Queensland woman left with 6 STONE of excess skin after weight loss surgery

A woman who lost more than half her body weight says the six stone of sagging skin she has been left with is ruining her life.

Emma Lovell, 35, shed an incredible 21 stone through gastric band surgery – but has been left with huge rolls of excess skin.

The problem is so bad that she often gets her skin caught in car doors. 

And now 13 stone, she claims her confidence is lower than it has ever been.

‘I have between 20kg (3 stone) and 40kg (6 stone) of excess skin and it makes me so self-conscious,’ said Miss Lovell.

‘I’ve trapped it in car doors before which is very painful, and can’t even go for a run because it moves and pulls so much.

‘Even though I’m technically a size 12/14, I’m wearing size 20 trousers just so my skin isn’t hanging out.

Emma Lovell weighed 34 stone at her heaviest but slimmed down to 13 stone after gastric band surgery

Miss Lovell’s dramatic weight loss left her with sagging skin which she has even trapped in car doors

Her appearance means she often feels too self-conscious to leave the house.

‘I have more body issues now than I did when I was big,’ said Miss Lovell, an administration assistant from Townsville, Queensland.

‘I’ve always believed nobody will love me until I love myself – but when I was heavy I really did love myself.

‘I thought I’d never change and that I’d live with that body forever, so I just accepted it.

‘Before I was outgoing and didn’t care what people thought, but now I’m much more of a recluse.’

She is now so ashamed of her body that she is embarrassed undressing in front of her partner Douglas, 22.

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‘He tells me he loves me no matter what, but I have no confidence.’

Having been big all her life, Miss Lovell weighed 28 stone by the time she was 17.

As such, she was teased mercilessly by her classmates, who would follow her through the corridors mooing at her.

The bullying got so bad that she found herself unable to focus during lessons, and had to repeat year 11.

‘I used to spend a lot of time alone in the library. I would never eat at school because I didn’t want people to tease me,’ said Miss Lovell.

‘Eventually, I made a group of friends in the year below. We were all outcasts but we didn’t care, we banded together. 

‘Repeating a year was actually a good thing because I got to be in the same classes as them and, by then, the bullies had left.

Miss Lovell says she has always been big and was bullied about her size by her classmates at school

Pictured on her wedding day to her former husband, Miss Lovell said she always struggled with her weight, hitting  28 stone by the time she was 17

After being bullied at school, Miss Lovell says she felt comfortable about her body until she wanted to have children. She then saw doctors about having weight loss surgery

‘I went from being someone who failed at school to someone who breezed through.’

After leaving school and flanked by the support of her new friends, Miss Lovell gradually grew more confident.

She stopped listening to cruel comments and began to feel comfortable with her body.

But however accepting she was of her size, she couldn’t understand why she kept gaining weight.

She claims she ate a balanced diet, rarely gorged on junk or takeaways and got regular exercise by riding her bike everywhere she went.

Then, after repeated visits to doctors, she was told she was intolerant to carbohydrates – and this was causing her weight gain. 

Miss Lovell now believes this was a major factor in her weight ballooning to 34 stone – and a size 32. 

‘Looking back, even at my heaviest, I still think my diet was varied,’ she said.

‘I’d often skip breakfast, but if I did eat it I’d choose toast or cereal. For lunch I’d have a pie and a can of coke then I’d always make dinner at home.

‘I never got takeaways. Instead I would make things like vegetable or pasta bakes, lasagnes and stir fries.

‘I never went back for seconds or thirds. I genuinely didn’t consider myself a big eater and couldn’t understand for the life of me why I kept gaining weight.

‘Even at school, my mum would be worried about my weight and always ask me if I was secretly snacking, which I wasn’t. Everyone was baffled.’

Within a week of gastric band surgery, she had shed 11 pounds, and by the time a month had past, she’d lost just over three stone. She’s pictured here in hwe wedding dress after losing weight

Losing so much weight left her with saggy skin on her arms, stomach and legs but she has been unable to have it removed so far as it is considered a cosmetic procedure which she will have to pay for herself

Despite being the slimmest she has since childhood, Miss Lovell says her confidence has been shattered by her unsightly excess skin and say she is more self-conscious than ever

But she admits her old diet was heavy in carbohydrates. 

After being diagnosed with the intolerance three years ago via a blood test, she virtually cut out all carbohydrates out of her diet.

Other family members have followed suit and also seen dramatic weight loss results.

She continued: ‘Doctors have now told me that my biggest problem wasn’t that I was eating fatty foods, it’s that I was eating carbohydrates without realising I was intolerant to them.

‘Had I known this, I would have tried to lose weight naturally rather than having gastric surgery.’

Miss Lovell finally decided to do something about her weight once and for all when she wanted to start a family with her now ex-husband, but was told by doctors there was no way she could do so at her current size.

From there, she was put on a wait list to undergo a gastric bypass at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

However, it took almost five years before she was able to have the surgery.

Three months before the operation took place, she was called in for a consultation and asked to lose between 10 and 20kg.

In order to do so, she said she ‘basically stopped eating except for vegetables and shakes.’

Miss Lovell says she ate a balanced diet, rarely gorged on junk or takeaways but continued to gain weight. But she believes her old diet was heavy in carbohydrates and believes cutting them out helped her dramtic weight loss, demonstrated here as she holds up a pair of her old trousers 

Complications from surgery mean that Miss Lovell, pictured with partner Douglas Murray, returns to hospital every three to six months for check-ups

As her April 2010 surgery was done using keyhole methods, her recovery time was quick for Miss Lovell – and the results even quicker.

Within a week, she had shed 11 pounds, and by the time a month had past, she’d lost just over three stone.

But the surgery also left her plagued with health problems. A few weeks after the operation she began to feel constantly sick.

‘I was told to expect some nausea, but I knew this wasn’t right. I couldn’t even keep down water – I just threw everything back up,’ she said.

‘Eventually, I was rushed back to hospital where they discovered the hole that joins my stomach and intestine had closed over.

‘As I’d been so big before, my body could handle the dramatic weight loss – otherwise it could have been really dangerous. 

‘I was also very dehydrated as only tiny amounts of water had been able to trickle through.’

For the next three months, Miss Lovell had to make the trip back to Brisbane every two weeks, where doctors put a balloon down her throat to expand the hole.

Even now, she returns every three to six months for check-ups.

Though she is less than half her former size, she is still unhappy with the saggy skin on her arms, stomach and legs.

Currently, she is fundraising for surgery to remove the folds but, as it’s classed as a cosmetic procedure, she must pay for it herself.

In order help with costs, has set up a GoFundMe page called ‘weight loss surgery skin fund.’ 

‘Skin surgery would help my self esteem dramatically,’ she said.

‘I could actually wear something pretty in size that fits me rather than just what covers everything up.’

More information on her fundraising can be found here.