A young woman has revealed how she dropped 25kg and became a personal trainer after tipping the scales at 102 kilograms and being called a ‘whale’ by bullies.
Annie Howland, from South Australia, had struggled with her weight since childhood and binged on 5,000 calories a day by the time she was 19, when she knew that something had to change.
She claims bullies used to call her names such as ‘whale’ as early as primary school, which ultimately led to her binge eating in a bid to seek comfort.
Due to her size, Annie said she was often told she was ‘too fat’ to be friends with certain people.
BEFORE AND AFTER: A young woman has revealed how she dropped 25kg and became a personal trainer after tipping the scales at 102 kilograms and being called a ‘whale’ by bullies
Annie Howland had struggled with her weight since childhood and binged on 5,000 calories a day by the time she was 19, when she knew that something had to change (pictured now)
In a bid to transform her lifestyle, Annie decided to transform her diet and exercise regime, losing 25kg in 12 months, weighing 77kg.
Now, Annie has taken to TikTok to share her story and transformation in an attempt to help others, racking up 791,000 views and 47,000 likes.
‘I used to get extremely nasty comments about my weight, where people used to call me a whale and say I was fat or obese,” Annie told NeedToKnow.Online.
‘I was told that I was too fat to be friends with certain people and that I couldn’t wear crop tops because I was too big.’
Annie said: ‘I remember in primary school, a girl told me I was too fat to run in the 100m sprint and ever since then, I hated my body, as well as how I felt.
‘I would cover myself in oversized clothing and I couldn’t stand to look at myself in the mirror. This is where my bad relationship with food started, as I began starving myself for as long as I could, then binging on anything I could find.’
She added: ‘I would secretly do it in my room and would feel so guilty – this is when I knew something needed to change’.
BEFORE AND AFTER: In a bid to transform her lifestyle, Annie decided to transform her diet and exercise regime, losing 25kg in 12 months, weighing 77kg
Annie (pictured now) has since become a personal trainer, and her advice to anyone wanting to lose weight is to ‘just start’
When the 22-year-old was confronted with a photo of herself at a friend’s party, she said she was ‘mortified’ and knew something had to change.
In 2018, Annie decided to overhaul her unhealthy lifestyle – and initially, she lost about 25kg in a year.
But she said she didn’t go about the process healthily, often ‘excessively’ exercising and restricting herself to only 1,200 calories per day.
Then, Annie started to get comments from others saying she looked ‘unhealthily skinny’ and so decided to change her attitude in a bid to become stronger, while still losing weight.
Now, she’s a qualified personal trainer and has started to form a healthy relationship with food again, as well as training up to five times a week at the gym lifting weights.
To date, Annie has lost roughly 25kg, now weighing 86kg after gaining 8.5kg in muscle mass.
BEFORE AND AFTER: She has now begun lifting and said she trains several times a week, while eating a balanced diet
She said: ‘I saw my body changing positively, as I started to gain muscle and my body composition began to change.
‘I look much healthier and stronger and I feel happy with how I look right now. Overall, I am so proud of how far I’ve come.
Since then, I have been able to continue building a healthy and strong physique.
‘It’s crazy to think that I weigh only around 6kg less than I did when I was overweight, but my body looks entirely different.’
She added; ‘It just goes to show that the scales don’t mean anything and that being healthy isn’t set to a certain number’.
Annie shared a picture of herself before losing weight with the caption: ‘To the girl who said I was too fat to be friends with her’.
‘You look amazing queen,’ one person commented.
Another said: ‘Imagine seeing them again, I would be scared for them’, while a third added ‘insanely impressive’.
‘Just start it – there’s always an excuse if you make one, but just starting means you’ve already made a change,’ she said (pictured at the gym)
For others hoping to lose weight, Annie said her advice is to just start.
‘Just start it – there’s always an excuse if you make one, but just starting means you’ve already made a change,’ she said.
‘If you wait for the “perfect” time to start, you never will.’
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