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From The Sunday Times
April 8, 2007

My 6-week journey to the land of thin

What does it take for a normal woman to achieve size zero? In this graphic account of extreme dieting, Kate Spicer reveals the revolting cost

Kate Spicer

A fascination with being thin is a defining part of this rapidly fattening age and nothing exemplifies it better than the recent tumult in fashion and the media over the size zero physique. A size zero is officially 31½-23-34 — little-boy statistics that can be applied to some of the biggest red carpet names of the day. But the term doesn’t bring to mind vital statistics; it has come to represent a state of slenderness and richness that to most normal eyes looks like skin, bone, expensive hair and lovely clothes.

Personally I don’t care too much about the debate in fashion. Models have always been thin and while some have issues, generally the model’s body is an extraordinary one: they are a gangly slender breed unto themselves. More fascinating — and alarming — are the lengths other women will go to physically and mentally to keep themselves well under their natural body weight; and the extent to which most of them think their natural weight is essentially fat.

I am never quite satisfied with my body, but aside from largely healthy eating and regular exercise I can’t be bothered to do much more about it. However, when I was challenged to make a documentary about what it takes to attain the distinctive anticurves of the size zero, I said yes.

These are the lowlights of my descent into starvation.

Zero intolerance

Columnist and mum-of-three Jane Moore is worried about the effect that glamorising stick-thin models has on teen girls

Related Links

Week one

Am nicely fit, but a wee bit porky (just over 10 stone) after two weeks enjoying death by cheese and ham skiing in France over Christmas. I face the new year with the understanding that the next few weeks are going to be miserable. I will follow a lifestyle that, for example, an actress or singer might adopt were they getting ready for a red carpet event or a video shoot.

First up, the tried and tested master cleanse diet, a concoction of lemons, cayenne pepper, maple syrup and spring water, used most famously recently by Beyoncé to lose 20lb in 14 days.

Buy all the stuff and go home to make up fiery, sweet, sour filth that will be my sole nourishment. Within two days I know I cannot live on this stuff while working. Am agitated, bored — so bored — and have a feeble attention span. My legs might still look sturdy, but they struggle to climb stairs and my head is light as a feather. At times I woozily weave rather than walk.

Leaving the steam room one evening after an ultra-short session at the gym (must keep my metabolism up so that I continue to burn calories at a normal rate and not at a slow starvation rate), I pass out and fall against the wall. A woman props me up. “Sorry, I’m not eating much,” I say in a dizzy haze. She looks daggers: “Well stay out of the gym then, you are a danger to more than yourself.”

I get home and try hard to focus on my ambition to have an x-ray-like body. I try to enjoy the sensation of hunger, something I have heard women in the public eye say and have also read on anorexia forums on the internet. Enjoying hunger is not nourishing for me, and I eat 10 raisins, 10 nuts and a tablespoon of maple syrup feeling weak-willed and guilty. I am going generally nuts.

Appropriately I start eating about 500 calories of nuts a day because my job is impossible to do on the lemonade alone. My attention span improves — a bit. The master cleanse book recommends doing the diet for a minimum of 10 days and a maximum of 40, a state of affairs I find unimaginable.

Already I enjoy the feeling of emptiness in my body and every morning I encourage more emptiness by drinking two pints of salty water to cleanse my bowel. The effect is explosive. Obviously this isn’t healthy. I am also smoking a lot more.

So apart from making friends with all the people in the smoking room at work my social life has taken a nose-dive. I turn up to dinners after everyone has eaten; drink water, smoke, and go home exhausted by midnight. Call this life? However, a surprising number of women, when I tell them why I am not eating, say they have done the diet too and a strange sort of kinship over suffering is shared. Crazily it seems I am not alone.

Week two

Haven’t seen my mum or granny for months. Mum asks me when I am coming down. I tell her I won’t be coming home until this is over. Life in Devon revolves around physical exertions and big noisy wine-fuelled meals finished off with sticky nursery puddings. On this diet my happiest place is tucked up in bed alone, stomach grinding with hunger, wrapped round a hot water bottle (I am always cold) with some prescription-strength sleeping pills.

I have to fly to Miami to interview a Hollywood skinny. I cannot take fluids on the plane, so no lemonade. I survive the 12-hour flight on a small bag of nuts and some orange juice.

On arrival I go direct to the hotel to do the interview. I am now beside myself with hunger — I feel like I am floating — and am chain-smoking to try and get my wits together. While I wait for the actress at the hotel I eat some ham and raw vegetables. I try to talk to the Hollywood skinny about weight issues; she goes off the wall. Touchy!

After the interview I go for dinner and am so debilitated that I eat a small tuna tartare and have two glasses of wine. Then I crack — that’s the wine — and order some coconut cake. After a few mouthfuls I become hyper, like a kid after too many sweeties, rambling excitedly about how sugar acts on the same neural pathways as cocaine. Everyone stares — I am on a sugar high. My cheeks are flushed and my speech is speedy. I feel happy.

The next day I get up and run for an hour and feel really fat. The truth is, the more weight I lose, the fatter I feel and the more I want to lose weight. I lie in bed in the mornings feeling my hipbones and wanting to feel them more. I want them to jut out.

When an old friend asks me how I am getting on I grumble about how stupid it all is and say how sorry I feel for women who live out their lives in this state of privation. She’s cynical. “I think you’re enjoying this,” she says, knowing me better than myself at times. I secretly agree with her.

Week three

My boobs and arse are flat as pancakes, though the former specifically look awful. During the diet a male friend grabbed my bum and said “Yuck” because it was so lifelessly flat. When I get back to the UK I have to go for my weekly weigh-in and check-up with Dr Le Roux, the metabolic physician at Imperial College London who is managing my health. The weekend in Miami has screwed up my extreme diet.

The thought that I may have put on weight is stressing me out. Obsessive dieters need routine, or a personal chef with them at all times. I feel bloated and guilty. My mind is warped and I have arrived at planet thin where all that really matters — forget art, literature, intelligence, love, family, career — is getting thinner. I am food phobic and can’t stop thinking about sex. A girl needs some kind of sensory pleasure in life, and sex and smoking are the only ones left.

What a strange life, thinking about food all the time but eating none. And when I do, such guilt. I buy some laxatives, which is stupid given that I go straight from Heathrow to a detox retreat in Kettering where I will have daily colonics and consume nothing apart from fruit juice. But then I am becoming very stupid.

The laxatives give me cramps and I arrive at the Homefield Grange retreat tired, agitated and in pain. For the next five days I will have regular enemas. I also — against the wishes of the supervisor there — force myself to train twice a day, a normal activity for the weight-loss obsessive. I ignore almost all phone calls, even from close family and friends. I cannot concentrate on books so, in between the training and the colonics, I watch garbage television and read trashy magazines by day and long into the night because the hunger keeps me awake.

But when Dr Le Roux weighs me and I’ve lost more than a stone in three weeks, all that weirdness and suffering turns to elation. I love my increasing slimness. You can wear anything you want, you look great in photos; put on heels and your legs look like something out of a fashion magazine. I feel a peculiar sense of power and control, and an air of aloof removal from other women.

Against my sisterly instincts I have started judging other women’s bodies against my own, ruthlessly, from their ankles to their chins, which is clearly menacing. But as my entire life has been seized by this body-driven self-validation it doesn’t bother my conscience as it should.

Nothing much great is happening anywhere else in my life: my work output is intermittent as I can’t concentrate, socially everything is a drag, family life is a nono. My biggest excitements are the steam room at the gym, smoking and of course shopping — fashion is made for women of my physical proportions.

No fear that I frequently feel on the verge of tears. Not to worry that meeting men is harder without a drink in your hand, because if I keep this up I’ll be a trophy-wife weight, I’ll be the sort of thin that a certain type of man likes to buy into as he would a flash car. And with the obsessive shopping and debilitated mental capacities for intellectual combat, I’ll fit the brief perfectly.

I am suckered into the miserably compromised life of the artificially skinny. Yes, it’s a pain in my nonexistent arse not eating much. It requires a lot of concentration and you need to disconnect from certain bonding activities, specifically conversation, drinking and eating.

Week four

Stupidly, on my weekly visit to Dr Le Roux, I tell him about the laxatives and he immediately sends me to a psychiatrist. After a cold hour of being grilled, the psychiatrist says I have the potential to develop bulimia and I am told to start eating normally.

I am beside myself with anger. I have left work now and for the final month had planned to dedicate myself to getting down to a revoltingly thin state. Partly to see the experiment through; partly because this was something I really wanted to do. I wanted to know what it felt like to be as thin as a properly thin person. It’s true that the anorexic state is a cry for help — am I participating in this specific psychopathology? Too right.

With not much work to do I could really concentrate. I had found a personal trainer to help me find that rail-like state. I would train hard twice a day while eating only 1,500 calories, I’d sleep in clingfilm, sweating like mad. He planned to train me as you would a boxer or a jockey getting ready for competition. And in between all I’d do is sleep. But instead I am told to “eat normally”.

Week five

Eating normally? Forget it. My mind is not my own any more and what follows is up there with the worst weeks of my life. I have to go to the Alps for work. The story isn’t going well and I’m stressed. Under stress, when I need to write, I often eat. It’s not cool,I don’t like it, but I do. I am terrified and confused. My body is hungry, but I am continuing to try and control my eating. The consequence of this is bingeing. I binge and then stick my fingers down my throat — twice. Is ita shrink-fulfilling prophecy? All I want is to be thin. I am unhappy.

I go back to Homefield Grange with two friends for the weekend, raving about its weight-loss benefits. I tell them matter of factly about the bingeing and purging, thinking that this is normal. When they both express shock, I feel a sense of isolation and shame. Their shock makes me realise quite how silly things have become.

And it is totally within my power to sort my head out, but I don’t want to. Dealing with it will mean putting on weight. We flick through Heat, The People, Hello!. There is no diversion from slim women, including Nicole Richie, being presented as successful who are clearly living their lives in the ravages of eating disorders. I spend the rest of the weekend reading books about eating disorders. My intellect is starting to fight back against my misguided, hunger-fuelled, bizarre idea of vanity.

