Body positive influencer Emily Jones defended her near three-year journey to lose more than 170 lbs.
“If you think this is just about weight loss… then you’ve missed the entire point,” Jones, 36, told her Instagram followers in a poignant post on Thursday, September 10.
Having undergone gastric bypass surgery in January 2024, Jones has since used her platform to candidly share her experiences with loose skin and lipedema. (Per the Cleveland Clinic, lipedema is characterized by an “abnormal fat buildup on both sides of your lower body” — often on the legs, but also on the arms — that can be resistant to diet or exercise.)
In Thursday’s post, Jones shared a throwback video that she filmed the night before her gastric bypass in which she acknowledged having mixed feelings about the procedure. Jones suspected some of her nerves were rooted in trauma over recently losing both parents within six weeks of each other.
“What am I afraid of? Lots of things,” she said in the archival clip. “This is the first time that I will be having any kind of procedure or surgery done without my mum and dad being around.”
The clip shifted from 2024 footage of Jones breaking down into tears to more recent scenes of her joyfully walking on a sunny day.
“I came across this video that I filmed the night before my gastric bypass surgery, talking about how I was feeling and my fears right before this big turning point in my life,” Jones wrote on Thursday. “It’s wild to watch it back now on the other side of it all. If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know how grief has been a big part of my story since losing both of my parents within 6 weeks of each other, after seeing my mum through her battle with a terminal brain tumour.”
Jones noted that revisiting that pre-op footage felt like a “key milestone in [her] healing journey.”
“Sometimes the physical is truly a manifestation of what is going on inside, and it was time for me to shake the monkey off my back and start living for ME,” she declared. “Wish I could give this frightened little girl a big hug and tell her everything is going to be ok. Things will get better, I promise xx.”
The influencer received many supportive comments from fans who’d followed her body positivity journey over the years.
“Wow. Got me right in my feels. You hung right in there,” one follower wrote to Jones, while another added, “You go girl. Mom & dad would be soooo proud!”
A third follower offered affirmation over Jones’ journey, assuring her, “When you say you wish you could give that girl a hug, you have. Every day when you show up for yourself that’s exactly what you’re doing.”
Jones has previously addressed potential criticism of her weight loss, including showing before-and-after clips of herself wearing a swimsuit.
“It’s so obvious to me that confidence isn’t about being big or being small,” Jones stressed in one Instagram video. “Confidence comes from within and it’s something that grows with time. It grows as you get to know yourself more, do all of the things that you promise yourself you’re gonna do. It’s really got nothing to do with how your body looks.”
Last month, she responded to a male commenter who argued that she had “psychological problems that she needed to heal from” because she had cosmetic surgery to address loose skin. (Jones has confirmed that she had an “extended arm lift, armpit lift and breast lift” in Lithuania to “address the loose skin I was left with after losing” around 170 lbs.)
“I fear there are some things a man simply can’t understand,” she replied. “In all seriousness though, if you can’t understand how a change like this is so much more than ‘just’ plastic surgery, then we’re never going to see eye to eye.”
