My obsession with dieting was a lot of pain gone to waist

On hearing that, I grabbed my coat and ran away as fast as my legs would carry me.

A few days later, a colleague recommended body massage, as one of her friends lost more than 7 kg in a week, for the very reasonable price of 800 yuan ($118).

"That's a very good deal! Nowadays, you have to pay more than 30 yuan for 1 kg of pork, while it costs 100 yuan for you to lose 1 kg," she said.

I was grateful for her advice but couldn't take it since it required daily attendance and I couldn't get that much time off work .

After that, I went on a diet of yogurt and apples but starvation seemed even worse than acupuncture, especially when my stomach screamed like a horse in the middle of the night. Then, as I walked through one restaurant, the delicious smells went deep into my nostrils and provoked my appetite, a form of torture that made me even more desperate for food. I soon surrendered to chocolate and cheese.

My final effort was to start going to the gym, where I met many people determined to lose weight, even though some of them were not fat at all.

One day I was in a dance class and got chatting to two girls who, despite being as skinny as a rake, wanted to lose their new-found excesses from the Spring Festival. In their eyes, I must have looked like an elephant.

This time, though, I didn't give up. In fact, their words stimulated me. One long, hard week later, I lost 2 kg.

I could not wait to tell my friend the good news but she didn't congratulate me at all.

"You are so old-fashioned," she said, shaking her head.

"Haven't you heard? Playboy is going to put plump girls on its cover - being fat is a new trend. Shall we go to a seafood buffet tonight?"