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'I live for those comments'
Obese woman who lost SIX STONE looked so different she was accused of faking her ‘after’ shots on Instagram
Lauren Pokorzynski realised she needed to slim down when The Gap clothes didn't fit anymore
A woman who gained nearly 9,000 Instagram followers in four months by showing off her SIX-STONE weight loss has been accused of stealing her “before” photos from someone else.
Lauren Pokorzynski, 23, has wowed her social media fans with pictures showing her transformation from 18st to 12st 2lbs – a journey that took five years of hard work.
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But at least one Instagram user was unimpressed and accused the US student of being a fake.
The disgruntled follower wrote: “One thing your [sic] sucking it in another thing it’s not the same person.”
But Lauren laughed and took the accusation as a compliment, writing in response: “These are the comments I live for!! Thanks for thinking I look like a completely different person! I feel like a completely different person…”
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The follower still refused to believe her, despite one of Lauren's friends vouching for her.
The Instagram user wrote: “I’m just saying u ripped off someone else’s photo…”
It’s the type of accusation that Lauren could only have dreamed of when she was growing up in Bear Lake, Michigan, where she was the biggest person among her group of friends.
She spent her teens going on a series of diets with her mum who was also constantly battling the bulge.
“My genes are pretty prone to being overweight,” says the 5ft 7in brunette who weighed 12st 2lbs by the time she was 14.
“On both sides of my family I have people who are overweight.
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“It’s not like my family ate poorly. For me the biggest thing is I shouldn’t have been having wheat or starches.
“I also have a really slow metabolism. So it just caught up with me. I was always an overweight kid.”
By the time she left school Lauren estimates her weight had soared to nearly 18st.
For the student violinist arriving at the University of Colorado Boulder five years ago was a culture shock.
She said: “It’s one of the healthiest, fittest places on the planet, I’m sure.
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“Everybody who’s walking around is tall, blonde, rail thin or they’re mountain climbers and bikers.
“I remember getting there and you had to wait a while before you saw a fat person walk by. I was in shock.
“Even on campus everybody was thin and beautiful.”
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Overindulging at the college cafeteria didn’t help matters. She went from overdosing on sweets and piling her plate high with home-cooked dinners to gorging on junk.
Lauren says of her eating habits: “I could have Chinese, Italian, American all on one plate and then after that I could have ice cream.
“You’d just swipe your card and have as much as you want. You could stay there all day.”
At a size 22, she realised she soon wouldn’t be able to fit The Gap clothes anymore.
“It was the only place that had cute clothes in my size,” Lauren says. “After that it was over for me.”
At first she spiralled into a depression, not eating. But after a while her friend Mercedes Quintana encouraged her to lose weight the healthy way.
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“She turned me on to no starch and no sugar. So I started not eating any starch or sugar except for beans because we’d have burrito bowls all the time," Lauren said.
“I went to the gym and I worked out for an hour every day and I drank a ton of water.”
The best friends were able to keep each other on track.
The best friends were able to keep each other on track.
Lauren went from having no breakfast to eating scrambled eggs with spinach and mushrooms. Lunch was salad with meat and cheese and dinner was a burrito bowl – beans, vegetables, cheese and guacamole.
“It was hard for a little while,” she says about giving up carbs and sugar. “We would cheat sometimes.”
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By the end of that first year she was down to a size 18 and weighed 16st 1lb.
But her weight would yo yo and she would regain 10 or 15 pounds over every Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday.
In 2015 she was down to 13st 3lbs but back up to 14st 7lbs by January this year.
Now she's slimmed to 12st 2lbs – having lost almost 6st in total. Sticking to her plan and being determined has made the difference.
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Today Lauren is following the Keto Diet, which is high fat and very low-carb.
She says: “The way I do it is dairy, nut and caffeine free…so it’s restrictive.
“It’s definitely the hardest diet I’ve ever done but it’s rewarding.”
Her goal is to get to 10st 10lbs. In May she opened an Instagram account to keep her motivated and accountable and quickly gained nearly 9,000 followers.
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Most people are really impressed by her transformation but she was genuinely shocked when she was accused of stealing her “before” photos.
“It was funny,” she says shrugging off the criticism.
If people think she doesn't look like the same person Lauren says: “That means it’s working.”
These days she is happy to show off her curvy figure in real life and on Instagram.
“I like my body,” Lauren says. “I don’t feel like I have to hide anymore. I can wear what I want.
“When I walk into a room [and] people look at me it’s not in a way that’s like, ‘Ugh.' It’s in a way that’s like, ‘Whoa.'
“And that makes me feel good.”
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