By the time she turned five, Amber Rachdi, now 24, from Troutdale in Oregon, weighed 11st - the same as the average adult woman.
19
years later and Ms Rachdi hit rock bottom: virtually housebound and in
constant pain, she was ashamed of her enormous 46st (657lb) frame.But
after doctors warned that she would be dead by the age of 30, the
24-year-old plucked up the courage to make a change and has since lost
20st in a year.
Despite her
hefty frame, Ms Rachdi says she has always eaten healthily - and puts
the excess pounds to eating more healthy food than she should.
She
also says she used food to control feelings of anxiety and to deal with
her fear of failure but says all the comfort eating just made things
worse in the end.'My
relationship with food is unhealthy,' she explains. 'I spend a lot of
the day stressing about what I'm going to eat and when I'm going to get
it.
'There's
anticipation before I eat but it's not enjoyable. It's a feeling of
desperation and sadness. Food is a comfort and it's helping me avoid
reality. I have a lot of anxiety and I don't like it.
'I'm at peace while I eat. I don't have to think about how I have let everyone around me down. It's a distraction.'As
a result of her overeating, her parents were left in a state of panic,
with mother Patty admitting that she was sure her daughter would die.
'She always felt she didn't live up to our expectations,' she says. 'She just became a typical underachiever.
'We were told that if she doesn't lose weight, she will die before she's 30.'
'I see a lot of pity in my mum's face when she looks at me and I can't handle that,' said Ms Rachdi, ahead of her surgery.
Ms Rachdi has been supported throughout by her boyfriend Rowdy who also moved to Houston
Ms Rachdi had to lose 17lb before being allowed to have weight loss surgery
Ms Rachdi has now shed 20st and tips the scales at 26st - half her former body weight
'Sometimes
my dad would make snide comments about my size and that would hurt me. I
wish I could be self-sufficient and successful and show the world I'm
made of so much more but as long as I'm big, as long as I'm obese, I
will never be able to be that person.'
The
turning point came when the Rachdi family relocated to Houston in Texas
to be closer to bariatric specialist, Dr Younan Nowzaradan.
Last autumn, Ms Rachdi finally went under the knife for life-saving gastric surgery and has since lost a staggering 20st.But
with another 9st to go, there is still a long way to go before Ms
Rachdi becomes the 'successful, independent woman' she wants to be.
Even so, things are finally looking up. 'I'm now able to shop for myself,' beams the 24-year-old who has also learned to drive.'I
have hope. Now the world is open to me. I'm no longer Amber of one
room, one house. I'm no longer using food to cope with my anxiety.'
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