Week six

I want my eating to return to normal. Bingeing is distressing to mind, body and soul. And as soon as my eating becomes more normal my human relationships become simpler, and I steadily feel happier and calmer. Nonethe-less I feel a failure and I still think my legs look chubby. I weigh about 9 stone. Most of the thin girls in gossip rags are probably 8 stone or less.

Even though my head was a mess my female friends all thought I looked great when I was at my thinnest. The cult of thin is a powerful one and, truth be told, if I didn’t have to workI could imagine almost enjoying getting into it. In certain pockets of society everyone thinks natural body weight is fat. If you are a perfectionist, as I and many other marginally successful women are, you fit the psychopathology brief for eating disorders. At the weekly weigh-ins with Dr Le Roux, I made him put a piece of card on the scales so that I didn’t obsess about numbers. What I went through is all too familiar to him.

The pursuit of thinness is a way of channelling every emotional energy into one ambition; it is a way of losing yourself in one problem — weight loss — and ignoring all the other issues in your life. Almost all women want to be thinner. When a woman feels low, or challenged by life, sometimes any excess flesh feels literally like the embodiment of their perceived weakness. Control around food is seen asa sign of intelligence and restraint. It’sa seductive and all-consuming addiction when the figures on the scales are a simple, if nutty, method of measuring your success as a human being.

Super-Skinny Me: The Race to Size Zero, is on Channel 4, April 22

i went 2 the doctor 2day, 25th .i woke up on 21 not hungry so i didnt eat. i havent eaten since except for 10 chips i ate on 24th i wanted 2 c would eating wake up my appetite,it didnt.i feel full,bloated uncomfortable. i thought i must be ill dr says no problem you have no sumptoms no wprries!??!

theresa, belfast, ireland

Nice to hear a different take - as a city girl it's more than a way of life every where you look.

Stop having a go at the article, this writer wasnt writing to help you take care of your eating disorder !???

Lexa, London,

I am struggling to come out of an eating disorder, I am sickened by "journalists" PLAYING AT ANOREXIA and comments stating that anorexics are vain. Her tiny amounts of food would have made me feel terrible about my 700-1000 calories per day, I can't see this article doing good for anyone.

k, leeds,

I spent 5 months trying to put on weight. I'm 5'7', 104lbs, sedentary lifestyle. To maintain my weight I need 1600cals. I made sure I was eating 2552-3000+ cals a day. I put on 2lbs. I have .65 waist/hip ratio 22-34 I know 'normal' chicks with less diff. Yet you say I have a boylike figure?

Rachel, Cairns,

I hate our skinny obsessed society. I'm a singer and recently was told that i should loose some weight if i wanted the job. im 5'4 and have a BMI of 19! If I lost much more weight id be under weight!

The problem is not the celebs or the public, its the magazines and the industry.

Jenny, London,

I'm amazed when I'm reading the measurements of a size zero and I have a hip measurement of 34 inches yet I am an Australian size 8 (size 2 US) and, 160cm (5"3'), have a BMI of 22 and if I put on 5kg will actually be overweight for my height. Isn't the BMI making me feel fat?

Daniela, Sydney, Australia

I am a size 6/4, not because I have an eating disorder, but because I have small bones. I cant find the clothes I want in shops because you can never really find anything below an 8. I dont know why there are so many shops for "plus size" (lets face it..fat) people, yet none for the smaller of us!

emily, canterbury, uk

Nice article! I've saw the 'Super-Skinny Me' show on youtube and was looking forward to finding out more abt the immediate participants. Its really great to read ur editorial abt what u've lived.
I am one of those who spent their life focusing on how they should look like, trying to be happy...

Irina, Chisinau, Moldova

I am a size 6 wih some size 4 (US 0) pieces in my wardrobe. I am extremely fit and healthy with a great appetite and love my body. Why then am I embarrassed to tell people my size? People allow their personal insecurities and jealousy condone negative judgements which creates stigma.

sharon, london,

Has anyone ever really questioned what is making people so extreme about getting thin? For me it wasnt the size 0 models, it was fast food resturants, seeing obese people stuffing yet another burger in their already bloated bulging tummies! I am a size 0, i eat nearly 2000 cal a day, NOT UNHEALTHY!

Laila, Colchester, uk

In response to other comments about uk size 12/14 girls being happy and healthy
I'm a size 12 I used to be a size 20 and I'm 22 years old, I feel fatter now than when I was bigger.. why? Because over the years the focus on skinny has become bigger and bigger so getting to a size 12 isnt thin enough

Name withheld, leeds, uk

I was very ill three years ago with kidney stones and i dopped down to a size 6 because i couldn't eat. When i came out of hospital (one kidney less than i'd arrived) I was told to eat anything to get my weight to rec. 9stone. With no aftercare?support from nhs I now weigh 13stone and am misreable.

Sheena Young, Glasgow, Scotland

This isn't worth it!! I'm 18 and have had anorexia for 8 yrs. As a result, i lost most of my friends, most likely wont be able to have kids b/c i can't get my period, and couldn't do anything fun because i was in the hospital most of the time. Just enjoy life and the body God gave you. It's worth it

C, RW, USA

I'm rather perplexed at every woman's desire to be ultra-thin; we all have it (save a few exceptions), but why? Why not something else?
I am also largely enraged that a diet of 1,500 calories was considered to be restricted and allowed one to waste away at an alarming rate -

Matilda Lawrence, Lawford,

will not allow me to drop below my weight of 9 stone (giving me a bmi of 23 - considering I measure only 5,3), do I have some unnatural ability to hold on to fat???

Matilda Lawrence, Lawford,

i have an ed.i started with things like buying lowfat milk etc. now i live off fruit&water,counting every calorie that passes my lips,going to bed starveing,comparing my body to other girls.i use to think victoria beckham was disgusting&now i admire her body&wish i had her willpower

stacey, dublin, ireland

Do you know why this article made me want to retch? Nope, I ain't bulemic, I'm just shocked at how self obsessed some people are. I'm 18 and a UK size 12. I have no idea what weight I am, becuase I don't care. I love my body, but I have bigger fish to fry, and so should all of you. Very sad.

Rose, Warwickshire. ,

In response to the above comment: comparing yourself to Kate and the fluctuations in your weight, to unhealthy BMI levels is not normal. Being happy, regular exercise and not obsessing about clothing size relates to a longer life and less health issues!

Sarah, London, UK

As a girl with an E.D, i found this article just made me more determined to loose weight quicker. I did find it very interesting. i was shocked that sh passed out in week one.would have thought it would have taken her longer to get into it if she was coming from eating completely normally.ohwel x

Nicki, Southampton, England

It's very interesting for me to read the comments. First things first, and I must get this off my chest: Men, if I ever diet, it has nothing to do with what I think men would find attractive.

I have a friend who is naturally a size zero. She said that her mother was exactly the same way before she had her, and now the mother is more an average size, i.e. size 12-14 (U.K.), and perfectly happy. She is a lovely girl. She said that the same might happen to her once she had children, I tentatively asked how she would feel if the same should happen to her. She laughed and said, why, "that's perfectly normal, and why should it be a problem at all to be a size 12 - 14 or even a 16? As long as you're happy and healthy". I've friends who are size 14-16, and I, a size 8/10. But they are far more electrifying, fun, and stunning, than I can ever hope to be. Because they live healthily, and they don't self-obsess.

Lessons, lessons to be learnt in life! It IS, indeed, about being happy within

kirastus, London,

I'm sorry, but as an eating disorder sufferer I found this article ridiculous. As someone else has already commented, five weeks of dieting does not make you anorexic. I don't think Kate Spicer met any of the diagnostic criteria for anorexia, which include a BMI of 17.5 or less (hers was around 19, if I remember rightly) and missing periods for at least three consecutive months.

I don't think Kate reached size zero or double zero. I don't think she even came close. She looks like an eight to ten, or a generous eight at the very least. I am her height of 5'7", and at nine stone I wore an eight to ten. I currently weigh around seven and a half stone, and I'm a size six, not a four (US zero). I can fit into Gap size zero jeans, but Gap's sizes are so ridiculously inflated that that means nothing.

Judging by the number of people who gained dangerous crash-dieting tips from this programme, I think it has probably done more harm than good.

Alice, Edinburgh, UK

Personally i think she looks fine in both pictures, obviously more toned in the second and this weight could probably have been achieved through a slower healthy eating and excercise plan.
Some girls will always choose being thin even if its a huge effort over being a heavier weight and that is their choice. As someone who always revels when freinds and family tell me I'm looking thin I understand the joy that losing weight brings and know many girls who value jutting bones more than eating.
Even when thin is no longer fashionable there will still be skinny girls.

Morven, London,

I will have my say, I happen to be a size 8/10, im very happy with that fact. I personally think size zero is a scary thing, the celebs look half dead (no offence). My point I would like to make however is, it's up to whoever how they live, but if somebody is really that bothered by their weight, there is something wrong. I don't blame the media for the size zero phase, but I do think something should be done about it. People just hav no confidence anymore, I think healthy curves are sexy. Skin n Bones just isn't...

Abi, Letchworth,

The overwhelming health problem in the developed world is obesity.

If your BMI is over 30 and you're not a professional athlete bulging with muscles, you're dangerously fat.

If you're between 25-30, you're overweight, 18-25 is normal.

Below 18 is unhealthy.

Now the problem with this article is that 40% of the U.S. (and I presume U.K) population who are obese (not to mention the other 20% who are overweight) will use this as an excuse to stay unhealthy, for fear of becoming like the 3%(some sites say 1%) who are anorexic.

Don't blame the media for anorexia, blame them (and writers like Kate Spicer) for obesity. Obesity is the killer here.

Nick, Macon, GA

The picture on the left looks healthy, the picture on the right not so much.

And people, let's get real for a minute here.

No one is saying a size "0" *can't* be healthy, but we are saying it depends on a variety of things. Being skinny doesn't equate with being ill anymore than being heavy does. It's dependent on a variety of elements. Height, build, frame, genetics, etc.

This experiment was *meant* to document the mindset that happens when we allow ourselves to be fooled by what we have thrown into our faces everyday.

The moral: One size does not fit all, no matter what the fashion and even some sects of the medical industries (BMI? Please.) would have us believe.

(And sizing, within fashion is a bunch of bunk as it is. Hello vanity sizes.)

