Woman who ‘sneak ate’ and almost went blind after tipping the scales at 24st reveals simple diet change to drop 13st
WHEN Anita started going blind due to her weight, she knew something needed to change.
The 27-year-old had always been known as “Big Anita” but tipped the scales at 24st in her early twenties as a result of “sneak eating” every night.
A scary side effect of being obese is that it can cause intracranial hypertension – something Anita suffered with for months.
The condition, which is common following a stroke or severe head injury, puts so much pressure on your brain that your vision goes blurry or blacked out.
Among other complications Anita experienced were severe back pain, not having enough balance to wear high heels and not being able to bend over to tie her laces.
“There was a lot of pressure building up on my brain, so that affected my eyesight,” Anita tells Truly. “Over time, my eyes were getting blurry.
“At 336lb, I was so overweight that I feared I was going blind.
“Potentially losing your sight in your early twenties was definitely something that scared me.”
But that wasn’t her lowest moment.
She pinpoints this as a time when she was trying to weigh herself but the reading wouldn’t show up, indicating that she was too heavy for the scale.
Anita had been told “pretty for a big girl” by strangers and had always been known as “Plus-size Anita” by people around her.
“I’ve always known that I was the bigger one,” the London-based content creator says.
“So I just had to be confident – there was no room for me not to be.
“When I was a child, I was definitely the chubbier kid.
“I would sneak eat. So if my parents had gone to sleep, I would go and get crisps, chocolate, sweets.
“It was the secret eating that crept up on me over the years.”
After outweighing the scales, she decided to make a change and started walking more, as well as eating healthier.
Her simple diet change was to cut out “sneak eating” and consuming sweet treats around the clock.
Anita recalls that as the fat was dropping off slowly, she needed to accelerate the weight loss process to save her life from the health complications being obese was causing.
She elected for gastric sleeve surgery and over the last 14 months, has shed nearly 11st.
Named a sleeve gastrectomy by the NHS, the surgery removes a large part of your stomach so that it’s much smaller than it was before.
This means you can’t eat as much as you could before surgery and you’ll feel full sooner.
Anita also walks everyday, works out three times a week and monitors what she puts in her mouth to keep her weight down.
Her friends say she “glows differently” not that she weighs 13st and 4lb, and goes to places she would have avoided when overweight.
Anita says that losing the weight has “been liberating” and that she “feels free now”.
By sharing her story on social media, she has inspired other overweight women to put their health first.
“You are so gorgeous,” one said. “I know I need to take control of my weight and this has inspired me to do it.”