Diet Episode

"So I'm on a diet... Big deal. You know what a "diet" is, don't you? It's "die" with a "T," that's what it is!"

— Garfield, August 30, 1978

A character is sneaking out to the kitchen for a midnight snack. He is careful not to wake up his wife or else he'll get caught. The minute he opens the refrigerator, he suddenly hears footsteps, so he turns around just in time to see his wife standing behind him with a stern expression on her face. The wife then promptly puts her husband on a diet for trying to raid the refrigerator at night.

This is a type of episode that shows up in almost every form of media. When a character is caught trying to eat more than he usually does, he will promptly be put on a diet, or the character decides to go on a diet himself.

Growling Gut trope may be applied for comedic effect and may also overlap with Vegetarian for a Day and Weight Loss Salad.

Usually overlaps with The Fat Episode especially if the character dieting gained weight suddenly.

Becoming a Dead Horse Trope as the obese become Less Acceptable Targets. Losing weight is hard and keeping it off is even harder. Not to mention plenty of health professionals have realized that starving yourself excessively is one of the least effective ways to get into shape; a modern medium that plays this shamelessly straight fears complaints from Moral Guardians about promoting risky behaviour. Could lead to A Weighty Aesop or a Missed Meal Aesop.

---

Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Azumanga Daioh's Yomi is seemingly always on a diet. Her Day in the Limelight episodes often feature her trying several unsuccessful diets.
• Crayon Shin-chan has a short where the titular character gains some weight because of constant slacking and snacking in the summer, and his mother Misae demands he lose some fat by telling him "What would Nanako ^note Shin-chan's crush think when he becomes too obese". Shin-chan does manage to slim down after exercising for a few weeks, only to backfire when he overhears Nanako talking to Shinobu on her phone that she thinks "sumo wrestlers are so cool"... cue Shin-Chan going back to binging.
• One episode of Gintama features most of the major female characters having become obese within the same time period and enrolling into a fat camp. They all go back to normal at the end of the episode after eating laxative-laced chips.
• As every episode in Hetalia: Axis Powers is only five minutes long, that one is more of a diet skit. America gets worried about his weight after a casual comment by England. After he spends the skit asking different nations for diet advice, a note says that what America doesn't realise is that the reason for his rising weight isn't actually fat, it's muscle.
• Chapter 64 of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun has Sakura and Mikoshiba trying to lose weight out of fear that they've become fatter. They first attempt to simultaneously exercise their arms whilst doing their manga work, then they have Mayu help them with their work-out routine. It's all for nought when they go to Nozaki's house and see that he's baked a cake for them.
• Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt has one in which, thanks to a Ghost, Stocking finds herself gaining weight (something that never happened before, considering all the fat she consumes goes to her breasts) and starting a DIETO.
• Chapter 18 of Read or Die has Michelle gaining weight from eating too much while reading so her sisters force her into an exercise program.
• Usagi tried to go on a diet but failed in an early Sailor Moon episode that involved the villains taking energy from girls who were obsessed with getting thin.
• Episode 9 of Strawberry Marshmallow has Miu tease Chika about gaining weight in order to get her sweet potato. Chika becomes paranoid and, after weighing herself, finds that she's gained a kilogram. She steals a diet book from her older sister Nobue and starts on a dangerous crash diet, before Nobue tells her the only reason that she's gained weight is that she's also grown in height.
• Episode 8 of Tamako Market focuses on Dera taking a diet, as he has been overly obese to carry out his duties. Despite this, he returns to his normal size by the beginning of the next episode.
• Yukari Nashimoto of Tsurezure Children watches her weight very often in her focus chapters, but the stand out one is Chapter 152. Because she eats too many snacks, she decides to decrease the amount of food she eats during the day. By decrease, we mean starve, and it gets so noticeable that her crush comes over just to give her something to eat.
• There is also a Yes! Pretty Cure 5 episode where Coco goes on a diet because he got fat (although you never really see the difference in his human form) from eating too many cream puffs.

