This is the age when women feel most body confident

Are you surprised?

Words by Jadie Troy-Pryde

We're aware by now that scrolling through Instagram and keeping a beady eye on everyone else's feed full of quinoa and burpee contests is doing nothing for our body confidence. Despite lashings of body confidence posts on the social media platform, it may come as no surprise that the average woman doesn't feel most body confident in her twenties or thirties.

According to a survey by fashion company M&Co, most women only begin to feel confident in their bodies when they get to their sixties, with many older ladies admitting to feeling a body boost later in life.

The study asked 1,300 women how they felt in swimwear, with one of the questions asking directly how good they felt in swimwear at various ages. The average rating for the participants' body confidence was five out of ten, but those aged between 65 and 74 had a body confidence rating of six out of ten.

Why? It was suggested that as we get older, hang ups about our bodies and the desire for perfectly chiselled abs diminish, with those involved reasoning that there are 'more important things in life.' Hear, hear.

A report by Gallup from 2014 found a similar outcome: while younger groups surveyed admitted they weren't always happy with their bodies, 75% of Americans over 65 agreed or strongly agreed that they felt great about how they looked.

So even if you've got a bit of time until peak body-love kicks in, we can start listening to that sage advice now and leave the body hang-ups behind - the sooner, the better.