Perfect Body Worth More Than One Year Of Life

Some women are so unhappy with their bodies, that they would rather sacrifice one year of their life if they were bestowed with the ‘perfect’ body instead. Has our obsession with size and body shape really come to this?

Kelly Brook, Most Wanted Body

These disturbing results are among the findings from The Succeed Foundation Body Image Survey in March 2011. The research, conducted jointly by the Succeed Foundation and the University of West of England, surveyed 320 women studying at 20 British universities. The women’s ages ranged from 18-65, though the average age was only 24.5.

Some 93 percent of the women thought negatively about their appearance during the past week, while 31 percent felt this way several times a day. Shockingly, the following statistics were found regarding how many years of their lives they would rather lose in order to have the perfect body:

• 16% would trade 1 year of their life
• 10% would trade 2-5 years of their life
• 2% would trade 6-10 years of their life
• 1% would trade 21 years or more of their life.

Furthermore, 26 percent of women taking part in the survey would sacrifice one of following in order to have their ideal body shape:

• £5000 from their annual salary (13%)
• A promotion at work (8%)
• Achieving a first class honours degree (6%)
• Spending time with their partner (9%)
• Spending time with their family (7%)
• Spending time with their friends (9%)
• Their health (7%.)

And the woman whose body they most admired was the lovely Kelly Brook, pictured above.