Summary
Garfieldfans know that the one thing the iconic cat truly loves is eating – and corollary to that, there’s a single word in the English language he loathes almost more than any other: dieting. Nevertheless,Jim Davis' legendary comic stripfrequently found humor in Jon Arbuckle’s attempts to get Garfield to slim down, with these attempts at placing his pet on a diet rarely leading to any measurable success.
Much like Garfield’s approach to Mondays, he drags his feet, kicking and screaming, when it comes time to pick up the veggies and drop the lasagna. Garfield’s reaction to his diets are universally hilarious, even if the cat himself is miserable.
Although, that said, Garfield usually cheats on his diet anyway, so his unhappiness about his diet usually does not last too long to begin with. Similarly, Garfield showcases his unorthodox approaches to his diets with some strategies that most nutritionists, or ethicists, would probably not recommend.
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10Garfield Reveals His Secret To Dieting
First Published: June 07, 2025
Garfield has a unique way of dealing with the world and the people in it. He likes to go after what he wants, without much consideration given to others if they somehow stand in his way or could potentially give him what he wants. One such case of Garfield doing what Garfield wants is his secret to dealing with diets.
When Jon Arbuckle asks for some adviceon how to get through a diet,Garfield reveals that he just tickles children so they will drop their candy, and he can eat what falls.An odd strategy, but one that nevertheless seems to work for him. Garfield’s response to diet tips seems to horrify Jon and rightfully so; what kind of person (or cat) steals candy from children? Garfield takes the phrase, “taking candy from a baby” all too literally.
9Garfield Reveals “The Only Good Thing About A Diet”
First Published: June 11, 2025
There are theories that dieting can result in some pretty vivid dreams. Garfield is very familiar with this theory, as evidenced by this late ’80s comic strip. When Garfield decides to sleep through his diet, he has a dream where he is eating everything in sight, including trains and, eventually, the solar system.He even eats Jon! Garfield’s voracious appetite reaches epic proportions, with even the planets being a mere dessert to him.
However,Garfield does not seem to mindhis dream, actually enjoying it and claiming that the dreams are the only good thing about diets. It’s a bit worrying that Garfield sees eating his own owner as a good dream, but he’s not the most amicable cat to begin with, anyway, so it is not all that surprising. Jon should watch his back though during Garfield’s more restrictive diets.
8Jon Arbuckle Reveals His Cruel Side
First Published: August 16, 2025
Diets do not typically allow ice cream, much to the dismay of Garfield. Other than those who are lactose intolerant maybe, one would be hard-pressed to find a person who likes to eat carrots more than delicious ice cream. When an ice cream truck plays its siren song,Garfield is anguished by what he could be eating (and would rather be eating) but can’t because he is stuck on his diet.
Jon finds the whole thing amusing. Given thatGarfield has put Jon through quite a bit, it could be said that Jon is enjoying some payback. While it may at first seem cruel that Jon is taking some joy out of Garfield’s diet misery, after realizing all the things Garfield has done to Jon like pulling bottles over his head and always making fun of him, one can’t blame Jon for his reaction.
7Garfield Reveals Success Is A Matter Of Perspective
First Published: June 05, 2025
Diets can be done for the purpose of engaging in a healthier lifestyle or in Garfield’s care, to lose some weight. Although his diets are not always successful in that regard, with him typically gaining a lot of weight instead of losing. It is actually considered a win when Garfiled only gains a pound, which is the best he has ever done on a diet.The fact that he has gained just one pound on the diet is amazing news to Jon and Garfield, proving the diet was a success…at least the way they measure it.
Considering that Garfield consistently gained weight on diets, it’d be easy to assume thatJon would just stopputting him on diets. Regardless of the final weigh-in, though, whatever this latest diet was seems to work much better than the rest, with that being a cause for celebration.
6Garfield Reveals The Extent Of His Desperation
First Published: June 07, 2025
Lasagna could be said to bethe love of Garfield’s life. The Italian food staple occupies the cat’s thoughts all the time and never fails to lift his usually cynical spirits. A snag happens though when Garfield is placed on diets and lasagna is a restricted food item. When Garfield can’t get his lasagna fix, he has to resort to other ways to satisfy his cravings.
Flipping through a magazine, he sees a picture of lasagna, exciting him.He gets so elated at the sight of the lasagna that he eats the piece of paper the food is printed on in his mouth and swallows it,noting that it was “not too bad,” except for the staples. One must be really desperate to resort to eating magazine pages with pictures of food on them. Then again, very few people love lasagna as much as Garfield.