Lin, Nashville,

There seem to be some bad feelings between the size zeros on this forum and the rest of us. It's not about who is right and who is wrong. It's about being happy and comfortable in your skin, whatever size your jeans are. I happen to know one or two people who are naturally a size 0, and it looks good on them because they have small frames, and very quick metabolisms. Personally, I feel my best at size 8/10 (and my husband loves me at this size). Also, I know a lot of people who are far curvier than I am, and it suits them - both in terms of health and appearance. The message to women everywhere should be 'Love yourself - inside and out'. And if you find yourself with a partner who does not validate that love - drop him like a bad habit. There are plenty of kind, supportive men in this world who will love you just the way you are.

Erin, Evans City, PA

I've always been heavy. I've tried diet after diet and finally had a gastric bypass. I was healthy at my old weight, no medical problems, but I wanted to be "normal". I'm now at a "normal" weight, but I would love to be thinner. I guess with a life long obsession of losing weight, you're never cured of it. Believe it or not, I'm still dieting and losing weight. Even more so than the restrictions placed on me for the bypass. I will stop one day, I guess.

Becky, Ft. Riley, USA

I can totally empathise with this article. As a sufferer of firstly bulimia and more recently anorexica, I am trying to get back on track myself. I can totally sympathise with the incidents she talks about, in particular the "sugar rush" incident, i too get these, and most of the time feel out of control of my body. I just hope that someone reads this and sees sense, as it is all consuming to say the least. And the lady above is right. Real men want real women :)

V, Maghera, N Ireland

I think the article is brilliant. She exposes that prior, she's relatively comfortable/normal, and that once starting this "diet" becomes abnormal, her thoughts irregular/harmful, and she essentially becomes "stupid"!!!
The ONLY sad thing here is the comments. This guy thinks she's better looking skinny, this lady says that she's a fat girl & happy. C'mon now - if you're fat, you have an eating disorder too (you're not happy, you're controlled by food which makes you weak - you're saying you're happy as a scapegoat so you can continue to be lazy), & the rest of the opinionated posts listed here sound, for the most part, terribly uneducated, and ridiculously dumb.
I am 26-used to be skinny from starvation. Now I'm a fit & toned athlete, with curves in the right places, & eat a balanced diet. My muscle tone gets lots of + attn from men & women
I say, thank you Kate - for exposing this to others. I'm happy that you're back on track with a normal life and healthier eating habits

Bre, NYC, US

I am a size 0 and have even been smaller because of health problems. Other than my weight... you can't tell that I am sick by looking at me. It is amazing how society believes they can comment on your weight (in a negative way and to your face) if you are skinny, but would never say that to someone who is overweight. To the man who said "Real men prefer real women! I like women who are plump with soft round curves, not some bubble-headed bimbo who looks like a soda straw with the IQ of a steam iron", and "Bones are for dogs!", you need to keep your rudeness in check, just like I would if I met you. My size 0 body certainly doesn't affect my intelligence like you are so quick to believe. It's the character of a person that matters, not the size. I realize that the people who make negative comments about my weight are usually just jealous, but I quickly tell them that I would trade my illness for 100 lbs of weight anyday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be considerate people.

Christy, Mooresville, NC, USA

This obsession to be super thin is rather disgusting. You're really an unhappy and miserable lot.

You're self righteous, anti-social, thinking only of yourself, and filled with hatred, mostly self hate. You can't even enjoy other aspect of life, forgoing art and literature, reading only trashy magazines and watching trash TV and thinking only of the
numbers on the scale, your body AND mind both waisting away! How sad!

I'm a fat person, at 5 ft 6 in and almost 400 pounds, and I'm perfectly happy and contented with my size and weight, and if anyone here wants to put me down for being fat, then so be it.

I'm use to it. So give it your best shot!

Real men prefer real women! I like women who are plump with soft round curves, not some bubble-headed bimbo who looks like a soda straw with the IQ of a steam iron.

Bones are for dogs!

I love good food, good music, and good books. I'm fat and happy and I enjoy life.

I like to sing and dance and stomp my feet and really rock your world!

Fat Man, El Paso, Texas

The article is very useful as gives exact info on "do's" and "don't" of dieting procedure.

In general, everything is good in modest quantities. Your body is the best barometer of what's good for you, including size issue.

Natalie, Moscow, Russia

I live in Thailand, and my wife is a petite South East Asian woman. Prior to getting married she was 43 kg (6 1/2 st and I believe too thin) and after two kids she is just over 49kg. If she was worried about it, she could go to the gym and lose it all again.

I travel to the US occasionally on business and buy clothes and nick nacks that are not available over here.

Imagine my shock when trying to size my wife who by American sizes is a size 2 only to find that there was indeed a size zero and DOUBLE ZERO in jeans. I couldn't believe that a Western woman could even be that small.

Of course there are people naturally that small, and thru exercise it is might be achievable. One has to wonder why average women want to achieve being this small since it is palpably inachievable for 95% of the population.

Western women are on average not meant to be a size zero.

Nick, Bangkok, Thailand

It might have hurt to get there Kate, but to be totally frank, the pic on the right looks much more attractive to me. I am a normal male. Intelligent. Fit. Married.

Now you've got there...eat sensibly, stay active, and quit smoking. And get over the drama please.

nik b, hexham, uk

Are you interested in what a guy thinks about this? How about what a whole pack of guys think?

After a random survey of the guys in the office, here's our verdict:

We like the 'before' picture. The 'after' picture looks like a woman who needs to make friends with a cheeseburger or six.

Joe, San Jose, CA

While I understand freedom of speech, I hope people understand the impact their words have on individuals who are already vulnerable to eating disorders. A few years ago, I read an article very similar to this one in a magazine about a journalist who went on the lemonade diet - like this journalist attempted to do. I had already gone through a struggle for anorexia and was in recovery for over a year when I read the article. That article, among other things, triggered a relapse of my eating disorder. I would pull out the article and read it over and over again and think of myself as a failure because I couldn't go more than a couple of days on the lemonade diet. I am now at a place where I can read an article like this and it doesn't make me want to starve myself again. It makes me sad, though, to think of the people out there who will read this and wish they had the willpower to become a "super skinny" them.

M, Fort Lauderdale, FL

The reasons why super-thin supermodels are so famous is BECAUSE their bodies are so unnatural. If they were normal sized women, people wouldn't give them a second thought. But rail-thin women catch your eye and hold your attention. They make you feel something, be it envy, admiration, or disgust. For whatever reason, you've stared at that magezine ad of movie trailor, and that's what they want. They want you to see and know the product they're promoting.

Chelsea, Montgomery,

I agree with Morgan, it's not unnatural to be I size 0. Hell, I fit into a 00 and still eat more than anyone I know. My doctor says I'm one of the most healthy patients he's ev er had. People only accuse thin people of having disorders so that they feel better about being overweight. And I find it extremely offensive that this article says that size 0 is "revoltingly thin". What rubbish. Grow up and stop hurting other people to make yourselves feel better.

Heather, Moreno Valley, California

Look, don't starve yourself, just eat mountains of veg, broccoli, cabbage, tomatoes,sprouts, onions, peppers, carrots etc., raw,steamed or stir fried with good quality meat and fish, give grains and sugars the heave ho totally. You will feel full, feel good, look healthily slim and probably live longer.

David , Lagrasse, France

I'm almost 60 and a size zero. I love the way I look, I love being able to wear anything I want, and I love the feeling of being in control over the size of my body. Yeah, I have to sacrifice some meals for it - but not, as the author of the article would have us believe - an entire lifestyle. That's just silly. But if staying size zero meant I need to sacrifice more, I would do it. Being fat re

Size zero isn't for everyone. There are those who genetically are too large-framed to get there healthily, and there are those for whom the pleasure of eating outweighs any pleasure they might derive from being thin. And there are a few lucky girls who are size zero without even trying. What counts is to be happy with our bodies and our looks.

I'd like to smack the next person who makes a comment like, "Men like some meat with the bones," or otherwise indicate that the primary reason for our choices about appearance should be based on our attractiveness to men. Please yourself first.

Aeriel, Gloucester, MA

To be honest as a 19 year old male I hate girls/women who starve themselves silly to make themselives thinner or who apply an inch of make up to make themselves look prettier. If you want to lose weight eat 2000 good solid healthy calories a day and burn at least 500 calories in the gym (thats about 20 minutes on the running machine).

Oh and stay away from the rowing machines, you expend double the amount of calories on a running machine.

Fred, London,

I applaud her wanting to understand the psychology of these women that starve themselves for the "ideal woman's body." But what is not mentioned is the mindset you need to have about yourself to look good. The sexiest thing a woman can have is self-confidence. I am a healthy, happy, curvy size 14-16. I recently had a man tell me I was fat, and I asked him.. "What's more interesting on a date? A woman who will eat once piece of lettuce out of a $10 salad, or a woman who will eat the meal?" He agreed with me. Ladies, believe in yourself, know you look good with the body God gave you, and enjoy life!

You know you're much to busy to worry about a number, anyway.

Sarah Ann, Orlando, Florida

Everything in this article is right. I know I should get help but I think it’s too late.
I already know that I won’t seek help and I will continue to bottle these things up. The bigger (muuuuuuuch bigger) part of me is the sick part; I will remain quiet. Though, the smaller part will try and get help or try to leave clues for someone to over hear or see or read; the bigger part that doesn’t want it will beat that side down and shut it up as quickly as it is able to get free and gain a voice.
I’m torn and my soul has been consumed by EDNOS. I am in waaaay over my head. Even if I were to get help, I’ll never be truly better. I will forever be in a personal war. I can either fight to be or I can fight not to be. I wish I never got into this mess.
For anyone who is even THINKING of starting to get into this dark place, PLEASE don’t. It isn’t worth it! You don’t know what it is like and if you start to wander get help immediately. Do it before it is too late. You may think you want this but you really don’t. Yes, I want to be skinny and I am willing to do a lot of messed up things to get there but I am messed up in the head. I also figure it is too late for me. I am drowning and no matter what I do I will always be downing. Don’t let yourself get to this point. Please don’t! You wake up dreading the rest of the day. The only thing you look forward to is going back to sleep. I can’t even take something as simple as IBProfin anymore without freaking out from a major anxiety/panic attack. I have no more high lights in my life. The only thing left are my cigarettes (like the girl said in her article), and the bittersweet moments when someone says something positive about my physical appearance. Well, just like the snap of my fingers the joy from this turns sour and I hurt even more.
The main point of me writing this is to hopefully stop somebody from doing this to themselves. I figure it won’t do much if anything at all but you never know. If you need somebody to talk to you can e-mail me. I am here and willing to read and respond to anybody that needs to unload, rant, and vent.

sweetasoleander, South Bay, USA/CA

I like you more in the picture on the left.

