BeautifulPeople. com, the popular dating and social networking website, has reportedly cut off about 5,000 members after complaints of them putting on weight. The axed members were singled out after they posted pictures of themselves, which reportedly showed that they had packed on the pounds over the holiday season.

The website allows entry to new members only if existing members approve of them and vote them as attractive. At the top of the list of excluded members were people from the US, UK and Canada.

The website has always been very public about its selection process and calls itself "the largest network of attractive people in the world".

The development was reportedly initiated by members themselves, who keep a high vigil of memberships of the site to maintain its standards.

"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", said the site's founder Robert Hintze.