Asian Animation

• The Lamput episode "Diet Doc" is about Fat Doc noticing his fat and deciding to go on a diet. The newly-fit Fat Doc is fast enough to catch Lamput with utmost ease.

Comic Books

• Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield starts out with Vitalstatistix being put on a strict diet and sent to a health spa. We see the results near the end, where he's gone from 'round' to 'stick'. However, on his way home he samples food from the best inns, returning to his original girth.
• In issue #18 of The Simpsons had the entire town of Springfield put on one. The president, embarassed by the town's gluttonous lifestyle, sends Rainier Wolfcastle down to whip it's worst offenders into shape. While almost all are able to lose ten pounds, Homer ends up gaining three. Shamed, The Simpson patriarch goes through a Training Montage with Wolfcastle to lose...12 1/2 pounds. Luckily, a quick blood donation clears the gap (despite this not being a recommended method of weight loss)
• Wonder Woman:
  • Vol 1: Wonder Woman convinced Etta Candy to try dieting shortly after they first met, out of concern over the possible detrimental effects Etta's sugar heavy diet could have on her health. Etta agreed, but said that she'd try it for a set amount of time and if she felt the benefits outweighed the negatives she'd keep to it. As dieting made her absolutely miserable and she didn't have any body image issues concerning her weight she went back to her old eating habits once the time was up.
  • Vol 2: Etta goes on a diet due to her body image and confidence issues, but goes a bit too far in limiting herself and nearly faints, after which she stops for her own health.

Literature

• Angela Nicely: In “Healthy Holiday!”, Mrs. Nicely wants to lose weight, so she goes to a spa, and she brings Angela with her. However, since the spa is focused on weight loss, it serves ridiculously small portions of food.
• The Cat Who... Series: Book #27 (The Cat Who Went Bananas), is one for Qwill, which includes cutting back on rich foods and having to eat a banana every day. He doesn't do too well at sticking to it though.
• The Dursley portion of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire involves Dudley being put on a diet^note  because Dudley had come home from Smeltings for the summer with a note saying that the school's uniform provider no longer provides pants in the obese Dudley's size . Unfortunately, the Dursleys decided that to accomodate Dudley, everyone else needed to participate, including Harry (the last person who actually needed such a thing). By the next couple of books, Dudley has taken up boxing as a more effective way to stay fit.
• In the first story of If This is Love, I'll Take Spaghetti, the protagonist struggles with trying to stay on a diet so that she can become thin enough to attract her crush. It turns out that her crush likes her perfectly fine even with the extra weight, but she realizes that she still wants to lose weight for her own sake and he agrees to help "distract" her from thinking about food all the time.
• Jelly Belly fits the bill for its first half, subverting the trope once Ned gets serious and realizes cutting out junk food isn't as torturous as he thinks it is.
• In The Pig-Out Blues, Jodie tries to lose enough weight to get the lead role in her school play and win the affections of her crush. She actually succeeds in losing the weight early on but the crash diet she went on to slim down in time causes her to faint before she can enter auditions and losing her chance to get the role she wanted and seeing her crush be taken by another girl leads to her gaining all the weight back through Post-Stress Overeating. It's only after she's gained some self-confidence and befriended a family who eats healthier meals that she begins to lose weight in a more natural and lasting way.
• A Thomas & Friends magazine story is titled "The Fat Controller's Diet". When Sir Topham Hatt tries out a new weighing machine, he is shocked when he finds out just how much he weighs, so he decides to go on a diet as he spends some more time outside of his office. Unfortunately for Sir Topham Hatt, everywhere Edward takes him, there's some kind of junk food that he likes. There's a sweet kiosk selling chocolate, the China Clay Workers having Pork Pie on their lunch break, people eating snacks from the station cafe, and a fish and chips restaurant with a £3 special on haddock with all the trimmings and desert. The last of these causes Sir Topham Hatt to cancel the diet, and upon hearing this, Edward jokes that if he lost weight, he and his friends couldn't call him the Fat Controller anymore.

