Mum who ate 50 Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast lost 20 stone without weight loss jabs
Warning: This article contains discussion of eating disorders which some readers may find distressing.
A mum who used to eat 50 Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast managed to lose over 20 stone without needing surgery or weight loss jabs, and is now a bodybuilder.
During the pandemic Andreina De Sousa Abreu's eating habits left her 'addicted' to the doughnuts and she had to work two jobs to pay for all of her food.
In the morning she'd pop out to a nearby Tesco and buy 50 original glazed doughnuts, eventually spending £1,260 a month on them, which she'd follow with a milkshake, and then for lunch she'd eat a whole loaf of bread.
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In the evening she'd get a takeaway, and Andreina said she 'would eat and eat and eat until I couldn't even recognise myself anymore'.
Weighing 31 stone, she broke seven beds and said her 'eating became an addiction', saying: "I knew deep down it was self-inflicted, but I couldn't stop."
She hadn't always had weight problems as she explained she 'used to be fit and healthy', but a traumatic experience coupled with the pandemic left her secluded in a 'dark little bubble'.
"I didn't want anyone to notice me," the mum-of-two said as she explained she'd spent her free time eating and watching TV.
Describing how everything about life became more difficult as she grew larger, Andreina said: "Everything was hard. Walking was hard, getting out of bed was hard, taking my children to school was hard. I felt ashamed to go anywhere and didn't want people looking at me."
She explained that she'd snack on chocolate and crisps, and drink a lot of Red Bull in the time between working two jobs, saying that 'one job was paying for my eating disorder and the other was sustaining my family'.
Andreina didn't have a period for two years and thought she might have cancer because she had a series of 'strange cysts', but when she went to see a doctor she was told the cause was her weight.
She was told 'if you carry on like this, you won't be alive'.
Unable to get to a gym during lockdown, she started doing home workouts from YouTube and posted the results to social media as she hoped it'd keep her on track.
She said: "It was so hard. We're creatures of habit so I kept slipping back into old ways and trying to bargain with myself. So, I had to reflect on why I was doing it.
"Motivation isn't what gets me out of bed because motivation is just a feeling. It's perseverance. You just keep pushing forward. It's still not easy, but if I can do it, anybody can do it.
"To be honest, I just went all in. I found my why, my reason. I wanted to be the beacon of light for all the women who were in my position. There was a bit of trial and error - my diet definitely wasn't perfect. I thought I had to suppress everything, but I got there eventually."
During the pandemic she lost 20 stone in a year, and in October 2021 she started watching bodybuilding videos and got inspired by Francielle Mattos, a Brazilian bodybuilder who posts footage on Instagram.
Andreina said the bodybuilder had a 'beautiful, muscular but feminine physique' and wanted to know what it felt like for herself.
Her gym sessions are a daily habit now and in a week she has four leg sessions, an upper-body workout along with active recovery and mobility work, and she's become a professional bodybuilder who has won eight titles.
Now she weighs in at nine stone and has transformed her diet, as she swapped out the doughnut breakfast for oats, whey protein, banana, cinnamon and electrolytes.
Her lunch has ditched the loaf of bread for rice with with a lean protein like chicken or fish and some pineapple, while before her workouts she'll get more oats, eat a banana and some peanut butter.
Her evening meal is no longer a takeaway, as she now eats rice with fish and green beans, and she's hoping that by 2028 she can compete as a bodybuilder at the Arnold Sports Festival in Birmingham.
If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article and would like to speak with someone in confidence, call the BEAT Eating Disorders helpline on 0808 801 0677. Helplines are open 3pm-8pm Monday to Friday. Alternatively, you can try the one-to-one webchat.
Joe Harker