Aamir Khan’s daughter Ira Khan opens up on her struggle with her body weight with an inspiring VIDEO: ‘We went to Germany for a fasting retreat’ |
Aamir Khan‘s daughter Ira Khan has often opened up on her struggle with mental health. She also has her initiative towards spreading mental health awareness. They have been inward, silent, and intensely personal for her. In a recent Instagram post, Ira once again chose vulnerability over ease, opening up about her long and complicated relationship with her body, weight, and the emotional burden that came with it.Shared on Monday, the video avoids the familiar “before-and-after” narrative. Instead, Ira speaks candidly about how warped her perception of herself once was, especially during a phase when she didn’t truly understand what she looked like. In her caption, she wrote, “What I looked like when I thought I was ‘fat’/‘unfit’. And the moment I understood what it felt like to be in a… fight, almost, with your body, weight and sustenance. It’s one of the worst feelings I’ve ever felt.”In the clip, Ira traces the origins of her discomfort back to childhood. She explains that she grew up deliberately avoiding mirrors, believing that looking at herself was an act of vanity. “I grew up never looking in the mirror because I thought it was vain, so even when I brushed my teeth or when I was in a lift, I would never look in the mirror. I would sneak glances and then look away even when no one was watching. What this means is that I didn’t really know what I looked like, and so in the beginning when I thought I was fat, I would say fat. I meant unfit. I actually didn’t know what I looked like,” she said. During one of her most challenging periods, Ira recalled how her father, Aamir Khan, stood firmly by her side. She shared that the two travelled together to Germany for a medically supervised fasting retreat, where she fasted for 17 days. “We went to Germany for a fasting retreat. We spent 17 days there. I fasted for 17 days in a completely controlled environment with doctors and making sure it was safe. Apart from the fasting, we had free rein to do whatever we wanted…. They would take us on a walk and there were 3 levels. There was the fast group, the medium group, and then the old people group,” she said.One walk in particular left a lasting emotional impact. Ira described breaking down, overwhelmed by both physical and emotional exhaustion. “I remember crying and at every step, I felt like I didn’t know how to take the next step… My dad was standing next to me and holding my hand. He was trying to say ‘we just take one step at a time.’ But I remember looking down and thinking how helpless I felt,” she recalled.As the video draws to a close, Ira reflects on how her weight shifted repeatedly over the years. She revealed that between 2020 and 2026, she went through three phases of being “fat and obese.” The moment of reckoning came when she finally weighed herself again. “I finally checked my weight last year in June and I found out that I was 84 kgs. And that really shook me because the last time I checked, I was 57…To anyone who struggles with their weight, whether it’s putting on weight or losing weight, I believe you. It is very painful and very hard if you feel like your body’s not listening to you… It’s one of the most terrible feelings I’ve ever felt,” she said, ending the video on a deeply empathetic note.
