What do Beyonce, Nigella Lawson and Jennifer Lopez all possibly have in common? Well, the fact that most UK women want their bodies! A survey conducted by NHS Choices also found that 64% of women aged 16 to 55 aren’t at all happy with their body shape...
The survey revealed that when asked what female celebrity possesses their dream body from a list that included Kate Moss, Keira Knightly and Beth Ditto, the top three chosen by women were; Beyonce (24%), Jennifer Lopez (24%) and Nigella Lawson (22%). With only 0.65% of the vote, Beth Ditto had the least desired celebrity figure.
Interestingly enough, the survey identified that the same amount of women wanted supermodel Kate Moss’ body shape than as that of curvaceous Queen Latifa! The results surprisingly indicated that perhaps the desire for the stick thin trend from the catwalk is dying out and women are seeking a sexier, healthier approach to their body shapes.
The majority of the 500 women surveyed in December 2010 were either a healthy hourglass shape (41%) or were pear shaped (41%). Surprisingly, despite the fact that just a mere 14% of women said they were the least healthy apple body shape, 80% of women had actually tried to lose weight before!
Perhaps us women should take a tip from the men, as a similar survey discovered that 58% of guys were happy with their body despite the fact that 42% had an unhealthy ‘well rounded’ shape! Their dream celebrity bodies list was topped by David Beckham and Will Smith, closely followed by James Corden who came in at third (much as we love Smithy, we hope they were joking!)
Here at Company we think it’s amazing news that women are desiring to look healthier according to their body shapes rather than forcing themselves to be unnaturally skinny. Following the tragic recent death of French model Isabelle Caro who had famously battled with anorexia and campaigned against the disease, fashion houses such as Dolce and Gabanna and Armani have reportedly started to steer away from using painfully thin models in their campaigns. There are girls who are of course naturally thin and who look great but looking good is inevitably about looking healthy for your personal shape and size.
“If you want to lose weight and keep your weight down, crash diets are not the answer” GP Knut Schroder advised. “It’s really about making small changes to your lifestyle, like swapping unhealthy snacks for healthy ones, taking up an exercise routine that you can stick to and cutting down on alcohol which is full of additional calories.”
Be sure to take advantage of the helpful advice and useful tools on the NHS choices site including the alcohol tracker, snack swapper and couch to running podcasts all of which are free to use and perfect to help you gain a healthier standard of living.
Most important of all, be sure to remember that the ultimate beauty secret is about being happy in your own skin.
