“I USED to look at the chairs in a restaurant and wonder if it would hold me,” Jacqueline Smith admitted.
Tipping the scales at 19st 3lbs, the 37-year-old account manager was “fed up” with being and “hated” the person she saw staring back at her in the mirror.
Having “tried every diet under the sun”, she turned to “skinny jabs”, and forked out £750 a month in a bid to become thin.
And it worked – she lost eight stone – but gained hate comments.
Instead of being praised for her success, Jacqueline was called “lazy” by strangers online and accused of “stealing medicine from diabetics”.
“My weight was always something I worried about; the fear never left me,”; she said.
“I used to look at the chairs in a restaurant and wonder if it would hold me.
“When going out on a walk, I’d worry how badly my thighs would chafe.
“An ex once said to me: ‘You’re huge – what are you going to be like when you reach 40?’
“I wasn’t even that overweight at this stage.
“Then when I met my now husband the ‘happy weight’ really started to pile on,” she explained.
“I’ve always thought I looked pretty, but I didn’t like the way I looked at this size.
“There’s just so much you don’t have to worry about when you’re a ‘normal’ weight.”;
Jacqueline, from Dallas, Texas, US, used to eat out multiple times a day before, opting for a burrito at breakfast, followed by a burger at lunch and then McDonald’s for dinner.
She found it difficult to break the eating cycle both she, and her husband, found themselves in.
When she realised just how many calories she was consuming per day – around 4,000 – that’s when she knew something needed to change.
She said: “I had seen skinny jabs on television after celebrities had been using it to .
“I asked my doctor if it was right for me, as I didn’t personally know anybody on them.
“She had just come back from a conference learning about GLP-1s and was really excited to have me try it out.”
She paid £750 per month for and went from 19st 3lbs to 11st 9lbs in less than two years with weight dropping off her in the first week.
“The weight loss was immediate,” she told Jam Press.
“I also started counting calories per day and walking when I started taking it.
“But it was flying off me – I couldn’t believe it.”;
Now, Jacqueline has gone from a US dress size 22 to six.
She no longer has such intense throughout the day and typically eats something low carb, like wraps, for most of her meals, with fruit as a snack.
To help maintain her weight loss, Jacqueline walks at least per day and does cycling classes, weight lifting and running throughout the week.
The biggest difference, though? Her confidence.
She added: “I didn’t like to leave the house often before.
“Now, I’m far more active and confident.
“I don’t feel like people are just focusing on my size, but actually who I am as a person instead.
“I’m currently at my goal weight and stopped taking the jabs four months ago.
“But I’ll have to start a maintenance dose soon, as it just helps with not only losing weight, but also appetite dysregulation and inflammation.
“I recently joined a service that provides direct access to an obesity expert and dietitian.
“It’s a disease and I will have to continue working to fight it for the rest of my life.
“People will always have opinions, but that’s none of my business.
“It’s not cheating – it’s dealing with something very complex in the right way.
“I’m so glad I started taking it; it’s changed my life.”;
