I was told I’d die unless I lost half my body weight

When Jade Davis reached 378 pounds she knew something had to change.

The UK 24-year-old had spent her entire life battling her weight and was binge eating, but it wasn’t until a doctor told her to “lose weight or die” that she started to take her health seriously — and successfully lost 224 pounds on her own.

“Because of my [Type 2] diabetes the doctor basically said ‘you need to lose weight or you’re going to die,’” Davis recalled to South West News Service. “That was probably the turning point to starting my weight loss.”

The health care service activity coordinator admitted her diagnosis scared her at first, and she was overwhelmed at her bleak future if she didn’t start to make changes.

“I was sick of being in the body that I was in and scared of what the future was going to bring because I was so big,” she said. “The words ‘you will die’ kept me going quite a lot. I’ve had massive encouragement from my family and those online have given me a lot of support.”

Davis said she had been picked on for her appearance since she was a child, saying she was always one of the “bigger” girls and was taunted because of it.

“I used to be the one that had a lot of people bully me. Obviously now [that I’ve lost weight] the way I get treated has completely changed — there’s a lot that’s changed just because of my size,” she said. “I was called ‘fatty’ and told ‘you need to lose weight’ and people were taking little digs.

“There used to be girls that would make fun of me just because I was an easy target and there were lads that were saying obviously they would ‘never want to be with me’ or anything like that,” she sadly reflected.

Davis, who documented her journey to health on TikTok, said she was stuck in a cycle of binge eating, and would eat when she felt upset or out of control in a situation — which reached an all time high when she decided to drop out of university and start working in 2018.

She recalled going on vacation and having to ask for a seat belt extender, and not being able to fit on rides or physically do anything.

“Not being able to fit on rides was embarrassing. She just said ‘love you can’t come on here, you’re too big’. I was a bit upset and ashamed,” she said. “I couldn’t walk anywhere. I had to stay by the pool and felt very restricted.”

Once she had main the decision to lose weight in January 2021, Davis began eating fewer calories — and making sure she walked 10,000 steps every day. She signed up to a gym in October and now goes four times a week.

Davis reached her lowest weight of 166 pounds in Oct. 2022, and said she is now much more comfortable in her own body.