KT, London,

I've been through this. No exercise but I ate once a day, a fruit or maybe a few veggies, binge eating occasionally and throwing up. For 2 years. The feeling of people telling you how great you look and what a great figure you have made me feel fat every time I was over a size 6 (British). You're tired all the time, and the only way to stop thinking about eating when you've nothing to do is sleep. Apart from the extra attention and compliments, it was an awful experience. I made up excuses not to go to dinners, not to see my family, and made up lies to make these habits seem normal to others. My social life revolved around clubbing and shopping - dates were weird as if I went to a restaurant with a guy I couldn't eat more than a couple of mouthfuls; getting too close to anyone was also out of the question as they might notice. It's an awful way to live and the 'good' feeling is totally false.
You can't experiment with this. You can't control it - it controls you.

Isabel, London, UK

Loosing one stone in six weeks and going from 10 to 9 stone is hardly going for size zero. At 9 stone the size you will have is maybe a comfortable 10. You are a long way off to the super skinny look!

Puni, London,

I've done this, thus I am a recovering anorexic. But then again, I am a teenager. My emotional and psychological state while I was starving myself was severely altered by my obsession: as the author said, I slept a lot, exercised more than usual, and ate a very small amount of food every day. Of course, I insisted that I was not starving because I WAS still eating. However, I have some great girls who sat me down one day and told me to get my act together. They helped me, starting with that. It's been two years, and I am much better.

And, no, I did not get down to a size zero; I had no reason to. However, I did get down to a three, and realized that when I was on a healthy, well-balanced diet, I could maintain a waist size 3 or 5 while participating on my high school's track and field team with only moderate training each day.

I have no reason to starve myself anymore. No one should feel that need. A healthy lifestyle is the best way to accomplish anything.

Kate, Grand Rapids, MI

That is such a bunch of crap a size o is not healthy and will never look sexy, god gave humans food because that is what we need to be healthy and mentally happy and all the B.S in the world will never make you women sound normal..

wendy, silver springs, florida

My friend's mother (in her forties) just died of heart troubles that resulted from a teenage eating disorder. Please seek help if you need it; looking like a cadaver may very well lead to premature death.

Heather, SLC, USA

I am a size zero after 2 children. I eat whatever I feel like and don't really excercise. I think it's a genetic thing.

Tiffany, Kingwood, TX

I'm a size 6, and I honestly think I'd look weird at a size 0, so I don't think the hollywood obsession with weight will ever affect me. And even being a size 6 I still look great in a bikini, so really the whole idea about how you can't be sexy unless you don't exactly have a size is just bull if you ask me. My fiance loves my body and can't get enough of it. But way back in my days as a gymnast I may have been a 3 or a 2, but I had no boobs and no ass. I'm happy being "fat" on hollywood terms

Tara, Easton, PA

What about long term results of anorexia or bulemia? I was both for 5+ years, ate one VERY small meal a day, at best, exercised for at least 4 hrs a day and took diet pills. I'm 5'7" and weighed only 104 lbs. My goal (stupid as it was) was to weigh UNDER 100 lbs. in my 30's. Mind and will-power can be SO strong. Never reached my goal - instead I became pregnant and that probably saved my life. My long term affects are: trouble with sugar levels, damaged heart, thyroid is messed up, breathing is irratic, and anemia. There're many other problems that come from a life of eating stupid (or the lack thereof) and persistant, hard exercise. I have trouble now loosing weight because my body "thinks" it is going to be starved again. This is a very dangerous, life-threatening disease that affects many young girls today. Hollywood presents them with an unobtainable goal of ulta-thin. What a shame! Exercise and eat right and be happy with what is normal for you even if it isn't a sz 0.

Sheryl, Chattanooga, TN

Wake up ladies. Size 0 is the new size 4..You aren't THAT thin

DJ, Brussels, Belgium

I want to vomit just reading this. People who lived the life of a size zero should only spend a day in the shoes of a size 18, 20, or even size 28.

Shannon, Sylvania, OH

you guys are all crazy... a size zero isn't "normal" JUST EAT and work out and be healthy.. don't starve yourself geez

Lauren , Manchester,

Yawn. Rivetting stuff.

ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Max Rectangle, Bradford,

I am asize 0 at 34 22 34. I run alot and eat only a cup of veggies and noodles shortly before bedtime. Energy is over the top. I love the way I look.

Terri Brady, Mojave, CA USA

I am 54 years old, and look like I am in my late 30's.
I wear a size 0. I love how I look, fit and curvy. I exercise and lift weight. I eat six meals a day, and I don't over-eat...never loaded. My friends say I'm sexy.

Elaine, San Francisco, USA CA

I fail to understand why so many people are attacking those that wear a size 0. It is possible to be a size 0 without having some sort of eating disorder. I wear a size 0 and happen to be very muscular. If I had never lifted weights, I probably couldn't even wear Juniors sizes. Once upon a time it would have been called petite.

Morgan, Tampa, Florida

I'm 130 lbs, 5 foot 7, and if I showed up in a magazine, of course I would get slammed for my curves. But that's because celebrities are judged by a different standard than normal people. They are pressured into weighing less than is appealing. I don't understand why people can't separate model world from the real world.

I love how I look, I exercise and don't over-eat. I'm fit and curvy and my friends say I'm sexy.

When dieting, people need to learn how to differentiate between model weight and the weight that looks best on them personally.

Jess, OKC, USA

"A size zero is officially 31½-23-34"
REALLY???
I once thought it would be worth trying to lose weight and see what "skinnier" would be like, but I'll happily keep my 39-32-37 frame! My thinner friends are always complimenting me or making envious comments, but secretly I wanted envied them. No more!
Thank you for delving into this Ms. Spicer and exposing the myths!

Hannah, Evansville, IN, USA

Oh my God.....reading through the comments - every comment from a man is based on what they find attractive and that this should be reason enough for a woman to not be a size zero (or underweight in general). As usual males egocentricity completely overlooks the issue at hand. Wake up - it is not about you - it is about them.

Holly, Harrow,

Yes, in America it's quite sad also... a girl my size will walk past my friends and I, and they will shoot off at the mouth with how fat her legs or belly are. People are so shallow... they don't even realize it. I'll have to try and find this on BBC when I get the chance.

Trish, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

i think size 0 is completely qrong. size 0 doesnt even exsist.....media has portrayed size 0 to be a good thing but actually...its not. Although im a size 8, sometimes i want to be even thiner than what i am..bt dn i fink abt my body and the effects dieting will have on it....i am happi to stay as i am....n i suggest every1 to stay themselves because u r beautifulxxx

Sana, london, UK

I was a size 0 when I was a teenager. Heck, I was a 0 until I was about 21 years old. I'm 26 now, and I won't say what size I am - but it's not a 0. I have never been anorexic or bulimic, but even when I was thin, I never saw myself as such. It's terrible what society does. I watched "Super Skinny Me" on BBC and I was blown away. It's too easy to be caught up. Eat healthfully and enjoy yourself!

Cate, New Orleans, Louisiana USA

I'm 15 and size 0, I always have been and probably will always be thin, i'm 5ft 5, but I am naturally skinny as I eat pratically whatever I want, and only exercise in p.e lessons at school. I like being size 0 as I only really get slated for it by random people on the street, but everyone at school is envious as I will sit there stuffing my face, whilst many of my friends are on a diet. I only hate it when people starve themselves to be size 0!

Ana , Windsor, England

I understand that people think they need to be skinny because I'm like that, but size 0 is not right, I'm one size away from size 0 and I hate being skinny, one of the main problems is its impossible to find size 6 trousers. I also want to be a model but I refuse to become a size 0 model and more modelling organisations are becoming interested in size 10 and higher models.
I can't understand why people think they need to be skinny to be attractive, I doubt people will find bones sticking out attractive, I certainly don't! People shouldn't pay attention to super skinny stars but to people like Beyonce. More and more people are becoming attractive to larger men and women. I'd love to have my hourglass figure back like my friends have!

April, Aldershot, England

heya, ive always been size zero im only 17 and i eat everything i want so i can belive that not all models are starving themselves ! but on the other hand in a society like today there is no wonder so many girls are suffering with anorexia. only like 3 months ago i had the same problem, i would look in the mirror thinking iwas fat, so went on a diet even though i had a 221/2 inch waist, i started becoming obsessed with calorie intake . and lets just say in the end .. i was like a walking skeliton! i lost all my friends had no social life, i lied to everyone about what i had eaten! i couldnt do excercise without fating i went to 6 stone i was ill and it was ruining me! yes im lucky now that im ok, but i will be scared for life and i always fear i will go back to how i was! why dont people just love u the way you are!! u cant blame the media altogether but one of the main reasons i wanted to be 'thinner' was because of size 00 publicity its crazy how young girls look up to celebrities!

april-lian, lincoln, england

I am a 16 year old male and i heard that there is now a male size 0, so i dieted just living on salad and water. in one month i went from 12 stone 5 to 8 stone 9. My weist went from 34 inches to 23 inches. I feel great and being a male size 0 is the best thing since sliced bread, im loving it.

Carl, london, untied kingdom

I think the statement 'if I didn't have to work' is quite important in understanding any persuit of these type of diets and buying into the culture of thin. The size 0 type of body cannot sustain the type of demands the working day presents, and as seen there were problems experienced in concentration and in productivity. Therefore this stick thin frame says, 'obviousy I don't work, I don't look as if I can'. Look at rich woman of the past, working Victorian women couldn't have worn the uber tight corsets; it was rich women that wore high heeled shoes because they didn't work; make-up probably had a similar origin. The size zero diet is evidence of the age old attempt of rich women to distance themselves from the possibility of hard graph being part of their lives. However this is only a historical exploration, the real problem of this trend is that it goes against an innate biological need to eat, and in relation to an innate psychological need to enjoy food.

