An Australian woman who dropped four dress sizes and about 50 pounds looks so unrecognizable that she’s often accused of getting facial reconstruction.
“People from high school bump into me and no one knows who I am when I say hello,” Chloe Boullé, 23, told SWNS. “I remember my grandmother saying, ‘You’re just unrecognizable, Chloe.’”
The content creator and part-time child care support worker from Brisbane started to struggle with her weight and binge eat when she got her first job, at a bakery as a teen.
She grew up in a single-parent household believing food was scarce, so she was “excited” by the new choices “available” to her when she hit her teens.
Boullé filled up on pastries and pies at work, and slowly the weight crept on. She reached 194 pounds and wore a size 16 at the age of 15.
“I didn’t understand what was happening,” Boullé recalled. “I didn’t have much desire to look good.”
The Gen Zer spiraled into an unhealthy cycle of binge eating followed by a restrictive diet for four years.
She decided she wanted to lose weight as her 18th birthday approached — her goal “was to be as nauseous as possible from the gym that I wouldn’t want dinner.”
Boullé managed to shed pounds, but she thought she would never escape the “toxic cycle” of binge eating and restricting.
“I tried all the diets — Keto and fasting,” she shared. “I’d be consistent for three to four weeks, and then I’d snap back.”
Boullé finally realized in May 2023 that her relationship with food and her body was unhealthy, and she threw out all the scales in her house and started intuitively eating based on hunger cues.
“I used to step on the scales every day, and if I hadn’t lost weight I’d feel I’d failed,” she lamented.
She’s now a size 8 and believes she’s around 143 pounds.
Boullé said her family has noticed a massive transformation in her physically and mentally and her partner, Jovahn, 25, a cook, has been “so supportive.”
Her face has also changed dramatically over the years — which she says is from her lifestyle adjustments and Gua Sha — a Chinese healing method to improve circulation.
“People online accused me of having facial reconstruction. It never bothered me,” Boullé noted. “I feel strong now. I absolutely love myself.”
She also practices meditation and five to six times a week goes to a 5 a.m. reformer pilates class, a low-impact core workout.
“Exercise is now a celebration of what my body can do rather than a punishment,” she gushed. “I feel alive.”
Before Boullé’s transformation
Weight: 194 pounds
Size: 14/16
Breakfast: Three bowls of cereal / four pieces of Nutella toast
Lunch: Pie or sausage roll
Dinner: Fast food such as Taco Bell
After Boullé’s transformation
Weight: 143 pounds
Size: 8
Breakfast: Protein oats with blueberries
Lunch: Salads with plant-based chicken
Dinner: Taco bowl / vegetarian lasagna
