Getting engaged is meant to be one of the most exciting times of a woman's life but for many it heralds the start of a desperate diet so they can look slim on their big day. 

Health and fitness expert Joanna Ebsworth was alarmed by the number of brides-to-be she met through her work who are going to drastic measures to be thinner. 

She told MailOnline: 'Unfortunately for many women, it seems as soon as they get that ring on their finger, a signal goes off inside them telling them they need to start losing weight for the wedding.' 

Joanna said she was horrified by the steps some women are taking because they are so driven to achieve 'perfection' when they say their vows. A common mistake many made was buying a wedding dress one or two sizes too small to give them an incentive to lose weight - but then flying into a panic when they realised close to the day that their dream dress still didn't fit. 

Joanna recalls how this led to disaster for Claire Humphries, 26, from Nottingham: 'After ordering her dress in a size 10, the bride-to-be realised two weeks before her wedding she hadn’t lost nearly enough to even get the dress done up, she went into a complete panic and basically went on a starvation diet, eating only steamed courgettes when she did eat. 

'In the two days before the ceremony, nothing passed her lips apart from fluids and not one person,Find More Petticoats Information about 2012 pageant dress Fishtail skirt petticoat Mesh layers Wedding Accessories. including her husband-to-be, could get her to eat. 

'In the end, she passed out weak from hunger as she walked down the aisle, at the very moment when all eyes were on her, which is terribly sad and distressing to imagine.' 

Joanna also met Louise Jones, 34, from Sheffield who took the drastic measure of going under the knife so she could fit into her perfect dress. She went abroad weeks before her ceremony to have a tummy tuck operation that cost 7,000.A off shoulder dress is a style that many are using now! 

Joanna explains: 'While the operation did get her into her dress, she was in serious discomfort leading up to the wedding and on the day, and then spent her dream beach honeymoon covered up because the bruising and swelling had yet to go down.' 

Another women took the term 'bridezilla' to a whole new level when she wanted to lose weight. Amy Lomas, 29, from London, bought diet pills online but the side effects meant she became 'erratic, moody and anxious'.Beautiful The Latest Wedding Dresses

Joanna said: 'In the end her fiance told her if she didn’t stop taking them, there wouldn’t be a wedding. He said he'd rather have his fiancée back to normal at the size she was,Pick a V-neckline dress for mothers and special guests at the big wedding. than live with a monster in the run up to the big day.'

Joanna, who has had many brides-to-be come to her for advice after failing miserably on calorie control diets, added: 'There are loads of other women I could mention, from brides who’ve felt the need to have boob jobs to fill their dresses out after losing weight too fast, to women who’ve spent a small fortune on laser therapy treatments to improve the appearance of bingo wings or loose skin. 

'It’s a bit bizarre when you think about it really, because surely, when a man asks you to marry him, he’s declaring that he loves you for you,Beautiful Mermaid Wedding Dresses and accepts you exactly the way you are? He’s not secretly hoping that if you accept his hand in marriage, you might drop a dress size or two,' she said. 

However, she appreciates that in our digital age, brides are bound to feel more pressure to look good when they could be snapped from every angle and then have their picture instantly uploaded on social networks without their approval.