Yvette put up a dating profile of herself at Size 18. And another at Size 10.

Let’s call it the great dating experiment.

UK journalist Yvette Caster, 33, is a happy, confident, single woman who is looking for a relationship.

Like most women, her weight has fluctuated over the years – in the past, she has been a size 10, while today she is a size 18.

Recently, she has been preoccupied with finding out how important a woman’s weight is to single men.

Read more: “I am thin. I have always been thin. And it is not okay to shame me for it.”

So to find out, she created two profiles on dating site OKCupid – one version used pictures of her current size 18 body and described her body type as ‘overweight’, while the second used older photos from when she was a size 10, and listed her body type as ‘thin’.

She told Metro.co.uk:

My weight has fluctuated dramatically throughout my life…I’ve never bought into the lie, popular with some elements of the media, that everything will be better when you’re thin. But, as a single woman trying everything I can to increase my chances of finding The One, I was interested to see how much of an issue size is for single men.

Try this: The 7 worst things that can happen on a first date. And they did.

The results were telling: in five days, Yvette’s ‘overweight’ profile received 18 messages, 74 likes and 81 visits, while the ‘thin’ version attracted 36 messages, 211 likes and 210 visits. Hmmm.

But instead of being down about the results of the experiment, Yvette has seen the positive side. She told Metro.co.uk: 

It can’t be denied that, if the guys of OKCupid are anything to go by, single men prefer thinner women twice as much. Or, at least thinner me. Alternatively, though, you could interpret these results slightly differently. A size 18 woman, posting some of her least flattering, double chin-featuring pics, received 18 messages in five days. That’s 18 more than the body-shaming community might have you expect.

Read more: Dating: 10 reasons I’ve been told I’m single.

Yvette wrote that the men who contacted both profiles were “a range of ages, shapes and sizes” and that the content of the messages were similar for both as well.

And despite the fact that her fake, ‘thin’ profile received more than double the attention of the ‘overweight’ one, Yvette said she is far more confident as a size 18 than she has been in the past.

The most important element to me is that no matter my size, I’m now twice as confident in my body than I was as a size ten. When I was thinner I was more self-conscious, less confident around men and much more uptight. A date with me now would be way more fun than it would have been then. If I went back to a size ten I’d mourn the loss of my boobs more than celebrate my flatter stomach. The best philosophy is to please yourself. Hopefully then you will attract someone who likes the version of yourself you’ve chosen as much as you do.

You do you, Yvette.

Have you tried online dating? How did you find the experience?