Introduction:
Eating disorders are a big clinical problem and the number of people with such a diagnosis constantly increases. Self-evaluation of body image is affected by the press, TV and the Internet, promoting patterns of body image, beauty, life style and others are promoted, and ways to achieve an ideal appearance are reported, and where ‘the bold and the beautiful’ make others want to look better. The problem is that these patterns considerably differ from the appearance of an average woman/girl, and in many of them they evoke the sense of lack of attractiveness, frustration, and the need to slim. Data from the literature allow the presumption that the number of people with eating disorders, and those threatened by these disorders is constantly growing.

Aim:
The objective of the study was obtaining information concerning the way in which young women perceive their body image, what affects their perception, what actions they undertake to obtain the desired silhouette, and where do they obtain information pertaining to the ideal appearance and ways to achieve it.

Material and Methods:
The study covered a group of 230 UJK students aged 19 – 23, and was conducted in the form of an anonymous survey containing items concerning body image and method applied in order to loose body weight.

Results:
As many as 81% of respondents mentioned that they had excessive body weight, 97% of girls in this group undertook actions to become slimmer, and one third of them applied pharmacological agents. For more than a half of the respondents the Internet is the source of knowledge concerning an ideal silhouette and the way to achieve it, where they spend about 2–3 hours daily searching social networking websites. Also, the comparison of own appearance with others and information from newspapers and television exert a great effect on self body image