Egyptian beauty queen at Miss Universe reveals battle with morbid obesity

Farah Sedky represented Egypt at the Miss Universe pageant on Monday in Las Vegas’ Planet Hollywood against 91 other contestants.

Farah once suffered from morbid obesity during her teenage years, during which she weighed 99kg.

While she was once bullied by classmates, Farah overcame this, shed the weight and won Miss Egypt 2017.

The 23-year-old holds a degree in Language and Translation at an honorary level. At this young age, Farah is familiar with six different languages: Arabic, English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

In an interview with People magazine Farah disclosed her journey and the complications she endured with weight gain. Farah was nearly 220 pounds and her health was going downhill.

Speaking to the magazine, Farah said that her excess weight as a teenager made her intimidated and by her schoolmates “because of my looks, which they considered ugly. In fact, girls from other schools also went after me and described me with the worst qualities.”

Farah continued saying: “Before I turned 15 years, Doctors warned me that I would suffer from diabetes within 6 months if I didn’t change my habits and reduce my weight.”

“This was the first time I saw my father crying,” Farah told Al Arabiya News Channel.

Lemon: A life changer

Aside from eating healthily, reducing her carbs intake and following medical advice, Farah had an extra ingredient which changed her life – lemons. Farah added lemon to almost everything she ate.

She would start her morning with a glass of lukewarm water with lemon. According to Farah, this helps burn fat. She would also have the citrus ingredient with cinnamon or yoghurt.

The Egyptian beauty queen says that it is perhaps because of the lemon she was able to shed 80 pounds, or 36 kg.

Farah said that she still recalls the day when one day a girl beat her on the ground and then said: “Oh how I wish to wake up tomorrow and not see you in school.” Well, Farah never left.

She survived, she conquered and she competed for the world’s biggest beauty title.