Student shares weight struggle, success in film

The final straw for Elaine Koontz occurred one day in high school when a young woman approached the sweatpants-clad junior, and exclaimed:

"Don't you fit in jeans anymore because you're so fat?"

That cruel comment finally made her come to terms with the reality that her weight was out of control, which caused her to embark on a weight loss regimen by combining healthy diet with intense workouts and resulted in an 80-pound weight loss.

 "It was awesome seeing the body transform … I never took any diet pills, never took any supplements, never really thought about it either," said Koontz, a senior at Point Park University majoring in cinema and digital arts in Academic Hall.

Koontz not only transformed her body from an overweight 210 pounds to a trim 130 pounds, but also documented it in a movie she produced for an advanced editing class.

Called "The Transformation," it documents how she used healthy eating habits and a physical fitness regimen, instead of quick fix weight loss fads with pills or proportioned frozen dinners. However, Koontz agrees with most medical professionals and trainers that there are no shortcuts to weight loss and physical fitness, and her experiences over the past several years proved her beliefs.

Koontz's long standing weight problem a combination of factors: depression, a failing home life and heart problems. During her teenage years, whenever she tried to participate in sports, her heart would begin to race disabling her from playing, which the inactivity in time caused her to start gaining weight. She was soon put in the hospital with a heartbeat of 200 per minute and at the age of 13 Koontz was diagnosed with tachycardia, a heart condition in which an extra vascular node causes the heart to beat in a fast, continuous rhythm.

In 2004, Koontz went into surgery for her tachycardia. In the recovery room after the surgery, as Koontz was lying in pain, her doctor came in and told her that her heart had 30 heart attacks during the surgery.

"I was so happy and I knew I had to make some life changes in gratitude to my body's response to surgery," Koontz said.

Assistant Professor Deirde Maitre of the Cinema and Digital Arts department believes that The Transformation" was one of the most moving films among those presented at the Electives Screening last spring.

"I think Elaine's personal transformation is an inspiration to all people who want to make positive changes in their life but struggle to take a hard, honest look at themselves and ask that important question that Elaine asks in the film: How did I get here?" Maitre said on Nov. 1, in an email interview.

According to Koontz, it was not all that easy for her either, as she recalls the times when she was bullied by boys at her hometown high school, Philipsburg Osceola. The boys would make fun of her, laugh at her face and make remarks like "boy, you just jiggle all over, don't you?" Due to these cruel comments she heard in the hallways and in gym class, Koontz was forced to always change her clothes for gym class in a bathroom stall in the locker room afraid of being seen by anybody.

"People would be like… you're so weird, why do you do that?" Koontz said.

On many occasions, Koontz found herself coming home upset, asking her mom why she was so overweight and why people picked on her especially when there were many other people in her class.

"She would just say it was because I show emotion in return of their bullying" said Koontz about how she would continually get made fun of by classmates.

According to Aimee Kimball, Director of Mental Training at UPMC Sports Medicine, bullying has different levels of influence on people depending on the support system and initial confidence levels of those people. She also said that those who have a good support system of people giving nonjudgmental love and who also are taught to ignore the acts of bullying will not be affected as much by it. On the contrary, bullying makes it hard to be socially active for people who lack the initial self-confidence and support system because they are always afraid they are going to be picked on.

"If someone is self-conscious about their weight and then you have other people pointing it out and picking on them about it, it can really make them feel down about themselves, "Kimball said in  a telephone interview on Nov. 9.

After falling into deep depression at the age of 16 and at 210 pounds Koontz decided to put an end to her problems and claim her life back by getting into shape. She went on the Weight Watchers diet program and began running three times a week. She started out running under a mile and recorded everything she ate and then converted that into points to keep track of her daily allowed intake.