Live-Action TV

• 30 Rock: Season 2 begins with Jenna having starred in a play over the summer that required her to eat 4 slices of pizza on stage each performance and consequently gain significant weight. Attempts to lose it include the Japanese Pornstar Diet ("I only eat paper, but I can eat all the paper I want"); Dr. Spaceman suggests crystal meth and a surgical option that includes liposuction, bone shaving, and organ reduction. She eventually loses the weight naturally by virtue of not eating 4 slices of pizza a day.
• In the 3rd Rock from the Sun episode "Moby Dick", Dick goes on a diet after he starts overeating to deal with the stress of his break-up from Mary. Later we find out Mary is also stress eating.
• The Addams Family has "Fester Goes on a Diet", in which Uncle Fester starts dieting in order to make himself thinner and taller to impress his Love Interest.
• In the Adventures in Wonderland episode "He's Not Heavy, He's My Hatter," the Mad Hatter gains weight from eating too many of his grandmother's cookies and the other characters try to help him slim down again. In the end, he loses the weight by running, climbing and swimming all through Wonderland to try to find the jar of cookies the March Hare hid from him.
• In the Arrested Development episode "Let 'Em Eat Cake", the whole family is on the Atkins diet, and there's a Running Gag that the characters don't know what they're allowed to eat.
• Played With on Babylon 5: Garibaldi is ordered by Dr. Franklin to go on a restricted diet (or rather... a food plan) because of various problems his body is suffering due to the after effects of being shot In the Back by The Mole in an earlier season. Meanwhile, Captain Sheridan is ordered to eat what he considers "Rabbit Food" because he has gained ten pounds since his previous exam. Commander Ivanova is ordered to eat more because she is suffering nutrition deficiencies because she doesn't eat enough healthy food; in addition, this is messing with her recovery from her broken foot (from the previous episode). Since all three of them are required to eat something that they hate and one of the others loves, this results in a scene where Garibaldi takes Ivanova's pasta, Sheridan takes Garibaldi's steak, and Ivanova takes Sheridan's salad and they try (Unsuccessfully) to eat them before Dr Franklin arrives in the mess.
• The Bob Newhart Show: In "The Fit, The Fat, and the Forty One" Bob's doctor tells him he needs to lose eight pounds. He spends most of the episode miserable and constantly tempted by food.
• Coronation Street:
  • Used as part of an abusive boyfriend storyline with Charlie and Shelly. She can't fit into the dress he's bought her, and he goads her into dieting down to ten stone. While Shelly doesn't seem to mind the idea at first, Charlie exacerbates matters by turning it into a sponsored weight loss.
  • Fred Elliot is trying to get into online dating, and starts both dieting and running repeatedly. He doesn't keep his son Ashley in the loop - who starts to worry that he's ill.
• AMC released an original drama series called Dietland in 2018.
• In an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond, Marie, a Supreme Chef, discovers that she has high cholesterol. She decides to go on a diet and eat healthier—which, by extension, means that everyone else has to as well. Unfortunately, it was the Thanksgiving Special...
• In an early episode of Family Matters, Carl went on a strict diet to look good for his high school reunion. His family pulled out all the stops to keep him from cheating, to the point where he snuck baby food out of desperation.
• A major plot arc in Frasier, as Daphne started gaining weight after she got together with Niles. She was put on a diet and eventually sent to some sort of fat camp. This storyline was a clever trick used by the writers to mask the fact that Jane Leeves was actually pregnant.
  Niles: She's just lost 9 pounds, 12 ounces.
  • Season 11's "Frasier Lite" sees several members of the KACL staff take part in a weight loss challenge against their rival station. Frasier almost ruins their efforts by merely adding salads to his usual meals. After several days they come up a few pounds short, so in desperation Roz cuts off most of her hair which brings them low enough to win.
• Played for drama in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Philip was put on a diet and bribed Will into sneaking him junk food, only to end up having a heart attack.
