Under the new dietary, Banting lost flesh according to the following scale:

His girth during that time was reduced round the waist 12¼ inches; these desiderati were attained by the most easy and comfortable means, with but little medicine, and almost entirely by a system of diet. At the end of one year Banting asserts that he was restored in health, both bodily and mentally, had more muscular vigor, ate and drank with a good appetite, and slept well; all symptoms of acidity, indigestion and heartburn vanished; he left off using boot-hooks and other such aids, which were before indispensable; he lost all feeling of occasional faintness; left off knee-bandages, which he had worn for twenty years, and gave up a truss almost entirely.

Corpulence, says Banting, though giving no actual pain, must naturally press with undue violence upon the bodily viscera, driving one part upon another, and stopping the free action of all.

Saccharine matter is the great moving cause of fatty corpulence, producing increased weight and a large amount of flatulence; stouty matter is not so troublesome as saccharine, which largely increased acidity as well as fat. Pure genuine bread may be the staff of life, as it is termed; it is so, particularly in youth, but it is decidedly more wholesome in advanced life when it is thoroughly toasted. Any starchy or saccharine matter tends to the disease of corpulence in advanced life, whether it be swallowed in that form or generated in the stomach; that all things tending to these elements should be avoided, of course always under sound medical authority. Vegetables, and ripe or stewed fruit, are generally ample aperients. The dietary system only attacks the superfluous deposit of fat, and purges the blood, rendering it more pure and healthy, strengthens the muscles and bodily viscera, and sweetens life, if it does not prolong it.