Always "The Fat Girl" - Until Now | BRAND NEW ME

KARA, from Kansas, USA, was dangerously overweight for most of her life. Doctors grew increasingly concerned about her health and spoke to her when she was just 16 years old about having surgery as her life expectancy was in danger of being cut short by her obesity. At her heaviest she had reached 375lbs and was consuming over 3,000 calories a day. Kara had set her sights on making a change and losing weight prior to trying for a baby, but when she fell pregnant unexpectedly, things took another turn for the worse when she was diagnosed with high blood pressure at 20 weeks' pregnant. That was the wake up call she needed. Kara made the decision to turn her life around - she had gastric bypass surgery and then committed herself to a regime of weight training and healthy eating. She has now lost over 220lbs and shows no sign of looking back: "I feel like a completely different person - and at the same time I feel like these steps were the steps I needed to get to the person I was supposed to be."