• Played for drama on Full House as a Very Special Episode, where DJ went on a crash diet so she could look good in a bathing suit. She was cured by a hug at the end of the episode.
• The George Lopez Show has Ernie (who has always been a little on the chubby side) gain a lot of weight as a result of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy regarding his inability to get women. It isn't until George tricks Ernie into trying on his morbidly obese mother's pants that Ernie realizes what he must do. He loses 22 pounds by the end of the episode and gets even thinner in subsequent ones.
• Gilligan's Island had an episode where the Skipper revealed that he'd probably rejoin the Navy if he ever got back to civilization, then found out he was overweight and went on a diet.
• Glee had an episode where Sue made Mercedes go on a diet in order to remain on The Cheerios. Sadly, this so-called "diet" resulted in Mercedes obsessing over her weight and starving herself, prompting Quinn to intervene.
• In The Golden Girls, the episode "What A Difference A Date Makes" starts with Blanche placing all types of sweets she finds in the trash can and tells the others when they see her at it that she's going on a diet in order to fulfill her annual tradition of fitting into her wedding dress on the anniversary of her wedding day with her late husband. She does succeed in the end, but it turns out she has become bulkier over the years, as her wedding dress turns out to have been torn away in the back without her being aware of it.
• I Love Lucy had Lucy go on a diet to be able to play Sally Sweet in one of Ricky's show numbers.
• On M*A*S*H:
  • In the episode with the M*A*S*H Olympics, Hawkeye and BJ help a soldier who's in danger of being kicked out of the Army for being 20 pounds overweight. At the end of the episode, the soldier thanks them as he made his weight - by 3 ounces.
  • In a humorous inversion in the same episode, Klinger begins eating everything in sight after he finds out he can be discharged if he's overweight.
• Midsomer Murders: In "Blood Will Out",Tom Barnaby is trying to lose weight so Joyce recruits Troy into making sure that he sticks to his diet while they are out investigating the latest murders.
• Mimpi Metropolitan has its 20th episode, where Alan's new job as a debt collector forces him to exercise and put on a diet so he can be fit enough to chase people. At the end, he decides that its not worth it; personality-wise, he is not cut out to be a debt collector anyway.
• The Munsters had an episode titled "Lo-Cal Munster" where Herman goes on a diet to try and fit into his old uniform in time for a military reunion. Unfortunately, it was right around Thanksgiving and Herman falls off the wagon big time, but finds a work around by wearing his mother-in-law's corset.
• In the Teresa Brewer episode of The Muppet Show, Miss Piggy decides to go on a diet after overhearing that Kermit is planning to cancel her ballet number the following week, claiming she's getting too fat for the costume. Most of the sketches for the remainder of the episode have to do with either food or exercise. She ultimately fails to lose weight.
• In The New Adventures of Old Christine, Matthew starts putting on some weight, so Christine volunteers to help him lose it. She ends up gaining weight herself.
• The Ronnie Barker one-shot "One Man's Meat".
• In one episode of The Partridge Family Danny is teased for being fat, goes on a diet, and loses like 10 pounds, all without being noticeably slimmer. According to Danny Bonaduce's biography, it was not a pleasant episode to film.
• There is one episode of Poirot called Evil Under the Sun, in which Hercule Poirot has to go on a diet at the Sandy Cove Hotel on Miss Lemon's orders after an incident at an Argentinian restaurant has sent him to a hospital where he is declared "medically obese". It turns out at the end that the incident is not obesity or his health problems but food poisoning—nine cases of it in fact (Poirot's was one of them), so the restaurant had to be shut down until it can work out the food poisoning bit.
