An influencer who has been sharing her weight loss journey with 1.2 million followers online has been left in hospital in a critical condition due to a mystery illness, her family has confirmed.
Lexi Reed, a 30-year-old fitness influencer from Indiana, has been chronicling her healthy living journey, losing 312lbs ‘naturally’ through eating well and exercising.
However, her husband Danny shared a troubling update on her @fatgirlfedup Instagram page on Thursday (10 February), explaining that she has been in hospital and is really struggling.
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He wrote: “A few weeks ago Lexi kept getting sick and couldn’t keep any food down. She then started acting differently so I took her to the hospital where they admitted her into ICU, placed on a medically induced [coma], on a ventilator, and [told] me that her organs started failing.
“They said if I waited another day to take her she could have died.”
Lexi started out on her journey when she made a New Year’s resolution to get into better shape back in 2016.
By 2018, she’d managed to drop a whole heap of weight, so much that she decided to have skin removal surgery.
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Explaining her motivation at the time, she said: “When Danny & I met … I weighed over 300lbs. He never knew me as any less & never asked me to change.
“I however wanted to live a longer life with him, be healthy, and be able to have kids in the future.”
Of her decision to have surgery, she said at the time: “I’m in a lot of pain. I’ve never had surgery before and I’ve cried daily multiple times.
“I am determined to heal and give recovery my all.”
The last time she was seen on Instagram was 2 January, when she shared a New Year’s challenge to lose weight with her followers.
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Last year, she also admitted that the Covid-19 pandemic – like many others – had pushed her back on her goals.
Lexi said: “Despite gaining some of that weight back I’m still happy to be alive after fearing I’d miss 30 and I’ll never go back to where I was.”
Continuing his post, Danny said: “She is currently in dialysis, can’t walk, and working on recovery.
“Getting her back to health has been our top priority.”
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Danny has been on his own weight loss journey, too.
He’s dropped 95lbs and shared his progress on Instagram.
Lexi’s family has said that ‘unfortunately’ Lexi doesn’t have health insurance, and they might consider launching a GoFundMe to help pay for the costs of her hospital stay.
Tom Wood