Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia has worked hard to overcome her disordered eating habits.
“I had an anxiety-induced eating disorder, where I was always nauseous,” LaPaglia, 26, said during a Wednesday, February 25, appearance on the “Real Pod” podcast. “Anytime I ate something, I would throw up. I would just avoid food at all costs because I knew that it would make me sick, or I was just so nauseous all the time [because of] my anxiety that I couldn’t eat.”
LaPaglia further revealed that she hit her “rock bottom” in fall 2023, where she reached her “lowest weight.”
“People were horrified. Every time I went home, my family was, like, ‘Oh, my gosh,’” the Barstool Sports personality recalled. “I was anemic from it, I had bruises all over me, and it was really, really hard when you’re in it for so long. Your body just gets used to it, and when I finally came out of all that anxiety or I was able to look at myself in the mirror and saw the way I looked, [it] was just so unhealthy.”
LaPaglia soon noticed that she had little energy and “wanted to sleep all day” but still couldn’t manage to eat meals.
“I was really working hard on a healthy relationship with food and not correlating eating time to being sick or being anxious,” she said. “It really did, without me even knowing, create an eating disorder that I didn’t know how to navigate [or] what to do with it.”
Over time, LaPaglia “slowly but surely” gained 25 pounds back.
“I was back at a healthy weight, but it didn’t happen overnight,” she stressed. “Once I realized, I was like, ‘Holy s***, this is what’s happening to you.’ It took me four or five months to get back to a healthy weight or get back in a healthy mindset.”
LaPaglia also found support in other individuals who battled similar eating disorders.
“Sharing it on the internet, I didn’t really know anything about anxiety-induced eating disorders. I didn’t know so many people struggled with it,” she said. “I helped so many people, [and] they helped me. I built this community around it, where it was just so empowering and uplifting [and] even just gave me a place to feel safe, like, ‘OK, I’m not the only one this is happening to.’”
To gain weight amid her recovery, LaPaglia made sure to eat multiple meals each day.
“When I was struggling with eating, I think I would only rarely [eat and] sometimes I wouldn’t eat all day, but I would do one meal a day,” LaPaglia said. “I tried to, whenever I felt hungry, that little, ‘Oh, I could eat something right now,’ because I used to suppress that. … [I] would immediately eat whenever I was hungry. I wouldn’t care about what was going into my body, I literally just cared about getting something into my body.”
LaPaglia specifically remembered indulging in “pounds of pasta” and drinking smoothies and protein shakes to try and fit into a pair of skinny jeans without the pants being too baggy.
“It was a f***ing process,” she said of her weight gain. “Slowly but surely, obviously with anything that you do over time, it got better.”
If you or someone you know struggles with an eating disorder, visit the National Alliance for Eating Disorders website or call their hotline at (866) 662-1235. Text “ALLIANCE” to 741741 for free, 24/7 support.
