Overweight women's self-esteem plummets when they view photographs of models of any size, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research, but underweight women's esteem increases.

The ways individuals with different body mass indexes (BMIs) felt when they were exposed to thin or heavy media models were studied by researchers from the Netherlands, Germany and America.

"Underweight women's self-esteem always increases, regardless of the model they look at," the authors explained.

"On the other hand, overweight women's self-esteem always decreases," they added.

Researchers found that adverts also affected participants' eating behaviour and intentions to diet and exercise. For example, overweight participants ate fewer cookies and had higher intentions to diet and exercise when exposed to heavy models than when exposed to thin models.

They went as far as recommending that overweight consumers "avoid looking at ads with any models, thin or heavy".

The NHS recommends regular exercise, in women's gym wear, for example, as one of the best ways to control weight and BMI. ADNFCR-2569-ID-19417233-ADNFCR

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