A WOMAN shed more than half her body weight after a ‘hot’ guy bragged he only slept with her for a dare.
Ellie Hughes lost 14-stone following weight-loss surgery three years ago after experiencing countless incidents of fatphobia throughout her life.
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At 24-stone she would have to ask for seat belt extenders on aeroplanes and refused to ride rollercoasters due to being morbidly obese.
“I’ve experienced so much fatphobia – people just assume you’re fat and lazy,” the 31-year-old admin worker said.
She even claims that after meeting the “hot and popular guy from school” on a night out, she later discovered she had fallen victim to a sick game known as ‘pigging’.
‘Pulling a pig’ or ‘pigging’ are the vile names given to a prank that involves a man attempting to ‘pull’ an overweight or ugly woman as part of a night out game or competition.
Ellie said a man boasted on Facebook that he had “managed to get a pig” after sleeping with her following a night out.
“I know that I was targeted for my weight because I would just let people walk all over me,” she said.
“I would binge-eat to comfort myself and make me feel good.
“It got to the point where I was sick of myself and sick of how I was being treated by people,” she added.
The end of a relationship three years ago led Ellie to fork out £13,000 for bariatric surgery in the UK after years of ineffective weight-loss diets.
The surgery shrunk her stomach to the size of a thumb.
Forced to eat ramekin-sized meals, Ellie lost an incredible 12 stone within a year and dropped nearly ten dress sizes.
Since her dramatic weight loss, Ellie said her confidence has shot up and she is now able to perform normal daily activities like going on walks or painting her toenails.
“People treat me so differently now. I’ve got so much more confidence in myself,” she said.
“I had the confidence to go out again and start dating, go on walks. I went to Alton Towers last year and that was a big milestone.”
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Ellie, who lives near Plymouth Devon, said she has always been overweight, but that it was during lockdown that things took a turn for the worst,
She said: “It was during Covid that I got to the point that I was unhealthy and I couldn’t do normal things like walking my dog or reaching my toenails to paint them because of my weight.
“I was carrying two people’s worth of weight.
“You feel like you can’t move because you’re essentially wearing a fatsuit. It affected everything – my confidence, my mental health.”
Ellie knew she was “never going to be happy” if she didn’t get the surgery.
I’d rather be where I am now than having type-2 diabetes, chronic heart conditions or dead by the time I’m 40.
Ellie Hughes
“On aeroplanes, I had to get the seat belt extenders which was so embarrassing,” she explained.
“I wouldn’t go on rollercoasters, I was terrified I wouldn’t fit in or that they would break because I was so overweight.
“I hated clothes shopping beforehand, trying to find shops with my clothes in stock.
“I got to the point where I didn’t want to go out because I was so ashamed.
“My goal was probably like a size 16-18 clothing and I’m now down to size ten. The weight just dropped off post-surgery.”
And Ellie has been left unrecognisable since the operation – shedding 14 stone and ten dress sizes across three years.
How to lose weight without surgery
There are various other ways to lose weight without going under the knife.
According to the NHS, to get the best possible start on its weight loss plan, there are the seven steps you should follow.
- get active for 150 minutes a week – you can break this up into shorter sessions
- aim to get your 5 A Day – 80g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit or vegetables count as 1 portion
- aim to lose 1 to 2lbs, or 0.5 to 1kg, a week
- read food labels – products with more green colour coding than amber and red are often a healthier option
- swap sugary drinks for water – if you do not like the taste, add slices of lemon or lime for flavour
- cut down on food that’s high in sugar and fat – start by swapping sugary cereal for wholegrain alternatives
- share your weight loss plan with someone you trust – they can help motivate you when you have a bad day
Ellie said: “I lost a few stone in a few months and it consistently kept going for nine months.
“This surgery has caused some health issues. I’m struggling to maintain my weight and losing a lot more than I intended.
“I passed my weight-loss goal like four stone ago, but I’d never tell people not to do it.
“I don’t regret it. I’d rather be where I am now than having type 2 diabetes, chronic heart conditions or be dead by the time I’m 40.
“I still think if I hadn’t had the surgery, I wouldn’t have lost the weight.
“I would encourage people to get weight-loss surgery but you have to be in the right frame of mind.
“I obviously do still feel resentful for how I was treated by other people because at the end of the day if I hadn’t had all that to deal with anyway, [my weight] probably wouldn’t have been such a massive problem.
“People walked all over me because I let them. It was like a vicious circle.”
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Types of weight loss surgery
When coupled with exercise and a healthy diet, weight loss surgery has been found to be effective in dramatically reducing a patient’s excess body fat.
Recent research in the United States found that people with gastric bands lose around half of their excess body weight.
Meanwhile, gastric bypasses reduce this excess body weight by two thirds post-op.
However, it’s not always successful – and patients still need to take responsibility for eating well and working out.
The three most widely used types of weight loss surgery are:
- Gastric band: where a band is used to reduce the stomach’s size, meaning you will feel full after eating a reduced amount of food
- Gastric bypass: where your digestive system is rerouted past stomach, so you digest less food and it takes less to make you feel full
- Sleeve gastrectomy: where some of the stomach is removed to reduce the amount of food required to make you feel full