A woman in Brazil was left heart broken after her parents separated when she was just a child, and she was taken in by her grandmother for her formative years.
But the sense of abandonment and heartache made teacher Camila Coelho Nery, 29, of Fortaleza, Brazil, turn to food to cope with her emotional distress. And she soon grew to a whopping 201lbs.
But most of Camila’s friends can hardly recognize her today at a slim 130lbs with taut abs and a vibrant smile, after she shed more than 70lbs in just a year and a half after making the life-changing decision to lose weight. And it all started after a clothing trip left her shattered when she realized she couldn’t fit into any of the store’s items. At her worst, Camila was guzzling more than 5,000 calories a day at was a size 20.
Before: Camila Coelho Nery, 29, of Brazil suffered with obesity after using food as an emotional crutch for her parents’ separation and abandonment, and left in her grandmother’s care
Hot bod! Camila’s food intake saw her tip scales at 201lbs. Two years ago when she couldn’t fit into any of the shorts a store had she decided to lose weight, and now stuns at a trim 130lbs
Beauty in blue: Camila shares that she always liked her self but was in denial about her weight problem, until she broke down realizing she couldn’t buy new clothes that fit her
But she came to face her harsh reality after breaking down during a New Year shopping trip for shorts, the go-to look for Brazilian parties, but found none that fit her figure.
‘I went to a clothing shop and I went to the dressing room to try on the clothes but no clothes fit me. I cried a lot. It was a horrible feeling, but inside, I knew I needed to change,’ she said.
‘I believe I neglected myself. It seems like I closed my eyes and forgot to take care of myself. I made many excuses about my weight,’ Camila shared.
In her excuses, she revealed that she thought everyone else was the problem.
‘I did not face reality; in my thinking, everyone was guilty for me being obese, except me. I thought I was garbage. I had no clothes that fit,’ she added.
Her obesity even took a toll on her body. Physically it gave her shortness of breath and fatigue. Emotionally, it hurt her self esteem.
‘I was also in poor health and I often woke up during the night with a shortness of breath. I liked myself, but I suffered from my fat body,’ she shared.
She knew she needed to change, and change she did. In a dramatic 180-life turnaround she cut her daily calorie intake by over half and limited herself to 1,400 calories a day. Then she started to hid the gym to build up her muscle and raised her daily consumption up to 1,900 calories.
Dramatic change! She first had to address her relationship with food, and fix the root problem of eating to cope or for fun into eating habits that were healthy and controlled to lose weight
Transformation! Today Camila is stunningly different. Her stomach is flat, her arms muscular and her figure reveals strong abs. On top of that she has a new sense of self confidence
She’s confident! In just a year and a half she shed 70lbs and developed a strong, muscular figure and reveals ‘I am much more confident and I truly love myself’ now
But she reveals that the hardest part was changing her mental relationship with food, from an emotional crutch to moderated nourishment.
‘I lost weight messing up my relationship with food. I started exercising quite often and tried to balance my mindset. I began to understand that food is just food and that eating it will not solve my problems,’ she said.
‘After I lost weight, my life changed dramatically, because going through this process made me a stronger woman. Today I feel capable of fulfilling any dream I desire,’ she added.
She warns others on the weight loss journey that eating healthy doesn’t mean depriving yourself of what you enjoy.
‘I am much more confident and I truly love myself; I know I can do anything I want. I completely changed my diet, but I did not stop eating food,’ she expressed.
‘Daily, I would eat healthy food but once a week I get a treat. As for the physical activity, I compromised. I started working out practically every day,’ she added.
Shockingly, her family wasn’t supportive of her dramatic weight loss.
‘I think the comments from some family members were bad. Many people started to criticize me because I was very focused on my goal,’ she confessed.
Dazzling! Now she’s inspiring her Instagram followers on their weight loss journeys that anything is possible and that organization is the key to slimming down into a confident figure
Wow! Camila revealed that when she was heavy (left) she had self confidence and breathing problems, and feels physically healthier than ever (right) in her new physique
Ab-licious! She wants her social media to be more that fitspiration. She warns followers to ‘seek to understand the reasons; don’t make any excuses and face reality’ in their journeys
But thankfully her over 3,500 Instagram followers think differently, and admire her extreme weight loss journey to health.
‘But most people praise me. Many people say they want to be like me and want to have my focus. A lot of people do not even believe that I got over it without any surgery,’ she added.
But she hopes that her followers learn that the way to lose weight is to understand the root of the weight gain problem.
‘Those who want to lose weight need to know what the reasons are that led them to gain the weight in the first place,’ she explained.
‘Seek to understand the reasons; don’t make any excuses and face reality. Understand that the food does not solve the problem,’ she added.
And she reveals that her secret to success is organization.
‘I would also say that the secret of diet is organization. You have to buy healthy food, take them wherever you go and create an exercise routine. Believe that it is possible and do the best you can for yourself and no one else,’ she shared.