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"Too Fat For 15" Teen Tells Story Of Dramatic Weight Loss

WARREN (WWJ) - One hundred and seventy-two and half pounds and counting.  That's how much weight a Warren teen has lost who stars in the Style Network TV Show, "Too Fat for 15."  When 17-year-old Hayley Bailiff decided to go to a school for obese teens called Wellspring in late August, she tipped the scales at 511 pounds. 

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"Last February, my dad came up and talked to me and he told me that my uncle and he had been talking and I pretty much had to choose to either figure something else to do about my weight, or do the lapband surgery." 
Bailiff had heard about Wellspring, where the TV show is shot and decided to go there.  She had struggled at Warren's Regina High School, where she was bullied so badly, she was sometimes forced to miss class. 

"At school, it was difficult being overweight, because they had seats that were connected and I couldn't fit in the connected seats.  So I always had to get to my classes early to make sure that I could get a seat that was unconnected."

Hayley says she has a hard time taking compliments about how good she now looks when she returns home like she did for tonight's episode of the show.  But she's enjoying her weight loss. 

"Just playing team sports every day is so much easier, it's ridiculous,"  Hayley says.  "And I can help out my team that much more, which gives you a confidence boost....You become that much more needed...wanted."

Her advice to other teens struggling with their weight? 

Bailiff says, "Try and do something about it now, because soon enough, you'll be giving up your senior year to go away and leave all your friends, and not be able to go to prom."

"Too Fat For 15" airs Monday nights at 8 on the Style Network, with re-runs throughout the week.

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