Brits Spend 14 Years Of Their Life On A Diet, Survey Claims

If your ‘diet starts on Monday’ mantra has failed you on many occasions and those good intentions of detoxing go down the toilet when your mid-afternoon chocolate craving trumps your homemade carrot stick and celery combo - you’re not alone.

In fact, you’re in good company as Brits spend 14 years of their life trying to (and failing) to stick to a diet.

According to a survey of 2,000 people by Philips, yo-yo dieters of Britain spend between four to five months a year counting calories and obsessing over each mouthful.

The study also predicts that in the future, one in 10 women will spend even more years of their lives dieting (up to 18 years in total) as they become more determined to shed the weight.

See Also:
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Does Sugar Make You Stupid?

Would You Eat Doggy Style?

So what drives us to become serial dieters?

While one in four people admit that images of super svelte celebrities make them want to diet, 66% revealed that it’s the thought of wearing skimpier clothes in the summer that motivate them to get into shape.

And it’s not just women who dread revealing all in a bikini or strapless tops when the weather heats up – the study also discovered a growing trend of male dieters who spend around two to three months a year trying to lose weight in time for summer.

Men are also much more likely to stick to their diet plan, as only one in four ditch their diet earlier than planned compared to one in three women, who fall off the wagon before they’ve reached their target weight.

The biggest reasons why dieters gave up on their healthy eating plan was boredom (32%) and lack of discipline (21%).

Diet & nutrition expert Rachael Anne Hill told HuffPost Lifestyle: “It’s clear that the arrival of spring also brings pressure for people to shape up for summer. People would be much better adopting a healthy lifestyle all year round, without concentrating their efforts on a few select months.”

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Jess Randall23

30 Fans

10:41 PM on 06/13/2012

I honestly didn't have a clue about diets, I was always really slim and then after I turned 38 I suddenly started to pile on the pounds. I tried cutting out bread and then switched it to pasta but I didn't have a clue really. Last year I joined weight watchers, and started off by cutting out sugar in my tea and coffee and I switched to low calorie drinks, I used the weight watcher recipes which also taught me about portion sizes. Within 4 months I lost a stone and a half, I'm now 8.5 stones and very happy with my weight. I've stopped doing weight watchers now that I understand about food portion sizes, I still have the odd Macdonalds but will have something small like a chicken mayo burger with small fries. I think they the main key is cutting out sugar and switching to low calorie drinks, decrease your food portions (although not too drastically) and limit your snacks, instead have healthy meals at regular times, and if you do fancy a snack, stock up on weight watcher ones, the supermarkets are always doing special deals on them. Food has to be in moderation, the health experts often say as you get older you don't need to each as much.I think keep a food diary helps as you can monitor your food intake and identify the areas where you are falling down.

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Approveds

11:50 AM on 06/06/2012

If you have been over eating, your stomach will increase in size, so until you fill it you will feel hungry. If you diet, slowly your stomach will shrink, so the longer you diet, the easier it will be.
Growing up in the 1950s with rationing, we felt hungry all the time, get used to that feeling of hunger, and try to like it. When you do eat treat any food as a luxury, look at it, nibble at it, savor the tastes.
I now only eat after 6pm every day. This means I go at least 20 hours without eating, and this kick starts your anti aging genes, like SIRT1. I gave up eating bread, and potatoes, I have some brown pasta now and again, brown rice etc. I take vitamins, herbs, and cla which helps. Eat butter from grass fed cows, New Zealand in the winter, Kerrygold in the summer, full of CLA. Drink a cup of Cocoa every day, no milk or sugar.

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Luce1

3 Fans

01:01 PM on 05/23/2012

Fat is now average and eating processed crap weekly - if not daily - is now normal. A person like me, who does not eat sugar, processed meats, junk food, rubbishy starchy carbohydrates or anything "ready made", is regarded as a freak. My measurements, body fat, BMI and weight are all completely healthy and I've never counted a calorie, but fat colleagues are forever telling me I've got an eating disorder - because I'm now the unusual one in being slim, they assume that means I'M the one with the problem.

If your starting position is enormous because you're eating chips and an entire packet of biscuits every day, then naturally one McDonald's a week and a couple of biscuits a day is going to feel like a major deprivation. If your starting position is doing no exercise, then going for a run twice a week will feel impossibly virtuous. But sadly, although those changes WILL lead to weight loss, they won't be enough to make you slim - not according to a fit person's understanding of the word. So if you really, really intend to be properly slim and healthy, sooner or later you'll have to move beyond a regime that's just not terrible and onto one that's actually good - which means no biscuits or chips (etc.) at all, and hard exercise at least every other day. For life.

People quit on diets because they think they can get Miranda Kerr's body by eating like Lily Allen for

SallyCycle

40 Fans

10:28 AM on 05/23/2012

I have never understood the mind-set of dieters who think that they can loose weight quickly and with minimal effort. They [generally] don't put on weighty/fat quickly, but as the result of years of self-abuse; so it stands to reason that loosing weight will take both time and a substantial amount of will power and some discomfort as the body gets used to eating less. However, they can do it, and they can keep the weight off.