Aaron, Brighton, U.K

its size 0 us sizing, not uk!

kim, uk,

I have been through a serious family barevment this year and have found that not eating is the only way that I can retain control on life. I am studying of a Masters Degree and subsequently is suffering. I know I should seek help, but as Kate wrote, I'd get fat!

Anon, london,

I think this article was excellent!! I never thought that kate's experiment would turn into the end result of bingeing and purging before she fought to return to normal eating. She gives you a chance to see how you can become obessed with the whole process, how it can block out your life really, no interaction with family, friends....

amanda , philadelphia, pa

"You say that "size 0" is 23 inch waist and 34 inch hips, but i have a 25 inch waist and 34 inch hips and am a size 10! "

This is because there is no standard sizing system. One shop's size 8 is another shops size 10 or 6. Also, the hip measurement is for the fullest part of the hips and buttocks, so perhpas you aren't measuring in the right place? 36 inch hips would be a size 10. And as far as the waist measurmenet is concerned, you could have a tiny 22 inch waist and still be a size 10 if you have 36 inch plus hips.

I'm just glad sizes are getting scrapped and measurements are being used instead.

Leah, London, UK

Patrick, I really hope that was sarcasm. Any thinner and she will be a pile of bones and that is gross. What she has done is very dangerous and if continued she could be seriously putting her health and her life at risk. If you understand about the electrolyte balance in the body, then you will know who dangerous this regime is. Anyway, losing weight is not healthy, losing body fat and gaining muscle is what people should be aiming for. This programme is a disgrace and anyone who thinks this is any way beneficial needs to be admitted to a psychiatric hospital!

Leah, London, UK

Numbers mean nothing- 31.5-23-34 are the measurements for a UK 6, and were probably nearer to those for a UK 10 in the 60s. You can have small measurements if you have a small frame and still be healthy. That's the message ladies- just listen to your body, love it and be healthy; you only live once!

Nicole Barnard, Birmingham, UK

This was interesting to read. For the past few months i have been constantly conscious of my reflection and those around me , constantly comparing myself to other people's weight and asking myself why i can't be as slim as them. I'm a dancer and have been for many years,which i'm also currently studying at college for the next year and a half. The cravings to be thin that i see everyday is overwhelmingly upsetting. But you just have to stay strong and remember that everybody is built differently. I think size zero is very wrong indeed if your body is not cut out for the strain you put yourself through to get to this incredibly tiny size. Why spend your life dissapointed in yourself when you could be getting on with what you were given and making the most out of your future?

Emma, Cornwall, UK

I watched the programme and i was shocked to see hwat the outcome was. I dont even know why girls even bother ti want to become size zero. Ask any guy and they will say that they dont like the size zero girls. Who actually finds them atractive?
It makes me feel sick to think that so many girls put their life at risk doing this. I'm doing a presentation at school about this so called fashion so i can try to warn the girls in my class that it isn't a good thang and its actually quiet damaging to your long term heath and your health in general. In a way, thank you for showing the programme so now girls can now see how damaging and distressing it is.

Terri, suffolk, ENGLAND

I must say even after reading the horrific side effects of the size zero diet, it still makes me wish I could get down to this size, if just for a summer holiday. Unfortunately I don't have the determination to follow any real diet although I am forever looking for easy weight loss fixes and exercise as much as I can but these diets just aren't realististic for any working girl, I once detoxed for about three days but felt so weak I just couldn't go on. It's a shame that so many of us feel we need to be so small when actually if we saw more of the average woman we would probably not have these annoying hang ups.

kerry , london, uk

If you wish to be a size zero then you need to take all the facets into consideration and really understand it not just say you do. Yes it I dangers and bad for your health to be such a minimal size/weight but if that’s what you think is right then so be it no one can change your mind but you but I must express my concern for all you people that think it is right, I am trying to start out in the modelling industry and I have thought that it is because of my weight (58kg) that I have not made it. I will be doing the size zero diet so I can see the effects myself but luckily for me I have a veray good friend that is a personnel trainer and he knows that this is what I wish to do and has agreed to keep a close monitor on me and that if it gets to out on control I will pull out when it is necessary to do so under his say so not mine. I will let you all know when I start and keep you all informed on the effects it has upon me and my daily life. Thankyou for your time

Tamara ELLIS, qld , gold coast

the world has gone mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

michelle, london, london

I agree with alot of these comments. All this publicity is causing people to want to try it themselves, to want to become like these people in magazines. I can honestly say that I have almost obsessively considered doing this myself, not to this extreme because I love eating, but it has definately made me want to become like this. I makes me more self concious of my weight looking at all these super skinny celebs, I look bigger, the smaller they get and it makes me almost wish I had an eating disorder if it would help me lose weight!! I'm a big size 10/small size 12, and I was always happy as I was but with all this hype (and from watching the programmes on tv surrounding it) I'm no longer happy in myself.

Lisa, Carrickfergus/ N. Ireland,

i think that the size zero programmes are watched for tips for girls to become size zero. and i personalyy watched it to become size zero. unfortunatley didnt have the will power, i wished i did and i toaly admire those who have succeded in carrying the task!!! i think it would make ppl much happier and shopping would be alot more fun. even tho guys say the dont like skinny woman??? what fat girls get nice looking partners cause i certainly havent seen any cases??? if u want to be super skinny and it would make u happier i say totaly go for it!!! love maria fotheringham. p.s leave of posh and other skinny celbs give them a break please!!!

maria, norwich, england

I think being size 0 is great if people want to be that size let them it's their life. I sufered from an eating disporder for 5 years it was the most interesting time of my life it gave my life a purpous. The media should lay off skinny celebs,
them being in magazines all the time being called super thin will only make them want to be skinnier.

Rachel, Redding,

You say that "size 0" is 23 inch waist and 34 inch hips, but i have a 25 inch waist and 34 inch hips and am a size 10! Also, I think that these programmes are very silly, I know they dont want to be thinspiration for people- but thats EXACTLY what they are! there have been at least 4 of these programmes on tv and i have watched them and after EVERY SINGLE ONE i have thought " maybe i could do that". I think its just journalist want to be size 0 and are given themselves and excuse to be and have medical attention at the same time!

Emma, oxford, England

What exactly are we achieving with all these 'what's it like to be size zero' programs?! The 17yr girl (Nadia) who wrote in just sums up the problem with these programs, they are watched for tips! They show how to do it, that it can be done and how 'fab' you look at the end. I wish someone would just explain to these girls that we all have an ideal weight, it's there as a guide to ensure we are healthy, not fashionable. Would you rather have 31inch hips and develop heart problems/ brittle bones/fertility problems, or be an ideal weight with no health issues and the energy and confidence to enjoy life?

Confidence does not come from your clothing size, it comes from being comfortable and healthy in your own skin. Please don't conform to this silly/dangerous celebrity fad.

Julie, London,

hi. i'm a 13 yr old and i have bulimarexia that is a ocmbination of anorexia and bulimia. i know that shows like these are trying to warn young girls and even women the dangers of size zero but, personally i feel somewhat insulted. These programs are just reinforcing the notion that those who suffer from EDs are doing it willingly to go down to a certain size. but in reality, and i should know, suffering from an ED is not a choice. i feel somehow wronged - EDs are not only about being thin, it's about emotions too!

Kyoko, Sydney, Australia

size zero, this is just so predictable from a celebrity, no-one else in their mind would want to do this, celebs have started this and now it is never going to end, many people will follow in celebritys footsteps and will end up quite ill even anorexic! Shame on all celebs that are size zero!!!

nikita, Derry, Northern Ireland

Heyya im a 17 year old girl from the north east of england.
Im a uk size 12-10 i weigh 9 stone 13 this show has really encouraged me to try and get to a size 0 i really want to be superskinny. ive been bullied thoughout my life about the size i am.This show had many helpfully tips.thanks xox

Nadia, Soth Shields,

I have been Anorexic and Bulimic for 10 years...and I ahve to so that the program you took part in and others Ive seen recently havent put me off...they have fulled my issue further with the tips and advice of how to lose the weight...I think these kind of programs are very bad for anyone with anED to watch as it just gives us more information on how to lose weight..and sadly the dangers the mood swings we are all too aware off so although it may put some off going down that route...there will be many it will sadly incorange. So I think these programs are promoting the behavour...and almost mocking those of us who have the reality of an ED

Charlie, London, UK

Your lowest weight is the same as my current weight after recovery from an eating disorder (can you ever truly recover?). At 21 years old, I'm finally learning that even my 'normal' eating habits were abnormal and am starting to embrace the glowing skin, sparkling eyes and firm strong muscles that come with proper nutrition.. but the habits will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. Sure, I did get treated differently at about 8 stone; the locals in my area gossipped about what I ate, a girl at the gym complained about me being there (I stopped going after that), even my neighbor said I was too thin, people asked if I ate and watched me like a hawk, my weight was the butt of most jokes and although I loved it when my friends picked me up and carried me, I was so weak I couldn't even struggle out of their grasp.
No fairytale there, no happy ending. The only thing I've gained from starving is.. well.. ummm.. I'll get back to you on that..
Here's to fit, not flimsy or fat!

Simone, Victoria, Australia

I had an eating disorder of starving and binging... I stopped around my mid twenties.. now I'm about a size 18-20 but strangely I'm happier about my body than when I was a starving size 12...

Nicola, Edinburgh,

You do look amazing thin.. Although you still looked good before because you have a toned stumach & that lovely gap inbetween your thighs which tells us that you work out. I am neither annorexic or bulimic but I am 9 stone and 5"9 but unfortunatley have alot of muscle in my thighs due to my fathers genes. Since all these skinny celebs, I now feel over weight, I cringe when I look at myself in mirrors & in skinny jeans & all these clothes for skinny people that I yearn to wear! I should be skinny with a BMI of 18.6 but I'm not bcos of my pear shape! I take laxitives every night & have done for months.. Thats how I lost my last half a stone, but I seem to have come to a stand still!! I used to barely eat but I learnt after the puppy fat comes off, again you come to a stand still and the weight stops coming off! I jog everyday.. I used to be obsessed & work-out for hours everyday, but its just too exhausting now I work full-time and do uni from home! I want to be thin more than anything!!

