Photo: PRNewsFoto/BeautifulPeople.com

The site, which relies on existing users to rate the looks of other members, said that too many people indulged in holiday meals and it was forced to take action.

“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,” BeautifulPeople.com founder Robert Hintze said in the release. “Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded.”

Canada was third on the list of countries with the most expelled members, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.

“Canada has been one of the worst offenders,” Greg Hodge, managing director of BeautifulPeople.com, told the National Post. “It’s the eating, the drinking, the sitting on the couch watching TV — that entire culture. Canada also has the added excuse of it being extremely cold, so people are wearing baggy clothes and don’t mind letting themselves go a bit over the winter months.”

The stunt appears to be one intended to draw attention to the site, and it’s working. Entry to BeautifulPeople.com is only possible after passing a democratic rating process, where members of the opposite sex vote ‘Yes definitely’, ‘Hmm yes, O.K’, ‘Hmm no, not really’ and ‘NO Definitely NOT’ based on photographs and a brief profile submitted by new applicants.