Whitney Ainscough went from 15st to 7st 12lbs but says she gets less attention from men now than when she was bigger
A mum who says she was tormented for being size 18 claims her love life has nosedived since halving her weight – with fellas more inrterested when she was bigger. Whitney Ainscough said she piled on the pounds due to thyroid issues and increasing the number of takeaways she had, tipping the scales at 15st at her heaviest.
The 32-year-old, who claims she regularly had weight-shaming and cruel social media comments, says she tried diet and exercise to shift the pounds but struggled due to her health issues. The despairing 5ft 8in social media influencer opted for a type of gastric sleeve known as a bikini sleeve in Egypt in 2024 after seeing other success stories.
Whitney said she started losing weight quickly after the £3,200 procedure and felt more confident in herself. When the mum-of-three reached her 10st target, her weight continued to creep down to just 7st 12lbs, and she’s now a size 6 and classed as underweight.
Now, Whitney endures cruel skinny-shaming comments online branding her ‘anorexic’ and a ‘skeleton’ admitting she could have ‘tried harder’ when it came to diet and exercise. Despite feeling more confident in the clothes she wears, Whitney says it hasn’t been good for her love life as she gets less attention from men now than she did when she was bigger.
Whitney, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, said: “I was trying to actively lose weight and it wasn’t budging at all, which was due to my thyroid. “I did try to diet and exercise. I probably could have tried harder but I didn’t, I just gave up.
“I knew somebody else that went through a gastric sleeve and looked absolutely amazing and thought, ‘I want one of them’. I did research who I was going to but didn’t look into all the other sides of things like what happens when you get to target weight.
“I’ve gone from one extreme to the other extreme. I used to get called fat all the time, a pig, and now it’s the different end of the scale, I get called all the horrible skinny names, including a skeleton and a stick.
“I know I’m too underweight but I don’t let comments affect me. It doesn’t bother me, I’ve been on social media for a few years, it doesn’t affect me at all.
“I didn’t do it for anybody else, I did it for myself, but you can’t win online with social media. It’s social media, in real life no one tells me I look anorexic.
“When I had more weight on, I used to get more male attention when I went out. Now I’ve lost so much weight I feel like I don’t get as much attention. I feel I got more attention when I was a bigger lady. I feel more confident in myself, I can wear any outfit and look nice in it whereas beforehand everything I put on I didn’t like on myself.”
After surgery, Whitney said her weight rapidly dropped and, despite trying to eat more, continued to pass her goal weight of 10st. She said: “After surgery you don’t eat anything for about two weeks. You only have water, apple juice, protein shakes, and the weight was coming off quite quickly. My target weight was 10st and then kept going down, it crept down and down.
“The lowest is what I am now, I am classed as underweight. I feel a lot more tired and get more drained but I can walk a lot further, go up and down stairs. When I was bigger I ran out of breath, there’s pros and cons.
“It doesn’t matter what I eat, I just don’t put on any weight at all. I’m very lucky it’s not affecting my health currently but in the future it might.”
Now, Whitney is urging others to try diet and exercise before resorting to a gastric sleeve for weight loss. She said: “I always tell people to diet and exercise. I think having a gastric sleeve should be your last course of action, it’s not as easy as that. I show people the side nobody talks about and I wish I saw more videos like I do.
“I was 15 stone and thinking about it now, that’s too little to be having a gastric sleeve. I was overweight but on the lower end of the scale.
“I didn’t have that much to lose, which is maybe why I’m having all these problems now. I didn’t do it for health reasons because nothing was wrong with me.
“I can eat what I want, I can get a Chinese but will only have two mouthfuls, while before I would have two dishes to myself. With gastric sleeves they tell you not to eat ‘slider’ foods that go down very easily like crisps, biscuits, because you will gain weight.
“I’ve kind of been living on them to try and maintain my weight but it’s not helping with gaining weight. I’ve started to eat a bit more healthily like vegetables, sprouts, and carrots.
“I’m trying to eat bigger portions but it doesn’t really work because I end up being sick. I mentioned it to the doctor last year and he said there is nothing they can do and I was left on the phone crying.
“That’s the thing when you’re having surgeries abroad, you need to think of these things. “I do wish I would have tried to diet and exercise more than I did.”
Pre-weight loss food diary
- Breakfast – Nothing
- Lunch – Wrap, crisps and yoghurt
- Dinner – Takeaway including pizza and McDonalds
Post weight-loss food diary
- Breakfast – Cheese string
- Lunch – Sweets
- Dinner – Chicken strips, crisps