Fitness Trainer Fat-Shames Her Best Friend, Gets What She Deserves — Story of the Day

I was fat-shamed by my best friend, a fitness trainer, all in the name of helping me become my best self. But she got what she deserved after I'd had enough.

What's wrong with being chubby? Lisa and I had always been great friends. We went to kindergarten together, attended the same high school, and even graduated from the same college. People often joked about how we seemed to follow each other around even though I did most of the following.

She was always slim while I had a bit more flesh on my bones. As we grew older, she maintained her skinny physique, but I put on more weight. Never mind that it was all in the right places.

"You're really pretty for a plus-sized girl!" she always said, and I believed her because she always knew what was best for me.

When we would go shopping together, she would often pick a dress for me whether I wanted her to or not. She never let me decide for myself because, according to her, I could never see myself the way others would see me.

"I don't think that this dress was made for your body type Alice," she would say whenever I found one I liked.

The dresses she picked for me were always below par, and I did not always like them, but I would purchase them because I trusted her taste.

Things were that way for a long time. Even after we graduated from college, we stuck together, and she remained chiefly in charge of my wardrobe and what went into it. But one day, she went overboard.

That day, we went to a cafe after one of our shopping sprees, to celebrate our purchase. I ordered pasta with a cheesy sauce because it was my favorite dish; however, Lisa had something to say about it.

"Do you really want to eat that many calories?" she asked me. "You will not get married if you eat like a pig!"

I was shocked at her utterance. It made me feel guilty about what I ordered, and I couldn't understand it.

"But I want it..." I started.

"And I want you to be happy. Because you are my friend!" she exclaimed, a little too loud.

After that day, she signed me up to the same gym she worked at as a fitness trainer. She had been trying to get me to sign up, but I always avoided the topic. I eventually did it after the kind of guilt she made me feel at the cafe.

The exercises Lisa put me through were quite exhausting, but she only pushed me harder every time I complained. "I won't let you give up on this Alice! I don't want your weight to ever become a problem for you," she would say.

She also made me watch my diet and incorporated a lot of intermittent fasting between days, which meant I had little strength for the grueling exercise routine she had come up with for me.

I eventually ended up in a hospital because of everything. I was there for a few days, but when Lisa finally came to visit, it was not to wish me a quick healing.

"How did you get so fat? I haven't seen you in about a week and you let yourself go?"

She said it right there in front of the hospital staff and made me feel like sinking into the ground. When she left, I decided I would return the favor. If she wanted me to lose some weight, I would.

I went home, and after brainstorming for hours, I came up with a foolproof way to make it all happen. The next day, I announced online on social media that I would be hosting a streaming event called "Losing 120 pounds in 5 seconds."

In less than 24 hours, I had about 2 million people signed up for it. They were all eager to see how I would pull it off. If only they knew.

On the day I scheduled it to happen, I invited Lisa to watch it, so she came to my house. She was seated in my living room when I went live.

"Now I will show you how to get rid of 120 pounds in 5 seconds," I told the audience, and right before their eyes, I kicked Lisa out of my house...and my life.

She was a toxic friend, and it took me a trip to the hospital to realize that extra pounds don't accumulate inside our bodies alone; they could be around us. The next time I visited the mall, I bought a dress I had always wanted and it felt good.

What did we learn from this story?

• Never body-shame anyone. Lisa may have had Alice's best interest at heart, but the way she ridiculed her body to get her to work on her weight was a terrible thing to do, and it resulted in Alice lashing out and making a spectacle of her before millions of viewers.
• Communication is important. If Alice had been more vocal with her thoughts, she would not have had to go as far as she did with Lisa, who was trying to look out for her friend in her own little way. Alice could have been clear on how far Lisa's goodwill could go, but since she set no boundaries, it made her friends think it was okay to walk all over her in the name of making her a better version of herself.

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If you enjoyed this story, you might like this one about a mean woman who humiliated a new girl in dance class for being chubby.

This account is inspired by our reader's story but written by a professional writer. All names have been changed to protect identities and ensure privacy. Share your story with us; maybe it will change someone's life. If you would like to share your story, please send it to info@amomama.com.