Even slim women have poor body image

Just one in 17 women of a healthy weight consider themselves to be slim, according to new research.

The study into self-esteem, carried out by weight loss club Slimming World, asked just over 2,200 people to look in the mirror and select from 12 adjectives todescribe how they thought they looked.

The subjects were then weighed and measured to determine whether they were overweight or hada healthy body mass index (BMI).

Among the group of women who were a healthy weight for their height, just 13% said they felt happy with how they looked in the mirror and only 6% thought they were slim and 17% described themselves as fat.

The men surveyed in the study were far less likely to believe they weighed too much when they did not. Just 6% of men with a healthy BMI said they thought they were fat.

The gender gaps were also dramatic among the overweight members of the study, with twice as many women (20%) as men saying they felt 'ashamed" about their body.