A pretty young student with a dazzling smile and flowing blonde hair has revealed how food addiction saw her naturally slim frame soar to nearly 225lbs (16st 12lbs) after she would have ‘insane’ food binges.
Despite coming from an active family, Molly Smith, 24, from Vancouver, Canada, struggled to control her love of food and would binge on high-calorie snacks and takeways.
Her relentless appetite pushed her weight ever higher… until she fell for a cute boy and decided to take drastic action to overhaul her life.
Blonde beauty Molly Smith, 24, from Vancouver, is finally proud of her physique after she slimmed down and lost 85lbs (six stone)
The 24-year-old described her life before as ‘extremely lazy’ and says she was ‘addicted’ to food. Despite coming from an active family, she slipped into bad food habits and weight began to rise, tipping her into depression
After embarking upon a regime of eating fresh food and taking lots of exercise, Smith now has a killer body, tipping the scales at just over 150lbs.
Smith explains how she fell into a cycle of food addiction: ‘My family ate a relatively clean diet but due to my food addictions, I would always find a way to overeat or go insane when I did get hold of treats,’ Molly said.
‘I definitely had a food addiction, that paired with lack of motivation. At my heaviest weight, I was very much a pessimist and I felt like the world owed me something.
Her mental health began to suffer too, she says: ‘I was very depressed and insecure to say the least. Being overweight is so much more than a physical challenge, but a mental one too.
‘It’s so easy to get down on yourself and feel like there is no point in even trying anymore.
It was the idea of falling for someone who ‘would never be interested’ that finally pushed Smith to take her diet more seriously.
Molly says the idea that a boy she liked would never consider dating her proved to be the final straw in ditching her high-calorie diet
After initially starving herself, Molly realised that drastic action wouldn’t be sustainable and she began consuming around 1,200 calories a day and exercising regularly
In fact, initially she took drastic action and was ‘essentially starving myself’. She says: ‘I cut more and more calories until I was essentially starving myself.
‘At around halfway through my weight loss, I decided enough was enough and went back to eating 1,200 calories and working out regularly.
‘That took me to where I am today. I go back and forth when I’m dieting and I’ll usually eat around 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day and get in as much exercise as possible. I try to avoid carbohydrates and eat tons of fresh food.
‘At the start, I mainly focused on low-calorie foods and what was going to get me skinnier at any cost, these days I’m so concerned with the quality of food and nutrition.
Losing weight has completely changed my life. I was an extremely lazy person who thought the world owed me something.
Her Instagram page is now awash with images of her amazing physique and she says she focuses now on eating as little processed food as she can.
‘I’m currently going to school for nutrition and at this point, I’m more concerned that the food I’m eating is good for me compared to whether it will help me lose weight.
‘Losing weight has completely changed my life. Like I said, I was an extremely lazy person who thought the world owed me something.
‘I was entitled and never took accountability for my actions. Losing weight has taught me to be accountable, helped me to be organised and determined.
‘Although I sometimes still struggle with self-image, I currently find myself in a very healthy mindset about my physical appearance.’
While the hardest part about her weight loss process was trying not to give up at each hurdle, Molly insists that the most important thing is to approach it slow and steady.
Killer body: Molly says she’s now studying nutrition to learn more about what is and isn’t good for the body
Start small: Molly says patience has been key to her weight-loss journey, with an initial quick-fix starvation diet not working
‘Everyone struggles to lose weight; it’s hard. If it was easy, everyone would have a perfect body,’ she said.
‘The hardest part about losing weight is not giving up when you have a set-back.
‘Because of social media, most people are very aware that I’ve lost the weight but when I do happen to run into people that weren’t aware, it’s sometimes a bit awkward how shocked they are.
‘Start small with walking and focus mostly on your diet. Don’t go insane with workout in the beginning because it can be very discouraging at times.
‘Start small and work your way up. Most importantly, be patient and take lots of photos.’