Teen gained 17 STONE in two years eating 10,000 calories and downing 20 litres of Lucozade a day to please her feeder boyfriend
A TEENAGER who gained 17 STONE 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 Hull, tipped the scales at 35 stone and was virtually housebound, with now ex-partner Alex claiming benefits to be her official carer.
She told how she would scoff 10,000 calories and down 20 litres of Lucozade a day, and regularly tucked into up to four double McDonald's cheeseburgers at a time.
By 2012, Kirstie had got so big that she struggled to fit on seats on public transport, 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 £8,000 in 2014 to have a gastric band fitted privately.
Within the first six months she lost eight stone, and Kirstie started to get her confidence back - though her changing lifestyle cost her her relationship.
Now, Kirstie weighs 15 stone and wears size 16 clothes, having previously squeezed into a size 36 and spent her days in dressing gowns, and has never been more confident and happy.
She 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!"
Kirstie, 23, explained how she'd always been self-conscious about her weight and was bullied at school.
At 11 she weighed 15 stone 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 nan’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.
Kirstie 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 favour 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 17 stone."
She admitted the pair would regularly eat up to two takeaways a day and thought nothing of having a Burger King meal followed by a pepperoni pizza with sizes of garlic bread, potato wedges and chicken wings.
"I was eating up to 10,000 calories a day," Kirstie admitted.
"Alex and I lived on takeaways. I’d have a bag of crisps and biscuits 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 20 litres of Lucozade a day."
Kirstie even entered a super-sized Big Beautiful Woman pageant - at 17 years old and 26st 11lbs, 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 Kirstie’s weight increased, her health declined.
She suffered high blood pressure and couldn’t dress herself or walk down the stars without help.
“I started feeling worthless again and became suicidal," Kirstie admitted.
The turning point for Kirstie came when her little sister Cody, 10, came to visit her from Stratford-upon-Avon.
“I couldn’t take her to the park or even play with her and I worried what example I was setting," she said.
"I realised 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 on the NHS, Kirstie accepted her family's offer of private gastric band surgery.
Doctors at the Claremont Hospital in Sheffield warned Kristie about the huge risks 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 afterwards Kirstie immediately felt the benefits.
But as she shed the pounds, she and Alex grew apart and broke up in February last year.
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."
Kirstie still considers herself plus size, but a healthy, and says she is getting a lot of male attention now 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.”
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