A teenager who gained 238 pounds in two years to please her boyfriend has managed to shed more than half her body weight.
At 18 years old, Kirstie Mouncey, who lives in England, tipped the scales at 490 pounds and was virtually housebound, with her now ex-partner Alex claiming benefits to be her official caretaker.
Mouncey says that she gained so much weight by scoffing down 10,000 calories and drinking over 5 gallons of Lucozade — a sports drink similar to Gatorade — a day. She also regularly ate up to four double McDonald’s cheeseburgers at a time.
By 2012, Mouncey was so big that she struggled to fit on seats on public transportation, became out of breath while walking, and felt so worthless she became suicidal.
Terrified she was eating herself to death, her grandparents and aunt offered her $10,500 in 2014 to have a gastric band fitted.
Within the first six months, she lost 112 pounds and started to get her confidence back. However, her changing lifestyle also cost her her relationship.
Now, Mouncey weighs 210 pounds and wears size 16 clothes, having previously squeezed into a size 36 and spent her days in dressing gowns. She’s never been more confident and happy.
Mouncey said: “I have to pinch myself. I never in a million years thought I’d ever be a size 12-14. I was that size when I was 12 years old!”
Mouncey, 23, explained how she’d always been self-conscious about her weight and was bullied at school.
At 11 she weighed 210 pounds and was wore baggy clothes because nothing fitted.
“When I was eating it was a distraction from how miserable I felt because of the bullying at school,” she admitted.
“I loved my grandmother’s cooking. She’d make chicken casseroles and huge roast dinners which she’d serve with three types of potato – boiled, mashed and roasted.”
“I would eat all mine and everyone’s leftovers. Money was tight and I wanted to make sure nothing got wasted.”
When she met ex-boyfriend Alex, 28, online she was thrilled when he told her he liked bigger women.
Mouncey said: “I was a decade younger but he got me. He didn’t want me to slim down.”
“I thought, I can finally stop battling weight issues – finally a man who likes me for me, a big girl.”
“I gave up the diets in favor of eating to keep him happy. He was a good guy. We fell in love straight away.”
“He gave me confidence, purpose and he showed me I was beautiful. In the first two years, I put on 238 pounds.”
She admitted the pair would regularly eat up to two takeout meals a day and thought nothing of having a Burger King meal followed by a pepperoni pizza with sides of garlic bread, potato wedges and chicken wings.
“I was eating up to 10,000 calories a day,” Mouncey admitted.
“Alex and I lived on takeout. I’d have a bag of chips and cookies for breakfast, a whole chicken for lunch and McDonalds for dinner.”
“I’d eat four double cheeseburgers, two bags of fries, two strawberry milkshakes and countless doughnuts. I’d also down at least 5 gallons of Lucozade a day.”
Mouncey even entered a super-sized Big Beautiful Woman pageant. At the time, she was 17-years-old and weighed 375 pounds. She was the youngest and biggest contestant.
“Alex was so supportive and proud,” she recalled.
“I was a size 32 – many of the other girls were plus size, but not super plus size like me.”
“They carried their weight so well. I pretended I was proud of my figure and that I wanted to show teens that they should be happy no matter what their size, but I was actually mortified by all the attention.”
“I was trolled and that knocked my confidence. People said I was fat and ugly, and one person said I should kill myself. It was horrible.”
As Mouncey’s weight increased, her health declined.
She suffered high blood pressure and couldn’t dress herself or walk down stairs without help.
“I started feeling worthless again and became suicidal,” Mouncey admitted.
The turning point for Mouncey came when her little sister Cody, 10, came to visit her.
“I couldn’t take her to the park or even play with her and I worried what example I was setting,” she said.
“I realized I wanted to be there for her and I wanted to make her proud.”
Feeling bad she’d be taking a person’s place if she had it done by the National Health Service, Mouncey accepted her family’s offer of private gastric band surgery.
Doctors warned Mouncey about the huge risks involved and that she might not survive.
“I was dying anyway so it was worth it for a chance at having a life,” she said.
“I was killing myself with food. I worried Alex would be disappointed, but he was supportive and told me he loved me for me and not my size.”
The operation was three hours long and afterward, Mouncey immediately felt the benefits.
But as she shed the pounds, she and Alex grew apart and broke up in February of 2016.
She said: “Alex was my first love so I will always care about him.”
“As I lost weight and found the real me, we became different people. I think he wanted me to stay bigger, but that is not what I wanted to do.”
“I don’t blame him for my weight gain – I knew what I was doing.”
Mouncey still considers herself plus size, but healthy, and says she is getting a lot of male attention now that she is single.
“I still have excess skin but I won’t get rid of it until I am my target size,” she said.
“Food isn’t my life anymore. My dream is to be a size 10, but I’ll need surgery to get rid of the excess skin.
“I want to learn from my past and help others. I help Cody eat healthily and I talk to big girls online who want to lose weight and who need guidance advice and help.”
“I am blessed my gran helped me see the light and used her savings — now I want to make her proud.”