How should you describe your body on online dating sites?

Everyone who has used an online dating site will have been asked to pick the option that best describes their body.

It is one of the standard boxes to tick before your profile goes live, but it is also something that causes plenty of confusion and concern.

Glamour magazine has published a blog by Gena Kaufman that explains how users are routinely asked to choose from terms such as slender, big and beautiful, athletic, average and overweight.

But for such a subjective issue, these are rarely adequate and might not give other daters any real information.

Ms Kaufman went on to suggest this might simply be a category people should ignore altogether.

While she said it is important not to deliberately mislead anyone over your shape and size, no amount of box ticking can ever beat meeting up in real life and taking the time to get a good look at each other before deciding whether you like what you see.