This Lifestyle Blogger Didn't Want Followers to Know About Her Weight Gain: 'I Had to Hide It'

Social media influencer Ariana Omipi is coming clean to her followers.

The 23-year-old New Zealander — who had been documenting her 110-lb. weight loss journey on Instagram, Facebook and her lifestyle blog — recently revealed that she had regained the weight and would undergo gastric sleeve surgery.

“Over the years, my weight has been something I’ve worked really really hard on,” she captioned a photo collage of herself from 2013-2018, while sharing her weight gain and news of her impending bariatric surgery. “My discipline, determination and lifestyle changes have helped me to achieve significant weight loss in the past; however my constant hunger is something that has made maintaining a healthy weight incredibly difficult. Within the last 5 years, I have lost, maintained, gained, lost and gained weight. This has been exhausting, physically and emotionally.”

Saying that she will “openly and honestly” share her experience moving forward, Omipi also explained her decision to have weight loss surgery.

“Know that I haven’t made this decision lightly and that it doesn’t come from a place of hate towards my appearance or any negative feelings about myself,” she said. “I have made this decision for my long term health, to be able to maintain a manageable healthy weight for me and not feel the constant desire to need multiple servings of healthy food in one sitting.”

Omipi, who initially lost weight on the ketogenic diet, was reluctant to reveal that she had gained weight for fear of letting down her followers.

“I stopped talking about my weight loss online and I stopped sharing before and after photos, because no one wants to see a before photo that’s smaller than their after photo. I couldn’t do it anymore because of how I looked,” she told stuff.co.nz. “It was so hard because people were still messaging me saying that I was such an inspiration to them. I felt like I was letting them down, and like I had to hide it.”

Omipi said she wanted to keep “motivating” people and didn’t want her weight gain to be “discouraging.”

She kept her promise, and on March 19 posted a photo of herself “unposed, raw and vulnerable” laying in a hospital bed, recovering from surgery.

“I don’t want anyone to have the impression (whether you’re considering having this surgery or whether you’re just watching along in support) that this is an easy solution to weight loss or a way to get that ‘Instagram bod.’” she said. “I chose to make this decision because I wanted to prioritize my health so I could live a long and fulfilling life and any other positive changes are just a bonus.”