• Deconstructed in Reba. Barbra Jean has noticeably gained weight by the episode "Hide Your Cake" (as her actress, Melissa Peterman was pregnant at the time). The diet doesn't work and only makes Barbra Jean miserable (she actually gained four pounds will doing it), but she wants to lose weight because she fears Brock doesn't find her attractive anymore. Reba points out that Barbra Jean has always been a "handful of woman" and that she needs to work on her confidence, with Reba and Cheyenne also talking about their own personal insecurities they have with their looks. By season six, Barbra Jean is considerably thinner.
• Roseanne:
  • One Played for Drama series of episodes, where Dan is put on a diet following his heart attack. Dan cheats on his diet behind Roseanne's back but once she figures out and tells him so, Dan quits his diet, skips her peas and carrots in favor of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and points out Roseanne's fat too. Roseanne gets offended and so the two start trashing the house in their argument.
  • In season two it's played for humor as usual, with Roseanne insisting they both go on a diet after she has trouble fitting into her pants. Dan seems to do fairly well, but Roseanne ends up nearly cracking after watching three food commercials.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch naturally features a magical spin on this one. Sabrina wants to fit into a dress for a High-School Dance and, as it's from the Other Realm, it can't be altered to her size. Her solution is dieting with some magical weight loss shakes. Uniquely after just one shake, she's satisfied about fitting into the dress, but the salesman bewitches her mirrors to make her think she's gaining weight. She ends up drinking so many shakes she turns invisible.
• One episode of Still Standing sees Linda date a younger and extremely physically fit man, which prompts Bill and Judy to try to exercise more. Unfortunately, they're both horribly out of shape, but that doesn't stop them from trying to hide their pain from one another.
• An episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody has Cody trying to help the hotel's chef lose weight. He manages to do it by telling him not to think of it as a diet, but a lifestyle choice. Additionally, Zack (who had become a glutton for sweets in the episode) is also put on a cold turkey diet, until his mother realizes it's too extreme and agrees to allow a small amount of sweets to curb his temptation. Meanwhile, one of London's socialite friends tells London she's fat and that Maddie is too skinny, so London spends the episode starving herself and working out, while Maddie gorges on food. London becomes exhausted from a lack of food and Maddie becomes too bloated to wear a dress for a model show (despite not appearing any bigger than normal), and the two accept their bodies when the socialite is revealed to be stuffing her bra full of toilet paper.
• "Love Hungry," an episode of Tales from the Darkside, featured an overweight woman who had exhausted every trick in the book trying to lose weight. She applies for a unique new method and is sent a pair of headphones that allow her to hear the screams of food as it's being eaten, which prompts her to run from a restaurant. She then uses the next item in the diet kit, a pair of glasses; these cause her to see food as sentient and able to communicate with her. Her conversations with some fruit and a JELL-O mold are largely Played for Laughs...until the ending, where, despite growing famished, the woman can't bring herself to eat her "friends" and sews her own mouth shut, starving to death.
• An episode of That 70s Show had Red, after his heart attack, trying to sneak around his diet. After he gets busted, he says "This isn't food! This is what food eats!".
• Hedley from The Train Now Standing... starts a keep-fit routine in "Old Glory", part of which puts him on a diet. When he can't stand the sight of Peter eating and drinking, he forces him to join him on a cross-country run.
• Viva La Bam has arguably the cruelest, and quite possibly the funniest, take on this trope in the infamous "Don't Feed Phil" episode. Being grossly overweight, Bam makes it his mission to deny Phil any and all food for an entire day. Aside from denying him his three square meals, he also pillages the entire house for any discreetly hidden snacks (Phil has...a lot of these), and when Phil decides to go out, Bam gets the entire town involved. Phil still manages sneak in a bite or two before the people wise up. Ultimately, April believes Bam did this because he was genuinely concerned for his health. And it was simply funny.