Alexandra, Cambridge, England

I am 15 years old, and I have been suffering from anorexia and bulimia for the last 5 years. At the age of 11, I weighed just over 3 and a half stone (I had always been naturally slim,and then I had pneumonia for 2 weeks and lost a half stone,going down from 4 to 3 and a half stone). After the pneumonia my life became a whirlwind as my grades slipped in school(I went from being a straight A student to scraping B's and C's),my parents separated, and I became thinner and thinner. I am now 5 foot 7 and 6 stone 6 pounds. This is not the way to live,it is a miserable existence,one that I have because food is the only part of my life that I can control. My eating disorder has left me underweight,depressed(I self-harm as a release)and so unbelievably insecure.

I would give anything to look like Marilyn Monroe,I believe that she is the epitome of beauty, not Nicole Richie and Victoria Beckham who are walking skeletons..

Michaela, Dublin, Ireland

I'm an 18 yr old female who watches these programmes to try to get myself motivated to seek help for my eating disorders- however it triggers me even more to starve.
It's the most vicious cycle & is the most pathetic existence ever- to basically fade away!
Unfortunately all the effort I have made to recover has failed &has generally made me even worse! I was sat down at the age of 15 & told by a therapist that if I carried on the way I did I would die- they were straight to the point & in a way I hated them for it-not because It made me want to recover- because it made me realise how far I was willing to go to be skinny- I just nodded &accepted this lifestyle & to this day i'm willing to die to be thin!
I know you must think i'm stupid- but in fact I WAS INTELLIGENT- I USED to be the smartest girl in my classes until the insomnia and bulimic tendancies took their toll & now I am a failure- the only control i have in my life is my weight- see the vicious cycle continues....

Siobhan, Blairgowrie, Perthshire

I'm an 18 yr old female who watches these programmes to try to get myself motivated to seek help for my eating disorders- however it triggers me even more to starve.
It's the most vicious cycle & is the most pathetic existence ever- to basically fade away!
Unfortunately all the effort I have made to recover has failed &has generally made me even worse! I was sat down at the age of 15 & told by a therapist that if I carried on the way I did I would die- they were straight to the point & in a way I hated them for it-not because It made me want to recover- because it made me realise how far I was willing to go to be skinny- I just nodded &accepted this lifestyle & to this day i'm willing to die to be thin!
I know you must think i'm stupid- but in fact I WAS INTELLIGENT- I USED to be the smartest girl in my classes until the insomnia and bulimic tendancies took their toll & now I am a failure- the only control i have in my life is my weight- see the vicious cycle continues....

Siobhan, Blairgowrie, Perthshire

This article is a very true, very scary example of what happens when a "diet" turns into an eating disorder. I hope people learn from reading the article that something like this CAN and WILL happen to you if you go on an extreme diet to lose some weight. It is better to be at a normal weight and enjoy one's life than to be skinny and miserable.

Cara, London,

It's true that people watch these shows and take notes.
I have friends who have avidly watched and recorded the two tv shows - that literally tell you how to do it - and have thought my god, this is the answer to all my problems!
And I am now tottering off to find The Master Cleanse Diet Book myself....

Emma, Cheltenham, UK

I have just been an eating disorders unit. The disaster that became my life with anorexia - broken relationships, lost job etc - and the tortured souls and misery that surrounded me on the unit are the best deterrent to a size 0. Been there, done it, wasnt fun.

Alicia, london,

my concern is that there are girls out there taking notes on how to do this. I watched the show on itv where louise redknapp was attempting to reach a size zero! The logical part of me was saying this is wrong but a bigger part of me was paying more attention to what she was doing to achieve this than the effects it was having on her!

When I saw the advertisement for this show on channel 4 my first reaction was 'another one?'. Personally I think by making shows like this it is glamourising the size zero debate.. while there are magazines out there with celebs looking stick thin there will be girls out there wanting to look like them, when a tv show comes on actually showing how other people do it then I think its time to worry! Yes the people in this show tried to show how bad it was and the nasty effects it can have, but the girls wanting to achieve this will not pay attention to that.

kerry, castleford,

I have just read jim's comments on the size zero debate and i have to say that i wholeheartedly agree...life is too damn short!! Whilst i have never been overweight i understand why women fall under the spell of wanting to be thinner and thinner - i work in the fashion industry and see this every day. I think life should be enjoyed and would love that fattening pint (or maybe wine ) jim or anyone else out there that lives life to the max!

lizzie, london, britain

There's no way you got into a size zero at 9 stone. I'm just under 9 stone, and I'm over 5'10", and I'm no where NEAR a size zero. I'm a UK 8, and a generous one at that. Even with badly photoshopped pictures where you're sucking your stomach in, I find it very hard to believe that you're a UK4.

The last thing that society needs is yet another wannarexic clogging up television by deciding that an eating disorder equates to nothing more than a lifestyle choice, discovering that it's difficult, moaning a lot, and then faking her results in order to put out some smug message about how it's wrong to crash diet, while flaunting her new found weight loss with barely concealed delight.

Jenny, Glasgow,

I don't worry too much about this giving anorexics/bulimics ideas on how to lose weight - most of us with these disorders know only too well how to lose weight. I think the programme raised awareness of the dangers of enforced weight loss, but I never imagined the target audience to be those with proper eating disorders, rather those women who crash diet for a while then given up and pile it all back on again. This is not the same as being anorexic.

One thing that annoys me is the number of people who will assure those with eating disorders that men prefer girls with curves or that skinny bodies look horrible. I don't have an eating disorder because I think it will get me a boyfriend, these things are much deeper. As Ms Spicer discovered, eating disorders push all other thoughts, including relationships, out of your mind. Neither do I imagine it will make me attractive - anorexics 'know' they will 'never' be attractive - that's part of the foundation of the disorder.

Ally, Derby,

I didn't see the programme, but...

Why would you want to be a size zero? Kate talks about meeting men, and also the views of other women. As a man, if I had to choose between 'red wine and pudding-loving Kate' and 'obsessed, can't drink, can't eat, model-thin Kate', I'd gladly take the former. She sounds like a laugh, not scared to enjoy herself.

So how about enjoying your one and only life? Dance! Stay up late doing that - it burns calories + fun . Walk for exercise. Happiness is having people around you who love you for who you are. They will introduce you to other people with a similar outlook. You'll forget that you ever obsessed about food, weight and looks. Be sociable - love yourself and love other people. This is a 'mind' problem - you can do this. I have. Though I was never anorexic, I worried about weight. Now I know it will go up and down. That's normal. Stop trying to be somebody else and be yourself. xxx

PS. Kate (and anyone else here), fancy a fattening pint sometime?

Jim, London, UK

I agree with Steph and Lucy. As a person who has suffered from an eating disorder for 8 years, i found this programme very offensive. It undermimed and made a mockery out of what is a potentially fatal illness. Very sad of those women to take part in such mockery.

claire, south wales,

I have just found myself looking through this diary ( i did watch the programme ) to find out ways for myself to become thin in 5 weeks as I have my holiday coming up in 2 months. They say to exercice and eat healthy which I sometimes do, but I never loose the weight so sometimes people want a quick fix to look good. The above comment from the woman who wants to loose weight, I think you may need to get some help if your an adult you are now the size of a child which is not a good look

Sophie Hill, letchworth,

people should not be grilling you for this, you were simply helping people understand and see the dangers of becoming a size 0. at 9 stone 7 and 5'7 of course i would like to lose weight and this programme has given me tips but it has definatly put me off the size 0 plan...

Jess, hereford,

This show was a farce. I am 5ft 6 and a bit taller than the lady who got down to a 00 and in order to wear a proper 00 that is 6stones 5lbs on me. A proper ten is like 8stones 4lbs on me. Those were GAP 00 jeans that that lady got into and they do vanity sizing to the extreme. A 0 in the Gap is like a UK 8 or 10 in some shops like Top Shop.
You cannot lose 4 dress sizes with a 1 stone weight loss who is Channel 4 trying to kid.
I am sick of these programmes. The lady the who was taking laxatives came across like a complete attention seeker.
I am fed of people making light of eating problems. They are also putting ideas into the minds of vulnerable young people.

Claire, London,

I'm soooo gonna do it!

Katie, London,

I agree with the first comment. This woman offended me and most certainly hundreds of other women with eating disorders. Five weeks of dieting does not make you, as you inwardly delighted in telling us, anorexic. I think this programme made a mockery of a little treated disease. This programme will have encouraged both sufferers and non sufferers and your journey on this documentary was quite clearly for selfish purposes. You had a psychologist to help you but what about people like me? The NHS cannot give me the help i need, for that i need money to get better and meanwhile this programme will make me worse. Absolutely disgusted.

Lucy, leeds, England

YAY!

I watched this programme and got lots of tips on how to loose weight - I'm 6 stone and now thanks to your DIY on how to loose more weight - I'm aiming for 5 stone 7.

