Diet fads come and go, but it seems that there is always a new way to get thinner, which is why it may come as no surprise that the average woman spends an alarming 17 years of her life on diets.

A new study by Diet Chef found that, of these dieters, the average woman loses her body weight over nine times during her lifetime.

UK researchers found that the average woman diets twice a year and loses on average 11 pounds each time.

Researchers said that UK life expectancy data shows that the average woman lives until the age of 82 and weighs on average 154 pounds. Therefore, if the woman begins dieting at the age of 18, she will lose her body weight 9.1 times, and if she spends seven weeks on a diet twice a year, she will spend approximately 17.2 years dieting.

"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, however as we can see actually embarking on a diet and losing the extra pounds is more difficult and takes real commitment," Kevin Dorren, Founder and Head Chef of Diet Chef, said in a statement.

Researchers found that less than one percent of respondents were able to stick to a diet for a 12 month period and a third of all woman reported dieting for at least six months per year.

Some of the top reasons for dieting include not being able to fit into clothes, with 52 percent of respondents saying this, and the same number of respondents also said that having a "muffin top" was the first sign that showed that they had piled on the pounds.

Some of the top dieting incentives were looking good for the summer holidays and for weddings as well as being healthier.

About 35 percent of respondents said that their general love of food kept them from sticking to their diet while 33 percent blamed their lack of willpower and 20 percent of women saying that they felt like healthy foods are too expensive to purchase.

More than one in three women will splurge on comfort purchases like shoes when they felt bad about their diet.