Joy-Anna Duggar Responds to Backlash Over Anorexic Comments

Counting On star Joy-Anna (Duggar) Forsyth apologized for her recent anorexia comments on social media, telling one fan, "I feel so bad."

The controversy began on Jan. 14, when Forsyth posted videos on Instagram about her weight loss journey after welcoming her first child with husband Austin Forsyth. The 21-year-old revealed that she lost weight using a health coach and diet program, which many thought to be Optivia.

"I want to get on here and give you guys an update on how my health plan is going. So, like I said in an earlier video, I lost all my baby weight within the first week of doing the program," Forsyth told fans in one video. "And now, I'm really happy because I got below my wedding weight — which, before my wedding, I worked so hard to get there. And so it's such an easy program to follow and really little meal prep."

"I'd do anything to lose weight! The issue is I have to do it healthy since I have anorexia," one fan replied in the comments section.

Rather than telling the Instagram user to not use the plan, Forsyth appeared to endorse it. "Awesome! This is all clean and has probiotics built in," she wrote.

Other fans called Foryth's comment "tone deaf" and said she should not be suggesting weight loss plans for someone struggling with anorexia.

Forsyth later agreed that she should not have made that comment to a fan. According to InTouch Weekly, a Reddit user posted a screenshot from a Tumblr user that appears to show a conversation between a fan and Forsyth.

In the message, the fan told Forsyth that her comment to the Instagram user was "very dangerous," since the Optacia plan "does not work for everyone."

"You are not a nutritionist and neither is your mentor/friend, and you shouldn't use your platform as a high-profile person to encourage people to do something that could possibly harm them," the fan wrote to Forsyth.

"Thank you for your concern," Forsyth replied. "I did not mean at all to text the girl that has anorexia and I feel so bad, I tried to find the account so I could fix what I said."

Forsyth continued, "As far as my health coach. Once she gets on a call. She tells each person to check with their [general practitioner] before doing it. Optavia [is] a great program and is [recommended] by lots of doctors. But I understand it is not good for all."

This is not the first time a member of the Duggar family has been in hot water for weight loss comments. On Jan. 1, Forsyth's brother-in-law Derick Dillard was criticized for sharing a blog post about with the message "The Key to Keeping Your 2019 Resolutions: 'Some of you may not know this, but 7 years ago I weighed nearly 400 pounds." Twitter users called him out for sharing a fake weight loss story.

Photo credit: Joy-Anna & Austin Forsyth