Obese Woman Who Gained 340lbs loses 180lbs After Flying To Mexico For Cheap Weight Loss Surgery

After flying to Mexico to undergo inexpensive weight loss surgery, an obese woman whose weight soared to 340lbs revealed how she lost 180lbs - while warning people against going for budget operations because it left her with massive marks.

For the surgery to cut 75% of her intestine, Teresa Stafford, 37, charged only $3,500, which she claimed would have cost her $25,000 in the United States.

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Since the gastric sleeve surgery in March 2018, the Burien, Washington, native shed 180lbs and now weighs 160lbs, having spent years gorging herself on fast food and burgers, and consuming 12 cans of cola a day.

'I heard about the [weight loss] surgery in 2008 and I applied through my insurance but I wasn't approved,' she revealed. 

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'By 2018 I was close to 400lbs and in the US it costs around $25,000 for weight loss surgery.

'So I got on Facebook and found a group for people who had gone to Mexico and I decided to go that route.'

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Teresa, who used to work in the licensing of cars, suffered from a young age with her weight all her life and comfort.

'I would eat pizza and fried food every day,' she confessed. 'I drank over a case of soda a day - that's 12 cans. I was almost drinking a can of Coke every hour.'

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Her weight led her to be afraid of doing ordinary things.

'It made me scared to try anything because I didn't want to look stupid,' Teresa confessed. 'I felt like everyone was staring at me.

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'I did try to get it under control but a lot of times I felt like I was just too far gone.' 

She finally opted to go to a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, for bariatric surgery, where approximately 75% of the stomach is extracted by a doctor, leaving a sleeve-shaped section that contains even less food.

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'The cost included one night in a hotel, one night in the hospital, and one night in the recovery house,' she shared. 

'The surgery is so common there, I wasn't super worried about it. I was worried it wasn't going to work.' While the surgery was successful, Teresa warned that it was not a 'magic cure.'

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'I thought I was going to feel amazing but all my skin was sagging off my body,' she said.

'It felt like a whole new set of insecurities. The lower half of my stomach was really bad, my boobs were horrible, pretty much everything was sagging.'

Last October, she returned to Mexico to have surgery for skin removal and breast implants, but she was not satisfied with the outcome.

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'I was left with a barbaric looking scar that goes from right above my butt around my tummy.' But Teresa, who went from size 22 to size 10, added that, without the extra weight, she felt happier.

'I could barely breathe before, it was a struggle,' she confessed. 'I eat pretty normally now, I'll have cereal in the morning and a turkey sandwich for lunch.

'I haven't drunk soda since my surgery. It just tastes way too sweet, I find it disgusting now.'

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'I feel like people are a bit friendlier to me,' she said. 'I've noticed that men who wouldn't have talked to me before suddenly think that talking to me might be a good idea.'

'I think that people should research their clinic - and ask to see what kind of scars other people have had,' Teresa said. 

'They don't explain much to you when you are down there and there's also a language barrier.'

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