It’s estimated that British women who diet spend on average 31 years trying to lose weight. One-in-five women who diet are permanently or regularly on a diet, and one woman in ten would shockingly rather be skinny than intelligent.

What is it that feeds the female obsession regarding body image, weight and dieting?

Superskinny Me: The Race to Size Double Zero follows two journalists – Kate Spicer and Louise Burke – as they go on a no-holds-barred journey into the world of extreme dieting – exposing the dangers to both mind and body. The movie looks beyond the glossy magazines and Hollywood’s ‘lolly-pop’ starlets to issue a life-size health warning about the latest fads and crash diets, and exposes the physical and emotional fall-outs of them.

Both journalists, healthy size 12s with average BMIs, are aiming to drop five dress sizes in five weeks. With a ‘Don’t Try This At Home’ warning, both Kate and Louise have undergone rigorous physical and mental tests by a team of medical experts from Imperial College led by Dr Le Roux. At an appointment with Kate, Dr Le Roux dispels the long-held dieter’s myth that laxatives aid weight loss. Read more & comment »