Newspaper Comics

• About 50% of Cathy strips are in some way about Cathy trying - and failing - to lose weight. The rest are usually about her trying to improve her appearance or meet men.
• Garfield has numerous strips where Garfield is put on a diet by Jon, and sometimes by Liz. In the earlier years of the strip, 'Diet Week' was a regular theme, explained by Jim Davis's claim that when he goes on a diet, so does Garfield. Also in the book "20 Years and Still Kicking", Jim Davis stated that diet strips are in high demand from his readers which can explain why Garfield's been on many diets over the years. Either way, Garfield's never lost any weight after diets, even bragging if he gained only 1 pound.

Professional Wrestling

• Happened a few times in relation to light heavyweights, where there is a weight limit.
  • In a 2000 episode of Sunday Night Heat, Christian wanted to challenge for the WWF Light Heavyweight title, but was a pound overweight. He spends most of the episode exercising to lose the one pound, but is so exhausted that he loses the match.
  • During the build-up to WrestleMania 19 in 2003, Matt Hardy was feuding with WWE Cruiserweight Champion, Rey Misterio. Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon told Matt that if he could get down to the 220 pound weight limit (Matt weighed 227 at the time), she would make their match at WrestleMania a Cruiserweight title match. Matt then wrestled matches wearing a Sauna Suit under his ring outfit.
• As part of her Hollywood Pudgy storyline, Molly Holly was shown working out in at least one backstage segment in 2002 in an effort to lose weight.
• Rosa Mendes tried to join LayCool, who mocked her for being out of shape. Thus she was seen with a skipping rope everywhere backstage. While Rosa was clearly nowhere near fat (and it was used to make LayCool seem nastier), skipping is actually not a bad way to go about getting in shape.

Web Original

• In The Katering Show episode "The Body Issue", Kate McLennan, Kate McCartney and Beans the cat supposedly attempt the Paleo Diet, the Raw Food Diet and the 5:2 Diet respectively. The Kates are brought to the brink of malnutrition and insanity by their diets, but Beans thrives on the 5:2 Diet, "and her brain cancer is almost gone"!
• Stampy's Lovely World: After eating the World's Tastiest Cake in Episode 100, Lee Bear makes Stampy go on a diet, but Stampy manages to win his cake privileges back a few episodes later, after beating Lee at the "Fish Me a Dish" minigame.
• In the SuperMarioLogan episode, "Shrek's Diet", Mario makes Shrek go on a diet after the latter suffers a heart attack from eating too much cheesecake. Mario gets Chef Pee Pee to make a salad for Shrek, and even signs Shrek up for a gym membership. At the end of the episode, Shrek loses weight from diet and exercise, but instantly gains it back when he starts eating cheesecake again.

