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    1. Health and Fitness

    Do you lie about what you weigh?

    One in five women pretend they weigh 9lbs less than they actually do

    By Hannah Thomas
    Published 9 February 2012 In Features

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    Woman on scales
    Woman on scales
    (Image credit: REX)
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    One in five women pretend they weigh 9lbs less than they actually do

    Weight has always been a sensitive subject, but new research suggests that the majority of women claim they weigh 9lbs less than they do.

    Researchers found that millions of women reduce their weight when talking to their partners or best-friends, with one in five pretending they weigh a stone less than what the scales actually read.

    The study of 2,000 women, comissioned byEat Water, says it's not just weight that women lie about, but also their dress size, bra size and even shoe size.

    'Carrying extra weight can be embarrassing and knock your confidence, so it's only natural that you might not want to highlight this to your friends and even your partner,' says Vincent Lee, from EatWater.co.uk.

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    But he warns it is particularly worrying that women are beginning to believe their own lies. 17 per cent of women even cut out the labels in their clothes and bras to keep up the pretense that they are smaller than they are.

    The results found that most women wanted to be between eight and nine stone and a size 10 with a bra size of 34C.

    Marie Claire Newsletter

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    'Simply watching what you eat and making sure you don't eat too many carbohydrates or calories and you have a balanced diet doesn't have to be a chore,' says Mr Lee.

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