This 21-year-old woman weighs four stone and has almost zero per cent body fat but she Is not anorexic. In fact Lizzie Velasquez must eat every 15 MINUTES just to stay healthy.

The student has a rare condition that prevents her from gaining weight even though she eats up to 60 small meals a day. Despite consuming between 5,000 and 8,000 calories a day, 5ft 2in Lizzie has never tipped over 4.3 stone. Lizzie, who wears size triple zero clothes, said: “I weigh myself regularly and if I gain even one pound I get really excited.


“I eat every 15-20 minutes to keep my energy levels up. I eat small portions of crisps, sweets, chocolate, pizza, chicken, cake, doughnuts, ice cream, noodles and pop tarts all day long, so I get pretty upset when people accuse me of being anorexic.

“When I meet new people I have to say: ’Hi, I’m Lizzie and I have this rare syndrome, I am NOT anorexic'.”

Lizzie was born four weeks prematurely weighing just 2lb 10oz and doctors found there had been minimal amniotic fluid protecting her in the womb.  Lizzie’s mother Rita, 45, a church secretary, said: “They told us they had no idea how she could have survived. We had to buy dolls’ clothes from the toy store because baby clothes were too big.”

Doctors could not make a diagnosis so they prepared Lizzie’s parents for the worst. Rita, who has two other children with Lizzie’s father Lupe, 44, added: “They told us she would never be able to walk, talk or have a normal life.” Lizzie’s siblings Chris, 12, and Marina, 15, are both of average height and weight. Despite the grim prognosis Lizzie’s brain, bones and internal organs developed normally but she was always very small. At the age of two she was still only 15lbs — the same as the average five-month-old baby. Lizzie underwent numerous tests at the St David’s Medical Centre in Austin, Texas, with inconclusive results. She said: “I was normal but really, really tiny.”

Born with two brown eyes, when Lizzie was four the right began to cloud and change hue. Doctors then discovered she had gone blind in that eye. Lizzie added: “They still don’t know why it happened but now I have one blue and one brown eye.”
Lizzie was taken to see genetic experts but they still could not diagnose her. At 16 Lizzie almost died when her appendix ruptured and at 19 she had a massive blood transfusion because her blood cells were not multiplying properly and she was critically anaemic. She said: “I was so weak I couldn’t get out of bed. My doctors had no idea how I was still alive. I only had half the normal amount of blood in my body but after my transfusion I felt like a new person, it was great.”

Lizzie’s case has fascinated doctors all over the world and she is part of a genetic study run by Professor Abhimanyu Garg, M.D. at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Professor Garg and his team now believe Lizzie may have a form of Neonatal Progeroid Syndrome (NPS) which causes accelerated ageing, fat loss from the face and body, and tissue degeneration. He said: “I am aware of a small number of people that have similar conditions to Lizzie but each case is slightly different. We cannot predict what will happen to Lizzie in the future as the medical community are yet to document older people with NPS. However Lizzie is lucky to have healthy teeth, organs and bones so the outlook is good. We will continue to study her case and learn from her.”
Lizzie has co-authored a book about her incredible experiences. It is due to be released in late September and will be available on Amazon.

Source:www.thesun.co.uk