A 31-year-old believed to be China's fattest woman is looking forward to a new life after undergoing a drastic operation aimed at helping her lose weight.
Having tried many other ways to shed the fat, Lu Weishan, 1.65 meters tall and 244 kg, had gastric bypass surgery in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, last week.
In a procedure likely to become more common as China develops a growing obesity problem, Lu's stomach was divided into two pouches by surgeons at the China-Japan Union Hospital. With a smaller stomach, she should feel full more quickly.
Lu has been offered new hope after three decades of desperation. She weighed only 3.75 kg when she was born, but her body ballooned as she became a food addict.
"I've never felt full," she said. "I can't help stuffing myself."
Lu ate two or three times more than other children when she was little. She was 15 kg heavier than her fellow students when she went to primary school. By high school, her weight had reached 95 kg; the figure climbed to 149 kg at college.
She felt cut off from normal life. "Many of my friends have fallen in love and gotten married, but I haven't ever dared think about it," she said.
Since her 20s, Lu has tried exercising, dieting, taking slimming pills and traditional Chinese acupuncture and massage -- all with little effect.
After graduation, she worked at her mother's store, where customers laughed at her size. "I was waiting for death," she recalled.
She hid at home for six years until last month, when she heard of the obesity treatment in Changchun, typical of big Chinese cities in that it offers more advanced medical facilities than in smaller towns. Even though walking 20 meters would make her pant, Lu was determined to travel the 470 km from her Jilin hometown of Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture.
After examination, doctors diagnosed Lu's overeating as a metabolic disorder and said that obesity was seriously damaging her cardiopulmonary system. "The sooner you receive weight-loss surgery, the better. Otherwise you might die before your 40s," Lu's surgeon, Jiang Tao, told her.
"[Gastric bypass] is a common weight loss surgery in the United States. Such a restrictive strategy should help Lu shed 60 to 70 percent of her excessive weight in a year," Jiang told Xinhua.
"She's doing quite well now. She's able to get up and have some liquid food," he added. "With a nutritious diet, she can reduce her weight even more in the future."
China has 46 million obese adults, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
"Obesity causes many chronic diseases," warned Jiang. "The earlier patients receive treatment, the less damage the body suffers."
Weighing 300 kg, Sun Liang was China's fattest man until he died aged 22 of heart failure in April 2014.
Lu has hopefully avoided a similar fate. She said when she has brought her weight down to a normal level, she wants to travel and then find a job, and perhaps love.
