From Fat to Thin: My Perfect Comeback

After a year of hard work, I went from 180 pounds to 100 pounds. My body became slim and my jawline was finally defined. But then, Lily Mason shared a half-naked photo of me at 180 pounds in our friend circle for everyone’s amusement and even messed with my bikini during a modeling contest.

“What are you so proud of? Do you really think losing weight will make people forget how disgusting you used to look?”

——

I posted two workout photos in our friend circle, showing off my slim figure and sharp jawline. I captioned them: "A year to lose 80 pounds, hard work always pays off."

In that year, I made incredible progress without saying a word. I spent three hours in the gym every day, lifting weights and running. I wore out countless pairs of sneakers and my quick-dry clothes were soaked in sweat so often that they turned yellow and couldn’t be cleaned anymore. I gave up my favorite fried chicken and cake, sticking to meal-prepped diet plans. After all that effort, I went from being 180 pounds to losing 80 pounds.

Now, every health check shows perfect results. I was proud of my success and thought my friends would be happy for me. But I was wrong.

At the bottom of my post, my friends’ comments were filled with doubt:

"It’s not cute anymore; you looked better with some weight."

"You are too skinny now, out of shape. Does that even look good to you?"

"No way, that must be edited."

"Where’d you steal these pictures from?"

"Go ahead and fool everyone else, but don’t fool yourself."

"I’ll be honest with you, don’t get mad, but you’ve lost weight and seem a bit mean now."

Those comments poured cold water all over my joy, draining it from head to heart. At first, I thought my friends were just joking. After all, they hadn’t seen me for a year and maybe they couldn’t accept the change right away. I figured once they saw me in person, it would be different. I was looking forward to calling everyone out to hang out.

But the responses I got were:

"We’re definitely coming, get to see if you edit those pictures!"

"Yeah, yeah, we need to check this out."

"You better have actually lost weight."

"Don’t disappoint us, or you’ll be in trouble."

I awkwardly smiled at the screen, still looking forward to the party the next day.

I had been chubby for as long as I can remember. As a child, my elders would call me a “blessed doll,” constantly feeding me and pinching my cheeks, saying how cute I was. When I was little, that was fine. But once I hit puberty, I became the “fat piggy girl” that everyone hated.

My classmates avoided me, saying I smelled like lard and took up too much space at the table. I was bullied because of my weight and the only person who ever wanted to be around me was Lily.

In my second year of junior high, a classmate threw my breakfast into the toilet, sneering, “You eat like a pig anyway.”

“I heard pigs eat anything—go ahead, Emma West, eat some for me.”

I quietly returned to my seat, flipping through my textbook, pretending I didn’t care. But my stomach growled in protest.

Suddenly, half a bun landed on my book.

“You’re hungry, aren’t you? Go ahead, eat mine.”

Lily smiled at me, her pale, flawless face like a porcelain doll in a shop window.

From that day on, she would often bring me breakfast and snacks. We became inseparable. I followed her everywhere and for once, I didn’t feel alone.

People would joke that we were the “Beauty and the Beast” duo, but Lily would pout and tell them to shut up, still smiling her perfect smile.

I envied how she could smile at everyone so effortlessly.