William Banting (1796-1878), English, was one of the first people to manage his weight by going on a low-carbohydrate diet and reduce his weight. His method for doing so was supervised by Dr. William Harvey, who notified the public of his success in 1863.

He wrote a booklet called "Letter on Corpulence Addressed to the Public" which contained the particular receipt for dieting such that the question "do you bant?" referred to his method. Although originating from English verb banting, this word is nowadays the Swedish verb meaning "to diet", bantning.