The many benefits of weight loss

Have you noticed how unrealistic weight-loss adverts can be?

Whether it is in a magazine or on TV, we see pictures of people ballooning out of their clothes, then, after using their weight-loss product (of course), we see them transformed, looking like rake-thin models on a runway, complete with good make-up to boot.

This usually makes people sceptical about weight-loss stories, as a lot of interviewees are motivated by a pay-cheque.

But what kind of journey do real people who lose weight travel?

We are accustomed to people in weight-loss adverts telling us how healthier and more confident they are, but does this happen in real life?

Lindiwe Mathebula is a 28-yearold service consultant from Ennerdale in Johannesburg. After struggling with her weight from childhood, she recently lost a whopping 53kg. Now weighing in at 73kg, Mathebula says that at the height of her weight gain, she was tipping the scale at 126kg, and shew knew she had a problem.

“I have always been a happy person and, honestly, I never had any body-image issues. I never looked down on myself because of my weight.

“It wasn’t until I broke my ankle after slipping that I realised I had to do something about my weight, because the doctor who was treating me kept drumming it into my head that I was too heavy for my frame,” she says.

Mathebula decided to turn her life around. She consulted a dietician and learned about good eating habits. Today she looks nothing like the person she used to be, after going down at least three dress sizes.

But how does she feel in her new body? Mathebula says there are areas in which she has seen significant differences, and these include:

Confidence Although she never had issues with low self-esteem, she says it is

I am healthy and more active, and do not quickly “run out of breath”

refreshing to not receive backhanded compliments.

“Most people think it’s okay to tell someone that they are pretty… for a big girl. That statement did not get to me per se, but it did irritate me.

“Losing weight has also educated me about a lot of issues that people struggling with their weight go through, as some people I have met [who are big] used to tell me how they had to put on a façade or be the funniest, bubbliest person in the room, so that people wouldn’t focus on their weight.

“I find that so sad, because at the end of the day, a person is not being genuine.

“I do not necessarily have more confidence now, but I am glad that