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Sherri Atkins - before and after her 30kg weight loss - Source: Close Up
For one 16-year-old New Zealander, life is just getting started.
When TVNZ's Close Up programme first meet 15-year old Sherri Atkin in August last year she was being held back by her excessive weight, over 190kg of it.
Now after losing more than 30kg in preparation for her gastric band surgery, she is one step closer to leading a normal life.
Sherri's obesity has not only caused her physical problems like heart palpitations and breathing difficulties, but it has also showed her just how cruel kids can be.
"There's a lot of verbal bullying, a lot of jokes said about me," she says.
But her life is about to change with the help of gastric band surgery that takes away her appetite, telling her brain she is full.
The operation only takes half an hour and Sherri's surgeon, David Schroeder, will put a ring around her stomach through tiny incisions.
"The way I put it to my patients is I am switching off your food addiction so that you can now eat the diet your body needs for rest of your life," says Schroeder.
But the hard work is just beginning for Sherri as she will need to exercise self control with her diet if she wants to make the change permanent.
"It's like having a second chance of having a life, I don't want to live like this so getting the chance to have a better life is pretty awesome really."
Obesity statistics in New Zealand are at an all time high with one in four adults now classed as obese.
At Sherri's hospital alone there were 300 people demanding the surgery in 2009 compared with just 36 in 2004.
But the surgery is not a magic cure as the band has to be continually checked to see if it needs tightening and candidates have to cut out the carbs in favour of protein.
Sherri should lose at least another 12 kg over the next six months which will keep her on track for her ultimate weight loss goal.
