Joy-Anna Duggar Shocks Fans With Her Weight-Loss Photo

Joy-Anna Duggar has kept a lower profile than her more outspoken 19 Kids and Counting siblings. But a new photo of the 19-year-old has thrust her into the spotlight.

The picture, posted Friday to the Duggar Family’s Official Facebook page, depicts newly engaged Joy-Anna posing with her 7-year-old sister, Josie, before heading to a religious conference. While the image is sweet, fans were quick to point out Joy-Anna’s weight loss.

“I couldn’t believe that was Joy! She lost weight! Wow. So beautiful,” wrote one commenter. Another wrote, “Good job on your weight loss.” Others expressed their disapproval. “Why do the Duggar girls all seem to become so thin while they are courting? Is it that stressful for them? She looked fine before the weight loss.”

Joy-Anna, who is planning her Oct. 28 wedding to fiancé Austin Forsyth, has never spoken publicly of her desire to lose weight. However, in the 2014 book Growing Up Duggar, her mother, Michelle, shared her own teenage struggles with bulimia. Daughters Jana, Jill, Jessa, and Jinger write in the book that their mom’s “teenage struggle for self-acceptance led her into some difficult emotional times and a very destructive habit that could have destroyed her health.” According to Michelle, she began bingeing and purging for two years at age 14, until she met her future husband, Jim Bob, who helped her overcome her disorder.

The sisters also described how their strict Independent Baptist religion (a subset of Christianity) has shaped their feelings on body image, writing in the book, “You may think that kids like the Duggars, who are homeschooled and don’t watch TV or read secular magazines, are immune from feelings like that, but we’re not! We’ve experienced some of those same negative feelings about the girl in the mirror that you may be feeling right now or have felt in the past.” They added, “All of us have gone through times when we’ve felt we need to lose weight.”

And while there’s no indication that Joy-Anna is anything but perfectly healthy, it’s possible that she’s been working out (aka “shedding for the wedding”) to prepare for her nuptials — months earlier, Jessa shared an Instagram video of Joy-Anna doing parallel squats wearing a skirt over a pair of pants. The footage caused controversy due to family rules that ban pants and shorts and require women to wear skirts at all times.

There was even speculation as to whether the family’s religious beliefs prompted Joy-Anna’s recent weight loss. One person on Facebook wondered whether her trimmer shape was “for her fiancé,” who loves the outdoors. (The Duggars believe that wives should submit to their husbands, both in and out of the bedroom.)

However, according to Jonathan Alpert, a Manhattan-based psychotherapist and author of Be Fearless, the reasons for weight loss are varied. “While I see in my practice how religion affects issues surrounding weight and diet, there’s no way to know the particulars in this case,” he tells Yahoo Beauty. “Weight loss can occur due to stress, anxiety, family pressure, or simply a desire to be healthier.”

There’s also no shame in Joy-Anna, like many other women, wanting to look her best for her wedding. No matter her appearance, the family will always be under scrutiny. “When your life is on national television,” Alpert says, “people care about the decisions you make.”

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

• What Sex as a Plus-Size Woman Is Really Like

• New Study Will Make You Question Everything You Know About Intermittent Fasting

• Stop Stressing About Portion Control and Start Thinking About This

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