Shut-ins: Britain's Fattest People (2015) - full transcript
Follows the start of a dramatic weight loss program of two of the fattest people in britain.
I think my belly button is somewhere
underneath this lump down there,
somewhere.
HE GROANS
NARRATOR: Confined within
the four walls of their homes...
At the moment
I do nothing, I just exist.
...and addicted to food...
I know it is a mega amount
but I still want to eat it
because it makes me feel good.
These are just three of Britain's
estimated 50,000 people
who are super morbidly obese.
The reasons people get that big,
it's not just simple gluttony
and laziness.
I obviously don't want to be like
this, I hate being like this.
Their weight is putting
a strain on their health...
I go to bed
and worry that I won't wake up.
...and their loved ones.
Nah nah nah nah nah.
No, no, just for...
No, bollocks to you.
My little girl is in there somewhere
but she's stuck in this big body.
You shouldn't have to look after
your mum, your mum looks after you.
- Now all three have the chance to save their lives and their relationshi
- ps.
I just want to get the weight off
and get out.
This surgery is a lifelong
non-reversible procedure.
And I think this is her last chance.
But the road ahead
isn't going to be easy.
Is it hurting?
Yeah. Sit down again.
I feel like I'm never going to be
able to eat properly ever again
cos I can't even drink
without being sick at the moment.
Northamptonshire has a rugged rural
charm and the space to roam free.
- But the joys of the British countryside are wasted on single mum Emily
- .
At just 24 years old
but already weighing 26 stone,
she is super morbidly obese and
is binge eating herself to death.
Some days I do eat all day,
non-stop,
but most of the time it's sort of
big binge in the morning,
a light afternoon then a massive
binge again in the evening.
Emily is just one of
a growing number of young adults
who are putting their health at risk
through over-eating.
Forty per cent
of 16-to 24-year-olds in the UK
are now obese or overweight.
Normally if I get a breakfast,
it will be a breakfast muffin
with sausage and egg in it,
I get breakfast wraps and then
I get about five or six hash browns
and a chocolate milkshake.
No one really knows how much I eat
and I do generally just eat it
on my own.
When I'm eating I'm on a bit of a
high, I'm happy, in my little zone.
But once it's gone, I'm
sort of out of that straightaway
and it's back to sort of
reality again.
Emily is hooked on a deadly diet
of high fat,
high sugar and high salt junk food.
A single day of binge eating
can exceed 15,000 calories.
Over ten times
the recommended daily amount.
When I eat like this, I do sort of
feel a bit disgusted with myself,
but if I'm on my own
and there's no one watching me
then I've got no one else to judge
me so I just get on with it.
I always say to myself,
one more binge and that's it,
I'll be really good and start
losing weight and it never happens.
There's never been a last binge,
not yet.
Done! Mission accomplished.
SHE LAUGHS
Hiding her relationship with food
within her home,
Emily now actively avoids
the outside world.
If I get asked to go out, I'm like,
what reason can I think of
to say no?
I do feel judged
and feel like people look at me
and see a big fat ugly person
cos that's how I feel.
EMILY: Thank you.
Shut in
by her crippling social anxiety,
modern technology means she can feed
her junk food addiction
without ever leaving her house.
So we've got chocolate mini rolls,
pain au chocolate, I don't know,
pastries with chocolate in.
My chocolate fudge icing
that I'll spoon out.
That won't last me the whole week,
that'll be gone within a few days.
My fingers are tightening
up against the side.
I start getting all like this.
It's food, for God's sake.
Sort of the feeling that I can't
wait. I just need to eat it now.
Like... Yeah.
And Emily's number one food to binge
on is just one click or call away.
I love takeaway,
that is my favourite, I love it.
I could have it every night
of the week if I could.
So I have a bit of salad on there.
I don't use the whole box but I do
like a little bit on my kebab.
When I went to the doctors
about my weight,
that's when I found out that my body
consists of over 50 per cent fat
but cos I can't see what's
going on inside, I block it out.
Ready, spin.
Emily had her first child at 20
and her second at 22,
gaining more weight
with each pregnancy.
Mummy just go sit back down
for a minute, OK?
But with Riley now four
and Harry nearly two,
she's finding it hard
to be the mum she wants to be.
Riley is starting to notice now
that I'm struggling.
"Your belly is like
a bouncy castle," he says to me.
He notices now. I don't want him
to notice things like that.
Day-to-day life is becoming
increasingly difficult.
I find it so hard
to put shoes on, any shoes on.
I have to always shift my whole body
just to try and get each foot in.
And her 24-year-old body is rapidly
aging due to the excess weight.
I went for an X-ray on my back
and it said I had the deterioration
on my spine of a 60-year-old woman.
I haven't got a life at the minute.
It's not a life, I'm just existing.
Emily's weight
isn't just damaging her body.
Hiya, you all right?
Yeah, good, thank you. Hello, bud.
Last year her relationship
with partner Jonny broke down.
They remain close
but now live separately.
Me putting on weight has definitely
changed a lot of things.
I don't want to be intimate,
not because of him, I love him,
but cos of how I feel.
Once I've got my confidence back,
I can be confident
in my relationship again,
and then I'm hoping we can grow
closer again, be back to normal,
be my old self again,
cos I'm not who I used to be.
This has changed me.
See you later.
She don't think that I love her
but I still love her to bits.
I worry about her.
I don't want her to end up
having a heart attack and dying.
Emily's parents have also been
worrying about her for years.
That's a nice one of her there.
Dad Steve and mum Toni
noticed Emily's
unhealthy relationship with food
from a young age.
She was a little bit chunky there.
Mm.
I would say
probably around six and eight,
we realised that there
was an extra packet of crisps
going out the cupboard each day.
We had to start hiding them away.
We could hear the cupboards
going at night.
- We knew she was trying to raid 'em. We'd have to jump on her pretty quick
- ly.
Her favourite thing was, "I'm full
up, I can't manage any more dinner.
Can I have my afters now?"
And then she'd go back and start
picking at her dinner afterwards.
Emily left home and moved in with
boyfriend Jonny when she was 17.
Now there were no restrictions
on how much she could eat.
I was about a size 14 when we met,
so he has literally seen me go
from my smallest to my biggest.
We would sit there and
we'd just sort of have our dinner,
then we'd sit there and like,
"Shall we get a pizza?"
And then we'd order a pizza
after our dinner
so it was like a second dinner.
Despite her fears
about leaving her home,
Emily visits her parents' house
once a week.
DOORBELL RINGS
Hiya!
You all right? Come in. Thank you.
STEVE: So how good have you been
this week, truthfully?
50-50.
What did you have?
Chinese.
Go on then.
I had a chow mein,
salt and chilli chicken, chips,
curry sauce, spare ribs.
You ate all that on your own?
Yes.
You can't carry on like that.
I know.
But do you know?
Yeah. Of course I know.
It's just I find it hard.
I obviously don't want to be like
this, I hate being like this,
it ruins my life, I hate it.
Stick to a diet. Yeah?
No more takeaways.
I know.
They are quite hard on me
with things.
A lot of it comes from a good place
and they're just trying to help,
but in my head it's like,
just leave me alone, stop it,
- then I'll come home and eat cos I'm just stressed out about the conversati
- on.
In contrast to Emily, dad Steve
and her 14-year-old twin brothers
Will and Joe
are super-fit exercise fanatics.
My brothers are all into fitness,
they're all slim,
and I'm obviously not,
which is hard.
I feel very sort of like
a black sheep.
And it sort of makes me feel
he's really proud of them
(VOICE BREAKS)
but not of me, and I get that,
I understand,
but it is really hard to see.
- Steve has used every trick in the book to motivate his daughter to lose weight
- .
We've tried loads of things
over the years,
with all the exercise stuff and
all the various slimming groups,
the diet plans we've done for her.
We tried bribing her with an iPhone,
and that was great for the first
week, she stuck to the diet,
and then went off the rails
and then it was cash instead.
That lasted for a week or two
then went off the rails again,
and then we tried to get her
on the Couch to 5k
- and you think do I want to go out and put my body through running for an ho
- ur
or do I want to sit down,
DVD and a kebab?
And that one always won,
so this was the problem we had.
Emily is stuck in a vicious cycle.
She hates how big she is
but the only thing that comforts her
is more food.
Put the chips on the bottom.
The chow mein on top of that
and then curry sauce goes on.
It smells really nice.
SHE LAUGHS
Over the last seven years,
Emily's gained nearly 15 stone,
more than doubling her weight.
Looking at it,
I know it is a mega amount of food,
but I still want to eat it
cos it makes me feel good.
