I weighed 14st when I was nine and it ruined my childhood – parents who let their kids get fat are lazy and selfish

SITTING on the edge of her bed, nine-year-old Susan McGinnis slowly pulled on a pair of women’s trousers bought by her mum because nothing in the children’s section would fit. While other girls her age were wearing pretty floral printed dresses Susan already weighed a staggering 14 stone. Susan McGinnis remembers feeling self-conscious about being overweight as a child Credit: Jam Press Susan reached a staggering 14st aged nine and says that being obese ‘ruined’ her childhood Credit: Jam Press Susan’s case is far from unique – and in the UK around one in eight children under 10 is overweight. And while there are many reason’s for childhood obesity Susan has revealed her harsh verdict – parents are to blame. Sign up for the Fabulous newsletter Thank you! The mum from Sydney, Australia, who was bullied from the age of six, says: “I don’t know if it constitutes abuse but I do think it’s a form of absent parenting and a degree of carelessness that isn’t really setting kids up for success. “It definitely impacts lives, it impacted mine. How does a nine-year-old get that big with decent parenting or adults around? “Being obese ruined my childhood and teenage years and took experiences away from me. “It makes me angry at the parents and makes me so sad to see obese kids. “Unless your child has a medical condition or is on a medication causing it then I don’t think it should be happening,” said Susan who now has a two-year-old. At her heaviest, Susan weighed 28 stone and wore a size 26. The 28-year-old struggled to fit into restaurant booths, theme park rides and even plastic garden chairs, fearing they would collapse beneath her weight. Most read in Fabulous Her problems with food began in childhood, where she would often comfort eat and secretly snack, leading her to weigh 14 stone by the time she was just nine years old. The astrologer and office worker says: “I don’t remember a time in my life I wasn’t aware of it or didn’t feel self-conscious – even being five or six and realising I was bigger than the other little kids. Susan was secretly eating huge portions, sometimes consuming three plates of food in one sitting Credit: Jam Press She has since shed the weight to become a healthy, comfortable size 12 Credit: Jam Press “Around age nine is when I became extremely self-conscious and aware of my weight. I was already having clothes bought from the women’s section and don’t really remember any time that I got to shop and look at girl clothes’. “When I was 11 or 12, I remember I went on a three-day school camp, and they needed everyone’s weight and I was 17 stone, and my mum said to me ‘are you really that heavy?’. “She was shocked. There were never any interventions by school to my knowledge. “I remember a doctor had shamed me around eight or nine for being overweight with my mum in the room but I don’t recall anything else. “It’s weird that no one said anything.” While her mum tried to put her on diets, nothing was effective, and Susan’s weight continued to spiral. She was secretly eating huge portions, sometimes consuming three plates of food in one sitting. Susan said: “I was incredibly lonely as a child and often used food and TV as a way to self-soothe. One time when I was about 17, I ate two double quarter pounder burgers by stacking the meat together and turned it into a four patty burger. “I thought it was the greatest idea I ever had. Of course, I had it in a meal with coke and large fries too. The mum-of-one has lost an impressive 15st thanks to surgery and fat jabs Credit: Jam Press Susan pictured with her daughter, now two Credit: Jam Press “I ate it in one sitting and then had to lay down for a nap afterwards. “Often, I would eat a full-sized meal, meat, veggies, carbs, a serving of dessert and then go out and buy a large take away meal consisting of a double patty burger and an ice cream.” For breakfast, Susan would usually have a big bowl of cereal or scrambled eggs made with milk and butter. Although Susan never had lunch until she had her daughter, she would make up for it with an enormous dinner, consisting of noodles and meat. While lunchbox snacks were forbidden, that didn’t stop Susan from finding a way to munch on something – whether it was “random ingredients like mayo and lettuce sandwiches” or pieces of deli meat, crackers and cans of baked beans. It wasn’t just the huge portions that led to the inevitable weight gain – it was also the continuous eating every 30 to 60 minutes. “I used to melt cheese in the microwave until it got hard and call it a cheese disc.” Susan says she indulged in cereal, sandwiches, cheese spread or anything her mum told her was “off limits”. She said: “I started to hide my eating from my mum and grandmother. When I tried to shop at normal clothes shops with a friend, even the XXXL didn’t fit me. “My self-esteem was plummeting rapidly, my eating was out