Thank you :)

Amy K., Portsmouth,

I found this programme shocking and offensive - as someone who suffered for 6 years with an eating disorder, and has worked in support groups for women with eating disorders, I have never seen anyone 'faking it' as much as Kate Spicer, it was blatantly obvious that she had simply read up on eating disorders, and knew exactly what to say to sound like she was developing one, and therefore have a 'better story'. While I don't doubt that starving yourself has dramatic effects on your psychological health, this takes time to develop (even on really extreme diet and exercise regimes), and sufferers are rarely ready to admit it straight away. I thought the most astoundingly bad moment was when she came out with the gem 'it all started at boarding school' - she was unconvincing, and I feel that she portrayed eating disorder sufferers in a terrible light, undermining the severity of the disease.

steph almond, london,

having watched the programme and read this i have to say that i alamed that Kate Spicer was ever allowed to participate in this 'experiment'. there was obviously little in the way of psychological screening done before hand as spicer was clearly showing signs of an eating disorder, food obsession and body dismorphia prior to the start of the diet.
it was extremly irresponsible to embark on such a programme of extreme weight loss while all the time making comments about being fat (when clearly not) and laughing while making jokes like 'annorexic me'.
i felt that spicer was extremely unsympathetic towards these sort of disorders and in denial about her own problems. having been told by doctors of the implications to her health and mental wellbeing she ignored them all and laughed it off, which i found extremely disturbing.
all this has served to do is show young girls how a few weeks of misery will make you thin.
disgusting and irresponsible.

claire, belfast,

I am a size 10-12 (uk) and I have never suffered an eating disorder but have always battled with diets and with eating too much chocolate and crisps, then feeling guilty and then eating virtually nothing for days. After reading this and having watched the Louise Redknapp documentary, it makes me think "wow, if I do that I could lose that much weight" It does not deter me at all, and in fact encourages me to go through a similar regime. I can only imagine that those suffering an eating disorder would feel even more encouraged by this media attention. The only way to discourage this way of life is to have those who are of a massive influence in our lives- models, actresses, etc to be of a "normal" size and not to focus media attention on those who are smaller or skinnier than what would be deemed a normal healthy size.

emma, Leicester,

I have an eating disorder, and found just reading a description of this programme in the TV guide extremely triggering. Others I have spoken to agree that Louise Redknapp's programme was seen mainly as a good source of dieting tips and inspiration. Programmes like this will encourage more people than they will discourage. I will not be watching this programme when it is shown; just reading about it is enough to firstly upset me greatly about my own size (just above 8 stone at 5'7") and secondly strengthen my resolve to get as thin as possible. I know it will make me feel better if I don't eat anything, and I dream of being a size 00. Articles and programmes like this are positively dangerous for me and a lot of people like me, often triggering self-harm as "punishment" for being so "fat". I have learnt that the best strategy is to avoid the media completely and deal with my illness alone. Surely the programme makers are aware that this will only fan the flames of the thinness debate.

Petal, Edinburgh, UK

Not all women who wear a size 0 are bulimic or anorexic. I bike my commute everyday, eat ridiculous amounts of vegan food, and measure 32-24-34. I come from a small-ish family.
Obsessing over size is terrifically silly and seems to me it's often based on fashion, which I can't understand. Larges are almost always the size that's on sale! Often, stores only order one or two smalls, so the good stuff sells out quickly. Silver-lining to every cloud, isn't there?

Bean, Portland, OR, USA

I have had an eating disorder for eight years (anorexia, bulimia and now in recovery) and when I read this article all I could think was - WOW, she lost a stone in three weeks! I immediately wanted to follow the same regime to gain the same results. The description of how she felt while dieting did nothing to deter me. After eight years of living with all those symptons it meant nothing.

I believe that a large number of people who watch this show will think exactly the same as me and it will trigger alot of people to follow her diet and exercise plan.

I think this experiment is pointless and shows nothing new. The producers obviously realise that thin sells, and know they will get large ratings. They have exploited this journalist, and potentially may trigger disordered eating in others who choose to copy her.

Lily, London,

I have seen The Truth About Size Zero and read all the magazine articles. Even Louise Redknapp said herself she was "secretly enjoying it". She clearly became obsessed with following the documentary through, despite serious warnings from her doctor. If she really wanted to stop starving herself obviously she could have. She started becoming irritable, shouting at her husband, her little boy, even her poor dogs! She often couldnt stand for long.

I agree this is something of a phonomeneon amoung the fashion industry and probably will not end any time soon, however nobody asks these women to carry out these experiments. If you want to loose weight by all means do, but Weight Watchers is the only sane way to go. The weight that comes off slowly will stay off. I have had ten years of dieting and thats the only thing which has worked for me.

Women should help eating disorder victims not try to become one!

Jennifer, brighton, england

I know what is going through her head as she comments on the desire to be thinner, the buzz from sugar having not eaten anything propper in days, the satisfaction of weight-loss. That's because for 12 of my 23 years i have suffered from an eating disorder. I have abused laxatives, induced vomiting regularly, compulsively over exercised.
Reading the article, and knowing what it is like, the concern now, i feel ought to be the what next. I was lucky to never have to be hospitalised, but it took many years of psychiatric support to get me to a stable weight and eating healthily. Even after 5 weeks, the crash dieting will have long term consequences on the authors life. She says herself she felt the inclusion of thinness, and now, still thinner than she started feels fat. Coming out of crash dieting it is easy to forget the negatives of irritation, low energy and mental slowness and only remember the buzz of weight loss. I just hope the author, and others don't get sucked in.

Jane, southampton,

I aggree completely with C. STEVENS and have sent emails to channel 4 to stop the airing of the associated programme this sunday 22nd, i am also a former anorexic and bullimic. Whilst the pogramme may be aimed at revealing the ridiculouas and hideousness of extreme dieting, it will simply provide food (!) for thos less squeamish who are as c. stevens comments predisposed to searching for innovative ideas to loose wieght.

helenstratford, cambridge, uk

An engaging and emotional story which needs to be heard more often and published to the younger teenage girls and boys in order to show the trauma one would undertake if they would so radically want to lose weight in a highly undesirable manner. Thus, the media should promote reasonable and healthy ways to lose weight

Aria , London , UK

I completely agree with Stephanie, Montreal, Canada's comments, these types of 'experiments' are totally unnecessary, this is not the way to try and prevent people from developing disordered relationships with food. The weight loss and fear of food that is associated with an eating disorder is merely a symptom of a much greater problem and one that will be unique to each individual case. People who develop eating disorders do so not through choice, as this reporter has. I think it is appalling that someone would choose to put them selves through what those, who truly suffer, have to deal with daily through no conscious choice of their own. Your article makes it seem as though these people have the choice whether to harm themselves or not but you have completely missed the point. The only choice they have is to try and fight. Perhaps your money should be spent on investigating how people who are tormented by these problems can try and fight back.

Lise-Ann Brennan, Birmingham, UK

Where is the name of the author of this piece? I can't find it on the webpage.

Kenny, auckland, NZ

Let me guess: she doesn't plan on keeping the weight off?

Jim Strathmeyer, Pittsburgh, PA

Wow.... Chpeau-bas to Kate for the tremendous efforts deployed, and for the very interesting - frightening ? - article that resulted.

Jim, Le Havre, France

This proves nothing. Drastic dieting is a bad idea whether you're going from a size 20 to 16 or size 10 to 4. It's easier for celebrities to incorporate ridiculously healthy eating into their daily lives as they can afford to have (tasty!) diet food specially prepared and eat out at health orientated resturants like Nobu. They can also hire personal trainers who take the time to ensure they're getting the best (most calorie zapping) work out for their body type. Perhaps a more useful experiment would be how someone who's slowly slimmed to an American zero finds the challenge of weight maintenance?

Emma Thomas, Worthing, UK

i found the article interesting but am wondering why the photo was necessary-surely it illustrates that she achieved her ideal of being slimmer? and therefore that others can too? if i wanted to loose weight i would see the pictures and be persuaded to follow a similar regime to hers, which is clearly not a good thing to be encouraged.
on a different note, i think we should all boycott fashion magazines until someone makes one with normal women's figure in. it's all very well to tut at the pictures, but if we buy the magazines we are encouraging the promotion of this body-ideal

emily, leeds,

You look great in both photos (apart from the grim expression!)

The difference is, the skinny woman on the right looks like she's obsessed about her appearance. What a turn off

Mark, NZ,

Being heterosexual male, I would definitely want to be next to the body on the left. Women should have curves and flaws. That's what make them interesting. There's nothing worse than snuggling up to a bag of bones. Whether you are 100lbs or 220 lbs, you are still going to be the same person. Your life is not going to get better or worse. Stop listening to bad tasted fashion designers who are just trying to save a buck on material. Have burger or two, slide into a comfy pair of jeans and sweater, be a real woman. That's what the nice guys want.

Chris, Massachusetts, USA

As a recovering anorexic of 5 years, I was able to relate to all too much of Spicer's story. What especially resonated witih me are the obsessive thoughts-- feeling fatter than ever in her life, or thinking about food constantly while consuming so little, for example. She also captured the alienation of anorexia accurately. When one is so singly focused, all other goals and values become increasingly less important. It takes too much energy to interact with other people, so relationships decay. The most significant part of my recovery has been reclaiming the passions and interests that motivate me, and reconnecting with those who love and care for me. Thank you Kate, for your honesty and exposure of the obsession of an eating disorder. Breaking the cycle of deprivation, binging, and overcompensation is no small accomplishment.

Kathryn, New York, NY,

i've always loved Kate Spicer's writing - witty, self depricating, smart, cool, confidedent, outspoken.... I am amazed and quite shocked she of all people did this to herself. And maybe a little disappointed that one of my favourite female writers could become so obsessed. Just goes to show that eating habits can affect all types of women.

Isabel , London, UK

We need to encourage our daughters (and, increasingly, sons) to stop looking at ultra-skinny film stars and celebrities as people to be admired and emulated, and help them see them for what they are: desperately insecure, obsessive-compulsive, unhappy, self-absorbed people in great need of decent psychiatric care.

T. Roth, Connecticut, USA

Great, loved the story. Exactly why I'll never be a size 0 - I suffer for no one. Normal amounts of good food are to be enjoyed, not feared. And to think, I came to this site because of a recipe for Monkfish wrapped in Serrano Ham!

Cathryn W., New York, USA/NY

Whatever. Vice Magazine did this article months ago.

t. shah, chicago,

Although I do agree that anorexics won't watch the program, realise they've got a problem and quit it doesn't mean this program isn't beneficial. In my opinion people with eating disorders are extremely good at convincing themselves and others that they are perfectly healthy and there is nothing wrong with bingeing and purging or not eating for days.
I think it doesn't matter that she got paid to do this for 6 weeks, her thoughts are very real and very accurate from what I've seen and known my best friend to go through. I think we should all stop being defensive and just take notice that a lot of us are suffering, and then again, alot of us aren't! Stop being hateful, love your body and stop listening to outside influences. Why are so many trying to get others to love them when they can't love themselves?

Diana, London,

Well done. Your candor about the way you slid from a well-adjusted, functional state of mind into a sad, obsessive medical condition was a real eye-opener. I hope your story can help others to stay out of trouble and apply a little caution and common sense in their weight loss efforts.

Allen J. Smith, Bossier City, Louisiana, U.S.A.

It is terrible that everybody seems to be reporting on size 0 by actually dieting to become one. By just looking at photos of celebrities who are this thin the public can see that they aren't well! speaking as a former anorexic, all this article is doing is giving people ideas. I assume the aim of this piece was to warn people of the health risks, but what you are failing to understand is that if someone wants to become that thin, health risks are not important. During reading this i was already thinking about trying this maple syrup diet to lose weight.

