Jinger Duggar Vuolo shared that she thought she was “too fat” as a teen — which led her to skipping meals.
“I was so insecure for so many years which led me to some bad places,” Duggar, 31, shared on the Jan. 15 episode of the Unplanned podcast. “Even with the way that I was viewing eating … I struggled with, like, just not eating enough and it was because I thought I was too fat, and I wasn’t.”
The former 19 Kids and Counting star shared that, as she entered her teens, she would compare herself to her friends: “I had friends who naturally were super skinny and I would look at these girls and … I would compare myself to them.”
Even though Jinger says “I was actually pretty skinny at that point,” her fears of gaining weight led her to skip meals. “I didn’t think properly about myself. I kept thinking, ‘Well, I’m just not pretty enough,’ or ‘I’m not skinny enough,’ so I would just try to wake up later in the day, try to avoid meals.”
Duggar, who is expecting her third child with husband Jeremy Vuolo, shared that if she went to a friend’s house, she would worry over what they might eat and if it would “actually not make me fat.”
“I mean we were in Arkansas, there were casseroles,” Duggar, who just released her memoir, People Pleaser: Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations, quipped. “You could easily gain 50 pounds in a meal if you wanted to.”
But, she explained, “My thought process was constantly about food … My entire every day would just be consumed with that thought.”
Jinger shared that her mother Michelle — who has talked about her struggles with bulimia in the past — is the one who helped her. “She came up with a plan: Text me what you eat every day and I’d love to be accountable, too, and I’ll text you what I eat. It was so sweet, because in that time I was struggling so much and I was so embarrassed by how I was struggling.”
Michelle told her, “Maybe we can eat healthy together,” and she focused on helping Jinger improve her nutrition.
“It was the most helpful thing for me because then I started to develop a healthy relationship with food,” Jinger said. “That gave me a healthy perspective on food and then moving forward, I was like, ‘Okay, I want to make sure that I’m eating the right amounts for my body, what is required.’ “
“I started to feel better, more energy, more, like, just enjoying life again,” Jinger said, “because I wasn’t thinking about food.”
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