If she continues
binge eating at this rate,
by the time she's just 30,
she'll be almost 40 stone
and that will mean
she'll be completely stuck in.
What's the date today?
Oh, don't.
Dad Steve is desperate
for things to change.
It's all healthy stuff
but none of it's been eaten.
I see a sad young girl
and I can see in her eyes
that she's not, she's not happy.
So why are these in here then?
What have you done to earn them?
Nothing.
My little girl is in there
somewhere.
She wants to come out
but she's stuck in this big body.
What's this for?
Chocolate fudge icing?
That's stuff you put in cakes,
you eat that straight out the tub?
Mm-hm. With a spoon.
That's just pure fat and sugar.
I know.
Wow.
We're pretty much worried to death.
She's on our mind every single day
about where it could end up.
It's an addiction,
I mean, she is addicted to food
and I'm desperate for her
to get help.
I can... I can see her not being
here in ten years' time.
Sweet dreams, night night.
Emily's bingeing is putting her
relationships, her children's future
and her life at great risk.
I just feel like
I haven't got the control
and that scares me.
- Even though I am the person that can control myself and the only person that ca
- n,
I feel like I'm not
and that really frightens me.
Twenty-four-year-old
single mum Emily
is so ashamed of her body
that she has become shut in.
Weighing over 26 stone,
she has a binge-eating addiction
which has taken over her life.
- Sometimes while I'm waiting for it to cook, I'll eat a few packets of crisps as wel
- l.
After this I'll probably see
what something sweet I can find.
That's my breakfast.
Just makes me feel calm, relaxed.
I forget about everything bad
just while I'm eating it.
Even though I am the person
that can control myself,
and the only person that can,
why can't I stop?
Unable to stick to diets
and gaining over two stone in weight
every year,
Emily is desperate
for her life to change.
I go to bed and worry
that I won't wake up.
And that scares me
cos I wanna be here for the boys.
I don't wanna have them
lose their mum.
So today, she's venturing
out of the house with Jonny
to meet one of Britain's leading
bariatric surgeons, Mr Sherif Awad.
Emily wants to explore
the possibility
of a surgical solution
to her weight problems.
She is 24,
she's in the prime of her life
and she is trapped
and imprisoned in her body.
That's 164.8 kilograms.
OK.
For a young person,
and I see this a lot in my patients,
they are ashamed to be walking
into that consultation room
asking for an operation.
Come on in.
Thank you.
Have a seat.
Thanks. Hello!
I think if we became
a less judgmental society
and just gave patients
a chance to improve their health,
that's all they're looking for.
Emily's weight is putting her
in dangerous territory.
So with you being BMI 62,
you've gone beyond super obesity
and you are now super super obese.
You're at a stage now where all
the evidence out there shows us
that the only thing
which is going to help you
to achieve effective weight loss
is a surgical operation.
So at present your obesity
has probably reduced your life
expectancy by about 10 to 15 years.
You are at huge, huge risk
of developing heart disease,
blood pressure,
having a heart attack.
Your risk of diabetes
is almost 20 fold higher,
purely as a result of your weight.
So this isn't something
that's benign,
it isn't something
that should be overlooked
and certainly I would not want
to see you gain weight after today.
This isn't news to Emily
but hearing it from a surgeon may
be the wake-up call that she needs.
To get these young patients
in early,
that for me is much more preferable
than waiting until they turn up
to the clinic with a whole host
of obesity-related medical problems.
No young mother wants to hear that
she is expected to die so early.
That's time she could be spending
with her children and grandchildren
in fact.
When you hear it
from a professional,
it makes it more scary
when they tell you are going to die
if you carry on the way you are.
It does give you
the motivation to do something.
Ah!
Oh, thank you!
To help Emily make sense
of what is driving her to eat,
she'll be having regular sessions
with clinical psychologist
Laura Keyes.
I think for most people
there's a really high level of shame
that's linked to any kind of
addictive-type behaviour.
If you haven't had a struggle
around some kind of addiction,
it can be really hard outside that
to understand
that cycle
that somebody is stuck in.
Anxious about leaving her house,
Emily's first session will be in
the safety of her own four walls.
But Laura's visit
is making her nervous.
I feel safe in here.
Nothing makes me feel bad
when I'm in here.
As soon as I know someone else
is coming round, I start to panic.
I feel like they might come in
and start judging me and my house,
and it all starts
all going like that again,
like being outside all over again
if someone comes inside.
Hello.
Hi! Laura? Yeah. Come in.
Yeah. Nice to meet you.
LAURA:
Where would you like to start?
Erm... I'm a mum of two children.
Their dad still is in picture
but he doesn't live with us
so that gets a bit hard sometimes
and that's where some of my stress
comes sometimes
and stress always leads
to my problem, which is food.
It's not just a little bit of food,
it's always a lot of food.
It's all just a way of pushing away
the feeling, I guess.
Yeah, when I'm eating,
I'm in my little bubble.
Nothing can hurt me or upset me
at that time
cos I'm happy
and I'm just doing what I'm doing.
Why is it important, do you think,
for you to manage
these feelings better
and be able to have the surgery?
What's that for?
I just...
I don't want to start crying.
I just want my life
to be better again.
I don't feel like the same person
as what I used to be.
I want to be able to feel
comfortable going out again.
I can't do as much as I'd like to do
with the kids.
Then I worry about my weight,
I worry about my health.
I can't just die on my kids,
they need me. Yeah.
So I guess it sounds like what would
be helpful for us to focus on
is how to deal with the feelings
that are there.
There's stress
but there's also anxiety,
and there's also worrying thoughts
that are there. Yeah.
Part of the work is about teaching
her how to be kind to herself,
to get back to socialising.
Just helping her connect
back in with the world
rather than being quite stuck
and quite isolated,
which is where she is at the moment.
Emily will need to learn to break
her destructive pattern of eating.
My relationship with food
is all to do with negative emotions.
If I feel bad,
that makes me feel better,
so it's a weird kind
of relationship, I don't like it.
Well, I like it but I don't want it
to carry on any more.
Determined to change her life,
Emily's booked another appointment
with Mr Awad
and is taking Jonny and her mum Toni
along for support.
She wants to have
the bariatric surgery
that would see the size
of her stomach more than halved,
reducing forever the amount of food
she'll be able to eat.
TONI: I just want her to be happy.
I know she'd be happy
if she was smaller
and I'd love that for her.
I think she knows
that this is her last chance.
But Mr Awad is still concerned about
Emily's addiction to food.
For Emily, if she doesn't change her
dietary habits and her lifestyle,
she will not be a candidate
to go forward to surgery.
The main problem
is the binge eating,
and if she's bingeing a couple
of times a day on most days,
she's not gonna be able
to do that after surgery.
It's so vital that you make changes
going forward literally from today.
The sweet and chocolate cupboard,
that's got to go. Yeah.
You will not be able to binge eat
any more.
I'm prepared for that, I'm so
prepared to just... I am. I am.
OK. An operation is you
making changes for life, OK,
so it isn't just a quick six month
target, you've lost the weight
and you go back
to your bad eating habits.
This is you
working with your operation,
which is your tool to support you
for the rest of your life. Yeah.
To convince him that she is
a suitable candidate for surgery...
Hi. Do you want to come through?
Yes.
...Emily will have to prove to him
that she can stick to a rigid diet
over the next five weeks.
The first part of the diet
involves no solid food at all.
- So for the three weeks that Mr Awad is suggesting that you follow liquid-only die
- t,
we're aiming for three of these meal
replacement products per day.
A breakfast, lunch, dinner pattern.
It needs to be less than
250 calories per portion
and it needs to be around
15 grams of protein.
I don't want to see
any more bingeing.
If she doesn't implement the
changes, if she continues to binge,
if she puts on weight,
the operation's off.
Back at home,
Emily is facing reality.
Cherry Bakewells.
Her secret stash has to go.
This is the hardest to let go of,
I think,
but I know it's not good for me.
I'm really determined
to prove myself.
I'm not sitting here
thinking it's going to be easy
but I'm still determined to push
through and do it, definitely.
EMILY: Can I make an order
for delivery, please?
Can I please have
a special curry with fried rice,
chips with salt and chilli,
and spare ribs with salt and chilli,
please.
Emily may have decided
to clear the cupboards
but she's putting off
starting her diet for one more day.
I'd quite like a last Chinese.
There's a little bit of sadness
knowing this is my last one,
but I'm more happy than sad
cos I'm excited about starting
my new diet tomorrow.
OK...
I'm doing this for a reason,
I'm doing it to prove to everybody
that I can stop the bingeing,
I can stop the takeaways,
and that I can manage something
completely new.