What I find the most fascinating is the fact celebrity gossip magazines say how worringly thin these girls look, then they go and put them in the best dressed lists! and put pictures in of the normal sized people with a big black circle around the tiniest amount of celulite on their thigh which apparently is meant to make us feel better! when all it actually does is make me think 'if they notice that tiny bump...'

C. STEVENS, ESSEX,

Well said J Simpkins
I am also totally bored with neurotic women & weight loss
I am a size 16 and v happy & v pretty and do not give a damn.
Who wants to be a size 0? Not me !

Sarah Garrett, London,

This article was not what I thought it would be when I read the title. This is a story of inviting eating disorders into one's life, which is appalling. As someone who has been down that road and come back, it's pieces like this that give those predisposed to the disorder ideas about how to get where they want to go. They won't see the agony, the sickness--they'll see that it works and nothing more. Why encourage that at the cost of one reporter's mental and physical health?

Stephanie, Montreal, Canada

A brave article, particularly the description of panic and self-induced vomiting (something I haven't done since my late teens). What struck me most forcibly was the fact that so many of your contempories had been through something similar. This obsession with being thinner affects nearly all women, even if they don't try to acheive it. The message is still there; the thinner you are, the better (more attractive, successful) you are. And conversely, if you haven't maintained a certain size you are a failure or at least a second class citizen.
Older women are not immune either. Many of my friends have had illnesses (e.g. breast cancer, colitis) and one of the initial reactions is 'at least I'll lose some weight'. It is politely not mentioned in public but any woman over 40 (apart from those naturally thin) who is still slim is living in a constant state of hunger. This is not hard to understand when you realise size 10 has become 'curvy'.

JP, London,

I'm 22 and with a BMI of 20 would be considered slim. I know the media doesn't cause anorexia or bulimia as these are mental health conditions not really tod o with being skinny. But...I read these articles and watch the TV programmes trying to discover "the secret" of being that skinny. I feel guilty if I eat "bad" food and have to go to the gym at least 4 times a week to feel ok about myself. I am not anorexic or bulimic, but I do not have a healthy attitude to my weight. I am petrified of when I become pregnant and gain weight. I know this isn't normal, I am an intelligent person but being constantly bombarded with images and articles about weight confuses me and skews my judgement. People with eating disorders get help from specialists, what happens to "inbetween" people like me?

Jessica, London,

being a certain weight has no relation to size, you can be a thin 10 stone or a 'porky' 10 stone.

Her boobs and ass looked flat because she basically starved herself. This is car crash reporting, the fact that the guardian did the same experiment as well as Louise Redknapp just goes to show that most people want to try and be a size 0. Why? do you see any men reporting on this matter? even though there are a rising number of male anorexics today.

If you want to become thin then exercise with cardio and weights. Cardio alone will waste any body muscle. Also do not unrealistically try to be a size your body doesn't want to be.

cauvery shelat, london, uk

Who cares?

We have been reading about this kind of thing since the anorexia scare of the 80s and the bulimia boom of the 90s. Is there anyone else out there who is bored to tears with articles about weight?

J Simpkins, Hove, East Sussex

I agree C Adamson, as someone just over 10 stone I've never thought of myself as a wee bit porky....interesting stuff though.

Jo, london, london

As a young person myself I find it very disturbing when I see the way that my friends and other people I know obsess about there weight. I hear girls as young as 12 or 13 discussing their plans to eat only one meal a day without any thought for their mental and physical health. I know some people will say that the media does not play a part in this but I think this is a very naive stance to take. They should accept some culpability and try and change the way they portray women. This does affect young people. How are they supposed to accpet themselves and become well-adjusted adults if they are reminded that they are too ' fat '.

Jacqui Moneke, London, UK

To loose weight safely I would have to suggest a 6 month programme built into your lifestyle. This will involve changing your diet gradually and increasing your exercise. People must stop obsessing about weight and realise that excess fat can be reduced in a dafe manner. We are running an event with The British Heart FOundation, The British Dietetic Association, Diabetes UK and The Department of health. It targets those looking to loose weight safely. If you would like to look at a spectrum of solutions and listen to seminars from industry leaders go to www.shapeshow.co.uk.

Daniel Dobbie, Putney, London

"A wee bit porky - just over 10 stone" Oh please. I notice that Kate Spicer doesn't include her height in this article, but I suspect that she is well within the healthy BMI range. Why, therefore, does she refer to herself as "porky"? It's as bad as the numerous 'celebrities' proclaiming why they're eschewing being super slim and embracing their "size 10 curves" in the celeb rags. When 10 stones is described as "porky" what message does this send out to those who are healthy, happy and in double figures?

C Adamson, London,

As someone who struggles with her weight I find this sort of article and television programme very interesting. I also find it worrying as I believe that all the media furore around weight must be damaging to the young. With the focus being as it is we cannot fail to raise a generation who know that it is bad to be fat and bad to be thin, but don't know where they should be in the middle. If both states continue to be villainised with no emphasis placed on a person's natural state, we cannot help but create a generation of self-haters.

Caroline, Newcastle upon Tyne,

Kate Spicer's six week jouney to the land of thin-another article and tv programme that draws eating disorders into the realm of reality tv.We have already seen Louise Redknapp starve herslef into a size zero. What are they trying to achieve? While they starve themselves and record the pain they are enduring -the bad nights, the agonising hunger,the lack of energy,thier decreasing social abilities, they obsessive thoughts of food-they wonder incredulously why so many women do this.Anorexics like this even less than them - it has certainly plagued them more than thier, no doubt paid, six week fling.A smoker is not going to give up smoking just by being told they're destroying thier lungs, especially by someone who themselves is smoking. In the same way, an anorexic is not going to suddenly start eating when they watch someone say they have no energy,who is themselves not eating.These are ridiculous experiemnts that trivialise eating dsorders, bringing them into the realm of reality tv

Jane Lumsden, London, UK

As a naturally thin person (5ft 8, 7.5 stone, I eat whatever I want whenever I want to - which is a lot and often) I find articles like this difficult. Ms Spicer is obviously not meant to weigh 8 stone. I am not meant to weigh any more than I do (something my doctor agrees with). All thin people do not have an eating disorder just like all girls are not meant to be skinny. This pervasive conviction that being skinny is unhealthy is just as discrimintaory as saying that you have to be skinny to be attractive.
Being skinny does not necessarily equate with being ill nor does is necessarily equate with being happy, as is sugggested here. Just because you never have to worry about your weight doesn't mean that you never worry about anything. It is not acceptable to demonise thinness just as it is not acceptable to demonise a slightly curvier figure.

London, London, UK

As i have said before, there is a huge difference between purposely deciding to lose weight-and know your boundaies; and developing a crippling disorder because of a need to control your nerves due to past experiences in life. I hope that these experiments such as the Louise Rednapp one do not portray a false illusion of how horrific it is to suffer such an illness. For many, it is not a deliberate 'life decision', more of a symptom or side effect of trauma and anxiety.

H Robinson, yorkshire,

Avoiding men like you is a good reason to remain a size something then.

Helen , Leicester,

Model girl looks, model girl figure, tall, accomplished. Ten-a-penny here in Japan, where English gentleman is flavour of the month. And massive age difference is absolutely not an issue. Growing old disgracefully.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

Patrick - Do you realise what you are saying??? The diet she went on was so unbelievable unhealthy...are you advocating eating disorders for young women? Because really, this is want could happen, as she stated in her report.

Granted many in the UK and USA are overweight and this must be taken seriously, but this type of diet is certaintly not the way to do it.

www.dietriffic.com

Melanie, Port Lincoln, South Australia

I admire your determination to get to where you want to be weight wise and maybe your article explains why so many models are testy.

Jacki Cotton, Cincinnati, US

Patrick - what?! Having suffered from an eating disorder myself when I was younger, I know exactly the kind of mental stress Kate went through, and no amount of looking good is worth that! How can you honestly read this article and think that what Kate put herself through would be beneficial to 'a large majority of the women and girls in the US and the UK'?! Surely a person's health is more important than looking a certain societally prescribed way? She wasn't even overweight to start with! And if she were, surely eating healthily and taking regular exercise, but all in moderation, would be a better way to improve her health than to put her mind and body through this? I am shocked that you can even contemplate using the word 'beneficial' to talk about this article.

Sarah, Birmingham, England

She looks much better at 9 stone than at ten. I agree, though, she should try to get down to 8 stone, and she will then look fantastic. A large majority of the women (and girls!) in the United States and United Kingdom would also find this regimen beneficial.

Patrick, Los Angeles, U.S.A.

Kate Spicer's six week descent into starvation- another article and another tv programme drawing eating disorders into the realm of reality tv. We have already seen size 8 Louise Redknapp starve herself into size zero. What are they hoping to achieve? If they are trying to provide motivation for poeple to stop starving themselves into size zero, they fail miserably. They both admit to enjoying the sensation of losing wieght - despite the physical and mental drawbacks and they are demonstrating in detail how to lose weight - how many calories to consume, how much to exercise, buying laxatives. Moreover, how to do this is six weeks. Is there any scope for understanding anorexia or how they can get better? No. They really are highlighting how the media is to blame for anorexia.

Jane Lumsden, London, UK

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Car leasing

The clever way to lease a new car is with Car leasing made simple™


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Operational Officers

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MI6
UK-based

Finance & Corporate Services Manager

£60,000
The Environment Agency
Bristol

Programme Manager

Up to £90K
Boots
Midlands

Sales Professionals

OTE £85k
Credit Protection Association
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Properties

Rushmore Condo's

Luxury Condo's in Manhattan with NYC views

Diadem Homes

The best new homes in Wimbledon?

Holidays

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Seychelles Beach Beauty

Save up to £1,000 per couple with Elite Vacations at the five-star Constance Lemuria Resort


Leave the queues behind at the airport

and do the British Isles this Summer.
Save up to 60% with Oxford Hotels and Inns

Bored of life?

Try our inspiring luxury holidays to the Indian Subcontinent and South East Asia.
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Canada for Less.. fly from £129 one way inc taxes

8 fabulous Canadian cities ...you won’t find cheaper


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