Women criticise themselves an average of eight times a day, study says

Thinking they should lose weight was among the top concerns of the 2,000 women surveyed

One in seven women were regularly self-critical of their body (REX Features)

The average woman criticised herself at least eight times a day, a study has found.

The survey of more than 2,000 women conducted by Weight Watchers found one in seven women were regularly self-critical of their body, their personality or their career success every day.

A further 46 per cent of women admitted having negative thoughts about themselves at least once before 9.30am.

A focus on physical beauty and wanting to lose weight were the most common with not earning enough money or deliberately deflecting compliments from other people also frequent, The Mirror reported.

The study found 89 per cent of women complimented their friends in ways they would never compliment themselves and 88 per cent said they would never criticise them in the same way.

Researchers believe many of the criticisms were as result of modern society living through a “Hall of Mirrors” era, whereby social media distorts people’s perceptions of how “well” their peers are doing.

Zoe Griffiths, Head of Public Health and Programme at Weight Watchers, said: "Today's hectic and visually-driven world has meant that we're seeing a rise in women being self-critical, from the way they look to the way they feel at work.

"Our research has shown that being unkind to ourselves has been an underlying theme for women for many years, but a set of very modern cultural conditions have increased the intensity of this unkindness which are hard to avoid.”