In August 2014, Simone Anderson weighed more than 370 pounds. Now, a mere 11 months later, she’s down to 184 pounds, through an intense combination of diet, exercise, and gastric sleeve stomach surgery. Those interested in Anderson’s weight loss campaign have been following her on Instagram, where, for the most part, she’s received nothing but support. But every so often, she’ll get a troll, in reference to this photo, saying something like, “I do not believe it is the same person, phone covering her face. People that lose weight that fast from that surgery have extremely sagging skin and stretchmarks not the same woman (sic). Yes she could lose the weight but that thin woman isn’t the same person as the heavy one… no way.”
Her response:
The text reads:
I don’t no why but every single comment that called me out for being fake and a liar really bothered me far more than it should. I think it’s because it took hours of crying and debating whether to share my story online and for others to see, posting the first picture online along with my weight for the world to see what the hardest thing I have ever done. Throughout my whole journey I have tried to be so honest about the whole experience and tell people it exactly as it’s happened so to be called a fake hurt a lot. And then when it came to posting about my lose skin well that was equally as tough. So here we go I hope this helps all the “non believers” – my face uncovered, yes my hair and eyebrows are a different colour as I’m going back to blonde, yes I have changed my phone from Samsung to apple and have moved house so the background has changed (it has been 11 months people, things change!), my skin colour varies in every single post as I get a spray tan once a week on a Thursday and often change the depth of the colour I get depending on what event I have that weekend, yes I have lose skin and stretch marks but I don’t feel the need to show them in every single photo I post online, I have shared my excess skin picture before so if you had bothered to click on my page you would have seen it and as for my ears changing in appearance?! Well I can’t see that haha so who the hell knows!!! Maybe weight changes ears lol. Hope this helps :D now lost 85.7 GO ME!
After posting the photo, some of Anderson’s followers asked if there was anything they could do to help her out. She’s since set up a Give a Little page to help pay for surgery to remove the excess skin. The goal is $20,000; Anderson has already received nearly $4,000.
(Via Give a Little)