I spent 13k on weight loss surgery… how it has changed my life (for better and worse)

Emma Roma Jayne knew something had to change when she refused to leave the car on a family beach trip in 2022 because she was so ashamed of her body.

Instead of Ozempic, her mother suggested getting weight loss surgery as she had been through it herself with impressive results.

Emma, then aged 22, signed up for a $13,000 procedure known as bariatric surgery, which works by making the stomach smaller so people feel fuller quicker.

She lost an astonishing 130 pounds in two years. 

While she is happier than ever with her new svelte physique, the New Zealander who currently lives in Australia says there have been a number of surprising and uncomfortable changes that have emerged as a result of her dramatic weight loss. 

Firstly, she says her breasts and bum have reduced in size and she warns others that your bust is something is that is ‘just not gonna come back’ after shedding pounds. 

Next, Emma reveals that she has lost friends as a result of losing weight because they say she has changed. 

Offering an insight into her experience of losing friendships while slimming, the brunette explains: ‘Be prepared for some of your relationships with people to fizzle out. 

Emma Roma Jayne, who is currently based in Australia, didn’t go down the Ozempic route and instead, she opted for weight loss surgery to slim down. Above left, before her weight loss journey and right, after shedding 130lbs

‘A lot of people cannot handle you when you’re at your best, they prefer you when you’re down. 

‘So, those relationships just aren’t going to exist anymore. People will judge you so much, they’ll try and say that you’ve changed since you’ve lost weight that you’re a different person now.’

After shedding so much weight, Emma has found that one surprising side effect is that she feels cold all of the time. 

When she was bigger she never felt cold, but now the content creator says she is ‘always freezing’ with her hands and feet ‘permanently cold’.

As a result, she has got into the habit of taking a jersey, jacket and even gloves with her before leaving the house. 

Adding to her shivers, Emma says she lost ‘a lot’ of hair while losing weight. 

Dr Malay Mehta, who is based out of India, says hair loss due to weight loss is typically temporary, lasting anywhere from three to six months. 

‘As your body adjusts and nutrient levels stabilize, hair growth often resumes,’ he notes. 

Meanwhile, her feet are also slimmer, and she went from a US size 9 shoe to a 7.5, so she had to invest in a completely new wardrobe.

She says her voice has become more feminine after losing weight and she says this is something she ‘loves’. Extra fat around the face and neck can alter the shape of the throat, which in turn alters the sound of the voice.

‘It’s so much lighter now and last year it was quite deep… I always sounded sick, so that’s great,’ Emma said.

Emma reveals that she has lost friends as a result of losing weight because they say she has changed

While she says in some ways she feels different, Emma insists that she hasn’t changed as a person. 

In one clip posted to her TikTok, where she has more than 60,000 followers, she tells viewers: ‘I’m still the exact same person I was last year, the only thing that has changed is that I’m not afraid to be myself anymore. I’m just confident.’ 

Emma says she has also found dating tricky as she felt uneasy about divulging too much about her weight loss journey to potential suitors because of some bad experiences. 

She explains in a clip, which was filmed before meeting her current boyfriend: ‘I’m in the dating scene now and it’s really, really tough for me to open up about my weight loss to new people.

‘There is unfortunately a big portion of men out there who are just nasty and will see you as less than when they see photos of you from before.’

Emma reveals that when she told some men on dates about her weight loss journey, the first thing they asked was to see photos of her from before.

Reciting one nightmarish encounter, she tells her followers: ‘I’ve even had one guy ask me about what my body looks like now that I’ve lost that much weight… but that’s the reality of dating and having lost a substantial amount of weight.’

Emma finally decided to get in shape after going on a family beach trip in 2022 and realizing she didn’t want to leave the car in fear of being fat shamed

Turning to her eating habits, Emma says her unhealthy relationship with food is something that still plagues her after losing weight, but she has learned to manage it better. 

Making life easier, she has found that her taste in food has changed since slimming down, and she now loves avocados for instance whereas she hated them before.  

She says she has also come to realize that keeping the weight off is all about diet, so she is more aware of her caloric intake. 

While exercise also helps, especially with toning and ‘shredding off those little bits’, she concludes that ‘it really does come down to your diet 100 percent [and] eating in a calorie deficit is what makes you lose weight.’

Lastly, Emma has found she has lots of lose skin, which she admits is ‘inevitable’ when losing weight. 

However, she says that it doesn’t bother her too much and she would ‘much rather have loose skin than be the weight that I was before’.

Moving to some positive outcomes of her weight loss, Emma says she now rarely gets sick whereas before, she used to be ‘sick all the time’.

She has also found that her skin is much better than it used to be and she no longer needs to spend so much money on skincare products. 

Topping things off, her face was one of the first areas to slim down, making her facial features more defined. 

After shedding so much weight, Emma has found that one surprising side effect is that she feels cold all of the time

In her videos, Emma brands bariatric surgery as ‘life changing’.

There are three types of bariatric surgery – a gastric band, a gastric bypass and a gastric sleeve.

Emma opted for the latter. This operation divides the stomach vertically, leaving a narrow, sleeve-shaped portion around 15 per cent of the original stomach size, thus reducing food intake and appetite. 

Weight loss measures between that of a band and a bypass. Both the bypass and sleeve operations are irreversible. 

All procedures, even corrective surgery, are generally carried out as keyhole surgery.

Experts from UCLA Health state that weight loss surgeries typically lead to more weight loss than weight loss medications. 

The expected weight loss is about 10-15 percent for Wegovy (Ozempic), 15-21 percent for Zepbound (Mounjaro), and 25-35 percent for bariatric surgery. 

They also note that weight loss medications require ‘long term and possibly lifelong use’ to keep the weight off and the weight regain after stopping the weight loss medication is usually rapid. 

Meanwhile, weight loss surgery is a one-time procedure. 

Offering inspiration to others looking to lose weight the TikToker, now 24, highlights that it isn’t a ‘big daunting scary thing’ that will make you miserable. 

She goes on to describe the journey as a ‘fun process… learning about what works [and] what doesn’t work.’ 

‘Just enjoy the process and enjoy the ride,’ she concludes.