She was nicknamed the ‘half-ton killer’ after falsely claiming she killed her nephew by rolling on him. But Mayra Rosales is making headlines again, this time for very good reasons.
Rosales, who once weighed around 470kg at her heaviest, has now lost a stunning 80 percent of her body weight and revealed her incredible new look in a series of Facebook posts.
Rosales first came to global attention after confessing to crushing her two-year-old nephew, Eliseo Gonzalez Jr., to death in 2008. At the time of the child’s death, she weighed 1,100 pounds and didn’t have the capacity to move around. And as time progressed, she admitted lying to protect her sister, and the murder charges against her have since been dismissed.
The rest of Rosales’ story, though, is an amazing tale of lies, truths, and eventual redemption. And oh, by the way, Rosales isn’t the World’s Heaviest Woman anymore. Nowhere close, in fact.d.
Rosales said she was humiliated when she saw the documentary and set out to change her life, especially when the world saw her shame at being cut out of her own house and transported to a hospital by 10 men.
“When I saw that documentary, I cried the whole, the whole time I was watching it. They could not take me to the hospital in a regular ambulance. I mean… transported in a U-Haul.”
Rosales said she came from an overweight family. Genetics does play a large role in how much weight a person gains, but there was more to it than that.
“My family, we are, we’ve always been, you know, chubby. My sisters and my mom [are] in the 200s, 220. I was too, and I noticed I began gaining weight, getting bigger. I didn’t know back then it was my thyroid and from the thyroid it got so big [that] I developed lymphedema, the swelling of your limbs.”
With the help of 11 different surgeries, including lap band and skin removal procedures, Rosales has shed 800 pounds since 2011 and has 30 more to go. The 34-year-old said she also had to change her entire outlook on food.
“Food to me is I have to eat to live,” she said. “Before it was living to eat, and now you know, it’s just something normal.”
Furthermore, Rosales says she wouldn’t have regained her health without Houston’s vascular and bariatric surgeon and star of The TLC’s My 600 Pound Life, Dr. Younan Nowzaraden. With the help of the doctor, she has been able to curb her eating habits. Her weight loss story has been an inspiration for many down-and-out people suffering from obesity.
Rosales said she hopes her story can continue to be a motivation for people who struggle with their weight to take the steps necessary to reclaim their lives and get healthy.
“Do not lose hope and keep fighting because we only have one life,” she said, “and it’s well worth fighting for it.”
Watch it here: ABCnews/Youtube
Sources: OpposingViews, Daily Mail, ABC 13