Losing weight is a long journey, and doing it healthy and steadily can take serious time. While we would hope most people could relish their achievements and hard work, unfortunately there are always someone begrudging the hard work of others. One make-up artist in New Zealand decided to take a stand, when she was accused of faking a weight loss snap she had posted to Instagram. Simone Pretscherer posted her first Instagram snap demonstrating her new figure following a strict food and workout programme:

A photo posted by Simone Anderson (@simone_anderson) on Jul 10, 2015 at 1:19pm PDT

What Simone wasn’t expecting was the backlash she experienced from online trolls. As well as changing hair colour, online users said the lack of excess skin was proof she had faked the results. Addressing the accusations, Simone decided to post a second photo:

A photo posted by Simone Anderson (@simone_anderson) on Jul 12, 2015 at 4:54pm PDT

Responding to her critics, the 24-year old wrote: “Throughout my whole journey I have tried to be so honest about the whole experience and tell people it exactly as it's happened so to be called a fake hurt a lot. “Yes I have loose skin and stretch marks but I don't feel the need to show them in every single photo I post online, I have shared my excess skin picture before so if you had bothered to click on my page you would have seen it.” Simone is now saving for surgery to remove her excess skin but said she is proud of her achievements and wanted to post the message for others who are discouraged in their weight loss efforts.