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PEOPLE online were bitching about her and calling her fat.
Some close friends even told her the same thing to her face.
'It made me quite angry,' admitted 20-year-old dethroned local beauty queen Ris Low.
'I felt like retorting, 'You all think slimming down very easy ah!'
That was in May.
Low, who is 1.72m tall, tipped the scales at '60-plus kg' at that time and attributed the extra kilos to her blossoming new romance.
So she decided to act.
'I made up my mind to show everyone I can do it...Just give me two weeks,' said Low.
Last month, 'on the spur of the moment', she went on a dangerous crash diet of just one apple a day every day for two weeks.
By the end of it, she said she managed to drop nearly 8kg, bringing her weight down to 58kg.
The sudden diet made her suffer from occasional dizzy spells, said Low.
It's something that nutritionists warn against - that it is not healthy to lose so much weight so suddenly.
Low has since resumed her normal food intake of three meals a day, albeit in a highly disciplined fashion.
'I take mostly vegetables and fruit,' she said. 'And I try to avoid carbohydrates and protein.'
When she visited The New Paper office last Wednesday, Low looked a far cry from the chubby, slightly stocky girl we last met in May.
Slim and sexy, she glowed in the skimpy white cheongsam-style dress she wore to our interview and happily posed for pictures.
Her new figure - reminiscent of her bygone Miss Singapore World 2009 pageant shots - was not lost on the editors of local lad mag FHM Singapore.
In this month's issue of the magazine, Low came in at No. 56 on its annual list of 100 Sexiest Women In The World 2010.
She was ranked above actresses like Eva Longoria (No. 57), Milla Jovovich (No. 58), Natalie Portman (No.79), Lin Chiling (No. 78) and Zoe Saldana (No. 96).
She also beat local celebrities like Jade Seah (No. 60), Nadya Hutagalung (No. 67), Melody Chen (No. 68) and Sylvia Ratonel (No. 80).
According to Mr David Fuhrmann-Lim, 43, the senior editor of FHM Singapore, the 100 female celebrities were selected after a month-long online poll conducted on the local FHM website.
Sexier than Longoria
'Ris' name came up in our poll,' he said.
While he declined to elaborate how the editorial team decided on the rankings, he emphasised that 'visibility over the past year definitely counted'.
'We didn't include Ris in as a joke, that's for sure,' he added.
Low was candid about her rare opportunity to share the limelight with so many Hollywood and Asian sex symbols.
'I'm super surprised. The judges must be kayu (Malay for dumb),' she said without hesitation.
'To me, a lot of these stars are perfect women. You'd need to have Lin Chiling's figure and Angelina Jolie's lips to be considered sexy,' she added.
'Hiao'
She self-deprecatingly added that she can be 'hiao' (Hokkien for vain), but would hardly associate herself with sexiness.
'From young, my build has been athletic and sporty,' explained Low. 'I have a muscular, firm body type which doesn't really fall into the sexy category.'
That said, she does not think it's a total fluke that she cracked the list.
'Well, I've got curves, long legs, rather big breasts and perky buttocks,' she said, pointing out the attractions that could have possibly gained her brownie points.
'Also, it's down to personality.
'I'm not stuck up and I don't pretend to be another person when facing the media or public.'
Her 31-year-old property agent boyfriend, whom she has been dating since February but whom she declines to name, likes her, whatever her shape or size, she said.
'His favourite phrase is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' said Low. 'Last time, when I was fat, he'd praise me for having a nice figure. Now that I'm slimmer, he says I have a 'nice' figure too!
'It's like, to him, everything about me is 'nice', from my eyes, hair...to the fact that I don't use perfume...Sometimes, I just want to smack him!' she exclaimed in a mock angry tone.
Perhaps, sexiness is a by-product of the increasingly close bond she shares with her boyfriend.
Low - a final-year student at the Management Development Institute of Singapore, where she is pursuing a diploma in health science - gamely revealed that she and her beau are now 'physically intimate'.
In other words, she's no longer a virgin.
'We've done it. But I must say, I'm still not very interested in sex,' said Low.
In January, she claimed to be a virgin when she was appointed the youth spokesman for local condom brand Espire Condoms.
Her contract with Espire has since expired.
