A new islandwide survey conducted by Pharmanex has revealed that more than 40 per cent of 745 women say they dieted to avoid feeling inferior to slim and beautiful women. The fear of losing their partners was also cited as reasons for dieting.

The Right Approach survey was conducted to find out what people struggle most with when dieting to achieve their ideal weight and the kind of support they needed to sustain their weight loss over the longer term.

Most of the women surveyed acknowledged that there was no easy way out to dieting but many still wanted a cheap and easy diet programme, with 30 per cent saying they wanted to lose the flab but did not want to diet.

It was also revealed that over 70 per cent of the women surveyed had little knowledge of what extreme dieting measures can do to their health.

Mr Michael Chen a spokesperson for Phamanex, said that the survey findings showed a need for health experts to educate the public on the right approach to dieting.

Mr Chen urges people to diet in order to stay healthier and to live longer. He also stresses the importance of managing weight gain from early on so as to avoid severe health problems down the road.

Obesity is a serious problem and the World Health Organisation has projected that global obesity levels will swell 75% to 700 million people by 2015.