Over the next five weeks,
she will have to find the strength
to resist her demons.
She's got a huge opportunity
to be given her life back
and you've had to get rid of
resorting to food
to get that emotional relief
and emotional satisfaction.
That is tough.
Food is her friend and I've asked
her to let her best friend go.
Super morbidly obese
24-year-old Emily weighs 26 stone
and has been binge eating
herself into an early grave.
Desperate to change her life,
she's on the path
towards bariatric surgery
and has been restricted
to a low-calorie liquid diet.
It's just a drink, isn't it?
Normally I'm eating loads of food.
It's fine, it's day one.
I'm feeling positive.
I can't say how I'll be feeling
at the end of the first week but
right now I'm feeling OK about it.
To prove that she can control
her eating habits,
she will have to lose
at least a stone
before her next appointment
with her surgeon Mr Awad.
EMILY: Riley, stop.
HE CRIES
That was not very nice. Say sorry.
Only a few hours into her new diet,
single mum Emily is struggling.
Go and sit down, your dinner's
ready, go on, sit down.
I'm going to get dad to come round
if you don't stop.
THEY SHOUT AND LAUGH
I'm not having the best day.
I feel a bit stressed and upset.
I feel drained.
The stress that I feel that I want
to eat this, want to eat that,
but knowing I can't...
Normally a day like today I'd just
go and get a takeaway later
but knowing I can't even do that.
Emily is starting to realise
the enormity of what lies ahead.
(CRIES) It's just so hard.
I knew it was going to be hard
but it's really hard
and I don't see any light at the end
of the tunnel at the moment.
I just feel like I'm never
going to be able to eat again.
Already struggling to stick
to her liquids-only diet,
today Emily faces a new challenge.
Her psychologist Laura Keyes
has asked her to leave the safety
of her house for their next session.
At the moment, my goal is to show
that I'm ready
to have the surgery done
and that's why it's so important
that I have to try
and put some of my fears away
and just try and get on with it
for me, not anyone else,
well, the boys,
but it has to start with me.
LAURA: So, this is our first time
meeting in this setting.
I don't know how you feel
about being somewhere new.
I feel OK but obviously
being somewhere like here,
I have been thinking of food the
whole time in the back of my mind.
That is because it has been your
coping strategy since childhood,
it's kind of been
the thing that you go to
and I guess some of that
is what we need to unpick together.
There is something else
that has recently,
only in the last couple of days
sort of surfaced again.
OK.
Take your time, take some deep
breaths, OK, there's no rush.
Take your time.
I was in a relationship and I think
it was bad, it was horrible.
Erm... He really got into my head
in a bad way.
And I always sort of think
that hasn't helped
with how I feel about people now.
Yeah.
And it sort of gets to the point
where I even ask Jonny, is this OK?
And he's like,
why are you asking if that's OK?
Because some of that stuff
is still there.
I wonder how long that's been
around, that sense of other people
are the ones
who know what's right for me.
Has that sense been there
or just, you know...
I know what's right for me.
I've still not fully
got that back yet.
Yeah.
I still have to ask.
There is a tendency
to let other people
tell Emily what she's about
and who she is
and be sort of controlled by people
in that way.
So perhaps she needs to figure out
a bit more
who she is and what she's about.
EMILY: Riley!
Your dinner's nearly ready.
While trying to stick to her
800 calorie a day liquid diet,
Emily has to fight temptation
at every turn.
I have to blow it and touch it on my
lips to make sure it's cool enough,
so it's always near my mouth
as well.
I'm very agitated, I'm very fidgety.
I can't relax.
For some reason today has left me
really, really wanting takeaway.
Today is Harry's second birthday
party. There is food everywhere.
There's pizza,
there's sausage rolls, sandwiches.
If I wasn't doing this diet
or anything right now,
I would be eating it all day,
picking at it,
and whatever's left over
tonight I would have just scoffed.
Literally.
Her next appointment
with Mr Awad is looming
and Emily is trying to focus
on what is at stake.
If I do carry on the way
I was going, I'd have a shorter life
so I'm doing this for them just
so they can have me in their life
for a lot longer
than what they would have.
Her fears about her health
are finally translating
into a newfound resolve.
Harry, ah!
I could have this life-changing
surgery done.
I'm going to be healthier. I want
to be able to move around more.
So the kids will have more fun.
It's going to absolutely change
everything and I can't wait.
One more!
THEY CHEER
Anxious to lose enough weight so
she can have the bariatric surgery,
Emily is adding exercise
to her diet plan.
I don't know, I'm just worried
about how much I can manage.
If I'm going to be
completely honest,
apart from running after the kids,
this will be the first proper day
that I've done any exercise yet.
Dad Steve,
a qualified boxercise instructor,
has arranged a private class
with close family and friends.
She knows
we're there to support her,
there's no reason
why she can't do it.
She's got me,
she's got her brothers,
we're all fairly well trained
in various aspects
of fitness and exercise.
I want to see her out of breath.
I want maximum effort off of her.
Start off with a little warm-up.
Just a little one.
And you're doing sideways
star jumps up to the wall.
And then repeat
the whole process again.
MUSIC PLAYS
OK, let's go.
A maximum effort workout isn't
something Emily's body is used to.
I do get some chest pains sometimes
and I think, oh my God,
is this it,
is something gonna happen?
It scares me, daily.
I feel dead.
And her dad's tough love
means there is no respite.
Almost there now,
get one more quick one in.
No, you won't.
OK, have a quick breather.
How are we doing?
Yeah?
SHE CRIES
Take it easy, keep walking round,
keep moving, deep breaths.
Struggling to breathe.
I'm sort of ignoring
the aches and pains I'm getting
but the tightness I'm getting
in my stomach
and in sort of my throat, I'm
struggling to get a full breath in.
Get your balance,
bring your knee up.
It's been a tough session.
Undoing the effects of years
of over eating
will take time and determination.
It's been five weeks since Emily
started dieting and exercising.
She's hoping
she's lost enough weight
to convince her surgeon Mr Awad
that she has put
her binge-eating days behind her.
I am feeling nervous,
it is a massive thing,
knowing only one person
has that power of decision
over something life-changing for me.
I just hope I've done enough.
Bye, Mummy, bye, Daddy.
First, Emily has the weigh-in
with dietician Lindsey Parry.
She needs to have lost at least
a stone to qualify for surgery.
So 8.2 kilos,
about one and a quarter stones.
Is that a good amount in that time?
That's brilliant!
OK. You're allowed to be
pleased with that.
OK, I am now, yeah, OK.
She has lost more weight
than she expected.
I think it's huge progress
to change a lifetime of mindset
in a few weeks so credit to you.
I'm surprised at myself,
I'm not going to lie.
What has done it this time,
what pushed you?
It's massive. I can't ruin this now.
I've got such a big thing
to work towards.
You are throwing everything at it.
Yeah. Good on you.
I'm really proud of you.
Thank you.
The hard work,
it's on both sides, really.
I can do the operation,
not a problem,
but you have to put in the work
before and after
and I think you've done that.
I'm really proud of her efforts.
She is beginning
to tackle her demons
and the fact that she's not needed
to resort to the comforts
that she has resorted to before
gives me great confidence
for the future.
Emily's bariatric surgery
is booked for two weeks' time.
Now it's going to happen.
It's definitely happening.
I'm excited now but I don't think
it'll feel real until that day.
Until the operation,
she will have to continue
to stick to a low-calorie diet.
This will help
to shrink the size of her liver.
Mr Awad will only be able to perform
the surgery
if he can move it aside
to get to her stomach.
I can't even have too much salad
so I need to be careful
so I'll just do myself four little
slices of cucumber, bit of lettuce,
some cress and I think that will do.
Really fresh tasting.
This tastes really lovely, actually,
I'm enjoying it.
With hopes of a change in sight,
Emily is finally
daring to think about the future.
I'm obviously a little bit nervous
as there are risks to any operation.
But I'd love to get back
to that size, like a 14 or a 16.
There's no bingo wings,
there's no double chin.
I think from knowing
that I've had it done,
I've got a feeling the self-esteem
will start to creep up again
from that point, I think, I hope.
After two months of battling
with her binge-eating demons,
Emily is on her way
to the Royal Derby Hospital
for stomach-reducing surgery.
The operation
doesn't just give weight loss,
they gain in confidence,
they gain in self-esteem,
they get the respect back,
they are given the chance to live
the life that they never had.
Thank you, thanks for driving.
That's it now, we're here,
point of no return. I know.
STEVE: I'm just really happy
that we've got to this day.
Little bit nervous
but more excited for her.
She's knows it's all for a good
reason and it's got to be done.
