By Liana Jacob
MEET the stunning fashion designer with supermodel looks who decided to take the plunge and undergo weight loss surgery after enduring the loss of her grandma a few months previously from heart disease after seeing her mum have a heart attack and has since lost nearly THIRTEEN-STONE.
Fashion designer, Thayna Pacheco Barboza (24), started to put on weight when she was just five years old, as she entered her teen years and consumed fast food meals her weight increased to just over 22st and a UK size 32.
Her confidence didn’t falter, as she was used to the weight. However, just before she turned 18 her grandmother died from heart disease, and she had a devastating warning from her mother, who revealed she had a heart attack just three-years previously due to genetics. That is when she decided to have gastric bypass surgery, a procedure where surgical staples are used to create small pouch at the top of the stomach.
Her weight has since shrunk to a svelte 9st 2Ibs and a UK size six to eight, with over 54,000 followers on Instagram embracing her new body. Video footage shows how she uses massage to tighten her excess skin. She has since spent over ÂŁ1,700 (R$8,000) on skin removal surgery.
“I started to get fat when I was five but I never had a problem with it because I was really young so I was used to it. Obviously, I didn’t like my body, but it was normal for me,” Thayna said.
“I was always confident about myself and never felt less than anyone. I think every dream for a fat person is become skinny so I didn’t like to be fat but I also didn’t put too much effort into it.
“I always liked to eat real food. Of course, I used to eat fast food and junk food but most of the time my problem was dairy food. If I could, I would have lunch for every meal of the day.
“My grandma died a few months ago from heart disease and my mum had a heart attack when I was just fifteen.
“Since I started to get older I started to worry about my health and life so I took it more seriously. Following a difficult conversation with my parents, I decided to do bypass surgery when I was eighteen years old.”
From previously doing no exercise at all, Thayna, who is from Juiz de Fora, Brazil, set herself a regular target for herself and now works out six times a week; doing boxing, bodybuilding exercises and cardio. Instead of choosing to gain muscle mass, she has decided to focus on burning more fat.
“It was a very new process for me; I didn’t do any research online about the surgery, didn’t listen to good or bad things about it, I just did it,” she said.
“With time, I was adapting. It was difficult in the beginning; I used to use my diet as medicine, so I followed everything my doctors said. After this, I started to become interested in all types of diet and gym workouts.
“I really like my body now, but I have some excess skin and this is a process that demands a lot of surgeries and some time away from the gym.
“As I always say; I weighed 140kg for eighteen years of my life and now I can wait another eighteen years to have the body of my dreams.
“My advice to anyone who wants to lose weight is to research, read and learn. After I started to understand why I ate so much, my passion for eating healthier food only grew.
“It’s a slow process, as I say, it took me years of bad habits with sugar, saturated fat, flours and industrialised food.
“My biggest tip is to avoid eating anything industrialised. Our body is natural, and our food should be too.”
For more information visit: https://www.instagram.com/thaynabarboza/
