Former EastEnders star Melissa Suffield has revealed she feels ‘no joy’ after losing weight.
The actress, known for her role as Lucy Beale, runs a parenting blog and shares body-positive posts on her social media, encouraging her followers to embrace their true selves.
Last year, Melissa’s life changes when she was diagnosed with SIBO – small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. The star experiences symptoms including nausea, hair loss and dry skin as a result of the condition, which also saw her attend around 40 appointments with her doctor before receiving some answers.
The Mayo Clinic states that SIBO develops as a result of an ‘abnormal increase in the overall bacterial population in the small intestine — particularly types of bacteria not commonly found in that part of the digestive tract.’
Other symptoms can include bloating, loss of appetite and weight loss, with the latter being one thing in particular that has impacted Melissa a great deal.
‘Obviously, I’ve lost quite a lot of weight this year’, the actress said in a chat with The Sun.
‘But absolutely none of that has been through choice. None of it. Like I’m back in my pre-pregnancy jeans. But there’s no joy.
The star, who played Lucy Beale from 2004-2010, added: ‘I don’t enjoy the fact that that’s happened at all in the way that you know, that’s like a goal for a lot of people. A. It was never a goal for me. But B, this is the complete antithesis of whatever I’ve ever wanted with my body.
‘So that’s been tricky for sure. And then also, just on top of that, like my skin and my hair has been like affected. Now I’m dealing with feelings of, you know, not enjoying the way that I look, which is frustrating because I’ve done such a lot of work to get me to a place where.’
Melissa went on to explain that her weight loss has helped her highlight being slimmer does not mean you are healthier.
‘What it [losing weight because of SIBO] has helped me do is prove the point that I’ve always, always made, which is that you cannot define how healthy someone is, by how much they weigh, or how fat you think they look or whatever it is that you think you know’, she said.
‘We say, ‘oh, you know fat people, they’re a burden. Blah! Blah! It’s not true. It’s just not true.’
Melissa is mum to a young boy called River, who she gave birth to in 2020, and has documented her experiences of motherhood on her Instagram account.
