India, April 19 -- "You're fat because you eat too much."

"I'm too fat for this."

"You could stand to lose some weight."

"Maybe I could be happy if I just lost the weight."

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All her life, Rachel Thomas, 33, had heard such sentences - or said them to herself.

Eventually, she did start losing the weight.

She was about 27 when she gathered the courage to join a gym and enlist with a personal trainer.

As the weighing scale responded, she became hooked to the falling numbers.

She ate less and less, and spent longer hours working out.

But when she looked in the mirror, "even though there was less of me, I was still out of place," she says.

Over time, it dawned on her that this wasn't going to make her happy. In fact, it was hurting ...