AN ANOREXIC teenager was just hours from death after starving herself for a WEEK in a desperate bid to become popular at school.
Elle Lietzow, then 17, refused to let even drink water at the height of her struggle with anorexia and her weight plummeted to less than a tiny five and a half stone.
Her week of fasting caused her to suffer a seizure and collapse and she was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Her condition was so poor that medics were astonished the teenager was still alive.
Worringly, Elle admitted to losing vast amounts of weight because she thought that being skinny would make her popular at school.
Elle said: “I wanted to stay skinny just to be accepted by everyone. I had gained so many friends when I lost weight accidentally by swimming a lot and everyone would compliment me.
“I thought, if I quit swimming I am going to have to keep that low weight so that people will still want to be my friends, because if I gain weight no one would want to be my friend anymore.”
Elle, now 19, from Melbourne, Australia, was bullied by peers as a youngster when she was just a few pounds overweight.
School mates would kick and push her and chant “fat whale” at poor Elle as she made her way through the playground.
Elle then joined the swimming team and her strenuous training schedule of six hours a day meant she lost weight – and gained friends.
However, the punishing swim regime took a toll on her new-found social life and despite reaching the Olympic swimming trials at the age of 15, Ellen decided to give it up and focus on school and her friends.
It was then that Elle started to overcompensate for the loss of her swimming by working out for two hours before school - as well as going on long hikes near her home.
She also made dramatic changes to her diet, starting to eat just fish and vegetables, but as her disorder worsened, the confused teen began to eat only measly morsels - such as steamed cabbage and the skin of an apple.
In just two months, she lost over two stone from her slight frame and was hospitalised.
Concerned family and friends begged her to gain weight, leading Elle to binge on tubs of icing, slabs of chocolate, boxes of doughnuts and huge wedges of cake.
Elle said: “I was punishing my body, I didn’t want to put on weight but my family and friends were so angry and frustrated.
“I hated how I felt. I felt disgusting, gluttonous. It was just gross. I hated the way I looked and I wouldn’t leave the house.
“I ballooned to 174lbs and felt so sick with myself I decided last year to lose it all again.
In just a few months Elle lost almost seven stone.
Getting out of bed became a huge effort and Elle was forced to stay home from school.
Shockingly, her fingers and toes lost their circulation and her nails became brittle, black and weak.
Her once lovely, long blonde hair fell out in clumps, her periods stopped and she became so emaciated that her hips and ribs jutted out in sharp points from under her skin.
Although Elle didn’t realise it then, she was seriously close to death.
“My body was giving me warning signs that what I was doing was killing me” she said.
Ellen’s relationships with her parents and friends also suffered.
She said: “I constantly lied to my family and friends about what I ate and when I exercised.”
In one last desperate attempt to lose weight, Elle stopped eating and drinking water altogether.
After a week of deprivation, Elle had a thirst she had never felt before.
She made her way to the bathroom and filled a glass of water, but just one sip caused her body to convulse and she suffered a terrible seizure.
She awoke lying on the bathroom tiles, surrounded by shards of glass and water - it was then Elle realised she needed help.
She said: “I just had no energy anymore. I knew I was dying.”
Elle was rushed to hospital and doctors found that both her liver and kidneys had gone into failure - her condition was so serious medical staff were astounded that she was alive.
It was then that Elle finally realised she needed to turn her life around, she became a vegan and in a show of support her sister and mum joined her.
Now Elle’s meals on a typical day includes two papayas, four apples, four kiwis and five bananas for breakfast, two sweet potatoes with avocado salsa for lunch and Thai curry soup and at least one baked potato for dinner.
Elle said: “My life has changed since my recovery. I’m now social, I go out with friends and I don’t isolate myself.
“I try to inspire others through my Instagram and YouTube with my vegan lifestyle.
“A message I have for those suffering with anorexia at the moment is that only you can save yourself. You have to make the change to choose life.”
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