Jack Fincham reveals secret bulimia battle
Jack Fincham has been battling bulimia since he was 14 years old but is determined to change his "unhealthy relationship with food".
Jack Fincham has been battling bulimia since he was 14 years old.
The 'Love Island' star has opened up about his battle with the eating disorder and admitted it took him several years to recognise he had "a problem".
He told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “I have been a bulimic for 19 years, bingeing on food and then being sick...
“I’d eat it all, then go to the downstairs toilet at my mum’s — because nobody could hear me, as it was in the hall, next to the front door. I know it’s gross, but for years I didn’t actually think I had a problem.”
The 33-year-old boxer used his eating disorder to "punish" himself whenever he lost a fight.
He said: “If I hadn’t won a match I’d go home, watch a boxing film like 'Warrior' or 'Rocky' and feel useless.
“Or I’d mind-numbingly watch videos on my iPad for hours, of Oreos being deep-fried — then binge, before feeling like a fat loser, and punish my body by being sick.”
Jack - who has also battled addiction to drugs and alcohol - is now taking daily medication to combat the pain he experiences from acid reflux as a result of his eating disorder.
He said: “At times I was being sick five days a week. I didn’t realise the harm I was doing to my body — that any nutrients I’d eaten from decent food was being thrown up along with the crap I had gorged on.
“Eventually it caught up with me because I started to get really bad reflux. I was in agony. I went to the doctor and told him everything. I am now taking tablets to deal with the acid in my throat. I’m in agony without daily medication. I could be on them for ever, I don’t know.”
Jack's reflux problem worsened last year after he resorted to Wegovy weight loss injections to shed pounds quickly before a boxing match last year.
He says: “I bought two jabs — the first from a private clinic — and stupidly I said I didn’t just want the starter dose, I wanted to go as high as she would sell me. And she did sell me them. And I became obsessed, I loved it. But the second dose I bought, from a friend of a friend, made me so ill. I felt sick all the time, my stomach was bloated and I was constipated. And I was crippled with acid reflux.
“The jabs cost £130 each and it was the worst money I’ve ever spent, I felt so ill. God knows what was in the second one. It was off the black market — anything could have been in it.
“I’ve always taken risks with my health and, looking back, I feel stupid. I got down to my fighting weight. I lost 10kg in two months, but I looked physically shocking.
“It wasn’t a good look — I wasn’t ripped, I was just skin and flesh."
The reality star has stopped using the jabs now but is aware he still has an "unhealthy relationship with food" and wants to change.
He said: “My boxing coach doesn’t know about this, my nutritionist doesn’t, and I want them to know and this is my way of doing it.
“People may see me as some thick reality-star addict but I don’t want to be seen that way.
“I want to be a brilliant, well fuelled, healthy boxer.
“This is a battle I’ve had for nearly 20 years. And I can never say never. But I hope by speaking out, by learning about nutrition which I now have, and having the right team about me, I can change things going forward.
“I am sick of hitting the self- destruct button. My body has taken enough.”
