IT'S the time of year when thoughts naturally turn to holidays in the sun. But a survey shows most women will be far from happy with the idea of donning a bikini and bearing their bodies on the beach.

The Great British Diet Survey revealed a third of women have been on diets since they were teenagers. Half of those surveyed describe themselves as yo-yo dieters - meaning they follow a pattern of staving themselves, before bingeing on fatty foods and piling the pounds back on.

JENNY SCOTT meets two self-confessed yo-yo dieters. . .

TAHERA Vaka's story will strike a chord with women everywhere.

Kast year, the 28-year-old single mum Tahera Vaka of Whalley Range, Blackburn, Tahera managed to get her weight down to 12 stone, only to see it shoot back up to 14-and-a-half earlier this year.

"I just can't control my eating," Tahera admitted. "I love my food - things like pizzas, fried food and chocolate."

Like many of the women in the survey, Tahera's cycle of boom and bust has been going on for many years.

"I can remember buying slimming magazines when I was younger and sitting and reading them with a bar of chocolate," she said.

So what is it that causes women to revert to their bad eating habits?

"Emotional eating comes into it," said Tahera. "Whenever anything happens that I think I can't cope with, I start eating again.

"Last year I put on 10 pounds in a week. That was the start of my downward spiral."

And like many of the women surveyed, Tahera tried a range of slimming clubs and diets - all without success.

"I tried Weightwatchers for a couple of weeks," she said. "But it was difficult for me because I don't eat the normal Western diet.

"My family is Indian and my diet is chapattis and rice and curries - not Weightwatchers' shepherd's pie."

Currently weighing in at 13 stone and 11 pounds, Tahera feel her weight might - at last - start to stabilise, partly thanks to her new job at Blackburn North Healthy Living Centre.

"Now I'm into this health promotion job I am starting to do some of the things you need for a healthy, balanced diet.

"I go to the gym regularly. I've always done a lot of exercise - that's never been a problem."

But she admitted she still makes mistakes.

"This week I went out for a meal with the kids and I thought, 'I've got to get my money's worth', so I really blew out. The day after, all I had was water and a banana to compensate."

However - there is hope for those caught in the cycle of yo-yo dieting - as Beryl Thomas, 53, from Darwen has proved.

Beryl said: "I'd been a yo-yo dieter since my teens. I tried low-carb diets, egg and grapefruit diets, the cabbage soup diet and Slimfast, but none of them worked for me.

"Sometimes I lost weight, but then I just put it back on again - and ended up piling on even more.

"I ate all the wrong things - pies and chips, chocolate, full fat milk and butter."

Thanks to combination of Weightwatchers and jogging, however, Beryl managed to lose four-and-a-half stone 18 months ago - and hasn't looked back.

"Once I started running my whole body shape altered completely," she said. "Eighteen months ago I was a size 20/22 and weighed about 15 stone.

"Now I'm about 11 stone and size 12/14."

So what would Beryl advise other would-be slimmers?

"Take each day at a time," she said. "And try to find a form of exercise you enjoy. Basically, you need to eat less and move more!"