Christine Carter used to carry 275 pounds on her 5-foot-5 frame. “I was a binge eater,” the 28-year-old from Dallas, Texas, tells Us Weekly. “I would be eating a meal, and thinking about my next meal. I was spending over $2,000 on food, by myself.”
The trouble began when Carter turned 21 and quit smoking. “I traded one addiction, smoking, to another, food,” she tell Us. “I was always a curvy girl, but I went from being curvy to obese very quickly.”
In June 2014, Carter — who wore size 24 pants — hit rock bottom. “My father begged me to come to the family reunion, and I reluctantly — because of my weight — agreed to go,” Carter, who works as director of accounts receivables at a local company. “I walked in and went to say hello to my uncle, Bruce. He literally made eye contact with me, and continued to walk past me. It was as if he had never seen me in his life. It was mortifying. I had eaten myself into an unrecognizable state.”
Two months later, Carter took the first step in her transformation. “I initially had the gastric sleeve weight loss surgery,” she says. “The gastric sleeve is a fantastic tool when used correctly. The problem with it, for me, was that going into it, I had no intentions of using it to its full advantage. I thought, ‘If I wanted to diet and exercise, I wouldn’t be having weight loss surgery!’” While she lost 50 pounds after surgery, the weight began to creep back on. “At that point I realized, I needed to take my life to the next level,” she reveals. “I saw myself on a billboard for weight loss surgery failures.”
That’s when Carter found a trainer — and joined a small gym in Colleyville, Texas, called the Hero Training Center. “I found a trainer who helped me realize the psychological changes that were needed in order for me to see an ultimate transformation,” she says. “I began making small commitments to myself and sticking to them. This slowly helped me feel more confident about my life. The more confidence I gained, the more successful I became.”
Her diet got a makeover too: She follows a ketogenic diet, which is high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates.
Today, Carter weighs 125 pounds. “It’s quite incredible, really,” she admits. “When I have those moments that I feel maybe I don’t look as good as I want to, I pull up my ‘before’ pictures and remind myself of how far I’ve come.”
Carter has chronicled her journey on Instagram