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MOST women who manage to lose weight feel awful about piling it back on.
But this mum of one says she’s never felt happier despite what the trolls say.
Victoria Everest Ekong, 35, from London, receives regular trolling on her social media.
The latest comment reads: "She must have taken slimming pills,” followed by someone else knocking her new look and saying, “You're too muscly - you look like a horse”.
After years of being subject to vicious trolls hiding behind their keyboards, Victoria, who is now a weight loss coach, doesn't let them faze her.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Fabulous, Victoria explains: “I was bullied at school because of my weight and I've continued to receive horrid comments on my weight loss journey over the years.
“I’ve been accused of being fake and even been told I look like a man.
“It doesn't hurt me like it used to because I know how far I've come and nobody can take that away from me."
Victoria lost an impressive five stone in just six months, only to put the weight back on again - but this time she gained all the weight in muscle and looks strikingly different.
“I'm now close to my original weight and I'm happier than I’ve ever been," she adds.
"I weigh over 13 stone (83 kilos), which is heavy for a woman of 5’5."
Brushing off cruel remarks from her trolls Victoria says: "I couldn't give a toss what they or the scales say.
"I work out, I eat what I want some days but I have a balanced diet now - I'm heavy but I'm strong, healthy and I'm glowing.
"I'm now in the best shape of my life. I love how I look now, I couldn’t be happier at my weight and size,” she exclaimed.
But unlike those who get stuck in a vicious cycle of yo-yo dieting, Victoria dedicates her life's work to nutrition while coaching other women on how to lose weight responsibly.
The mum of one ditched her corporate career in the tech industry, to train to be an accredited women’s weight loss coach and has grown a whopping 237K following on by helping change other women's lives.
Victoria’s dad died when she was a teenager, and her mum died in January 2021.
“My mum was Turkish, my dad was Nigerian, so I grew up eating a lot of pasta, rice and bread," she explains.
“I was always the chubby kid. I was bullied for my weight in school. I hated doing PE so I’d always made out I was ill to get out of doing it."
Because of the bullying, Victoria left school with only a handful of GCSEs.
But that didn’t stop her from starting her own business at just 16 years old, and later to enter the world of tech where she spent over ten years working for and .
Until she packed it all in to train to become the women's health coach she is today.
Looking back Victoria says: “Working in the corporate industry was a slug. They don't give a toss about your well-being.
"They make you think it's normal to send emails at 2am and I thought, I'm climbing this corporate ladder, becoming more successful, but I'm losing myself in the process," she admits.
At 19 years old, Victoria got married and went on to have a child a year later.
Although she was thrilled to become a mum, her body confidence took another blow and she began to feel the pangs of postnatal depression.
“Looking back, I was experiencing depression," she continues.
"I was using food as a comforting tool. So anytime I felt sad, anytime I was feeling grief, I would eat.”
Victoria hit rock bottom and it wasn’t until she couldn’t fit into a size 18 dress that she realised something had to change.
“The point when I decided that enough was enough was when we were preparing for a family wedding," she reveals.
“In the Turkish tradition, weddings are a big deal. We ordered a dress that was a size 18 and it wouldn't fit - I remember literally just being on the floor crying.
“I know it was something so simple, but that was a rock bottom moment for me, I felt like I was eating myself to death.
“I had put motherhood and my career before myself and there was a lot of shame about how I felt about my body.”
Victoria's weight gain got so bad that she would get out of breath from climbing a flight of stairs, so her concerned mum signed her up for weight loss classes.
“So there was me sitting in the legs, bums and tums class. Halfway through I would always walk out in tears. I couldn't get the moves right, I had no coordination," she recalls.
"There were people older than me, bigger than me and doing better than me."
It wasn't long before Victoria got the swing of things, to the point she signed herself up for five different classes a day some weeks.
“I got addicted to the results. It was so exhilarating. The hardest bit was keeping the weight off and maintaining that.
“The problem was I wasn't really nourishing myself. I was just having shakes.
“I started lifting weights and changed the whole composition of my body."
Victoria may have shed the weight, but as a skimpy size eight she was still unhappy.
She explains: "I had no shape. I was like a twig. And when I look back at pictures, I think I looked really ill.
"The truth is I was straining myself, I looked 10 years older then, than I do now!”
"One thing I learned is that the number on the scales doesn't determine your health."
The mum of one had completely transformed her body in six months - from an apron tummy to sporty abs Victoria was unrecognisable.
“One of the reasons why my marriage ended in divorce was because I lost so much weight. He was like 'Where's my wife gone?' I was changing and he hadn’t.”
Although thrilled to be back to her original weight, the mum of one still battles with her body confidence from time to time.
“One of the biggest challenges of losing weight was the saggy boobs I was left with.
“Before having my son, I naturally had big breasts. After birth, and breastfeeding, I was an F. And then after the weight loss, I was an A.
“I'm a double D now after I opted for breast implants. But [my] body's rejecting it.
My breasts no longer define who I am as a woman
Victoria Everest Ekong
"My left breast is encapsulated slightly. I'm on the waiting list for them to be removed now and I honestly I can’t wait to go back to having a flat chest.
Victoria says once she has her breast implants removed her transformation will feel complete.
The mum of one proudly says: “I love what I do, I transform people, places and things. If you can do it for yourself, you can do it for someone else - that’s my superpower.”
Victoria now offers 1-2-1 mentoring and a four-week reset package online to share the nutritional education she says was vital but missing at the beginning of her weight loss journey.
Victoria hopes to launch a corporate package to help other clients who feel their well-being and weight are suffering from being overworked.
In the UK 27% of Adults between 35-44 are obese and 39% considered overweight.
Body mass index (BMI) is widely used as a simple and reliable way of finding out whether a person is a healthy weight for their height.
For most adults, having a BMI of 18.5 to 24.9 is considered to be a healthy weight. A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered to be overweight, and a BMI over 30 is considered to be obese.
While BMI is a useful measurement for most people, it's not accurate for everyone.
For example, the normal BMI scores may not be accurate if you're very muscular because the muscle can add extra kilos, resulting in a high BMI when you are not an unhealthy weight.
Obesity costs the NHS around £6.5 billion a year and is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer.
Serious health risks associated with obesity are:
If you're living with obesity, or think you're overweight your GP can offer you advice about improving your lifestyle and losing and managing your weight safely.
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