cut down on his diet

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	New2grammar  #537235  Sun, 06 Jul 08 06:24 AM Cut down on his diet. Is this natural? Thanks    New2grammar Joined on Tue, Nov 21 2006 Veteran Member (7,670) Who wants to go sailing around the world with me?

	Vorpar  #537249  Sun, 06 Jul 08 07:04 AM It's ambiguous. Diet can either mean what someone eats, or when someone eats less to lose weight. Which meaning do you intend?    Vorpar Joined on Tue, Sep 20 2005 Santa Barbara, CA Regular Member (808)

	New2grammar  #537252  Sun, 06 Jul 08 07:08 AM The latter. Vorpar or when someone eats less to lose weight    New2grammar

	Vorpar  #537254  Sun, 06 Jul 08 07:10 AM If you mean that he stopped dieting, I would say "He cheated on his diet." or "He's off his diet."    Vorpar

	New2grammar  #537256  Sun, 06 Jul 08 07:13 AM Thanks, Vorpar.    New2grammar

	Marius Hancu  #537343  Sun, 06 Jul 08 11:06 AM  Cut down on his food portions/intake, not diet.    Marius Hancu Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006 Montreal, Canada Veteran Member (11,673)

	Yoong Liat  #544959  Tue, 22 Jul 08 01:17 PM 'Cut down on diet' is fine. Please see the following: New Outlook - Page 165 by Alfred Emanuel Smith - 1892You can probably guess my next move — nearly every " fat " man and woman has taken it. 1 Ixj- came a follower of the " simple life." 1 cut down on my diet— ...Snippet view - About this book - Add to my libraryMore editions       by John Burdon Sanderson Haldane - Science - 1933 - 287 pagesBut I did not at first cut down my diet to suit my sedentary habits. Perhaps that was why I developed appendicitis, which is a disease mainly afflicting the ...Snippet view - About this book - Add to my library - More editions       Yoong Liat Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006 Singapore Veteran Member (5,977) Yoong Liat

	New2grammar  #544969  Tue, 22 Jul 08 01:46 PM Marius Hancu Cut down on his food portions/intake, not diet. Why is diet wrong?    New2grammar

	khoff  #545037  Tue, 22 Jul 08 04:04 PM Yoong Liat -- one of your examples is from 1892!  Even the other one, from 1933, pre-dates the "diet craze" in America, when the word "diet," which originally meant "everything you eat," took on the second meaning of "a regime desinged to help someone lose weight by limiting their food intake."  The word was not ambiguous in 1933, or in 1892.  Now it is.    khoff Joined on Sun, Mar 6 2005 Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth Senior Member (2,565) Native speaker of American English (but not a grammar expert)
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