MADAM Saodah Osman, 46, used to buy three large fowl whenever she wanted to serve chicken for dinner.

While one was quite enough to feed her husband and three children, it was not sufficient to sate her enormous appetite.

The 1.56m-tall housewife weighed a massive 150kg until about four years ago.

''I looked and ate like a Mama Bear. One chicken was never enough. I had to cook enough so I could snack throughout the day too,'' recalls Madam Saodah, now 60kg lighter after lap-band surgery.

''I also had three or four servings of rice at each meal and each serving looked like a bukit on my plate.'' Bukit is the Malay word for hill.

The weight burdened her with an assortment of ailments, including asthma, diabetes and hypertension. She had difficulty walking.

''Almost every week, my family had to call for an ambulance because I couldn't breathe,'' she recalls.

It also threw her into a deep funk. On three occasions, she attempted suicide.

Once, she swallowed 20 aspirins and eight sleeping pills before slitting her left wrist with a razor blade. Fortunately, she was discovered by her younger son, 16. She has another son and a daughter aged 24 and 18 respectively.

''I had to see a psychiatrist and my family had to hide knives and other sharp objects in the flat. When I was not eating in the kitchen, I'd lock myself up in the bedroom. I didn't want to go out because I was an object of ridicule,'' says Madam Saodah, who lives in a fourroom HDB flat in Choa Chu Kang.

The day came when she became so heavy that she could not walk. Doctors told her that her organs and body would shut down if she did not lose weight.

Too obese to immediately go under the knife, she lost 20kg on a strict low-calorie diet before undergoing lap-band surgery in Alexandra Hospital in July 2004. Since then, she has lost another 40kg.

Married to an operations executive at an offshore oil company, Madam Saodah says she started piling on the kilos after the birth of her youngest child.

She suffered post-natal depression, exacerbated by flab she could not lose despite spending thousands of dollars on pills, wraps, massages and slimming courses.

She resorted to bingeing and, before she knew it, she had ballooned from 63kg to 150kg.

''Once, when I was in a lift with my husband, two women gossiped in Chinese and wondered how he could bear to be with someone so huge. My husband, who understands Chinese, scolded them,''she let on.

Friends and relatives often told her that her husband would stray and leave her for other women. But he did not, she says.

''In fact, he'd insist on taking me to company functions. When I told him I would only embarrass him, he just said I was his wife and he loved me no matter what.''

She adds: ''I often picked fights with him but he put up with all my nonsense. That?s why I love him so much.'' Madam Saodah says that her road to recovery was not easy.

''For two months before the operation, I could have only meal replacements and salads without dressing. I could not cheat because they?d do regular blood and urine checks. I nearly went crazy.''

But it was the best thing she'd ever done.

''The doctors and dietitians taught me a lot of things. In the past, when I felt hungry, I'd just go in the kitchen and eat. Now I watch TV or do housework,'' says the bubbly housewife, who goes to the Choa Chu Kang Community Centre twice a week to use the gym and attend aqua aerobics classes.

She has porridge instead of rice and has learnt a whole new repertoire of healthier dishes.

''Instead of frying, I now steam. I use less salt and avoid coconut milk and MSG. It took my family members a while but they are used to it now.''

She no longer suffers from depression, diabetes or hypertension and can walk without wheezing.

''I am so happy now,'' she says.

The only gripe she has is the loose skin on her body after her weight loss. She plans to have an operation to remove it at the end of the year.

Her experience has taught her never to laugh at obese people.

''I cannot do that. I know the pain and heartache that they feel.''

kimhoh@sph.com.sg

This story was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 29, 2008.