A former anorexic whose weight plummeted to just four and a half stone saw her illness get so bad she was left scarred for life when she stuffed piping hot potatoes down her socks to hide them at the dinner table.
According to DailyMail, Laura Jones, 22, from Kirkby, Merseyside, weighed a healthy 9st 12lb before she developed the eating disorder while at dance college, and at her worst survived on less than 250 calories a day.
Laura’s obsession with counting calories started quite innocently when she decided to cut out sweets
and junk food from her diet at the age of 15. But months later, Laura was surviving on less than 250 calories a day and could fit her tiny frame in children’s clothing.
Laura said:
‘My battle with anorexia started when I was at dance college. I was dancing every day and spent a lot of time in front of mirrors. I weighed 9st 12lb and was a size 12. I was never fat, but I always felt that I was the chubbiest out of all my friends, so I started cutting down on chocolate and sweets and started going to the gym five times a week after dancing.
She describes how her concern with her appearance took a worrying turn as she became obsessed with exercise, saying:
‘I would do 1,000 squats a day and 1,500 star jumps as well as cardio training and weights.’
But then during a trip abroad her behaviour became even more disturbing. She said:
‘I lost about a stone and a half and looked healthy, but I went on holiday weeks later and worried that I would miss out on exercise, so I cut out meals instead.
And once back in the UK the disorder became even more worrying. She said:
‘When I got home I had lost 8lb, so I decided that I would continue to cut back on food.’
Laura started taking two punnets of strawberries to college with her to eat throughout the day. When she got home she would eat two turkey burgers with lettuce. Within eight months, Laura’s weight dropped to six stone, and family members began expressing concern in her sudden weight-loss.
Laura said:
‘By the time I reached eight stone I didn’t necessarily want to lose any more weight, I was just scared of putting any weight on, so I controlled my food more and more. I began planning my meals. I couldn’t sleep at night because I would be thinking about what I was going to eat the next day.
I started having arguments with my parents because they were concerned about how little I was eating, so I would sit in my bedroom on my own. I had tons of cookery books in my room and I would just sit reading them. I was very lonely.’
Eventually, Laura devised a highly restricted diet that she followed meticulously every day and even though she was in physical pain and suffered horrific symptoms as a result, she was blind to the danger she was putting herself in.
Laura said:
‘Every morning I would start my day with a handful of dry bran flakes. At 12pm I would have a can of Diet Coke and at around 5pm I would eat a microwavable shepherd’s pie. If it had gone past 5pm and I didn’t have chance to eat my dinner I would wait until 8am the next morning. I was surviving on less than 250 calories a day but I couldn’t see the damage I was doing to myself.’
Laura would weigh herself two or three times a day. She had scales which weighed in ounces, and the ounces became critical.
‘If I put one ounce on over the course of the day I would panic about how it had happened,’ she said.
‘My skin was luminous yellow because my liver was on the brink. I had yellow teeth and yellow nails and my hair was falling out.
‘I could fit in children’s clothes. An age 7-8 was too baggy for me but I still didn’t realise how skinny I was.
She was left scarred when she stuffed piping hot potatoes down her socks to hide them at the dinner table.
‘If I ever went out for a family meal I wouldn’t choose the food I wanted to eat, I would choose the meal with the lowest calories, and I would kick food under the table so my family thought I was finishing the food on my plate.’
The burn scar she has on her leg from stuffing a hot roast potato down her sock is a painful reminder of this.
‘I would normally wait for the food to cool down before I put it in my socks but on this occasion it burned through my leg,’ she said.
Eventually Laura’s college told her that she was no longer allowed to dance because her weight was too low, so she would sit and watch her school friends instead of taking part.
In October 2009, almost one year on from when Laura began cutting junk food from her diet, she was referred to Whiston Hospital as an outpatient. Laura weighed just 4st 5lb.
‘I was told that if I didn’t agree to be an outpatient I would be sectioned. I also really missed dancing, so I agreed to meet with a psychologist and a dietitian on a weekly basis.
It was a slow process at first, but after a few months of going to the hospital I just woke up one morning and thought “I want my breakfast”. I had forgotten what being hungry felt like. I went downstairs and ate a KitKat and started gorging on as much food as I could.
She added:
‘My stomach caved because it couldn’t handle the amount of food I was eating, and it made me sick but it didn’t put me off. From then on I began eating snacks and my weight gradually started going up.
I went back to college a few months later but I was a year behind all of my friends and I decided to do a beauty course instead.’
Laura, who says she now eats cereal, yoghurt, rice and salads, qualified as a beauty therapist and gradually began introducing different types of food back into her diet. In June 2010, she reached a healthy weight for her 5ft 2in height and is now a size eight to ten.
But she still has physical reminders of her eating disorder.
‘I still have health problems as a result of the anorexia. I suffer from irritable bowel syndrome and I worry that I might have made myself infertile. My hair has never fully grown back, and I wear sewn-in hair extensions.
When I was ill I was too young to realise that I was close to death.’
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| Laura with her boyfriend now |
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