MR AWAD: These procedures are not
reversible, there is no going back.
This is a lifelong change, which
requires a lifelong commitment.
It's not just about losing weight
for the first year
and then you live
happily ever after.
The surgeries we do will change
the way you eat forever.
I've got a bit of a nervous tummy.
I feel a bit sick.
It's all just nerves.
Are you ready?
Yeah. Let's go.
If all goes to plan,
the laparoscopic surgery
will take just under an hour.
You'll be all right. Good luck.
Thank you.
See you on the other side.
Huge, huge day, lots of emotions,
lots of feelings of guilt and...
I guess she feels
her life's caught up with her.
First Mr Awad needs to be able
to lift Emily's liver out of the way
so he can operate on her stomach.
If it is too big,
he won't be able to continue.
She's got a beautiful liver
so she's worked really hard
on the liver diet,
liver has shrunken nicely.
Here is Emily's stomach.
A lot of people think the bigger
you are, the bigger your stomach,
but actually it's not true,
most people have relatively speaking
the same size and shape of stomach
but it's I guess what they do
with it and how much they eat
and the pattern of eating
that makes the difference.
Now he will carefully remove
the majority of her stomach,
which is normally
the size of a melon.
So we're using this special gun
and this is Emily's sleeve now,
so the width of Emily's stomach
is roughly going to be
the thickness of my thumb.
And with that fire,
Emily now has a new stomach.
That's it.
That's three quarters
of her stomach out, OK?
Emily will no longer
have room to binge.
She will feel fuller more quickly
and be satisfied for longer
after she eats.
I think
she's done absolutely fantastic.
The operation
went really, really well.
Today is the first day
the rest of her life.
This is it, this is her fresh start
that's she's looking for.
Emily will be kept in hospital
for the next 48 hours,
to be monitored for any signs
of post-surgery complications.
Hi, darling.
You in hospital?
I am, yeah.
Hello.
Hiya, you all right?
It's the morning after surgery.
I'm feeling a lot better now
than what I did yesterday.
I still don't feel great but I feel
a lot better than what I did.
Emily is making good progress
but Mr Awad wants a last word
before she is discharged.
I'm expecting you to lose around
10 to 12 kilos in weight,
just under two stone over the next
six to eight weeks.
OK.
It's hard work.
You're re-learning what to eat,
how much to eat.
You're going to get it wrong
on a few occasions,
in terms of eating too quickly,
a few episodes of food sticking
and feeling uncomfortable
and perhaps even vomiting.
I don't want
too many of those episodes
but I'm just warning you to just
work hard and bear with it.
I've removed her ability
to comfort eat.
You need that patient
to be absolutely in control
with how they're going to eat
after the surgery.
If you don't have control of your
eating, then you could rupture
your sleeve,
and that's potentially
a life-threatening illness.
It's been two weeks
since super super morbidly obese
single mum Emily
underwent stomach-reducing surgery.
With the liquid only part
of her post-operative diet over,
she now faces two weeks
of eating only pureed,
protein rich, soft foods.
It just looks horrible.
It probably tastes fine,
it just doesn't look very nice.
If you try not to look at it,
it just reminds me of cod, chips
and curry sauce from the chip shop.
SHE LAUGHS
That is what I'm having.
I thought I'd love this stage
but I'm actually hating it.
Why couldn't I have stuck
to my other diets?
Why have I done this to myself?
It doesn't feel normal
at the moment.
I feel like will I ever be able to
eat like a normal person ever again
cos it doesn't feel like it
at the moment.
By the time
Emily next sees her surgeon Mr Awad,
he is expecting her
to have lost at least two stone.
Although the weight is coming off,
it's proving
a tricky adjustment period for her.
I would love to eat
a sausage right now.
If I could just eat normally
I'd just love to eat a sausage
but I'm not going to.
SHE LAUGHS
Emily's doubting
whether the surgery was worth it.
And it's only getting worse.
I've been poorly in bed all day.
I feel sick.
I've got awful pains in my stomach.
I can't even sip water.
Erm... I had a tiny bit
of vegetable chow mein last night
and a couple of mini
spare ribs from the Chinese
so I'm guessing
this is what's done it to me.
I feel awful.
Her impulsive Chinese takeaway
could have damaged
her stomach surgery recovery.
Emily is learning a valuable lesson.
I didn't think I ever thought
I'd have the fear of food ever,
and I do at the moment,
I'm a bit scared of it.
Quite the opposite effect
from before I started.
It's been seven weeks
since Emily's operation
and today she is visiting Mr Awad
for her first check-up post surgery.
Emily, good morning,
lovely to see you. Come on in.
Thank you.
Jonny, welcome, please take a seat.
You saw Lindsey this morning?
Yes. Very good. How did that go?
Really well, I think, yeah.
What was the summary?
Erm... I've lost...
three and a half stone
altogether now. Excellent.
She said I've lost 22 per cent
of my excess body weight.
It all seemed to go well.
Very good, very good.
So you're now literally seven weeks
from the surgery.
How have they been for you?
Very up and down.
I did maybe push myself too far
on one or two things, which resulted
in me being a bit poorly.
But I know why
and I've learnt from that.
Why?
I ate...
I tried some Chinese, basically,
which I know I shouldn't have done
and it was stupid.
That was how long after surgery?
Three and a half weeks.
Three and a half weeks, OK.
So stupid but I've no desire to try
that again or do that again.
This operation will not get rid
of your emotional cues. No.
You will always want that packet of
crisps or two packets of crisps.
That's not you being hungry for it
but that's in your head
and your coping mechanism.
So you will have a lot
of ups and downs.
Emotional eating will be hard
because if you choose
the wrong foods
you will get the bad side effects
and that's what you experienced
over the last seven weeks. Yeah.
So the next three months then, OK,
they're going to be tough
in a different way.
And you're trying to cope
with the kids and your emotions
and your body changes,
and getting the confidence
to get back out of the house again.
You've got your whole life
ahead of you now.
OK? You've got a chance
to in this first year,
which is the golden year
after weight loss surgery,
you can achieve
whatever you want to, literally,
but you've got to work really hard
for it.
Yeah. OK.
All right.
Thank you so much. Thank you
so much, thank you for your time.
All right, Jonny.
OK, bye bye.
Emily has a very long journey ahead.
The surgery is literally
just the start of her journey.
She will need a lot of strength
to get her through
the immediate post-operative phase.
So it's early days yet.
Three months ago, Emily's life
was spiralling out of control
as she was binge eating herself
to death.
Since then, she has started
to transform emotionally
and physically.
It's getting a lot easier,
housework, just cos I can move more,
without hurting
and being out of breath.
I feel more springy!
I've got more energy. I can do
a lot more than what I used to do.
It's only been ten weeks
since her operation
and Emily has already lost
four stone.
She has reduced her BMI to 52.8
and is no longer classed
as super super morbidly obese.
I'd love to lose, it sounds massive,
but I'd love to lose another
11 stone and I'd be so happy.
After years of avoiding the world,
Emily at last has the confidence
to leave the house
and enjoy the great outdoors.
It seems like a lifetime ago now
where I was shut in before.
I think the boys are really excited
that we're doing something.
SHE LAUGHS
Woo!
Awesome! High five.
Over the last few
challenging months,
becoming a better mum
has remained Emily's main focus.
I feel I can make the kids happier
than what I used to make them.
They've kept me going through this.
She is starting to expand
her previously shut-in world,
enjoying her newfound freedom.
Now, change excites me a bit more.
I think
I'm just sort of embracing it
and looking forward to just
everything that's happening.
And erm... I quite like it.
SHE LAUGHS
And Emily has found the willpower
to undertake
her first five kilometre park run.
I never imagined I'd do something
like this a few years ago, you know.
Definitely not.
Say come on, Mum!
Go on, Mum!
Really proud. She'll struggle,
she'll moan, but she'll do it.
She would never have thought
about doing a park run before
so it's good to see her taking part.
And her new emotional strength
is bolstered even more
by her dad's immense pride.
You're doing brilliant, aren't you?
Yeah? Yes!
It's all uphill, mind you,
but you know.
Let's not talk about that!
HE LAUGHS
I think my family are so happy.
I don't feel left out
as much any more,
and even though I'm not physically
the same as them at the moment,
I do still feel more belonging now.
After today's massive leap forward,
milestone,
whatever you want to call it.
It's fantastic,
really, really proud of her.
It's completely changed my life.
I'm 22 stone
and I've just done a 5k park run.
It's crazy, it's great, though.
I love it.
Well done, you done brilliant.
Really proud of you.
Haven't got to carry you to the car,
have I? Might have to.