I would urge anyone with a weight problem to watch this Youtube video...http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=btzJUYd1BVA It may be the best thing you do all year.
Thanks.

HUFFPOST SUPER USER

jimbraid1

101 Fans

11:47 AM on 05/23/2012

Great video Sally, I wish I had that guys will power !!. What happened to the little girl ?.

11:53 AM on 05/23/2012

I believe she is doing OK.

The chap is a real inspiration. I'm not fat; in fact I run, cycle, walk, climb, etc; but I still find this video so inspirational.

sultan4swing

28 Fans

09:18 AM on 05/23/2012

People want a diet that works for life, helps them eat good food in sufficient quantities so they don't snack, and keeps them healthy and their normal weight .. for life... 99pc of diets don't work and once you know why, you're halfway there. Get rid of processed food, cut down on sugar and caffeine, and split fats and carbs in your meals - and hey presto.... even having regular big fryups, you can feel really healthy... and as a byproduct, you also lose weight... works for me (try www.zoeharcombe.com))

ladymoth

18 Fans

09:12 AM on 05/23/2012

Sue Thomason is SOOOO right! There is no doubt at all that dieting makes you fat.
Our bodies are not made to go hungry, and if you try to cut down, your food cravings will increase.
The only way to become, and stay slim is to make good choices about what you eat at main meals - maybe avoid deep fried food for instance. Eat your fill of good plain food, eat more fruit and veg, drink plenty of water, stop boozing, try not to eat between meals and move around a bit more. The odd bar of chocolate or glass of wine won't make too much difference.
This method will gradually get you slim, but it's slow, that's why people rarely do it it, but at least it works and the weight stays off.

HUFFPOST BLOGGER

Sue Thomason

22 Fans

07:02 AM on 05/23/2012

The biggest reason people give up on their diets is because diets directly lead to overeating for most people due to a biological survival reaction.

Men can stick to diets longer on average because they haven't been dieting for as many years as women and yo-yo dieting is a chronic problem. Give these men a few more years dieting and they'll be failing just as often as women.

It's absolutely nothing at all to do with willpower or choice. The facts are - and this is scientifically proven - if you go on a diet, you will eat more than you would have eaten had you not gone on a diet!

Only for 98 per cent of people, though.

Russ Nutter

53 Fans

11:19 AM on 05/23/2012

It has everything to do with will power , you have to WANT to diet in the first place and then you need the will power to stick to it and resist urges to pig out on snacks ,then you have outside influences like your mates " go on ,have another one ,what harm can it do ? " and seeing tempting food in shops , aromas drifting out of take aways , restraunts and pubs .These 'scientifically proven' stories are a load of baloney ( hmmmm . . . baloney )

12:29 PM on 05/23/2012

You use this word "willpower"... I don't think it means what you think it means. If you can't stick to consuming less crap and doing more exercise, willpower is precisely what you are lacking.

If your diet leads you to eat more (and I choose to assume that here you mean "more crap you shouldn't have been eating in the first place" rather than more volume but made up of lean proteins and veggies which wouldn't be a problem), you're doing it wrong. IF the "fact" is that most people who go on a diet eat more rubbish than they did anyway, all that shows is that most people are ignorant and/or weak-willed.

The fact is that you do not - categorically do not - need processed foods, crappy carbs, sugar or junk food... and the longer you go without them, the less you'll miss them.

People whose idea of going on a diet is only eating one bar of chocolate a day for a couple of weeks need to stop telling people who do it properly that diets don't work.

01:08 PM on 05/23/2012

I'm probably more aware of what willpower is than most people. And I'm not doing it wrong because I'm not doing it at all.

To say that most people are ignorant and weak willed is ill-informed, ignorant and damaging.

There's no point getting into an argument with you. I've been studying the brain and overeating/undereating for 20 years and I could discuss it but don't have the time.

The tiny minority of people who are 'successful' at diets, have a motivational balance allowing their extreme concern about appearance to override the biological drive to eat more (caused by dieting). Often the stressful effort needed to keep up the ongoing fight, year after year, means that they become bitter towards people whose motivational balance doesn't work this way and who can't stop themselves from overeating.

Basically, the more neurotic you are about appearance, the more easily you'll fight the drive to overeat. And even more acute appearance concern leads to addiction to starvation (anorexia).

These are all places in the scale of disordered eating and the only people who live free are those who have never dieted. They are called normal eaters.

I won't reply as I get into wrangles with bitter 'successful' dieters who've done no research and are wound up by a long struggle with food or they're arrogant and self-righteous through belief in their own strength of will.

I know because many come to me for help when they're exhausted!

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mmvernes

Catty and Chatty

196 Fans

07:37 PM on 05/22/2012

The food is horrible over in the UK. They all should be skinny. UK isn't known for their culinary contributions to the world.......

dede4007

71 Fans

08:48 PM on 05/22/2012

funny

06:54 AM on 05/23/2012

We many not be up to the standards of the French or the Italians, but I've lived in the UK and the US and the food in the UK is way, way better. Quantity doesn't always mean quality.

I've got two words to say to you to prove my point: "American" and "cheese."