BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat and 1xtra’s TXU asked 25,000 people, mostly aged 17 to 34, how they felt about their bodies. They were some worrying trends:
Women
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The survey found two thirds of those who are size 14 also thought they were overweight or fat, and a third of size 12s think they’re overweight or fat.
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Despite all the debate about skinny models, less than one per cent of those surveyed said they were a size zero, UK size four.
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Almost half of all girls say they’ve skipped a meal to try to lose a few pounds, while 8% had made themselves sick.
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More than half of females said they’d consider plastic surgery, breast implants were most popular with women and liposuction’s popular with both sexes.
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Half of women said they want to change a lot about their looks, while more than 10% “hated” what they looked like.
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More than half of girls aged 12 to 16 felt that their body image either stops them from getting a boyfriend or from relaxing in a relationship.
Men
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About 20% of those in their early 20s said that they have taken protein supplements in a bid to help themselves bulk up, compared with 11% of over 35s.
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Far fewer men than women said they were on a diet right now: one in five guys in their early 20s said they’d done it, but less than one in 10 men are on a diet at the moment.
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When asked to rate photos of differently shaped male bodies, almost 80% of men and 65% of women favoured a very muscular physique.