Come on, let's go.
No, you done really, really well.
Thank you.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media
underneath this lump down there,
somewhere.
HE GROANS
NARRATOR: Confined within
the four walls of their homes...
At the moment
I do nothing, I just exist.
...and addicted to food...
I know it is a mega amount
but I still want to eat it
because it makes me feel good.
These are just three of Britain's
estimated 50,000 people
who are super morbidly obese.
The reasons people get that big,
it's not just simple gluttony
and laziness.
I obviously don't want to be like
this, I hate being like this.
Their weight is putting
a strain on their health...
I go to bed
and worry that I won't wake up.
...and their loved ones.
Nah nah nah nah nah.
No, no, just for...
No, bollocks to you.
My little girl is in there somewhere
but she's stuck in this big body.
You shouldn't have to look after
your mum, your mum looks after you.
- Now all three have the chance to save their lives and their relationshi
- ps.
I just want to get the weight off
and get out.
This surgery is a lifelong
non-reversible procedure.
And I think this is her last chance.
But the road ahead
isn't going to be easy.
Is it hurting?
Yeah. Sit down again.
I feel like I'm never going to be
able to eat properly ever again
cos I can't even drink
without being sick at the moment.
Northamptonshire has a rugged rural
charm and the space to roam free.
- But the joys of the British countryside are wasted on single mum Emily
- .
At just 24 years old
but already weighing 26 stone,
she is super morbidly obese and
is binge eating herself to death.
Some days I do eat all day,
non-stop,
but most of the time it's sort of
big binge in the morning,
a light afternoon then a massive
binge again in the evening.
Emily is just one of
a growing number of young adults
who are putting their health at risk
through over-eating.
Forty per cent
of 16-to 24-year-olds in the UK
are now obese or overweight.
Normally if I get a breakfast,
it will be a breakfast muffin
with sausage and egg in it,
I get breakfast wraps and then
I get about five or six hash browns
and a chocolate milkshake.
No one really knows how much I eat
and I do generally just eat it
on my own.
When I'm eating I'm on a bit of a
high, I'm happy, in my little zone.
But once it's gone, I'm
sort of out of that straightaway
and it's back to sort of
reality again.
Emily is hooked on a deadly diet
of high fat,
high sugar and high salt junk food.
A single day of binge eating
can exceed 15,000 calories.
Over ten times
the recommended daily amount.
When I eat like this, I do sort of
feel a bit disgusted with myself,
but if I'm on my own
and there's no one watching me
then I've got no one else to judge
me so I just get on with it.
I always say to myself,
one more binge and that's it,
I'll be really good and start
losing weight and it never happens.
There's never been a last binge,
not yet.
Done! Mission accomplished.
SHE LAUGHS
Hiding her relationship with food
within her home,
Emily now actively avoids
the outside world.
If I get asked to go out, I'm like,
what reason can I think of
to say no?
I do feel judged
and feel like people look at me
and see a big fat ugly person
cos that's how I feel.
EMILY: Thank you.
Shut in
by her crippling social anxiety,
modern technology means she can feed
her junk food addiction
without ever leaving her house.
So we've got chocolate mini rolls,
pain au chocolate, I don't know,
pastries with chocolate in.
My chocolate fudge icing
that I'll spoon out.
That won't last me the whole week,
that'll be gone within a few days.
My fingers are tightening
up against the side.
I start getting all like this.
It's food, for God's sake.
Sort of the feeling that I can't
wait. I just need to eat it now.
Like... Yeah.
And Emily's number one food to binge
on is just one click or call away.
I love takeaway,
that is my favourite, I love it.
I could have it every night
of the week if I could.
So I have a bit of salad on there.
I don't use the whole box but I do
like a little bit on my kebab.
When I went to the doctors
about my weight,
that's when I found out that my body
consists of over 50 per cent fat
but cos I can't see what's
going on inside, I block it out.
Ready, spin.
Emily had her first child at 20
and her second at 22,
gaining more weight
with each pregnancy.
Mummy just go sit back down
for a minute, OK?
But with Riley now four
and Harry nearly two,
she's finding it hard
to be the mum she wants to be.
Riley is starting to notice now
that I'm struggling.
"Your belly is like
a bouncy castle," he says to me.
He notices now. I don't want him
to notice things like that.
Day-to-day life is becoming
increasingly difficult.
I find it so hard
to put shoes on, any shoes on.
I have to always shift my whole body
just to try and get each foot in.
And her 24-year-old body is rapidly
aging due to the excess weight.
I went for an X-ray on my back
and it said I had the deterioration
on my spine of a 60-year-old woman.
I haven't got a life at the minute.
It's not a life, I'm just existing.
Emily's weight
isn't just damaging her body.
Hiya, you all right?
Yeah, good, thank you. Hello, bud.
Last year her relationship
with partner Jonny broke down.
They remain close
but now live separately.
Me putting on weight has definitely
changed a lot of things.
I don't want to be intimate,
not because of him, I love him,
but cos of how I feel.
Once I've got my confidence back,
I can be confident
in my relationship again,
and then I'm hoping we can grow
closer again, be back to normal,
be my old self again,
cos I'm not who I used to be.
This has changed me.
See you later.
She don't think that I love her
but I still love her to bits.
I worry about her.
I don't want her to end up
having a heart attack and dying.
Emily's parents have also been
worrying about her for years.
That's a nice one of her there.
Dad Steve and mum Toni
noticed Emily's
unhealthy relationship with food
from a young age.
She was a little bit chunky there.
Mm.
I would say
probably around six and eight,
we realised that there
was an extra packet of crisps
going out the cupboard each day.
We had to start hiding them away.
We could hear the cupboards
going at night.
- We knew she was trying to raid 'em. We'd have to jump on her pretty quick
- ly.
Her favourite thing was, "I'm full
up, I can't manage any more dinner.
Can I have my afters now?"
And then she'd go back and start
picking at her dinner afterwards.
Emily left home and moved in with
boyfriend Jonny when she was 17.
Now there were no restrictions
on how much she could eat.
I was about a size 14 when we met,
so he has literally seen me go
from my smallest to my biggest.
We would sit there and
we'd just sort of have our dinner,
then we'd sit there and like,
"Shall we get a pizza?"
And then we'd order a pizza
after our dinner
so it was like a second dinner.
Despite her fears
about leaving her home,
Emily visits her parents' house
once a week.
DOORBELL RINGS
Hiya!
You all right? Come in. Thank you.
STEVE: So how good have you been
this week, truthfully?
50-50.
What did you have?
Chinese.
Go on then.
I had a chow mein,
salt and chilli chicken, chips,
curry sauce, spare ribs.
You ate all that on your own?
Yes.
You can't carry on like that.
I know.
But do you know?
Yeah. Of course I know.
It's just I find it hard.
I obviously don't want to be like
this, I hate being like this,
it ruins my life, I hate it.
Stick to a diet. Yeah?
No more takeaways.
I know.
They are quite hard on me
with things.
A lot of it comes from a good place
and they're just trying to help,
but in my head it's like,
just leave me alone, stop it,
- then I'll come home and eat cos I'm just stressed out about the conversati
- on.
In contrast to Emily, dad Steve
and her 14-year-old twin brothers
Will and Joe
are super-fit exercise fanatics.
My brothers are all into fitness,
they're all slim,
and I'm obviously not,
which is hard.
I feel very sort of like
a black sheep.
And it sort of makes me feel
he's really proud of them
(VOICE BREAKS)
but not of me, and I get that,
I understand,
but it is really hard to see.
- Steve has used every trick in the book to motivate his daughter to lose weight
- .
We've tried loads of things
over the years,
with all the exercise stuff and
all the various slimming groups,
the diet plans we've done for her.
We tried bribing her with an iPhone,
and that was great for the first
week, she stuck to the diet,
and then went off the rails
and then it was cash instead.
That lasted for a week or two
then went off the rails again,
and then we tried to get her
on the Couch to 5k
- and you think do I want to go out and put my body through running for an ho
- ur
or do I want to sit down,
DVD and a kebab?
And that one always won,
so this was the problem we had.
Emily is stuck in a vicious cycle.
She hates how big she is
but the only thing that comforts her
is more food.
Put the chips on the bottom.
The chow mein on top of that
and then curry sauce goes on.
It smells really nice.
SHE LAUGHS
Over the last seven years,
Emily's gained nearly 15 stone,
more than doubling her weight.
Looking at it,
I know it is a mega amount of food,
but I still want to eat it
cos it makes me feel good.
If she continues
binge eating at this rate,
by the time she's just 30,
she'll be almost 40 stone
and that will mean
she'll be completely stuck in.
