Weighty Issues: The Average Woman Spends 17 Years of Her Life on a Diet

Diets – they’re dull, they’re boring and most of the time you’re on one, you’re hungry. In short, they’re pretty grim. We all know they suck. So we have to ask, why on earth do we spend so much time forcing ourselves to stick to one?

According to a new study conducted by Diet Chef, the average woman spends a total of 17 years trying to lose weight on a diet. We’ll admit that when we first saw that statistic, we were pretty shocked. And then we started thinking – why? Why on earth do we do this to ourselves?

It’s all well and good making proper, healthy changes to your lifestyle if you’re trying to slim down, but here at Her.ie we associate being healthy with being happy and satisfied – not with starving ourselves or berating our stomachs into submission with feelings of guilt just because we had a sneaky biscuit at lunchtime.

According to the study, 90 per cent of women have tried some form of weight-loss in their life and the average lady diets up to twice a year. Each time we tend to loose 11lbs, but unfortunately, most of us also tend to put that weight back on.

Do you prefer to stick to a diet or just make small, healthy changes in your life instead?

The top reasons that make us want to lose weight include going on a summer holiday or slimming down to fit into clothes that no longer fit us.

“Deciding to lose weight can be an easy one to make when we know we have a special occasion coming up or aren’t feeling confident in our appearance,” said Kevin Dorren, the founder and head chef of Diet Chef.

“However actually embarking on a diet and losing the extra pounds is more difficult and takes real commitment,” he added.

When it comes to dropping a few pounds, how do you approach it? Do you go on a diet or do you simply make a conscious decision to lead a healthier lifestyle?