Western Animation

• Tummi Gummi got put on a diet after sneaking a midnight snack in the Adventures of the Gummi Bears episode "The Oracle".
• The Amazing World of Gumball: "The Diet" is about Gumball and Darwin putting Richard on a strict diet and exercise regimen so he can finally get healthy. To their disbelief, the new healthy Richard is absolutely insufferable and smug, and now they have to revert him back to his old lazy self.
• American Dad! has a Played for Drama version where Stan goes on a diet after his family points out that he's put on weight since his prime (as a response to him being a huge jerk to Steve's pudgy girlfriend). Stan ends up developing serious anorexia and is reduced to skin and bones, to the point where he has to be hospitalized.
• "Arthur Weighs in" has an Aesop about obesity, in which Arthur has gained enough weight that he now has to wear husky clothing even though he is the exact same size he has always been. He cuts the junk food from his diet and gets back to his normal weight.
• Bad Dog had an episode where Vern goes on a diet.
• The Biker Mice from Mars episode "Pitfall" had main villain Lawrence Limburger forced to go easy on indulging in slime worms because his superior Lord Camembert has ordered him to go on a diet for the next week.
• CatDog: "Dog Ate It" has Cat putting Dog on a diet in preparation for them entering a dance contest.
• Monterey Jack went on a diet on an episode of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, the twist being that he did so voluntarily as he was eager to get in shape after his weight caused some problems on a mission, while the other Rangers tagged alongside him for support. It was the other Rangers who had the most trouble keeping with the program. He eventually relents after realizing he's been pushing the others too hard.
• The Critic has an episode where Jay and Marty decides to enroll in a high-class Fat Camp due to both of them having trouble with people mocking them for their weight. Jay only loses about 2 pounds (which he is elated over, calling it his "college weight"), but Marty drops a substantial amount of weight and becomes quite handsome and popular in school. However, he begins to buckle under the pressure of popularity, as well as the stress of playing Peter Pan in the school play. By the end, he's gained his original weight back from a massive ice cream binge, and is about to get beaten up for ruining the play, only to immediately slide back into popularity when the building engineer reveals that Marty damaged the school roof and the school has to close for a month of repairs.
• In the Dennis the Menace episode, "Mr. Wilson's Diet", Mrs. Wilson decides to put Mr. Wilson on a diet when he starts getting too big for his clothes despite his objections. Mr. Wilson tries multiple occasions to cheat on it until Mrs. Wilson gives up and decides to go out and buy some bigger clothes. By the end of the episode, however, their doctor informs them that they both need to lose some weight, and so the diet is back on.
• Deputy Dawg is forced to go on a diet in The Deputy Dawg Show episode "Physical Fatness".
• Doug had two:
  • The Nickelodeon version had "Doug Tips the Scales", involving the title character where Doug returns from summer vacation and notices that he's put on weight from his grandmothers cooking, and desperately tries to get rid of it before a beach party (despite not really looking different).
  • The Disney version had "Doug's Chubby Buddy", which was a Very Special Episode involving Patti getting anorexia.
• Family Guy:
  • "He's Too Sexy For His Fat" started on Chris going on a diet, which was moderately successful, but that plot took a back seat to Peter getting multiple plastic surgeries. It also had a B-plot of Stewie overeating to mock Chris, which inevitably makes him grossly overweight.
  • In "Amish Guy", Peter briefly tried going on a diet so he could meet the weight limit for a roller coaster at Six Flags. However, he soon gives up and resorts to using a corset to make himself look thinner. The results are predictable; the ride can't handle his real weight and ends up crashing, killing several passengers.
• At least one episode of The Flintstones had Fred being shamed into dieting. Another had Fred participating in a game show where he would win a cash prize if he lost a signifigant amount of weight in a month. He had to resort to joining a support group for food addicts (which also sent out agents that snatched food away from their members if they try to cheat) to manage, and is irritable and half-dead by the time the contest is over. Fred does win, but when he tries to resign from the group, his agent either doesn't get the memo or doesn't care—he swipes Fred's victory meal anyway.
• In Garfield and Friends, Jon decides to go on a diet after putting on some weight, and ends up falling for a crooked diet program with overpriced, poor quality food served in absurdly small portions.
  • In Garfield's Thanksgiving, Liz orders Jon to put Garfield on a diet during one of their regular vet visits, which he, obviously, was already upset about, but to make matters worse, it was right before Thanksgiving.
• The Goofy short "Tomorrow We Diet" features the titular Goofy attempting one by the narrator.
• Goof Troop had an episode while Peg dares Pete to go a day without eating; naturally, it eats him up inside. Another had Pete be chosen to test out some diet meal bars, and he found that he liked them so much that he ate a month's supply in a couple days, which naturally caused him to gain weight.
