Hourglass: The hourglass figure is curvy with hips and shoulders the same width. The waist is well-defined and narrow. It was fashionable for Victorian women to have a perfect hourglass figure. Later examples: Sophia Loren (above) and Elizabeth Taylor

Apple or Inverted triangle: The apple-shaped body type is top-heavy, usually with a pronounced midriff and flat rear. Elizabeth Hurley (above) and Catherine Zeta Jones have apple-shaped bodies

The Pear, Spoon or Bell: The pear-shaped body type comes with hips and thighs wider than shoulders and bust. Singer-actress Jennifer Lopez (above) and Shakira have pear-shaped figures

The Waif Look : Was originally used to describe Twiggy Lawson, the unusually thin English supermodel from the 60s, whose dimensions have dominated the ramp for 40 years. Her weight-height ratio has become the standard BMI for models. Audrey Hepburn to Kate Moss (above), many icons of beauty have sported the waif look

That’s Bridget Jones, the weight-obsessed heroine from Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, whose pastime is counting calories. Fielding’s novel is a series of entries by Bridget, all of which begin with a note on the amount of calories and alcohol she has consumed as well as her weight or “fat units” (as Bridget calls it) that swing between 119 to 133 pounds (54kg to 60kg).

Like fashion, body shapes have evolved over the years and we’ve come a long way from the 36-18-36 hourglass figure to the flat Kate Moss look. Before her came Barbie the doll with pink bathroom scales reading 110lb (50kg), which was 35lb (16kg) underweight for a woman 5.9 ft tall.

But there’s a little bit of Bridget in all of us now. She’s every woman (and at times every man). We all may not drink, smoke or obsess about our weight like Bridget does, or may not have an eating disorder, but like her we too want to look and feel a certain way. More often than not we are caught in a battle with ourselves trying to better our body image propagated by a barrage of messages from fashion magazines, music channels, films and advertisements. Actually, many of us do behave like Bridget Jones. We play little games with the measuring tape all the time.

Sharmila De is a primary school teacher who hardly cares about her diet. But she really watches herself when she goes shopping for clothes. Conscious of her waistline, she holds her breath and pulls her stomach in as the salesperson measures her up. She often returns home with the wrong size of clothes, for she believes that it can act as an “ego boost”, even if she needs to dash to her local tailor to get them altered. “I struggle to look slimmer when they hold a measuring tape around my waist. Buying new clothes that are a bit smaller can also inspire you to shed some extra flab,” says Sharmila.

Fat leads to more fat, at least talk about fat. “I go through weight-loss stories in newspapers and magazines for inspiration and always buy clothes a size smaller with a resolution of losing weight. But at the end of the day I tell myself that no way am I going to become an anorexic and am back to square one,” rues Madhurima Banerjee, a media professional who has recently joined dance classes after changing five gyms. She weighs 68kg and is 5 ft 4 inches tall. “I just hate getting measured at the tailors, especially when they scream out the inches. Now I take a sample along,” she adds.

Fat spells fear. The measuring tape makes one afraid to face oneself, literally. It stops many from allowing them to be photographed. “I make sure I am not photographed and I don’t check mirrors while passing them on roads or anywhere as I NEVER like what I see. My mantra is if you don’t like what you see stop looking,” laughs 27-year-old Roshni Biswas.

For many, catching themselves suddenly in a full-length mirror is a horror-show; they are only comfortable with the mirrors at home. “I hate five-stars, especially the rest rooms, for their multiple full-length mirrors,” says Chandrani Chakravarty, a 36-year-old housewife. “All my fat seems to spill out; I look grotesque,” she sighs.

Unlike Roshni and Chandrani, Poushali Basu, 25, stops to check her reflection in every mirror or car window she passes. “I try and ensure that I’m not looking fat and look for angles that make me look less fat. I cannot stop weighing myself at least twice a day. I travel by Metro and hop on to the weighing scale at different stations hoping for a lower reading,” says Poushali.

It’s more about feeling fat than being fat, and like all negative feelings, fat goes on and on in the mind, as a horrid tune one has heard on FM. It may really not have anything to do with how much you weigh. At 5 ft 2 inches, media professional Nibedita Moitra weighs 55 kg, but is convinced of being overweight. “My dietician has no complaint, but whenever I look at myself in the mirror I feel I should lose more weight. While walking on the road I breathe in hard to tuck my tummy in or carry my rucksack in front to hide it,” she confesses. Tina Ghelani, 21, is not fat and neither does she go on a diet — yet she finds it hard to defy the fear of expanding inches. “I get very conscious if I don’t fit into my old clothes. I exercise to keep the tyres at bay,” she says.

Fat even leads to worry about love. Can a woman with a tummy be an object of desire? “If my husband is equally fat there’s no need for worry, but if he tries to maintain himself, I make an effort to fight my bulge and look attractive,” says A. Ishita Sengupta, married for seven years.

There are some people who do something: they exercise, diet and become good citizens. “I exercise and pay attention to the cut and colours when buying clothes. I avoid loud, bright or fluorescent colours that make you look broader. I’m short so I don’t wear long skirts,” says Tista Das, a research student at Calcutta University.

But others just want their clothes to do the trick. “Cutting down on food to look thin is not my cup of tea. I wear well-fitting formal clothes and heels to look taller and slimmer. The right haircut takes the fat off my cheeks,” says Ishita, a customer care executive.

School teacher Sharmila avoids organza and kota saris or loose and baggy outfits to escape the “bulky look” while Ishita chooses to wear more of black and navy blue for a “slimming effect”. Fashion designer Sunipa Samaddar classifies people as either blind fashion victims or very body-size conscious. “Broad neck outfits and knitted fabrics lend a contoured shape while jackets have always been popular since they hide unnecessary bulge,” says Sunipa.

But most don’t really do anything about it. They crib and crib — and then reach out for the chubby cheeseburger they have ordered for lunch. Then calculate the BMI (Body Mass Index), which is your weight in kgs divided by your height in metres squared. Then find out that it exceeds 25, which makes them overweight.

And you thought obsessing about fat was a woman thing! Well, says Santosh Rudra, 22, who is studying genetics in the UK, and has been working out since he was 16: “I’m very conscious about the symmetry of my body. Apart from going to the gym regularly I keep myself on a high protein diet consisting of lean meat and small carbohydrates,” says Santosh. “I’ve bought myself jeans that are one size smaller in order to lose some weight and get into them,” he adds.

Srinjoy Sengupta, working as an assistant sales manager in a bank, turns every occasion into a fat-burning opportunity. “On weekdays I walk instead of taking the car up a short distance. Weekends are a good time to go out partying where I dance a lot. It’s relaxing and helps burn a lot of calories. At home I use ab-slimmers and avoid alcohol to prevent a paunch.”

The right look for men is defined in detail. “We give the male mannequins an Adonis look with six-pack abs and a muscular body like Hrithik Roshan or Arnold Schwarzenegger. People aspire to look the same way in our clothes,” says Naveen Misra, customer care associate and retail head of Shopper’s Stop.

Masculinity is as worried about body shape and size. Just check out the Viagra sales.

(What relationship do you share with the measuring tape? Tell t2@abpmail.com)