An exclusive dating website for attractive people has booted out members for piling on the pounds over Christmas
BeautifulPeople.com made more than 5,000 users re-apply after they posted pictures of themselves looking chubbier than usual celebrating the festive season.
Existing members were asked to decide if they were still pretty enough to be part of the website.
Only a few hundred were allowed back in.
The site, which bans so-called "ugly people" and calls itself an "exclusively beautiful community", said it was responding to complaints from its customers.
Founder Robert Hintze said: "As a business, we mourn the loss of any member, but the fact remains that our members demand the high standard of beauty be upheld.
"Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded."
Managing director Greg Hodge said: "People can be big and beautiful but it doesn't suit everyone. If you join as a size six, or with ripped abs and a slim physique, you have to maintain this look or expect to be re-rated.
"Remember this is the opinion of our members, who have the final and completely democratic vote on who is let in or cast out of their community."
Most of the people who were kicked off the site were from the US, the UK and Canada.
Managers sent them emails encouraging them to reapply when they have slimmed down
Subject: Festive Fatties Rejected From Dating Site (note: not my title) 
Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:03 pm