• Heathcliff & the Catillac Cats had the episode "Lard Times" where Heathcliff puts himself on a diet. Hector, Wordsworth and Mungo force him into a grueling exercise program in an effort to make him so tired that they can take over his neighborhood. In the same episode, Grandpa is ordered by the doctor to also lose a few pounds.
• Hey Arnold! had the episode "Weighing Harold", where Harold wants to go on a diet after a few of the characters make fun of him for being fat. He goes on a special cruise ship for kids to lose weight, only to come back even bigger than he was before. With Arnold's help, he goes back to his original weight at the end.
• The Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n' Wrestling episode "Captain Lou's Crash Diet" has Captain Lou Albano attempting to lose forty pounds in ten days or else he will be out of wrestling.
• Jackie Chan Adventures the episode "Weight and See" features Tohru on a diet, with Jade pushing him to do harsh exercise and eat a strict diet. He cracks and enjoys a late night helping of pork fried rice. But the chopsticks he used to eat with were possessed by the chi of gluttonous mountain demon Po Kong, resulting in Tohru being corrupted by the chi and binging on everything in sight, including the city of San Francisco.
• Martha Speaks has "Too Much Martha" where Martha is put on a diet and "Martha's Dirty Habit" which has a subplot of Daniel Lorraine (the dad of the family that owns Martha) giving up between-meal snacks for no real reason other than the fact that Martha was giving something up (digging) and he wanted to give something up too so she wouldn't feel alone.
• The 90s Mr. Men cartoon episode "Little Miss Greedy, Belle of the Ball" involved Little Miss Greedy being put on a diet plan by Dr. Makeyouwell when her ball gown doesn't fit her due to her eating habit.
• Oggy and the Cockroaches has had two episodes: "Oggy's Diet" and "Dee Dee's Diet". In Oggy's episode, it was so he could catch the cockroaches easier, for Dee Dee, it was so he could avoid being caught. Dee Dee actually managed to shed the pounds... only to gain them back in the end.
• The Pink Panther short "Dietetic Pink" is one borne of a mistake. The Panther uses a public scale, but a passing pedestrian happens to put his suitcase down next to Pink, making his weight come out to 220 pounds (the correct weight is revealed to be around 75). Pink spends the rest of the short deliriously avoiding food but seeing that Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere until the mistake is corrected at the end.
• Rocko's Modern Life had the episode "Frog's Best Friend", where Ed Bighead is put on a diet, while Bev gives her newly adopted stray dog Earl better treatment than him.
• Rugrats (1991): The B-plot of "Man of the House" involves Didi putting Grandpa Lou on a diet that he doesn't like after finding out he has high cholesterol. At first, Lou tries to order greasy food from Zippy's without Didi finding out, but near the end of the episode, Tommy's attempt to invent a new toy for Dil in the episode's A-plot results in Lou watching a disturbing health video given to him by his doctor. Lou freaks out upon seeing the video and eats the healthy lunch that Didi serves him without hesitation.
• Sabrina: The Animated Series like its live action counterpart featured such an episode. This time Sabrina wants to fit into a pair of jeans that the Alpha Bitch is sporting. She and her friend Chloe use a magical set of scales that ends up backfiring and shrinking them down to the size of fleas.
• The Simpsons:
  • Several episodes focus on Homer dieting, the most famous one being the first one, "Brush With Greatness", where he got stuck in the Mt. Splashmore water slide and decided to drop about 40 pounds. He doesn't change much visually but does succeed in losing the weight.
  • In "King of the Hill", Homer attempts to redeem himself before Bart by getting in shape through visits to the gym and eating a bunch of energy bars. He makes significant improvement from the exercise (it's implied the bar were a Magic Feather if not a detriment), but overestimates himself, nearly dies climbing a mountain, and presumably gives up his new regiment.
  • "The Heartbroke Kid" has Bart becoming seriously overweight due to getting addicted to junk food from the new school vending machines, to the point that he has a heart attack and has to be dragged off to a Fat Camp. Its not until he realizes the impact his weight is having on his family (who had to open a hostel for rude German backpackers to pay for the camp) that he vows to take losing weight seriously.
• The Smurfs (1981) episode "Gormandizing Greedy" is about putting Greedy on a diet after the Smurfs find out he has a weight problem.
• An episode of South Park has Eric Cartman being sent to Fat Camp to get his weight under control, and returns a few weeks later substantially slimmed down. It turns out however that this is an impostor that the real Eric sent back to South Park to steal junk food for him to smuggle to the other campers for money. The real Eric hasn't lost a pound, and on top of that is ruining the progress of the other campers with his scam.
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! had an episode where Mario and his friends helped an out of shape Greek hero lose weight to fight Koopa.
• TaleSpin: "Gruel and Unusual Punishment" combines this with Prison Episode; Baloo decides to visit a weight loss clinic so he can lose enough weight to escort Rebecca to the Pilot's Ball in a slimming tuxedo. However, due to having mistaken a guacamole stain on the map for the location, he ends up in a Thembrian prison, which he mistakes for the weight loss clinic.
• One episode of Tiny Toon Adventures had Hampton try to go on a diet, only to be constantly tempted by a chocolate cake.
  Cake: (in a deep voice) Eat meee... Eat meee...

---