Personal trainer says she was 'thin-shamed' by friends after losing 126lbs

A woman who went from 19 stone to nine stone in two years said she also lost her friends in the process.

Nicole Caperilla, 31, from Connecticut, U.S, managed to overhaul her diet and went through a dramatic transformation but says her friends felt it wasn’t ‘perfect enough’.

So she dumped them and became a personal trainer.

Even though she was struggling emotionally, mentally and physically being overweight, Nicole continued eating unhealthily until she was shocked by what she saw on the scales.

To help her lose weight, in June 2017 Nicole had weight loss surgery known as vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG) which removes a large part of the stomach, restricting how much a person can eat.

Within just two weeks of surgery, the mum started to hit the weights, walk more and change her old eating habits.

Nicole started eating a lot of protein-rich foods such as lean meats like chicken, ground turkey and fish.

In a day she now eats oatmeal for breakfast, then a lunch of sweet potatoes with vegetables, and for dinner, a source of protein, complex carbs and vegetables.

She also started working out five to six days a week, focussing on weight training and cardio.

‘Before, I didn’t make the best food choices and wasn’t consistent,’ she explained. ‘I’d eat a lot of things like burgers and pizzas and processed junk foods that were really high in carbs. I ate so many carbs.

‘Working night shifts meant terrible sleeping patterns and it was hard to make good choices. I became a stay at home mom and then it just got even worse putting myself on the back burner.

‘I never had any energy and I was always out of breath. I got winded by the smallest things and was borderline diabetic, borderline sleep apnoea and had high blood pressure.

‘One of the scariest times for me was when I was waking myself up in a panic gasping for breath because I’d stopped breathing in my sleep.’

So Nicole began a rigorous regime that inspired her to start her career as a personal trainer.

Although she’s had amazing support from her husband, Charlie, she struggled with the same support from her close friends.

‘I never received any nasty comments to my face but I did receive rude comments after my weight loss success from some of the people closest to me,’ said Nicole.

‘They were not supportive at all. They would criticise everything about me and put me down not realising their jokes hurt.

‘They’d judge or joke about what I was wearing and tell me I wasn’t perfect. They were very negative.’

She added: ‘It took me a long time to come to realise they were just jealous with the help of some friends and my husband. I realised that I didn’t need to have people like that in my life.

‘My husband and other friends have been incredible and I’ve made so many new supportive friends too.’

Nicole feels a deep sense of pride in her achievements and her journey helped her realise her career goals by becoming a personal trainer and group class instructor.

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