This Woman Dropped 160kg—And Is Documenting Her Struggle With Excess Skin

For many people who struggle with losing weight, dropping the kilos is just one part of the battle. Instagram influencer and body positivity advocate Jacqueline Adan has been documenting her five-year weight loss journey with fans.

After losing 160kg, getting liposuction and undergoing several skin removal surgeries, Adan shares what it's like to carry excess skin on her legs. Instead of keeping them concealed, she decided to bravely and vulnerably reveal them to the world in a moving Instagram video.

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��SOUND ON! Swipe for the entire video! This is a super vulnerable post for me. My whole life I have hated my legs. Like hated. I tried everything I could do to keep them covered at all times. I carried a lot of my weight in my legs and weighing over 500 pounds...it was a lot. When I decided to embark on my skin removal surgery journey after losing 350 pounds, I wanted my legs done first because I wanted them gone! All of the fat, loose skin... I was ready to see my “new legs” from all of my hard work. Well...2 years later and we are now figuring out the best way to embark on that task. The first step we did was remove some extra weight through liposuction (about 20 pounds was removed) and now we are beginning the skin removal surgery process and figuring out the plan of attack. I wanted to share my legs with you because...well because I am scared. Even though I do not hate them anymore, I still feel very insecure with them. Even though I am insecure, I am not going to let them stop me from living my life or sharing them with you. This is real and this is me. This is what hard work looks like. This is what putting so many years of not only losing an extreme amount of weight, but learning to love and take care of my body looks like. I know it kinda looks crazy, but that’s how my journey has been. You can call them ugly, nasty, big, fat, disgusting. Don’t worry anything negative you could ever say about them I have thought those things too. I am now embracing my legs for what they are. They carried me at 500 pounds, through my whole weight loss journey, and even carried me through my 5 skin removal procedures. They never gave up on me, never quit on me, and only became stronger! So this is me. These are my legs. I am not going to call them ugly anymore. These are my strong legs. I cannot wait to embark on the next chapter of skin removal and really see just how strong these legs really are! To learn more about my skin removal journey or to learn more about my amazing surgeon @joelbeckmd

A post shared by Jacqueline's Journey (@jacquelineadan44) on Oct 1, 2018 at 6:04pm PDT

Wearing a pair of tiny shorts, she fearlessly gives her fans a guided tour of her post-liposuction legs, pointing out the dents and holes. “They are a lot more loose, as you can see,” she explains. “There is a lot of it.”

“My whole life I have hated my legs. Like hated. I tried everything I could do to keep them covered at all times,” she writes in the accompanying post. Adan explains that she carried a lot of her 220-plus kilos weight in her legs, and after losing 160kg she decided to embark on skin removal surgery, focusing on them first.

But the process hasn’t been quite as easy as she hoped. After having 9 kilos of extra weight through liposuction, she is ready to have the extra skin removed. “All of the fat, loose skin... I was ready to see my ‘new legs’ from all of my hard work. Well...2 years later and we are now figuring out the best way to embark on that task,” she continued.

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It happened again. Last year on vacation, I was so nervous to wear a bathing suit and I was so nervous about how my body would look to other people. I was even pointed at and laughed at when I went to get into the pool. For a moment I froze, in complete embarrassment, before I decided to move on and not care. Guess what? It happened again. It happened this year while I was on vacation again. Yes, I was walking on the beach and again I was pointed at and laughed and made fun of. As I was getting laughed at and pointed at something came over me. I was not embarrassed, I did not feel like I had to justify myself and I did not freeze or want to cry. I actually felt free! This time...I just did not care! I tried to go over every change inside my head as to why this year I just did not care. Then it finally hit me. I do not depend on the approval of others, and I do not care what others may or may not think about my body. I am so focused on living my best life, and I have been working so hard on loving me exactly how I am...loose skin and all- that I do not have time to worry about what others may think or say. I can finally say that I am at a place where I still have insecurities and a lot of loose skin, and yes mentally I still struggle at times, but I can finally say that my self love journey has been the focus of this past year, and being at this place in my life where I can walk around in a bathing suit and genuinely feel confident, happy and not care what others may think or say, that is true transformation. That is true growth. So I am sharing this picture of me in a bathing suit for all of you. This is me. Right now. This is my body. This is what hard work, sweat, blood, tears, smiles, happiness, pain, love, and hard work look like. This is what it looks like to finally accept my body for what it is. This is me. And I am not making anymore excuses as to why I look the way I do...this is just me. Loose skin, cellulite, stretch marks and all. This is me. And I can finally say, I love me! Head over to my YouTube channel to check out my full video where I share the exact moment I was made fun of and how it made me feel! YouTube.com/jacquelinesjourney

A post shared by Jacqueline's Journey (@jacquelineadan44) on Sep 18, 2018 at 5:50pm PDT

She decided to reveal her legs because she is scared and wants to be totally transparent-which is pretty darn amazing! “Even though I do not hate them anymore, I still feel very insecure with them. Even though I am insecure, I am not going to let them stop me from living my life or sharing them with you,” she wrote. “This is real and this is me. This is what hard work looks like. This is what putting so many years of not only losing an extreme amount of weight, but learning to love and take care of my body looks like. I know it kinda looks crazy, but that’s how my journey has been.”

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2 years ago, I made the decision to start the process of having skin removal surgery and I have decided to share that day and what I am feeling now- 2 years later with you guys! The video is up now and the Link to this New video is in my bio! 2 years ago, I had a lower body lift where they removed the excess skin on my stomach. I knew surgery would be a rough recovery, but I don’t think I could have really prepared myself for the journey that was ahead of me. I had a chance to reflect back on this skin removal surgery and really think, has all of this been worth it? Putting my body through 5 surgeries now, has it been worth it? I have grown so much over these past 2 years and learned so much about myself. Through these surgeries, I have learned so much about who I am as a person and who I want to be. I have also learned the difference between being happy with myself and now actually loving myself! So much has changed- good and not so good- and with it being my 2 year anniversary I really had a chance to sit back and reflect on that day, and think about where I am now. Was it all worth it? Being where I am today, would I choose to make the same choices I made 2 years ago? I decided it would be so much easier to make a video explaining what this skin removal journey has been like for me, my regrets, fears, the pain, my new belly button �� and just how much my life has changed by making that one decision 2 years ago. @joelbeckmd Head over to my YouTube and check out my new very real and very emotional video where I open up and share it all! YouTube.com/Jacquelinesjourney

A post shared by Jacqueline's Journey (@jacquelineadan44) on Jul 30, 2018 at 7:03pm PDT

Adan’s message of self-acceptance is truly inspiring, as she explains how she has learned to appreciate her legs for all they have done for her.

“You can call them ugly, nasty, big, fat, disgusting. Don’t worry anything negative you could ever say about them I have thought those things too,” she said. “I am now embracing my legs for what they are. They carried me at 225kg, through my whole weight loss journey, and even carried me through my 5 skin removal procedures. They never gave up on me, never quit on me, and only became stronger!”

She refuses to call them ugly anymore. “These are my strong legs,” she concludes. “I cannot wait to embark on the next chapter of skin removal and really see just how strong these legs really are!”