Some close friends even told her the same thing to her face.
'It made me quite angry,' admitted 20-year-old dethroned local beauty queen Ris Low.
'I felt like retorting, 'You all think slimming down very easy ah!'
That was in May.
Low, who is 1.72m tall, tipped the scales at '60-plus kg' at that time and attributed the extra kilos to her blossoming new romance.
So she decided to act.
'I made up my mind to show everyone I can do it...Just give me two weeks,' said Low.
Last month, 'on the spur of the moment', she went on a dangerous crash diet of just one apple a day every day for two weeks.
By the end of it, she said she managed to drop nearly 8kg, bringing her weight down to 58kg.
The sudden diet made her suffer from occasional dizzy spells, said Low.
It's something that nutritionists warn against - that it is not healthy to lose so much weight so suddenly.
Low has since resumed her normal food intake of three meals a day, albeit in a highly disciplined fashion.
'I take mostly vegetables and fruit,' she said. 'And I try to avoid carbohydrates and protein.'
When she visited The New Paper office last Wednesday, Low looked a far cry from the chubby, slightly stocky girl we last met in May.
Slim and sexy, she glowed in the skimpy white cheongsam-style dress she wore to our interview and happily posed for pictures.
Her new figure - reminiscent of her bygone Miss Singapore World 2009 pageant shots - was not lost on the editors of local lad mag FHM Singapore.
In this month's issue of the magazine, Low came in at No. 56 on its annual list of 100 Sexiest Women In The World 2010.
She was ranked above actresses like Eva Longoria (No. 57), Milla Jovovich (No. 58), Natalie Portman (No.79), Lin Chiling (No. 78) and Zoe Saldana (No. 96).
She also beat local celebrities like Jade Seah (No. 60), Nadya Hutagalung (No. 67), Melody Chen (No. 68) and Sylvia Ratonel (No. 80).
According to Mr David Fuhrmann-Lim, 43, the senior editor of FHM Singapore, the 100 female celebrities were selected after a month-long online poll conducted on the local FHM website.
Sexier than Longoria
'Ris' name came up in our poll,' he said.
While he declined to elaborate how the editorial team decided on the rankings, he emphasised that 'visibility over the past year definitely counted'.
'We didn't include Ris in as a joke, that's for sure,' he added.
Low was candid about her rare opportunity to share the limelight with so many Hollywood and Asian sex symbols.
'I'm super surprised. The judges must be kayu (Malay for dumb),' she said without hesitation.
'To me, a lot of these stars are perfect women. You'd need to have Lin Chiling's figure and Angelina Jolie's lips to be considered sexy,' she added.
'Hiao'
She self-deprecatingly added that she can be 'hiao' (Hokkien for vain), but would hardly associate herself with sexiness.
'From young, my build has been athletic and sporty,' explained Low. 'I have a muscular, firm body type which doesn't really fall into the sexy category.'
That said, she does not think it's a total fluke that she cracked the list.
'Well, I've got curves, long legs, rather big breasts and perky buttocks,' she said, pointing out the attractions that could have possibly gained her brownie points.
'Also, it's down to personality.
'I'm not stuck up and I don't pretend to be another person when facing the media or public.'
Her 31-year-old property agent boyfriend, whom she has been dating since February but whom she declines to name, likes her, whatever her shape or size, she said.
'His favourite phrase is, beauty is in the eye of the beholder,' said Low. 'Last time, when I was fat, he'd praise me for having a nice figure. Now that I'm slimmer, he says I have a 'nice' figure too!
'It's like, to him, everything about me is 'nice', from my eyes, hair...to the fact that I don't use perfume...Sometimes, I just want to smack him!' she exclaimed in a mock angry tone.
Perhaps, sexiness is a by-product of the increasingly close bond she shares with her boyfriend.
Low - a final-year student at the Management Development Institute of Singapore, where she is pursuing a diploma in health science - gamely revealed that she and her beau are now 'physically intimate'.
In other words, she's no longer a virgin.
'We've done it. But I must say, I'm still not very interested in sex,' said Low.
In January, she claimed to be a virgin when she was appointed the youth spokesman for local condom brand Espire Condoms.
Her contract with Espire has since expired.