What's the date today?
Oh, don't.
Dad Steve is desperate
for things to change.
It's all healthy stuff
but none of it's been eaten.
I see a sad young girl
and I can see in her eyes
that she's not, she's not happy.
So why are these in here then?
What have you done to earn them?
Nothing.
My little girl is in there
somewhere.
She wants to come out
but she's stuck in this big body.
What's this for?
Chocolate fudge icing?
That's stuff you put in cakes,
you eat that straight out the tub?
Mm-hm. With a spoon.
That's just pure fat and sugar.
I know.
Wow.
We're pretty much worried to death.
She's on our mind every single day
about where it could end up.
It's an addiction,
I mean, she is addicted to food
and I'm desperate for her
to get help.
I can... I can see her not being
here in ten years' time.
Sweet dreams, night night.
Emily's bingeing is putting her
relationships, her children's future
and her life at great risk.
I just feel like
I haven't got the control
and that scares me.
- Even though I am the person that can control myself and the only person that ca
- n,
I feel like I'm not
and that really frightens me.
Twenty-four-year-old
single mum Emily
is so ashamed of her body
that she has become shut in.
Weighing over 26 stone,
she has a binge-eating addiction
which has taken over her life.
- Sometimes while I'm waiting for it to cook, I'll eat a few packets of crisps as wel
- l.
After this I'll probably see
what something sweet I can find.
That's my breakfast.
Just makes me feel calm, relaxed.
I forget about everything bad
just while I'm eating it.
Even though I am the person
that can control myself,
and the only person that can,
why can't I stop?
Unable to stick to diets
and gaining over two stone in weight
every year,
Emily is desperate
for her life to change.
I go to bed and worry
that I won't wake up.
And that scares me
cos I wanna be here for the boys.
I don't wanna have them
lose their mum.
So today, she's venturing
out of the house with Jonny
to meet one of Britain's leading
bariatric surgeons, Mr Sherif Awad.
Emily wants to explore
the possibility
of a surgical solution
to her weight problems.
She is 24,
she's in the prime of her life
and she is trapped
and imprisoned in her body.
That's 164.8 kilograms.
OK.
For a young person,
and I see this a lot in my patients,
they are ashamed to be walking
into that consultation room
asking for an operation.
Come on in.
Thank you.
Have a seat.
Thanks. Hello!
I think if we became
a less judgmental society
and just gave patients
a chance to improve their health,
that's all they're looking for.
Emily's weight is putting her
in dangerous territory.
So with you being BMI 62,
you've gone beyond super obesity
and you are now super super obese.
You're at a stage now where all
the evidence out there shows us
that the only thing
which is going to help you
to achieve effective weight loss
is a surgical operation.
So at present your obesity
has probably reduced your life
expectancy by about 10 to 15 years.
You are at huge, huge risk
of developing heart disease,
blood pressure,
having a heart attack.
Your risk of diabetes
is almost 20 fold higher,
purely as a result of your weight.
So this isn't something
that's benign,
it isn't something
that should be overlooked
and certainly I would not want
to see you gain weight after today.
This isn't news to Emily
but hearing it from a surgeon may
be the wake-up call that she needs.
To get these young patients
in early,
that for me is much more preferable
than waiting until they turn up
to the clinic with a whole host
of obesity-related medical problems.
No young mother wants to hear that
she is expected to die so early.
That's time she could be spending
with her children and grandchildren
in fact.
When you hear it
from a professional,
it makes it more scary
when they tell you are going to die
if you carry on the way you are.
It does give you
the motivation to do something.
Ah!
Oh, thank you!
To help Emily make sense
of what is driving her to eat,
she'll be having regular sessions
with clinical psychologist
Laura Keyes.
I think for most people
there's a really high level of shame
that's linked to any kind of
addictive-type behaviour.
If you haven't had a struggle
around some kind of addiction,
it can be really hard outside that
to understand
that cycle
that somebody is stuck in.
Anxious about leaving her house,
Emily's first session will be in
the safety of her own four walls.
But Laura's visit
is making her nervous.
I feel safe in here.
Nothing makes me feel bad
when I'm in here.
As soon as I know someone else
is coming round, I start to panic.
I feel like they might come in
and start judging me and my house,
and it all starts
all going like that again,
like being outside all over again
if someone comes inside.
Hello.
Hi! Laura? Yeah. Come in.
Yeah. Nice to meet you.
LAURA:
Where would you like to start?
Erm... I'm a mum of two children.
Their dad still is in picture
but he doesn't live with us
so that gets a bit hard sometimes
and that's where some of my stress
comes sometimes
and stress always leads
to my problem, which is food.
It's not just a little bit of food,
it's always a lot of food.
It's all just a way of pushing away
the feeling, I guess.
Yeah, when I'm eating,
I'm in my little bubble.
Nothing can hurt me or upset me
at that time
cos I'm happy
and I'm just doing what I'm doing.
Why is it important, do you think,
for you to manage
these feelings better
and be able to have the surgery?
What's that for?
I just...
I don't want to start crying.
I just want my life
to be better again.
I don't feel like the same person
as what I used to be.
I want to be able to feel
comfortable going out again.
I can't do as much as I'd like to do
with the kids.
Then I worry about my weight,
I worry about my health.
I can't just die on my kids,
they need me. Yeah.
So I guess it sounds like what would
be helpful for us to focus on
is how to deal with the feelings
that are there.
There's stress
but there's also anxiety,
and there's also worrying thoughts
that are there. Yeah.
Part of the work is about teaching
her how to be kind to herself,
to get back to socialising.
Just helping her connect
back in with the world
rather than being quite stuck
and quite isolated,
which is where she is at the moment.
Emily will need to learn to break
her destructive pattern of eating.
My relationship with food
is all to do with negative emotions.
If I feel bad,
that makes me feel better,
so it's a weird kind
of relationship, I don't like it.
Well, I like it but I don't want it
to carry on any more.
Determined to change her life,
Emily's booked another appointment
with Mr Awad
and is taking Jonny and her mum Toni
along for support.
She wants to have
the bariatric surgery
that would see the size
of her stomach more than halved,
reducing forever the amount of food
she'll be able to eat.
TONI: I just want her to be happy.
I know she'd be happy
if she was smaller
and I'd love that for her.
I think she knows
that this is her last chance.
But Mr Awad is still concerned about
Emily's addiction to food.
For Emily, if she doesn't change her
dietary habits and her lifestyle,
she will not be a candidate
to go forward to surgery.
The main problem
is the binge eating,
and if she's bingeing a couple
of times a day on most days,
she's not gonna be able
to do that after surgery.
It's so vital that you make changes
going forward literally from today.
The sweet and chocolate cupboard,
that's got to go. Yeah.
You will not be able to binge eat
any more.
I'm prepared for that, I'm so
prepared to just... I am. I am.
OK. An operation is you
making changes for life, OK,
so it isn't just a quick six month
target, you've lost the weight
and you go back
to your bad eating habits.
This is you
working with your operation,
which is your tool to support you
for the rest of your life. Yeah.
To convince him that she is
a suitable candidate for surgery...
Hi. Do you want to come through?
Yes.
...Emily will have to prove to him
that she can stick to a rigid diet
over the next five weeks.
The first part of the diet
involves no solid food at all.
- So for the three weeks that Mr Awad is suggesting that you follow liquid-only die
- t,
we're aiming for three of these meal
replacement products per day.
A breakfast, lunch, dinner pattern.
It needs to be less than
250 calories per portion
and it needs to be around
15 grams of protein.
I don't want to see
any more bingeing.
If she doesn't implement the
changes, if she continues to binge,
if she puts on weight,
the operation's off.
Back at home,
Emily is facing reality.
Cherry Bakewells.
Her secret stash has to go.
This is the hardest to let go of,
I think,
but I know it's not good for me.
I'm really determined
to prove myself.
I'm not sitting here
thinking it's going to be easy
but I'm still determined to push
through and do it, definitely.
EMILY: Can I make an order
for delivery, please?
Can I please have
a special curry with fried rice,
chips with salt and chilli,
and spare ribs with salt and chilli,
please.
Emily may have decided
to clear the cupboards
but she's putting off
starting her diet for one more day.
I'd quite like a last Chinese.
There's a little bit of sadness
knowing this is my last one,
but I'm more happy than sad
cos I'm excited about starting
my new diet tomorrow.
OK...
I'm doing this for a reason,
I'm doing it to prove to everybody
that I can stop the bingeing,
I can stop the takeaways,
and that I can manage something
completely new.
Over the next five weeks,
she will have to find the strength
to resist her demons.
