dieting

Pluraldietings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The practice of controlling what and how much you eat, often to lose weight or improve health.

   Years of crash dieting left him with an unhealthy relationship with food.

   Dieting alone rarely works without regular exercise and consistent sleep.

   Similarslimming

   Note

   Mostly a mass noun for the habit in general (dieting can harm you if done wrong), but it can also be counted, naming separate bouts or regimens. John Epps, in Homoeopathy and Its Principles Explained (1850), writes of patients who stayed ill "with all their dietings". There the plural suggests repeated and fruitless attempts. Use the countable form only when the separate episodes themselves are the point.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of diet.

   He is dieting strictly to bring down his cholesterol.

   They are dieting together to keep each other motivated.

   Note

   The -ing form behind progressive verbs: she is dieting, they have been dieting for months. In everyday use it takes no object, because the person dieting is the one changing what they eat. An older transitive pattern, dieting a patient in the sense of putting someone on a diet, is now dated. The gerund shares its spelling with the noun for the practice.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2