Mum who reached 95kg after comfort eating for ‘almost 24 hours’ a day loses half her bodyweight and becomes model in 40s

A mother-of-two who was comfort eating for “almost 24 hours” a day, reaching her heaviest weight of 95kg (14st 13lbs), has lost nearly half her body weight and started a modelling career in her 40s.

Lenne De Gerbolli, 47, who lives in London, had always been petite and athletic but said this all changed when she started comfort eating during her marriage, unknowingly consuming up to 4,000 calories daily.

Lenne, a business owner professionally known as Lenne Matos, measures 148cm tall (4ft 10in) and said she reached 95kg (14st 13lbs) in her 30s and “couldn’t walk properly” or “fit into proper clothes”.

With Lenne having a family history of heart conditions and “dangerously” high blood pressure, she was advised by doctors that she needed to lose weight – but after reaching 65kg (10st 3lbs) naturally, her weight plateaued.

After further medical advice, she said bariatric weight loss surgery became “a medical necessity”, but since it was unavailable on the NHS because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lenne travelled to Turkey for the procedure.

Lenne underwent further post-treatment care and procedures at Sol Clinic in London and her weight soon started decreasing, and she now weighs around 48kg (7st 7lbs) eating a balanced diet and keeping fit.

She currently manages her weight by eating meals on “smaller plates” and exercising three times a week, and with her new modelling career, she wants to encourage other women that it is “never too late”.

“I’ve gone back to who I am,” Lenne told PA Real Life.

“I’ve always been brave, and I always fight (for what I want), but I was losing that Lenne.

“Now I’ve realised I can go back to who I am, I can smile, I can have fun.

“My main message is it’s never too late, you can always start again.”

Lenne grew up in Brazil and explained that she was always slim and athletic.

She enjoyed exercising and, being “very petite”, she said she was careful with her diet and weighed around 44kg (6st 13 lbs) at her lightest.

“I was very active and, in Brazil, I used to run. I used to be very attractive,” she said.

However, Lenne moved to the UK and, after getting married, she found herself living a sedentary lifestyle.

She said she used food as a coping mechanism for the emotional challenges she faced in her marriage and, since she struggles to sleep, she was eating for more hours in the day than normal.

She would eat home-cooked meals of meat, rice, beans, bread, and the occasional sweet treat, so she said it was not necessarily “unhealthy” food.

However, she believes the “amount of food” was the problem and, looking back, she was unknowingly consuming up to 4,000 calories every day.

“I used food to cover up other feelings and, because I was not exercising, I was just eating, eating, eating,” she said.

“I have trouble sleeping, I sleep very little – usually three or four hours a night – and because it was becoming more difficult to sleep, I was eating almost all day.

“So for almost 24 hours, I was eating, especially at night… but to be honest, it took me a long time to realise that this was the problem.”

Lenne believes the “accumulation” of everything, along with having two children, meant she gradually gained weight until she reached her heaviest of 95kg (14st 13lbs) in her 30s.

She was still working as a “successful businesswoman” with a housekeeping company, but she said she “couldn’t fit into anything”, she could not walk far and she could not breathe properly going up the stairs.

“People would say, ‘She’s intelligent and fat’, or, ‘She does have money, but she doesn’t have the looks, she doesn’t look after herself’,” Lenne explained.

Lenne said she was then diagnosed with coronary heart disease – when the heart’s blood supply is blocked by a build-up of fatty substances in the coronary arteries – and told she had “dangerously” high blood pressure.

With a family history of heart failure and her father dying of a heart attack in his late 40s, Lenne’s doctors were concerned for her health and advised her to lose weight.

She said she lost weight naturally, dropping to 65kg (10st 3lbs), but she plateaued at this figure.

“I managed to come down to 65kg, but it was not enough,” she said.

“The risk of a heart attack was very high, and I was taking two medications for blood pressure and statins for the fat in the arteries, but it was not controlling it.”

With the Covid-19 lockdowns forcing her to stay “locked at home”, Lenne said she started putting weight back on.

She therefore explored the option of bariatric weight loss surgery as it became “a medical necessity rather than a personal choice”.

However, with NHS bariatric surgery unavailable and her symptoms worsening, she chose to undergo procedures in Turkey in April 2021 – a decision she describes as “life-changing”.

“I travelled to Istanbul for surgery and it was one of the hardest decisions I have ever made,” she explained.

“Covid restrictions were still extremely severe, travel was uncertain, and the risks felt very real.

“For me to go to abroad, have the surgery, I needed to leave my kids alone.

“I was afraid to leave them alone, but I could leave them alone forever if I die.”

She said she underwent gastric sleeve surgery to remove part of the stomach, along with gallbladder removal, and the procedures cost around £3,800, excluding flights.

Due to Covid restrictions and risks, she said the hospital environment was “intense and strictly controlled” and she was “tested for Covid three times a day, every single day” during her stay.

Back in London, she also received pre-and-post weight loss skin preparation, skin-tightening treatments, vitamin therapy, and facial harmonisation procedures at Sol Clinic.

With the procedures going well, and with therapy, Lenne said her weight started decreasing and she ended her marriage to focus on herself.

“I started to feel more confident after the divorce and I could see the weight going down,” she said.

“I slowly, slowly got my self-esteem back.”

As her body transformed, Lenne started feeling more confident and began posting images on social media, which led to a new “powerful” career in modelling.

She said she has taken part in photoshoots and catwalks, and she now acts as a role model to other women, particularly those her age or older, teaching them “how to pose, how to act and how to dress”.

She weighs around 48kg (7st 7lbs) currently, enjoys exercising three times a week and eats her meals on smaller plates to manage her food intake sustainably.

A typical day involves eating boiled eggs and avocado on toast for breakfast, a sandwich or salad for lunch and some meat, vegetables, beans and rice for dinner.

However, she said she does not restrict herself and enjoys having a beer or the occasional traditional Brazilian dessert brigadeiro on the weekends.

“I don’t follow strict diets or food rules. I eat everything, just in smaller portions,” she said.

Today, Lenne said her health is stable and her approach is based on balance, not restriction, as her weight loss journey was “never about appearance” but rather “survival”.

She would encourage others to seek appropriate medical advice for their own weight loss journeys, if needed, and she hopes her new modelling career inspires other women to pursue their dreams.

“We see these unrealistic images in the media and we think we cannot do it, but that’s not true,” Lenne said.

“You can start at any time of life, you just need to have the push.

“I was looking to help everyone else, but I couldn’t help myself.

“So that was something I learned – if you do not love yourself, it’s impossible to love anybody else.”

To find out more about Sol Clinic, visit: solclinic.com.