She's got a huge opportunity
to be given her life back
and you've had to get rid of
resorting to food
to get that emotional relief
and emotional satisfaction.
That is tough.
Food is her friend and I've asked
her to let her best friend go.
Super morbidly obese
24-year-old Emily weighs 26 stone
and has been binge eating
herself into an early grave.
Desperate to change her life,
she's on the path
towards bariatric surgery
and has been restricted
to a low-calorie liquid diet.
It's just a drink, isn't it?
Normally I'm eating loads of food.
It's fine, it's day one.
I'm feeling positive.
I can't say how I'll be feeling
at the end of the first week but
right now I'm feeling OK about it.
To prove that she can control
her eating habits,
she will have to lose
at least a stone
before her next appointment
with her surgeon Mr Awad.
EMILY: Riley, stop.
HE CRIES
That was not very nice. Say sorry.
Only a few hours into her new diet,
single mum Emily is struggling.
Go and sit down, your dinner's
ready, go on, sit down.
I'm going to get dad to come round
if you don't stop.
THEY SHOUT AND LAUGH
I'm not having the best day.
I feel a bit stressed and upset.
I feel drained.
The stress that I feel that I want
to eat this, want to eat that,
but knowing I can't...
Normally a day like today I'd just
go and get a takeaway later
but knowing I can't even do that.
Emily is starting to realise
the enormity of what lies ahead.
(CRIES) It's just so hard.
I knew it was going to be hard
but it's really hard
and I don't see any light at the end
of the tunnel at the moment.
I just feel like I'm never
going to be able to eat again.
Already struggling to stick
to her liquids-only diet,
today Emily faces a new challenge.
Her psychologist Laura Keyes
has asked her to leave the safety
of her house for their next session.
At the moment, my goal is to show
that I'm ready
to have the surgery done
and that's why it's so important
that I have to try
and put some of my fears away
and just try and get on with it
for me, not anyone else,
well, the boys,
but it has to start with me.
LAURA: So, this is our first time
meeting in this setting.
I don't know how you feel
about being somewhere new.
I feel OK but obviously
being somewhere like here,
I have been thinking of food the
whole time in the back of my mind.
That is because it has been your
coping strategy since childhood,
it's kind of been
the thing that you go to
and I guess some of that
is what we need to unpick together.
There is something else
that has recently,
only in the last couple of days
sort of surfaced again.
OK.
Take your time, take some deep
breaths, OK, there's no rush.
Take your time.
I was in a relationship and I think
it was bad, it was horrible.
Erm... He really got into my head
in a bad way.
And I always sort of think
that hasn't helped
with how I feel about people now.
Yeah.
And it sort of gets to the point
where I even ask Jonny, is this OK?
And he's like,
why are you asking if that's OK?
Because some of that stuff
is still there.
I wonder how long that's been
around, that sense of other people
are the ones
who know what's right for me.
Has that sense been there
or just, you know...
I know what's right for me.
I've still not fully
got that back yet.
Yeah.
I still have to ask.
There is a tendency
to let other people
tell Emily what she's about
and who she is
and be sort of controlled by people
in that way.
So perhaps she needs to figure out
a bit more
who she is and what she's about.
EMILY: Riley!
Your dinner's nearly ready.
While trying to stick to her
800 calorie a day liquid diet,
Emily has to fight temptation
at every turn.
I have to blow it and touch it on my
lips to make sure it's cool enough,
so it's always near my mouth
as well.
I'm very agitated, I'm very fidgety.
I can't relax.
For some reason today has left me
really, really wanting takeaway.
Today is Harry's second birthday
party. There is food everywhere.
There's pizza,
there's sausage rolls, sandwiches.
If I wasn't doing this diet
or anything right now,
I would be eating it all day,
picking at it,
and whatever's left over
tonight I would have just scoffed.
Literally.
Her next appointment
with Mr Awad is looming
and Emily is trying to focus
on what is at stake.
If I do carry on the way
I was going, I'd have a shorter life
so I'm doing this for them just
so they can have me in their life
for a lot longer
than what they would have.
Her fears about her health
are finally translating
into a newfound resolve.
Harry, ah!
I could have this life-changing
surgery done.
I'm going to be healthier. I want
to be able to move around more.
So the kids will have more fun.
It's going to absolutely change
everything and I can't wait.
One more!
THEY CHEER
Anxious to lose enough weight so
she can have the bariatric surgery,
Emily is adding exercise
to her diet plan.
I don't know, I'm just worried
about how much I can manage.
If I'm going to be
completely honest,
apart from running after the kids,
this will be the first proper day
that I've done any exercise yet.
Dad Steve,
a qualified boxercise instructor,
has arranged a private class
with close family and friends.
She knows
we're there to support her,
there's no reason
why she can't do it.
She's got me,
she's got her brothers,
we're all fairly well trained
in various aspects
of fitness and exercise.
I want to see her out of breath.
I want maximum effort off of her.
Start off with a little warm-up.
Just a little one.
And you're doing sideways
star jumps up to the wall.
And then repeat
the whole process again.
MUSIC PLAYS
OK, let's go.
A maximum effort workout isn't
something Emily's body is used to.
I do get some chest pains sometimes
and I think, oh my God,
is this it,
is something gonna happen?
It scares me, daily.
I feel dead.
And her dad's tough love
means there is no respite.
Almost there now,
get one more quick one in.
No, you won't.
OK, have a quick breather.
How are we doing?
Yeah?
SHE CRIES
Take it easy, keep walking round,
keep moving, deep breaths.
Struggling to breathe.
I'm sort of ignoring
the aches and pains I'm getting
but the tightness I'm getting
in my stomach
and in sort of my throat, I'm
struggling to get a full breath in.
Get your balance,
bring your knee up.
It's been a tough session.
Undoing the effects of years
of over eating
will take time and determination.
It's been five weeks since Emily
started dieting and exercising.
She's hoping
she's lost enough weight
to convince her surgeon Mr Awad
that she has put
her binge-eating days behind her.
I am feeling nervous,
it is a massive thing,
knowing only one person
has that power of decision
over something life-changing for me.
I just hope I've done enough.
Bye, Mummy, bye, Daddy.
First, Emily has the weigh-in
with dietician Lindsey Parry.
She needs to have lost at least
a stone to qualify for surgery.
So 8.2 kilos,
about one and a quarter stones.
Is that a good amount in that time?
That's brilliant!
OK. You're allowed to be
pleased with that.
OK, I am now, yeah, OK.
She has lost more weight
than she expected.
I think it's huge progress
to change a lifetime of mindset
in a few weeks so credit to you.
I'm surprised at myself,
I'm not going to lie.
What has done it this time,
what pushed you?
It's massive. I can't ruin this now.
I've got such a big thing
to work towards.
You are throwing everything at it.
Yeah. Good on you.
I'm really proud of you.
Thank you.
The hard work,
it's on both sides, really.
I can do the operation,
not a problem,
but you have to put in the work
before and after
and I think you've done that.
I'm really proud of her efforts.
She is beginning
to tackle her demons
and the fact that she's not needed
to resort to the comforts
that she has resorted to before
gives me great confidence
for the future.
Emily's bariatric surgery
is booked for two weeks' time.
Now it's going to happen.
It's definitely happening.
I'm excited now but I don't think
it'll feel real until that day.
Until the operation,
she will have to continue
to stick to a low-calorie diet.
This will help
to shrink the size of her liver.
Mr Awad will only be able to perform
the surgery
if he can move it aside
to get to her stomach.
I can't even have too much salad
so I need to be careful
so I'll just do myself four little
slices of cucumber, bit of lettuce,
some cress and I think that will do.
Really fresh tasting.
This tastes really lovely, actually,
I'm enjoying it.
With hopes of a change in sight,
Emily is finally
daring to think about the future.
I'm obviously a little bit nervous
as there are risks to any operation.
But I'd love to get back
to that size, like a 14 or a 16.
There's no bingo wings,
there's no double chin.
I think from knowing
that I've had it done,
I've got a feeling the self-esteem
will start to creep up again
from that point, I think, I hope.
After two months of battling
with her binge-eating demons,
Emily is on her way
to the Royal Derby Hospital
for stomach-reducing surgery.
The operation
doesn't just give weight loss,
they gain in confidence,
they gain in self-esteem,
they get the respect back,
they are given the chance to live
the life that they never had.
Thank you, thanks for driving.
That's it now, we're here,
point of no return. I know.
STEVE: I'm just really happy
that we've got to this day.
Little bit nervous
but more excited for her.
She's knows it's all for a good
reason and it's got to be done.
MR AWAD: These procedures are not
reversible, there is no going back.
