I lost 11 stone and went from a size 32 to a size 14 – it’s sad to see how much more polite strangers are now that I’m smaller

A woman who lost 11 stone – and went from a size 32 to a size 14 – has revealed how differently she is treated now that she has a smaller body.

Issy Montgomery, 24, told how “skinny privilege” meant there are some “basic things” – like strangers smiling at you or holding the door open – that she wasn’t aware of before undergoing weight loss surgery.

The e-commerce and social media manager from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, admitted that while getting into shape has “changed her life” and improved her health, “it’s a bit sad” that people weren’t willing to offer her the same bows if she had a different size.

She explained that she had always been ‘big’ but noticed she put on weight during lockdown, reaching 24lbs.

Issy had always struggled with yo-yo dieting and couldn’t find anything that worked for her.

But when she changed her diet and looked into weight-loss surgery, she was given a stomach-gastric bypass on the NHS in September 2022.

She dropped to 15th and later went for a revised bypass in March 2024. Now Issy has lost 11st 10 pounds.

She currently weighs 6.5kg – and was ‘quite shocked that people who wouldn’t have entertained her before have turned up’.

“These are basic things: someone to hold the door open,” the young woman explained. ‘People who smile at you.

‘I feel like I’m being treated differently. When you’ve grown up, you realize you don’t have the same experience.’

Issy says she is now “the exact same person” and “still treats people the same.”

“I want someone to like me, not for the way I look,” she continued. “People say you’re thinner now and you should get more attention.”

“It’s a bit sad,” Issy continued, wondering why her older figure wasn’t “worth the same.”

She added that while everyone is entitled to a preference, it’s “crazy how differently people treat you when you’re smaller.”

Issy also opened up about feeling like she was ‘given a second chance at life’ after her weight loss.

She realized she had to do something for her health when she couldn’t walk up the stairs without getting out of breath.

“It was embarrassing to be so young and so unfit,” she revealed. ‘It was very overwhelming to lose so much weight.’

She had tried several diets before, but never found anything that worked.

Issy was put on a clinical trial of weight loss jab Saxenda at the end of 2021 and lost two stone, taking her down to 18lbs before her operation. She underwent stomach surgery in September 2022 and said her “life changed” after the procedure.

She had “her life back,” stuck to a healthy diet of home-cooked meals and went to the gym.

But after reaching 15th place, she found herself struggling to lose any more weight – which was ‘really frustrating’.

“I was told they had to be surgically re-entered,” she explained.

And in March, Issy had her sleeve revised to a bypass, which means she can’t take in as many calories.

“I lost 10 pounds in the first week,” she recalls.

Issy is now on track to reach her 10th goal of 7lbs and is also hoping to go to Turkey for skin removal surgery.

She admitted that strangers had criticized her for taking the ‘easy way out’ by having weight-loss surgery – but says she faces her own ‘different set of difficulties’ after the procedures.

“This is the easiest way to lose weight, but it’s not the easiest way to do it,” she added.

“If I take one extra bite, it’s physically painful.”

Issy posts about her weight loss journey on Instagram and TikTok @Losing_with_is.