Obesity wasn’t exactly widespread during the Great Depression, and stories about dieting and weight-loss studies didn’t become common in American newspapers until decades later. But this one managed to crack the Minneapolis Star’s Page One lineup in 1934. Behold the 60-hour-black-coffee-tea-and-water diet. And a new word: thinningest.

There Is No Justice; Men Can Diet
Weight Away Easier Than Women

By scorning it as “mere brute strength,” the ladies have always been able to discount the athletic superiority of men over women.

But here is something that hurts.

Men naturally lose weight faster than women when on a diet.

	Back in 1935, folks in this weight class could aspire to be the fat man or fat lady at the Minnesota State Fair. In 2009, they’re just another hefty couple in line ahead of you at the Pronto Pup stand. (Photo courtesy mnhs.org)

Excess avoirdupois literally drops off the men when they confine their eating to water, black coffee and clear tea. But women? They struggle, but the stuff that curves are made of refuses to depart.

So reports Dr. Esther M. Greisheimer of the University of Minnesota, who has actually compared the records of 28 women and 26 men who agreed to quit eating for 60 hours in the interest of science.

The women lost 5.20 pounds, on the average, Dr. Greisheimer told the annual convention of the American Societies for Experimental Biology in New York Friday.

But the men lost an average of 6.43 pounds. And while the losingest woman dropped 10 pounds, the thinningest man lost 12.5.

And all this happened in [spite of] the plain fact that, while a dainty figure is an important consideration to a woman, nobody cares a hoot how much or how little a man weighs.

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