This is a lifelong change, which
requires a lifelong commitment.
It's not just about losing weight
for the first year
and then you live
happily ever after.
The surgeries we do will change
the way you eat forever.
I've got a bit of a nervous tummy.
I feel a bit sick.
It's all just nerves.
Are you ready?
Yeah. Let's go.
If all goes to plan,
the laparoscopic surgery
will take just under an hour.
You'll be all right. Good luck.
Thank you.
See you on the other side.
Huge, huge day, lots of emotions,
lots of feelings of guilt and...
I guess she feels
her life's caught up with her.
First Mr Awad needs to be able
to lift Emily's liver out of the way
so he can operate on her stomach.
If it is too big,
he won't be able to continue.
She's got a beautiful liver
so she's worked really hard
on the liver diet,
liver has shrunken nicely.
Here is Emily's stomach.
A lot of people think the bigger
you are, the bigger your stomach,
but actually it's not true,
most people have relatively speaking
the same size and shape of stomach
but it's I guess what they do
with it and how much they eat
and the pattern of eating
that makes the difference.
Now he will carefully remove
the majority of her stomach,
which is normally
the size of a melon.
So we're using this special gun
and this is Emily's sleeve now,
so the width of Emily's stomach
is roughly going to be
the thickness of my thumb.
And with that fire,
Emily now has a new stomach.
That's it.
That's three quarters
of her stomach out, OK?
Emily will no longer
have room to binge.
She will feel fuller more quickly
and be satisfied for longer
after she eats.
I think
she's done absolutely fantastic.
The operation
went really, really well.
Today is the first day
the rest of her life.
This is it, this is her fresh start
that's she's looking for.
Emily will be kept in hospital
for the next 48 hours,
to be monitored for any signs
of post-surgery complications.
Hi, darling.
You in hospital?
I am, yeah.
Hello.
Hiya, you all right?
It's the morning after surgery.
I'm feeling a lot better now
than what I did yesterday.
I still don't feel great but I feel
a lot better than what I did.
Emily is making good progress
but Mr Awad wants a last word
before she is discharged.
I'm expecting you to lose around
10 to 12 kilos in weight,
just under two stone over the next
six to eight weeks.
OK.
It's hard work.
You're re-learning what to eat,
how much to eat.
You're going to get it wrong
on a few occasions,
in terms of eating too quickly,
a few episodes of food sticking
and feeling uncomfortable
and perhaps even vomiting.
I don't want
too many of those episodes
but I'm just warning you to just
work hard and bear with it.
I've removed her ability
to comfort eat.
You need that patient
to be absolutely in control
with how they're going to eat
after the surgery.
If you don't have control of your
eating, then you could rupture
your sleeve,
and that's potentially
a life-threatening illness.
It's been two weeks
since super super morbidly obese
single mum Emily
underwent stomach-reducing surgery.
With the liquid only part
of her post-operative diet over,
she now faces two weeks
of eating only pureed,
protein rich, soft foods.
It just looks horrible.
It probably tastes fine,
it just doesn't look very nice.
If you try not to look at it,
it just reminds me of cod, chips
and curry sauce from the chip shop.
SHE LAUGHS
That is what I'm having.
I thought I'd love this stage
but I'm actually hating it.
Why couldn't I have stuck
to my other diets?
Why have I done this to myself?
It doesn't feel normal
at the moment.
I feel like will I ever be able to
eat like a normal person ever again
cos it doesn't feel like it
at the moment.
By the time
Emily next sees her surgeon Mr Awad,
he is expecting her
to have lost at least two stone.
Although the weight is coming off,
it's proving
a tricky adjustment period for her.
I would love to eat
a sausage right now.
If I could just eat normally
I'd just love to eat a sausage
but I'm not going to.
SHE LAUGHS
Emily's doubting
whether the surgery was worth it.
And it's only getting worse.
I've been poorly in bed all day.
I feel sick.
I've got awful pains in my stomach.
I can't even sip water.
Erm... I had a tiny bit
of vegetable chow mein last night
and a couple of mini
spare ribs from the Chinese
so I'm guessing
this is what's done it to me.
I feel awful.
Her impulsive Chinese takeaway
could have damaged
her stomach surgery recovery.
Emily is learning a valuable lesson.
I didn't think I ever thought
I'd have the fear of food ever,
and I do at the moment,
I'm a bit scared of it.
Quite the opposite effect
from before I started.
It's been seven weeks
since Emily's operation
and today she is visiting Mr Awad
for her first check-up post surgery.
Emily, good morning,
lovely to see you. Come on in.
Thank you.
Jonny, welcome, please take a seat.
You saw Lindsey this morning?
Yes. Very good. How did that go?
Really well, I think, yeah.
What was the summary?
Erm... I've lost...
three and a half stone
altogether now. Excellent.
She said I've lost 22 per cent
of my excess body weight.
It all seemed to go well.
Very good, very good.
So you're now literally seven weeks
from the surgery.
How have they been for you?
Very up and down.
I did maybe push myself too far
on one or two things, which resulted
in me being a bit poorly.
But I know why
and I've learnt from that.
Why?
I ate...
I tried some Chinese, basically,
which I know I shouldn't have done
and it was stupid.
That was how long after surgery?
Three and a half weeks.
Three and a half weeks, OK.
So stupid but I've no desire to try
that again or do that again.
This operation will not get rid
of your emotional cues. No.
You will always want that packet of
crisps or two packets of crisps.
That's not you being hungry for it
but that's in your head
and your coping mechanism.
So you will have a lot
of ups and downs.
Emotional eating will be hard
because if you choose
the wrong foods
you will get the bad side effects
and that's what you experienced
over the last seven weeks. Yeah.
So the next three months then, OK,
they're going to be tough
in a different way.
And you're trying to cope
with the kids and your emotions
and your body changes,
and getting the confidence
to get back out of the house again.
You've got your whole life
ahead of you now.
OK? You've got a chance
to in this first year,
which is the golden year
after weight loss surgery,
you can achieve
whatever you want to, literally,
but you've got to work really hard
for it.
Yeah. OK.
All right.
Thank you so much. Thank you
so much, thank you for your time.
All right, Jonny.
OK, bye bye.
Emily has a very long journey ahead.
The surgery is literally
just the start of her journey.
She will need a lot of strength
to get her through
the immediate post-operative phase.
So it's early days yet.
Three months ago, Emily's life
was spiralling out of control
as she was binge eating herself
to death.
Since then, she has started
to transform emotionally
and physically.
It's getting a lot easier,
housework, just cos I can move more,
without hurting
and being out of breath.
I feel more springy!
I've got more energy. I can do
a lot more than what I used to do.
It's only been ten weeks
since her operation
and Emily has already lost
four stone.
She has reduced her BMI to 52.8
and is no longer classed
as super super morbidly obese.
I'd love to lose, it sounds massive,
but I'd love to lose another
11 stone and I'd be so happy.
After years of avoiding the world,
Emily at last has the confidence
to leave the house
and enjoy the great outdoors.
It seems like a lifetime ago now
where I was shut in before.
I think the boys are really excited
that we're doing something.
SHE LAUGHS
Woo!
Awesome! High five.
Over the last few
challenging months,
becoming a better mum
has remained Emily's main focus.
I feel I can make the kids happier
than what I used to make them.
They've kept me going through this.
She is starting to expand
her previously shut-in world,
enjoying her newfound freedom.
Now, change excites me a bit more.
I think
I'm just sort of embracing it
and looking forward to just
everything that's happening.
And erm... I quite like it.
SHE LAUGHS
And Emily has found the willpower
to undertake
her first five kilometre park run.
I never imagined I'd do something
like this a few years ago, you know.
Definitely not.
Say come on, Mum!
Go on, Mum!
Really proud. She'll struggle,
she'll moan, but she'll do it.
She would never have thought
about doing a park run before
so it's good to see her taking part.
And her new emotional strength
is bolstered even more
by her dad's immense pride.
You're doing brilliant, aren't you?
Yeah? Yes!
It's all uphill, mind you,
but you know.
Let's not talk about that!
HE LAUGHS
I think my family are so happy.
I don't feel left out
as much any more,
and even though I'm not physically
the same as them at the moment,
I do still feel more belonging now.
After today's massive leap forward,
milestone,
whatever you want to call it.
It's fantastic,
really, really proud of her.
It's completely changed my life.
I'm 22 stone
and I've just done a 5k park run.
It's crazy, it's great, though.
I love it.
Well done, you done brilliant.
Really proud of you.
Haven't got to carry you to the car,
have I? Might have to.
Come on, let's go.
No, you done really, really well.
Thank you.
Subtitles by Red Bee Media