoiding bread, sugar, and starchy foods. The word takes its name from William Banting, a Victorian London undertaker who, after decades of obesity, adopted a carbohydrate-restricted regimen recommended by his doctor and published an account of his success in 1863. His pamphlet sold widely and made 'banting' and the phrase 'to bant' familiar throughout Britain and beyond, making him arguably the first popular figure of modern dieting. Today the term survives chiefly as a piece of dietary history, though it enjoys renewed, genuine currency in South Africa, where a contemporary low-carbohydrate lifestyle movement deliberately revived the name. For readers, banting offers both a useful historical label for early low-carb dieting and a reminder that many fashionable food regimens have deep nineteenth-century roots.
A low-carbohydrate diet followed for weight loss; the practice of eating in this way.
"Banting was all the rage among London society in the 1860s."
Mostly historical in Britain and America; still current in South Africa.
(To bant) To follow a low-carbohydrate diet in order to lose weight.
"He began banting after his doctor warned him about his blood sugar."
Used transitively only as an activity verb; typically phrased as 'to bant' or 'go banting'.
Rarely pluralised; the plural appears mainly when referring to multiple instances or accounts of the diet.
"The archive holds several early bantings manuals from the Victorian era."
In the 1860s, one fat London undertaker's pamphlet about losing weight was so popular that 'to bant' became a household word across Europe — people literally dined by asking, 'Do you bant?'
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of banting
The word comes from the surname of William Banting (1796–1878), a London undertaker who publicised his dramatic weight loss on a doctor-recommended low-carbohydrate diet in his 1863 pamphlet 'Letter on Corpulence'. The eponym spread quickly: within a few years, 'banting' was used across Britain and Europe as both a noun for the diet itself and a verb meaning to diet in this way. Because it derives from a personal family name rather than a classical root, it has no Latin or Greek cognates.
How banting is actually used
The term is largely historical and British in flavour, though it retains active use in South Africa, where 'banting' names a popular modern low-carbohydrate movement. It carries no strong connotation — it reads as slightly quaint or old-fashioned outside those contexts.
Easily confused with banting
Frederick Banting was the Canadian co-discoverer of insulin; the dietary term derives instead from his distant relative William Banting, the London undertaker who popularised low-carb dieting in the 1860s.
Bantering means engaging in playful, witty conversation, whereas banting refers to following a low-carbohydrate diet.