A teenager who struggled with her weight for her entire life, eventually tipping the scales at 286 pounds, has revealed how gastric band surgery ‘changed my life forever’ and helped her to shed weight, while also improving a serious medical issue.
Mariah, 19, from Prairie Springs Park, Wisconsin, who goes by the name Mariah Losing on social media, underwent a vertical sleeve gastrectomy on July 19, 2017.
The surgery removed 80 per cent of her stomach and she can now only eat about four ounces of food at a time, resulting in an 84 pound weight loss in just over six months.
Transformation: Mariah, 19, from Prairie Springs Park, Wisconsin who goes by the name Mariah Losing on social media has lost 84 pounds thanks to gastric bypass (right), left at 286 pounds
Loss: Mariah underwent gastric bypass surgery in July 2017, pictured in January 2017
Teen spirit: Mariah was put on her first diet aged seven but is now committed to losing weight and keeping it off, pictured left before her surgery and right in January 2017
However, her weight loss journey has not been an easy one, and Mariah took to her YouTube channel to explain her motivation for getting surgery.
‘I knew getting this surgery it wasn’t going to be a magic fix. I knew I wouldn’t just eat half an egg or half a yogurt for the rest of my life,’ she revealed.
Overweight since childhood, Mariah shared that her paediatrician put her on her first diet when she was just seven-years-old.
She has also struggled with poly cystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) since she was in middle school, which made losing weight and keeping it off ‘extremely hard’.
Mariah also had sleep apnea, as well as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
‘I don’t know many seven-year-olds that are put on a diet,’ she revealed.
‘They thought I had a thyroid issue. They thought it was baby fat, they thought it was because I was so tall but no, it was my weight that got me there.’
She added: ‘I had split parents so I could play that card, be all sad and then get whatever food I wanted. I have two sets of grandparents that love to coo and love to eat so they instilled that in me. But how did I get to being morbidly obese – that was me.’
50/50: Mariah revealed that she used her parents splitting up as an excuse to eat whatever she wanted as a child and teen, pictured left before her surgery and right in December 2017
Shrinking: 80 per cent of Mariah’s stomach was removed during weight loss surgery, pictured in December 2017
Slowly but surely: Mariah, pictured left before surgery and right in October 2017, is aiming to get down to her goal weight of 130 pounds
In middle school she remembers sneaking food up to her room and flushing the empty wrappers down the toilet until it clogged, as she was scared to have the garbage in her room and get yelled at.
She was also seeing a nutritionist at the time and at the start of sixth grade she weighted 150 pounds.
But by the start of high school, she weighed 250 pounds, explaining that she gained 100 pounds in middle school, despite doing gymnastics and swimming.
When Mariah was a freshman, a dietitian put her on Phentermine, a psychostimulant drug similar to amphetamine, and over that summer lost 50 pounds.
But when she stopped talking these diet pills, she gained all the weight back, which led her to weight watchers twice and a low carb program that eventually led to a 70 pound weight gain once she stopped following it.
When she reached her highest weight of nearly 300 pounds, Mariah shared that she also suffered from severe cramping and spotting, a side effect of her PCOS.
However, her breakthrough came when she had her first consultation about weight loss surgery in July 2016 and after several physical and psychiatric evaluations, underwent surgery in July 2017.
No sweat: Mariah is currently doing the couch to 5k app in a bid to improve her fitness, pictured left before her transformation and right in January 2018
Keto fan: Mariah now eats a low carb, high fat diet to help her shed even more weight
Loose skin: She hopes to undergo a tummy tuck and arm lift once she has saved up for more surgery, pictured left before surgery and right in January 2018
Taking to Instagram in January, to share a before and after photo, she wrote in the accompanying caption: ‘I was already down 24.5 pounds on the day of surgery.
‘Today I am down a total of 81.7 pounds and 57.2 pounds since the day of surgery. I am so beyond grateful for my tool. I am so proud of myself for what I have done in the last six months but I cannot wait to see what there is to come in the next six!’
Explaining that her stomach will expand over time, Mariah is now a fan of the ketogenic diet to keep her weight loss on track and frequently posts pictures of her high fat, low carb meals on social media.
She has also started using the Couch to 5k running app, and is motivated to reach her goal weight of 130 pounds.
She also hopes to undergo loose skin removal surgery once she has lost some more weight on her ‘problem areas’.
‘My biggest concern is my lower tummy area,’ she explained.
‘My arms jiggle a lot and that’s only going to get worse. And lastly I’d love to get my chest done. That is really just a cosmetic thing, my skin isn’t terrible there as I wasn’t large in that area pre-op. But I’ve lost eight or nine inches in that area,’ she added.