17st teen who has a 3,000-calorie diet and wanted to kill herself because of her weight blames her mum’s overfeeding for her obese body
AN OBESE teenage has hit out at her mum for letting her reach the weight of 17st 6lb and said she has considered killing herself as she hates her appearance.
Student Ellie, 18, from Dodworth in South Yorkshire, tells mum Paula that it’s her fault that she eats unhealthy food and begs for her help in turning her life around.
The mother-daughter duo appeared on 5Star’s It’s Your Fault I’m Fat, and the show started with Ellie making a video blaming her mum for her weight gain.
Ellie says: “Mum it’s your fault I’m fat.
“I think that through the years you have not been as tough as you should be on me and I think that you should be able to say no and not give me money to be able to go to the shops and buy not healthy things.
“I want to be able to lose the weight and without your help I can’t do that. Please, please help me.”
Breaking down in tears, Paula, who weights 14st 2lb herself, said: “That was a bit of a shock there. I do take responsibility.
“I should have made sure you’ve eaten better. I’ve been too soft on you but I can guarantee from now on I won’t be.”
It was revealed that single mum Paula has five jobs and finds it a struggle to prepare healthy meals for her kids, and often gives Ellie money to buy food at the local shop.
Ellie’s parents split when she was 12 and the breakdown of the marriage had a devastating effect on the young girl, causing her weight to rise dramatically.
Paula said: “It was a rough time for her. She was being bullied at school and lost all confidence.”
Ellie added: “I would turn to food as a comfort and it would take away everything that had been hurting me.
“I’m not happy with the way I look. I’m not confident with my weight.
“When I look in the mirror I see just a big girl and I don’t like going out as much because I feel like people are going to judge me.”
She said Paula is never really at home to monitor what she’s eating and she tends to eat junk food as she doesn’t know how to cook.
I’m not happy with the way I look. I’m not confident with my weight. When I look in the mirror I see just a big girl.
Ellie, 18
A typical day for Ellie involves watching TV, eating food and scrolling through social media, and said she prefers to hide away inside so people “don’t judge her”.
And mum Paula said it upsets her that her daughter “mopes around” and she wants her to embrace her life.
She said: “When I see Ellie and she’s not bothered it upsets me, but also angers me as she’s got so much potential.
“She’s got her whole life ahead of her and this is the time she should be enjoying it but she’s clearly not at the moment. I could be a lot harder on her. I think I have been too soft with things.”
Further heartache was revealed when Ellie said she’s even considered taking her own life as she hates her weight.
She admitted: “As you know I did used to self-harm a lot because I was bullied and I didn’t like the way I were but I have thought about killing myself a lot of the time because of how I look.”
I do take responsibility. I should have made sure you’ve eaten better. I’ve been too soft on you but I can guarantee from now on I won’t be.
Mum Paula
In order to turn her life around, Ellie and Paula decided to sign up to a special six-week programme created by a dietician and a personal trainer.
Instead of bingeing on sweets, chocolate and biscuits, Ellie had to replace one meal with a healthy juice, and was limited to two other healthy meals and three approved snacks.
And to help her learn how to cook, she was given recipes so she could prepare meals for her mum when she came home from work.
The aim was reduce her daily calorie intake from 3,000 to 1,500, and the pair was also put through a gruelling HIIT (high-intensity interval training) regime.
Trainer Matt took their initial measurements and revealed Paula’s body fat composition was 42.76 per cent, and said it should be around 24 per cent for women in their 40s.
Meanwhile, Ellie was 45.03 per cent, which is way higher than the 19 to 22 per cent bracket that is recommended for under 19-year-olds.
Speaking to the teen, Matt said: “Your body indicates a lot of high body fat around internal organs like your liver, kidneys, heart.
“At the age of 18, something tells me we’d be in a little bit of trouble healthwise.
“From the measurements it’s not looking good at all because this has been progressive. It hasn’t happened in the past six weeks or six months.
“As this health deteriorates, so will your life, quality of life and life span.”
Ellie was shocked, and replied: “No one wants to die because of their weight so I think today has been an eye-opener for me”.
What is the UK obesity crisis?
The term “obese” describes a person who’s very overweight, with a lot of body fat.
It’s a common problem in the UK that’s estimated to affect around one in every four adults.
In 2016 according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nearly 27 per cent of adults in the United Kingdom were obese, the highest proportion in Western Europe and a 92 per cent increase since 1996.
It’s claimed that by 2030, half of the UK could be obese if the trends continue.
In September 2018, a UN study reported the UK was the third-fattest nation in Europe – behind just Turkey and Malta with an obesity rate of 27.8 per cent.
And in December the UK was crowned the 26th fattest country in the world.
On May 1, 2019, it emerged that Leeds had become the first UK city to report a drop in childhood obesity.
Teaching parents to say “No” to their children helped reverse the trend while kids in primary school were also only offered healthy foods as part of the successful scheme.
The pair threw themselves into the training and healthy eating, with Ellie spurred on by the motivation to fit into a dress that had been left to her from her late nan.
And mum Paula even had words with Ellie that it would be down to her to see real changes.
She said: “You are 18, you’re an adult now. You have to be responsible for what you are putting in your mouth.
“I can’t always be there to say no, you’re not having that Ellie. You need to motivate yourself more.”
By the end of the process, Ellie was cooking meals for her mum, had taken charge of her weight gain and also lost inches from her waistline.
With both mum and daughter tearing up, Ellie said: “I just want to say thank you and I really appreciate everything you do.
What is the definition of being clinically obese?
While there are many ways in which a person’s health in relation to their weight can be classified, but the most widely used method is body mass index (BMI).
BMI is a measure of whether you’re a healthy weight for your height.
An individual’s body mass index is calculated using by age, gender, height, weight and activity levels.
For most adults, a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 is healthy, 25 to 29.9 is overweight, 30 to 39.9 is obese and 40 or above is severely obese.
“At the beginning when I said I blame you for the way I were, I’m to blame as well. It was me putting stuff in my body instead of 100 per cent you.
“This is the right time to say I’m sorry.”
Paula replied that her apology had taken a bit weight off her shoulders and admitted: “I was feeling really hurt when you said I was to blame.
“Mine and Ellie’s relationship has changed for the better because we are doing more things together. It’s like I’m getting to know her all over again.”
So how much weight will the pair lose?
Watch It’s Your Fault I’m Fat on Tuesdays at 9pm on 5Star. You can catch up now on My5.
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Previously on the show, a 22st teen who had a 3,000-calorie diet and was too ashamed to leave the house also blamed her mum.
We also revealed a Meghan Markle-obsessed woman endured six hours of surgery to look like the Duchess.
And we showed you one woman’s 17-stone weight nearly made her go blind.