Elly Jeurissen

Languages Spoken: Dutch, English, German

Country: Belgium

Close-up portrait of a middle-aged woman with curly gray hair, wearing glasses, and slightly smiling against a wooden background.

Describe yourself in 3 words:  

Scientist, patient-advocate, introvert

Tell us a bit about yourself:

I am a woman born in the 60s, married, no children. Both my husband and I studied mathematics. I worked as a statistician and started reading medical papers in the 90s, because I accidently ordered a medical paper. Learned a lot about obesity and kept learning about it.

Where do you live:

Leuven, Belgium

What are some of your interests:     

I love reading, sewing, drawing and painting, cooking and baking, making cheese, walking, people watching and learning new things

What is your personal experience with obesity:

 Gained a bit of weight when I was about 18 years old. Went on a diet, lost it, gained more. Rise and repeat. Did a lot of different diets, lost lost a lot of weight and gained even more. Ended up with obesity and an eating disorder. Worked on the eating disorder by radically stopping dieting, gained some more weight, but the eating disorder disappeared and I got healthier. Two different virusses about 8 years apart each caused severe condition problems and more weight gain. After that help from a specialist got me moving again and with basically healthy eating and moving / walking and a bit of weight training I managed to lose a lot of weight again.   My biggest frustration is that each new doctor tells me to lose weight, and that 5-10% would make a difference already. But I have lost over 30% of my highest weight already!