Mum's staggering 17st weight loss after binge eating to cope with torture of sexual abuse
A TRAUMATISED mum who claims that she was abused as a child has lost a staggering 17st after quitting her fast food addiction.
Kelley Gunter, 54, ballooned to 27st after turning to food as a way of dealing with her horrific past.
She says that she relied on fried chicken and cake binges to cope with the agony of being reportedly aped from the ages of six to 14.
However, the motivational speaker from Ohio, USA, has managed to shed two-thirds of her body weight and is now sharing her story to help other victims of abuse.
"My childhood was riddled with pain and torture due to the sexual abuse I suffered," said Kelley.
"Food was the only thing that would make me temporarily happy.
“I was addicted to eating anything and everything. My health both physically and mentally was awful.
“I ate when I was happy and I would eat when I was sad, it would always be junk like cookies, cake, burgers and fried chicken.
“People would always say ‘you have such a pretty face’ which wasn't a compliment as they were basically saying ‘shame about your body’."
She said that she feared being alone and had such low self-esteem that she'd date the wrong men and by the time her son Alec came along, she was too overweight to keep up with him.
“I tried hundreds of times to lose weight and failed.
“The heaviest I got was 27st 7lbs which is when I decided to undergo surgery."
She claims that she would have died if drastic action wasn't taken.
“The surgery wasn’t easy but I knew I needed it to save my life.
"I am now a completely different person, I am comfortable in my own skin and at peace with who I am.”
After losing such a huge amount of weight, Kelley was left with lots of excess skin.
She had a body and thigh lift – which enabled her to finally show off her new body.
The author is now a healthy 10st.
Kelley had a procedure called biliopancreatic diversion – a surgery that reduces the size of the stomach and intensines.
During the surgery, she suffered from chronic abdominal compartmental syndrome – bleeding within the muscles – and was on life support for a week after.
And despite the surgery helping her to recover from her food addiction, she "never healed" from the sexual abuse.
In fact, she formed other addictive habits instead.
"It sounds insane as I was a social worker for 27 years, but I had never spoken out about it to anyone until 2016," she admitted.
“I was finally healthy, but I needed something to make me feel worthy again; I became addicted to shopping then gambling and even pain medication for a short while.
“I used to go excessively shop for Christmas and my entire living room would be filled with presents for my only son, to the point he would ask if he could stop opening them.
“It wasn’t until my abusers had passed away three years ago, that I could finally break my silence and stop living in shame."
In 2017, Kelley published a book called "You Have Such a Pretty Face", which she says proved to be the therapy she needed.
“It talks about my trauma and weight loss journey including the bullying I went through for being overweight.
“I have always been quick to forgive others and I have finally realised it was time I forgave myself.
“I can’t erase my past, the addictions I developed or the mistakes I made but I can heal, and I can shine a light of hope on others who are suffering.”
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