More than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for a new Netflix series to be cancelled because they say it promotes fat-shaming.

A trailer released for 'Insatiable' sparked outrage after featuring an overweight teenage girl whose dramatic weight loss sees her become more popular.

The petition on Change.org, started less than a week ago by Florence Given, accuses the series of triggering and says:"For so long, the narrative has told women and young impressionable girls that in order to be popular, have friends, to be desirable for the male gaze, and to some extent be a worthy human...that we must be thin.

"It perpetuates not only the toxicity of diet culture, but the objectification of women's bodies."

Debby Ryan, who plays the lead character Patty, said she took on the role because the show "addresses and confronts" issues like body shaming through satire.

The show's creator, Lauren Gussis, pleaded for viewers to give it a chance.

In a statement posted on Twitter, she said she developed an eating disorder when she was 13 and wanted to share the pain and vulnerability she experienced through humour.

She added: "The show is a cautionary tale about how damaging it can be to believe the outsides are more important - to judge without going deeper."

The 13-episode series follows a teenage girl, played by American actress Ryan, as she turns to beauty pageants to seek revenge on her bullies with the help of a coach, played by The Walking Dead actor Dallas Roberts.

The main character, Patty, returns to school after losing a significant amount of weight as a result of having her mouth wired shut during the summer break.

The petition will be delivered to Netflix if it reaches 150,000 signatures.

Among those to have already signed it is Jonathan Ross' daughter Honey Kinny Ross, who called the programme "toxic".

In a tweet to Netflix UK, she said: "I hope you're happy with the damage you're going to cause to so many teenagers by putting this heinous show out.

"Honestly, when I was a teen, I prayed for any scrap of representation showing larger women in a way that suggested I was worthy of love and happiness. This show is exactly the kind of thing that would have confirmed to teenage me that I wasn't."

The official trailer was released earlier this month and garnered online attention from those accusing it of being 'fatphobic'

It is estimated that 1.25 million people in the UK have an eating disorder, according to the charity Beat, with anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder (BED) the most common.

Several celebrities have demanded Netflix cancel the release of the programme.

Lead actress Debby Ryan weighed in, saying: "Satire is a way to poke fun at the hardest things, bring darkness into the light and enter difficult conversations."

Adding to her comments she also revealed that she has struggled with body image for 12 years which took her "in and out of terrible places."

A boycott from watching the programme may hit the service hard as the company reported slowing subscriber growth with shares falling 14% last week.

All 13 episodes drop on the streaming service on August 10.