Garfield has an alternative name, depending on the country, with him being called Gustav in Sweden, Finland, and Norway.
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5Garfield Reveals His Favorite Part Of Starting A Diet
First Published: July 24, 2025
When starting a diet, it is important to clear out the junk food in the house that will prove to be tempting while in the throes of the diet. Most people would donate the food or give it to others;on the other hand, Garfield gets rid of the food a different way: by gobbling it all up.WhileGarfield’s approach could be considered gluttonous, much like the cat himself, at least he is not being wasteful.
Garfield would not be typically thought of as responsible, and clearly cleaning out the fattening food before a diet is just a pretext for him. When it is revealed that cleaning out the food benefits him through eating it all, his newfound maturity all starts to make sense. Jon is in for quite the surprise, when he sees that the junk food is completely wiped out of the house.
When Garfield is on a diet, he usually considers a loophole of carrot cake being permissible to eat.
4Garfield Reveals His Worst Fears About Losing Weight
First Published: August 02, 2025
Garfield almost never chooses to go on diets willfully; it’s frequently by Jon’s orders. As a result, when Garfield is feeling the misery of his diet, he tends to put all the blame on his diet pushing owner.Having a vivid diet induced dream about him losing so much weight on his diet that he becomes all bones, literally, he is awoken by the horrifying sight of an apple entering and immediately exiting his skeleton body.
Hilariously, Garfield wakes up with such a fright that he knocks Jon’s morning coffee all over his owner. While it was not directly intentional that Garfield got Jon to make his coffee splatter in his face, the reader knows that it was probably anunintended perk of Garfield’snightmare to the grumpy cat (the original one).
3Garfield Reveals How He Really Views Jon
First Published: January, 22, 2008
Cravings can get really strong during times of strict dieting, something Jon finds out the hard way when he’s stuck with a ravenous Garfield. When Jon tries to comfort Garfield by telling him that dieting is all mental, so he should attempt to avoid thinking about food,Garfield cannot help himself from imagining Jon’s head as a giant ice cream cone,asGarfield becomes deliriousand, much to Jon’s misfortune, starts licking his poor owner.
Cats don’t always lick their owners, especially the cold-natured Garfield, so it naturally comes as a surprise to Jon to suddenly have his cat trying to devour his face. Being totally overtaken by his hallucination, it will be hard to snap Garfield back to reality and away from trying to lick Jon’s head. He won’t be happy to learn that there is not any ice cream in reality.
2Jon Reveals That “It’s Diet Week” Yet Again
First Published: July 18, 2025
Garfield usually looks forward to his meals, ready to chow down the moment he sees his food bowl. However, when he is on diets, it is a different story. Going to his meal without a care in the world, Garfield is about to gobble up what’s in his cat food bowl, that is until he sees a carrot in his dish rather than a nice hunk of lasagna or something other than a vegetable.
When he sees the carrot, he knows all too well it is diet week, much to his chagrin;if there is somethingGarfield dreads more than Mondays, it’s diet week. Why Jon continues to put Garfield on diets even though he always gains weight on them is anyone’s guess. Regardless, Garfield is sure to complain about his carrot dinner and even sneak some junk food if he gets the chance.
1Garfield Reveals Diets Always Have A Loophole
First Published: August 25, 2025
For some people, dieting can be a breeze; they have a number of helpful strategies and tools in their arsenal to accomplish whatever their dieting goal is. Others may struggle a lot, especially in the face of tempting foods. Garfield and Jon respectively represent these two different camps of dieting people, with Jon able to sail through his diet by just saying “no, thank you”, which he advises to Garfield.
Yet, Garfield takes Jon’s advice in a unique way,still taking the ice cream but saying the obligatory words that Jon has just taught him.Garfield is incredibly relatable in the strip, with anyone who has dieted wanting to do the same thing the tabby cat has done in the comic. The biggest surprise of this comic is not that Garfield has given his own interpretation to Jon’s words, but rather that Jon thought Garfield would genuinely take his advice at all.
Garfield
Garfield is the central character in Jim Davis’s comic strip, which officially began in 1978 under the same name. Garfield is an orange tabby cat with a love of lasagna and a disdain for Mondays. He tends to torment his owner and dog while trying to secure more food - and quiet.
