Most women would rather have a small waist than a big brain

The majority of women would prefer to be slimmer than have a higher IQ, instant wealth or a date with the celebrity of their dreams.

Nineteen out of 20 of the female population say that they place a higher priority on having a smaller waist than on their intelligence.

From a wish list that included never having money worries again, dating the A-list star of their choice or a genius-level IQ score, 51 per cent of women still plumped for a slimmer figure, according to a survey for the website tescodiets.com.

At a time when one in three women is overweight and a further one in five is obese, experts said that there was still too much pressure on the female population to be slim.

Barbara Wilson, head of nutrition at tescodiets.com, said: "Women's role models tend to be models and actresses, so there is more emphasis than ever placed upon physical perfection.

"These statistics reveal just how much pressure women feel there is to be slim in today's society."

The website has identified today as the most popular date in the year for starting a diet following the excesses of Christmas.

One in three women admitted that they spend more time worrying about their weight than their finances, jobs or families. And while 29 per cent said their biggest dread was going to the dentist and 16 per cent cited looking for a new job, a massive 40 per cent admitted their worst fear was having to try on clothes in a shop's communal fitting rooms.

One on three had lied to their friends about how much they weigh and one in four had tried to deceive their partner about their size.

Separate research by the magazine LighterLife has found that nearly half of women give up on their New Year diet within just a week of starting it. One in five female dieters admit that they have hidden food and eaten it in secret while pretending to maintain their new regime.

Bar Hewlett, founder of the LighterLife company, said: "Our survey reveals the extent of women's desperation.

"There have been women who hide food in the washing machine, under the plastic bag inside a cereal packet and even up their sleeves.

"The secret of losing weight and keeping it off is resolving the emotional issues that encourage you to overeat in the first place and having support from people in the same position."

The extent to which British women are confused about what the kind of female body they believe to be attractive and what they want for themselves was also revealed last week.

Singer Beyoncé Knowles was voted by women as having the sexiest figure, alongside other curvy stars such as Charlotte Church, Dawn French and Nigella Lawson.

The survey for the Ann Summers retail chain found that 87 per cent of the female respondents believed that society had an unhealthy obsession with diet and dress size.

Deanne Jade, principal of the National Centre of Eating Disorders, said: "Women are inconsistent about how they really feel about their bodies.

"They may be able to accept curves on a star, but on their own bodies it just seems like fat."