Two thirds of women have lied about the size of their bodies, a study revealed this year.

Researchers found that many women have fibbed about their weight with many confessing to knocking off numbers when talking to their partner, best friend and even their own mothers.

The average woman removes as much as four kilograms after stepping on the scales and one in five has pretended they weigh a stone less than they actually do.

One in six go as far as to type in a lower weight in to the machines at the gym they are so embarrassed by their true size.

As a result a quarter of women have started to believe their own lies and say they regularly buy the wrong sizes and get shocked by their true shape.

But it isn't just their weight that women lie about. Many confessed to telling porkies about their dress size, bra size and even their shoe size.

The research in to the thoughts of 2000 women was commissioned by Eat Water, a pasta product released in the UK that encourages weight loss.

Vincent Lee from EatWater.co.uk said: "Most people will admit to telling the odd white lie about their body shape and weight but for women to be lying so frequently is a bit of a shame.

"Weight is such a tricky issue and everyone knows that it's not always the best indicator of someone's healthiness or size. And body shape and size is such a personal issue.

"Carrying extra weight can be embarrassing and knock your confidence and it's only natural that you might not want to highlight this to your friends and even your partner. It's especially worrying that so many women are starting to believe their own lies."

Most women admit to dropping their dress size by one size but one in five admitted they always say they are two dress sizes smaller than they really are.

Fifteen percent have been caught out lying while most admit to cutting out labels from clothes and bras to keep up the pretence of being smaller than they actually are.

One in 10 even lie about their height with most adding a few inches to make themselves seem taller.

The top excuse for fibbing was that women were embarrassed by their true size, while women also said they lied to make themselves feel better and more than half said that all women lie so it was expected they would as well.

The results showed that most women wanted to be between 50 and 60kg and a size 10 with a bra size of 34C.

They wanted to have size five feet and be between 1.67 and 1.76m in height.

"Losing a few pounds isn’t as hard as you can often think it will be," said Lee.

"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. Or mean that you have to cut out your favourite foods."