of control, and I started to get very angry at the world.” By 21, Susan decided something had to change after seeing for the first time on the scales that she’d reached 28 stone. She also hoped to become a mum after meeting her husband on Tinder in 2016. Susan said: “It was pretty confronting if and I was growing more depressed and unhappy. I had no real quality of life and I had no clothes I felt good or comfortable in. All I ever really wanted was to reach a size 16. “I also wanted to regulate my periods and get pregnant, there was no way I’d be able to have a healthy pregnancy or labour being the size I was.” According to Susan, the medical staff were concerned about giving medications during pregnancy and warned that if a caesarean was necessary then it could have been complicated. Desperate to overhaul her health, Susan forked out £1,500 for gastric sleeve surgery in 2019 after years of failed diets and unsuccessful attempts to lose weight naturally. Although she initially lost four stone before the operation through dieting and three stone after, Susan says she still felt out of control around food. Two years later, she underwent a second operation, converting her sleeve into a £4,700 gastric bypass. The weight quickly fell away and she shed eight stone, but the emotional struggles remained. She was diagnosed with binge eating disorder and atypical anorexia – and realised therapy, not just surgery, would be the key to changing her life. Susan said: “I was confused because being thin was supposed to fix everything, but it was like a fog had been lifted and all these issues underneath the weight loss had finally been revealed and hit me like a truck. Susan's diet before and now DIET BEFORE Breakfast: Three or four eggs, two to four pieces toast, a whole avocado and bacon Lunch: A double quarter pounder large meal, coke, McFlurry, cheeseburger or chicken and cheese on the side Dinner: A large home cooked meal, of meat, vegetables then a large double patty burger meal with fries Snacks: Crisps, biscuits and leftover dinner DIET AFTER Breakfast: Coffee and a muesli bar or half a portion of eggs and avocado on toast Lunch: A sandwich or salmon sushi Dinner: A protein, two vegetables and a diet coke or protein pasta and. homemade pasta sauce Snacks: Bananas, cheese sticks, coffee or sweet chilli crisps “This is when the real therapy started because there was no weight to blame on my behaviour anymore and I did consistent weekly psych sessions for two years and that was life changing.” After giving birth to her daughter in June 2024, Susan regained around six stone and found herself struggling once again. She jumped on the weight loss jab, Wegovy, and has shed the weight once more to become a healthy, comfortable size 12. Susan said: “Now, I feel lighter, in every sense of the word. I feel amazing. “The concept of listening to what my body needs never felt achievable and the other day I had a craving for mushrooms and recently I had a blood test and found I’m quite vitamin D deficient. “What nutrients do mushrooms have? Vitamin D. “It’s messages like that from my body that I could never truly hear because I was never in tune with my brain body connection and I can do that now. “When I eat less nutritious food and I feel sluggish after, I listen to that rather than continuing to just eat it or I choose another food to add with it that helps balance it out. “Health is something I used to really take for granted and being in a place where I experience good health every day is important to me.” Now, Susan focuses on balance rather than restriction and enjoys reformer Pilates a few times a week while walking whenever she can. She said: “I eat a lot less take aways and fast food, but I do visit cafes and restaurants more. I eat to live; I don’t live to eat. “Now when I eat, I try to eat nutritional foods alongside something less nutritional – so if I’m eating chips, I have low fat cheese and cucumbers with it.” Looking back, Susan says she’d urge anyone struggling with their weight to seek support beyond dieting alone. She advised: “Invest in yourself, in every sense of the word. Go to therapy, be healthy for you, not your husband, not your kids, not your family, you. “Look at your weight loss like a symptom, not a goal and look at injections or bariatric surgeries like tools not miracle machines. To take care of your body is to respect your body. “Find a good gym, not a gym with fluorescent lights and 100 treadmills, but a gym that focuses on wellness too. Find an exercise you enjoy doing, you must reframe your mindset about exercising – you get to do it, you don’t have to do it. “Nurture yourself like you would a child, a plant, sit with your past experiences, sit with the child version of you. “And lastly, you didn’t get big overnight, you will not get smaller overnight. This takes time, new habits take time and when, not if they come back, it doesn’t mean you’re off track, it’s all part of the journey.” Comment now