The following feature details personal experiences with medical weight management and lifestyle changes. Medical treatments require a clinical consultation and professional oversight. This content does not substitute for independent medical advice.

To her followers, Allira Potter is the embodiment of radical self-acceptance and body positivity.

A proud Yorta Yorta woman, author, manifestation coach, and self-described "witchy sister", Allira built a massive social media following as a vibrant, unapologetic champion for women of all shapes and sizes.

She encouraged everyone to focus on self-care.

But Allira's reality was a starkly different story.

Watch: Allira Potter speaks about her experience on No Filter. Post continues below.

As the old saying goes, social media is merely a highlight reel. It's full of the shiny, curated moments we want the world to see, while the messy, uncomfortable realities remain tucked away in a drawer, just for us.

"Two years ago, I was in a space of doing everything I could for my career, but not caring for my overall mind and body," she told Mamamia's No Filter .

"I was digging myself into the ground with heaps of burnout, not eating well, not seeing a therapist — all the things we should be doing."

To the outside world, Allira was walking the walk. But in reality, she was trapped in a gruelling cycle of heavy partying, binge-drinking, and emotional eating.

"I was posting like, 'Yay, I'm self-caring!' But in reality, I wasn't."

Living in Geelong at the time, the manifestation coach said she no longer knew who was staring back at her in the mirror.

"What you saw online two years ago was not the person that you would have seen in real life," she admitted openly.

"Those friends back home would probably say the same thing. They'd be like, 'You're not who you say you are online because you're out binge-drinking. You're being an absolute idiot.' It is so exhausting to not be living your truth."

The disconnect, she said, extended heavily to her relationship with food. And she soon found herself caught in a volatile, restrictive loop she couldn't break out of.

"I did have a binge-eating disorder, and I was binge-eating to the point where my Monday to Fridays, I was all about health and wellness, I was [making] meal plans. Weekends would roll along, and I was binge-eating... ordering Uber Eats a max amount of times. I was emotionally eating to try to fill a void to make me feel good."

But something had to give. And she soon realised that continuing down this path was no longer sustainable for her mental or physical health.

Alongside her wife, Imogen, she relocated to Adelaide for a clean slate, chose sobriety, and decided to actively reach out for help to build a proper healthcare support system.

It's this kind of raw honesty we rarely see from 'wellness influencers'.

But as she began to focus heavily on her physical wellbeing and her body began to visibly change, she triggered a whole new kind of crisis. This time, with the very community that had championed her.

The issue with the body positivity space.

In the rigid spaces of the body positivity movement, wanting to change your size is frequently treated as the ultimate betrayal. And as Allira explained, the cultural narrative has shifted from liberating women from unrealistic beauty standards to policing their individual health choices.

"I actually don't want to be in the body positivity space anymore because I don't feel accepted," Allira explained.

"I was under this umbrella where I felt like I wasn't allowed to change anything about myself. But I was unhappy within myself, and I wanted to make a change."

Writing candidly on Substack about the pressure to remain a static symbol for other people, the curve model dismantled the expectation that her body belonged to the public.

Because in the body positivity space, this is where lines often get blurred. And it can feel suffocating.

Just look at the conversation around celebrities like Lizzo and her personal brand of body positivity.

Writing candidly about this suffocating public pressure, Allira reflected on the heavy silence that comes right before choosing to go public with a personal evolution.

"There's an unspoken narrative that exists in spaces like mine," she wrote.

"If you've built a platform around self-love, body acceptance and empowerment, there's an expectation that you will stay the same, that your body, your choices and your messaging will stay the same. People attach meaning to it. They see themselves in you... And when something shifts, it can feel personal to them."

But Allira is very clear about drawing a line between her public advocacy and her private anatomy.

"Here's where I have to be honest: my body is not a movement. It's not a symbol or a statement piece. It's not something that exists to make other people feel safe or validated in their own beliefs. It's mine," she wrote.

Reclaiming body autonomy.

Part of that deeply personal evolution involved a decision to explore medical weight loss. A pivot that a lot of people in her circle (and the wider social media community) didn't see coming.

For someone who had spent years operating under the strict dogma of the wellness space, Allira said the shift in mindset required confronting her own internalised biases first.

"My first initial reaction years ago was like, 'I'm never going to do something like this. This is cheating. The people who are doing it, they're cheating. This is the easy way out'," she said.

"What I've had to confront is that the version of self-love I was preaching didn't leave much room for nuance or for personal growth. Now that I'm on a medical weight loss journey, I've had to confront how much of that thinking was about stigma, and about wanting to be accepted by my community."

A big part of this, she said, was acknowledging what she needed to do for her own health and wellbeing.

"Body positivity should be about choice. We've created a culture where women feel like choosing their health is something they have to justify or hide. That doesn't feel like empowerment to me. I think it's time the conversation caught up."

By walking away from those rigid expectations, Allira said she was finally able to reset her mindset and quiet the internal noise that had exhausted her for years.

"The food noise has completely disappeared," she said.

"Since starting, it was almost like the clouds had lifted. Before, I was emotionally eating to try to fill a void. The way that I look at food now is food is fuel. I need that fuel to fuel my body for the day."

For Allira, the biggest shift hasn't just been physical, but deeply mental.

"I'm consciously being like, 'Oh, I'm full. I don't need to eat that anymore.' But yes, oh my gosh, you can still absolutely enjoy food."

Instead of hiding, Allira said she's now leaning into what her body can achieve.

Running has quickly become her ultimate outlet.

She's also progressed to high-intensity functional fitness competitions like Hyrox, falling in love with the inclusive, deeply supportive community she found there.

The evolution of Allira.

Allira knows the public commentary will continue.

She is entirely prepared for the DMs demanding to know her exact dress size, her weight, or accusing her of 'gatekeeping' her routine.

But as she steps forward, it's apparent that Allira's firmly holding her own and refusing to let the fear of what other people think limit her personal growth.

"Right now, my truth is simple: I can love my body and still choose to change it," she wrote.

"I can be rooted in self-worth and still seek support. I can honour who I've been and still evolve into something new. Those things are not in conflict.

"Evolving into something new is not betrayal. That's growth."

This editorial feature reflects personal experiences and individual outcomes. Medical weight management programs involve prescription treatments that carry potential risks and side effects; consult a qualified healthcare professional to discuss your options.

Feature image: Instagram/@allirapotter