A woman has opened up about her "traumatising" experience at a fat camp, revealing she was bullied by other campers because of her size.
Jaimie Weisberg, from Toronto, Canada, struggled with her weight from a young age and her parents' solution was to send her to one of the many weight loss camps across the US.
From the ages of 14 to around 20, Jaimie spent eight weeks every summer at the camp, where she was made to work out every day, had to stick to a strict diet and was weighed every week.
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She was told it would fix all her problems but says instead she says she discovered a "toxic" environment where she was bullied by fellow campers because she was "the biggest in the room".
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Star, Jaimie recalled how her parents tried everything to get her to lose weight.
She said: "I was always a bigger child. I was put on appetite suppressants, I've had restrictive diets. You name it, I probably tried it."
After many failed attempts at shedding the pounds, Jaimie's family decided to send her to a weight loss camp – where she claims she was forced to play sports, do aerobics classes and go swimming all while on a restrictive diet that wasn't "enough for a toddler".
Jaimie said the strict rules made campers "miserable", claiming this made them start picking on her.
She explained: "Everybody was just miserable because they were hungry and overworked and over-exercised and underfed.
"So where are they gonna take out their frustrations? They can't take it out on food, they can't take it out on their family. So I feel like there was this bullying culture there that everybody was just angry."
Jaimie stood out from the crowd, quickly making her a target for bullies.
"I think being the biggest one in the room with other people who are insecure about their body size, it kind of puts a target on your back," she said.
She added: "So I was picked on, if I needed adoptions or if I could do something that was seen as 'you're getting special treatment'."
But she revealed she wasn't the only one being bullied, adding: "I think there was a lot of people who got tormented by other campers, I know there were horrible stories.
"There was one kid, they were doing something called hazing and someone stuck a hockey stick up his a** and they all watched and laughed."
After her first two months at the summer camp, Jaimie lost a total of 100lbs but ended up gaining all the weight back after leaving, with the same cycle continuing every other summer at the camp.
"I was told that this would be the answer to my problem and in reality, it just made it so much worse," Jaimie reflected.
She added: "It was the most miserable time in my life when I was the smallest."
Jaimie said the camp made her eating disorder and bulimia worse as it took her years before she finally started accepting her body.
But the now 29-year-old has been in recovery for two years and says while she still has a long way to go, she's doing much better.
"When I stopped trying to change and be pressured and I looked for worth outside of my body size and achieved health outside of that… it was a completely different story," she explained.
She added: "People are going to treat me different for the rest of my life but it's not worth it.
"I wouldn't change how I am now to go back to being so sick, I was on that toxic cycle for 15 years and it still didn't work."
After learning to accept her body as it is, Jaimie started sharing body positivity content on TikTok and has racked up nearly a million followers.
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She says it's been "life-saving" to be able to share her journey with a positive community but revealed there are some cons, including vile comments from trolls.
"I get everything under the sun, I've gotten death threats, I've gotten made fun of my body, I've gotten just ridiculed for just existing as a person."
But Jaimie says her supportive followers are "louder than any hate".
"There is a lot of hate that I get but just one person telling me or sending me a message, 'You saved my life, you've helped me feel better about myself.' It's worth it because they did the same for me," she said.
She added: "I think the real clapping back is living my life exactly how I'm supposed to."
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