French women's reputation for remaining thin and glamorous while enjoying Camembert is so well established that envious "Anglo-Saxons" have written entire diet manuals explaining just why French women don't get fat.

    But while a new study has confirmed that French women are indeed the slimmest in western Europe, their slenderness, it has found, comes at a cost: they also worry the most about their weight.

    The report by France's National Institute of Demographic Studies compared body mass indexes in western Europe and found French women had the lowest average body mass index, at 23.2. British women had the highest average at 26.2, which was above the normal range considered healthy: 18.5 - 24.9.

    But the report also found French women set themselves very tough standards, had a tendency to exaggerate their weight and considered themselves fatter than they were. France had the highest proportion of women who were underweight, but only half of underweight French women thought they were too thin.

    The author of the report, Thibaut de Saint Pol, said French women put "a high pressure on their body". Their ideal weight was lower than other western European women's ideals. He added that being underweight as a woman was "particularly valued" in France. The report found that French men were also the slimmest in Europe and their ideal weight was lower than other western European men.

    The survey comes as Parisian pharmacy windows are crammed with miracle slimming formulas to kick-start the pre-summer dieting season and women's magazines are full of bikini weight-loss plans.

    In Portugal, Spain and the UK, where ideal weights are higher, there was a tendency to underestimate weight, the study found. The number of women who considered themselves to be too thin was greater than the number who actually were.

    Across western Europe, 45% of people said they were unhappy with their weight. More women than men considered themselves overweight and that worry tended to stay with them throughout their lives.

    盡情享用美味的Camembert奶酪卻仍舊擁有美好的身材，法國女人實在是惹人羨妒。“Anglo-Saxons”為此寫下了一整套日常食譜來解釋為什么法國女人不會變胖。

    研究發現，法國女性雖然確實在歐洲最為苗條，但這也不是白來的，她們對于自己體重的關注也是歐洲之冠。

    法國國家人口統計學研究所的一份報告中，比較了西歐各國女性的BMI,結果發現法國女性的BMI平均值為23.2，是西歐各國女性中最低的。英國女性則有最高的BMI平均值——26.2，這已超出了正常BMI指數范圍——18.5-24.9

    但是調查也顯示出法國女性對自己要求過高，她們常常夸大自己的體重，并把自己想象的比實際要胖。法國女性體重不足的比例最高，但其中只有一半的人認為自己過瘦。

    這份報告的作者，Thibaut de Saint Pol說，法國女性過于注重自己的體形了。她們的理想中的體重要比其它西歐國家女性理想的體重要低得多。他補充道，作為一個法國女人，體重不足顯得更棒。報告發現，法國男性同樣也是歐洲最修瘦的，他們的理想體重也比其他西歐男性要低。

    這項調查出現的同時，塞滿了巴黎藥房櫥窗的奇妙減肥配方引爆了夏季之前的減肥大潮，女性雜志上則是鋪天蓋地的誘人比基尼減肥計劃。

    研究還發現，在葡萄牙、西班牙、英國，由于理想體重比較高，所以人們都不太關注自己的體重。很多女性覺得自己太瘦了，雖然她們之中的大部分實際上并不是這樣。

    綜觀西歐各國，45%的人稱他們不滿意自己的體重。相比男性，更多的女性覺得自己超重了，這種憂慮看來將長存于她們的生活之中。