Most women living in modern societies feel the pressure associated with dieting, weight loss and keeping in shape. The truth is, aggressive advertising and contemporary beauty standards tell us that we have to be thin to be successful, which often prompts us to look at ourselves in the mirror very critically and crave the body of a skinny, airbrushed model, the likes of which we get to see every week on the cover of the latest glossy magazine. A recent survey that looked at the dietary and lifestyle habits of 4,000 women, found that the typical woman will go on roughly two diets every year, with each diet lasting an average of five weeks, which adds up to 104 diets between the ages of 18 and 70 and a whopping total of roughly ten years spent dieting.

The thought of spending ten years on a diet, counting calories and glancing jealously at the skinny girl stuffing her mouth with chocolate-glazed brownies at the next table, seemingly without a single care in the world, is enough to make any of us faint - literally. And yet, scared or not, reluctantly, happily or hating ourselves, the vast majority of us go on diets. Two diets every year may not sound too bad - however, the question becomes, if diets work, why two diets a year, every year? The answer is simple: any weight we lose doesn't stay off, and usually comes back with a vengeance. Also, the same survey indicates that a quarter of all women who go on a diet do not lose any weight at all, which prompts them to go at it again and again.

"Women's weight is bound to fluctuate due to life changing events such as having a baby, emotional factors associated with relationships and changes in their working environment", explains Dr Glenn Wilson, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College, London, adding that "feeling healthy and in shape can make such a difference to overall well-being yet many people struggle to reach and sustain their ideal figure with a shocking 25 per cent who would even be willing to go under the knife to get rid of their extra pounds".

The same survey also showed that a third of the women who took part in it had embarked on their first diet when they were 16 or under. Almost half of the 4,000 women (44 % to be more precise) expressed their frustration with dieting and said that whatever they do, they never seem to lose any weight at all. More than half of the volunteers also declared themselves discouraged with the idea of dieting and said that they will probably never achieve the shape they truly desire. The research indicated that usually women aspire for a British size 10 (a US size 8 and European size 38), although a quarter of them think that a size 8 (US size 6 and European size 36) or under is ideal.