This woman had an unusual ambition – to be the fattest woman in the world. But then her ambitions changed, forcing her to shed nearly a third of her massive body weight.

When dieting didn’t work, Monica Riley set herself an unusual goal: to become the fattest woman in the world. She didn’t care what people thought or that she was seriously damaging her health. And she even had hands-on help from her boyfriend. Nothing, it seemed, was going to stop her. But then a life-changing event occurred, and Monica’s focus suddenly went from gaining weight to losing it fast.

Monica had always been large, even as a young girl. Her dream as a child, however, was to actually lose weight. But when dieting attempts left her miserable, she decided to embrace her size. Her curves made her feel sexy and gorging on food made her feel good.

Monica, from Fort Worth, Texas, was consuming an estimated 10,000 calories a day. In 2015 the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion published recommended calorie intakes for men and women. They advised that sedentary women aged 26-30 consume only 1,800 calories per day. Monica, therefore, was chomping her way through over five times her recommended allowance.

Indeed by the time she reached 28, she was tipping the scales at 700 pounds. And she wasn’t ready to stop there. Because Monica had quite an unusual ambition: her goal was to eat her way to becoming the largest woman in the world. Indeed she hoped to become so fat she couldn’t even move. And with fiancé Sid’s help, she was well on her way.

“Sid loves to cook for me and hand-feed me,” Monica told The Sun in September 2016. “I’ve achieved so much since we got together. He feeds me around the clock and I never have to get up to do anything.” Indeed, Monica gained a whopping 14lbs a month in the four months after they met.

Monica’s had even bigger dreams, however: she aimed to weigh 1,000lbs and to be completely bed-bound. She told The Sun that the dream of being so huge she had to be waited on by her fiance made her “feel like a queen” and that it pleased him, too. “It’s a sexual fantasy for us and we talk about it a lot,” she confessed.

In fact, it’s not only the couple who get aroused by Monica’s size. Monica is a fetish model with a big following on social media. In fact, she can actually command up to $600 for each photography session. Particularly popular among her fans is funnel feeding: an activity that excites the couple, too.

For the funnel feed, Sid would prepare hugely calorific milkshakes for his woman. These fat and sugar-laden concoctions would typically consist of strawberry Pop Tarts – Monica’s favorite – heavy cream, ice cream and two percent milk, all blended together and fed to Monica through a funnel.

But Monica’s gorging didn’t stop there. Indeed, her typical daily menu was more befitting for a family of five than a young woman. As well as two weight gain shakes, she would chow through a large bowl of cereal high in sugar; six biscuits; six hot dogs; macaroni cheese; four McChicken sandwiches; four double cheeseburgers with a large portion of fries; 30 chicken nuggets; Taco Bell, and a gallon of ice cream. And that’s all in one day.

The thrill that the couple gets from this activity is called feederism, or fat fetishism. But the turn-on doesn’t come from the size of the subject, but rather from the act of feeding itself. Indeed, Sid insisted that, although he loves Monica’s size, he would help her lose weight if that’s what she wanted.

However, Sid wasn’t the only person complicit in Monica’s weight gain. “I have what they call feeders,” Monica told Barcroft TV. “At least once a month I’ll have certain guys that will send me money for food. In return I’ll send them a video or pictures of me eating the food.

But all the male attention didn’t bother Sid. In fact, as well as helping Monica to feed, he acts as a photographer on her modeling shoots. He told Barcroft TV, “I’m the one laying next to her at night, not them.” He’s fully supportive of Monica and her choice to do what she wants with her body.

But there was one person dead set against Monica’s 1,000lb weight goal: her mom, Terri Ruiz. Indeed she told Barcroft TV that, “It hurts my heart to know she doesn’t want to live a happy life. At least to me it’s not happy.”

And there were more detractors, too. During an interview with the U.K,’s This Morning, Monica once more said her lifestyle made her feel, “like a queen.” But co-host Phillip Schofield shot back with a scathing, “Yes, a very large queen,” to the delight of some viewers.

Monica’s attitude to her weight, however, would take a sudden and dramatic U-turn. Because in the summer of 2016 the couple got some news they weren’t expecting: Monica was pregnant with their first child. What the expectant mom didn’t know, however, was that her 700lb weight and horrifically unhealthy diet would have devastating consequences for all three of them.

And so, still determined to be the world’s heaviest woman, a pregnant Monica continued to gorge on her extreme diet. But then, during a routine, 12-week scan, it was discovered that the fetus was deformed. Doctors realized that the baby wouldn’t survive the pregnancy.

The couple had been excited about becoming parents together, and Monica fell pregnant for a second time just a few months later. Sadly, however, she suffered heavy bleeding and her second miscarriage on Christmas Eve. “I was depressed and crying a lot,” she told the Daily Mail in June 2017.

But the couple were determined to keep trying, and Monica is now pregnant for the third time. The mom-to-be, however, felt personally responsible for her two miscarriages. And so this time around she has completely changed her lifestyle, her eating habits and her attitude towards her own body. Indeed she’s already lost a whopping 200lbs in two-and-a-half months and is determined to carry this baby full term.

“I do think my weight affected the previous pregnancies,” Monica told the Daily Mail. “There is no clear medical evidence but I think if I was healthier the babies would have been stronger. I accept that my eating habits were terrible. I don’t want to lose any more babies.”

Monica admits that her change of lifestyle hasn’t been easy, however. There’s been a lot of tears and mental hurdles as she overcomes her addiction to food. And there’s also the fear that she could lose Sid, who was always a fan of her larger size. But Sid told the Daily Mail, “I am not just attracted to her body. I am attracted to her as a whole, complete person. I just want to give [our baby] the best life I can.”