Survey shows 'shocking' dieting
Updated on 16 October 2007
Less than one in ten women who lose weight by dieting manage to keep it off, according to a new survey.
Only 9% diet successfully while the remaining 91% put the fat back on and are doomed to a cycle of calorie counting for the rest of their lives.
Researchers found women used a range of substances - including class A drugs - to lose weight. Almost four out of 10 (37%) had tried slimming pills, laxatives (26%) and amphetamines or cocaine (15%).
Three out of 10 (31%) women admitted they had made themselves sick after eating and one in ten (10%) said they would have a gastric band fitted.
More than eight out of ten (82%) of those questioned had dieted. Almost a third (32%) counted the calories all the time, a further 20% watched what they ate every month, 11% three or four times a year, 6% twice a year and 13% once a year. Only 18% of women never tried to diet.
The survey of 2,000 people, commissioned by women's magazine Now, revealed that only 2% of those questioned were happy with their body while the average woman would spend £11,000 for a better one.
Now editor Helen Johnston said: "Women today have a shocking relationship with food and are living a binge/purge lifestyle. Six out of 10 British women are so hooked on quick fix diets they say they no longer know how to eat normally."
She added: "Body image is the female curse of the 21st Century. Whatever a woman's achievements in life, her whole self image is totally bound up in her body shape."
A third of women said they would give up sex to be slim forever and 86% said they would rather drop a dress size than sleep with David Beckham.
Just over half the women said they would have cosmetic surgery, now or in the future. The three most popular treatments were liposuction, tummy tuck and breast enhancement.
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