How One 23-Year-Old Lost Nearly Half Her Bodyweight in Just Over a Year
I always love putting pictures side by side to show how far I've come! Amazed every time! Still [...]
Jessica Weber struggled with weight gain her entire life. Growing up in Peru, Illinois, her diet consisted of a lot of starches like pasta and potatoes.
She was bullied by her peers for her size: "I definitely feel like I was treated differently," Weber told the Daily Mail. "I used to get made fun of growing up in school. I remember I stopped riding the school bus because this one girl would be so mean to me. I wasn't even at my heaviest weight then; it got better, but I still felt like people still judged me."
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When she was 22 years old, Weber weighed nearly 400 pounds and was eating two dinners every night. That's when she knew it was time for a change.
In January 2016, her doctors suggested she undergo a gastric sleeve surgery in order to prevent diabetes and sleep apnea. It would re-shape her stomach into a small tube, forcing her to eat less calories and jumpstart her weight loss journey.
Since the surgery, Weber has completely transformed her lifestyle. Not only has she cut out "liquid calories" like soda, but she's also eliminated super starchy meals and focuses on filling her plate with lean protein and tons of veggies.
And guess what? It's working. The now 23-year-old is officially down to 199 pounds! She still has a little ways to go before hitting her goal weight of somewhere in between 150-160 pounds, when she wants to undergo surgery to remove the excess skin on her stomach from the dramatic weight loss.
In the meantime, Weber will continue to hit the gym, eat healthy and share her journey with her 20,000+ Instagram followers. She's learning to love her body again — excess skin and all.
"This is my reality! This is my life! When you lose 180 pounds, the skin doesn't just suck back up," she wrote in the caption of a recent Instagram post featuring her bare belly and folds of loose skin. "I have been learning to deal with it, even with wanting to lose a bit more weight and have surgery! This is my life until then and I will not hate my body anymore!"
[H/T Instagram / @jessica_vsg44]
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