A woman who switched to a diet of fruit only was found deceased in her Bali hotel room, weighing less than 50 pounds.
Karolina Krzyzak, 27, a Polish former Leeds University (in the United Kingdom) student, switched to the bizarre eating habit when she was 19.
By the time she arrived at the popular Indonesian destination in 2024, her health had already begun to decline, in fact, so much so that she could not get out of bed.
Highlights
- Karolina Krzyzak, 27, had followed a fruit-only diet for years before her death in Bali.
- Resort staff said she was too weak to walk and refused medical help.
- Friends say she sought healing but was instead encouraged by online followers praising her thinness.
Upon seeing her, the hotel's staff offered to call her a doctor
Image credits: carolina.mariie
She is reported to have checked into the Sumberkima Hill resort, located at the center of the island, in December of last year.
At the time, the facility’s staffers observed she was so weak she could not walk by herself—a porter had to help her to her room.
They reported to The Cut that she was “emaciated” with sunken eyes, while her collar bones stuck out from her skin.
Concerned, the staffers asked if they should call a doctor, but she said no. So they tried again the next morning and received the same answer.
In the three days she stayed at the resort, she is reported to have seldom left her quarters
Image credits: carolina.mariie
She instructed the resort’s staffers to serve her fruit only, and it was to be brought up to her room door.
The resort’s manager did not find the request unusual as the island is an attraction for those seeking a healthy getaway.
In Krzyzak’s case, she had made the reservation at the last minute, requesting a villa with a pool.
Over the last few days of her life, she is reported to have seldom left her quarters.
Staffers found the 27-year-old after a friend contacted the hotel, complaining she was unable to reach Krzyzak
Image credits: carolina.mariie
Despite refusing the employee’s offers to get her medical assistance, she became weaker by the day until eventually she had to call the resort’s staff to help her turn over in her bed.
On the third day of Krzyzak’s stay, a Bali resident who ran a vegan café reached out to Sumberkima Hill. She was concerned because Krzyzak was not answering her attempts to contact her.
She asked the hotel to check in on the 27-year-old, and they found the woman deceased in her villa.
Those who discovered her provided an ominous account of what they saw upon entering the room.
When Krzyzak’s body was discovered, her hair was gray
Image credits: Jo Sonn (Not the actual photo)
Staff members speaking to The Cut described Krzyzak’s skin as mottled and said her hair, at the age of 27, had turned gray.
Her body was stiff with rigor mortis, and her fingernails were yellow. Krzyzak’s teeth, it was later established, had already begun to rot.
According to the friend who had raised the alarm, another condition suffered by the late Krzyzak was oedema, which is the retention of water in the body’s tissues resulting in swelling, in the late fruitarian’s case, of the feet.
The woman battled with her sense of self as a child
Image credits: Reiseuhu (Not the actual photo)
But Krzyzak appears to have survived her stringent lifestyle since the age of 19. But before that, in the years of her adolescence, she had contended with anorexia.
This all stemmed from an upbringing in Warsaw, Poland, where she is reported to have battled with her sense of self.
“Why do you cry,” she posted on Facebook in 2013. “‘Cause I’m fat,” she answered her own question.
Then, at the age of 18, she left Poland for the UK, where she started her tertiary education at the University of Leeds.
Part of the issue, those in the know say, was that people encouraged Krzyzak’s behavior
Image credits: carolina.mariie
An Instagram post around the time suggested she had decided to go vegan as she posted that it “opened her eyes” to “so many things” and how “grateful” she was for it.
The post was soon followed by photos of “smoothie bowls and cinnamon dusted blueberries,” the Daily Mail reported.
Then, a decade after the desolate Facebook admission, she declared, “I truly believe that you have the right answers. You know what's good for you even if right now it seems like chaos.”
The Cut’s investigation revealed that the thinner Krzyzak became, the more her followers complimented her with statements like “nice neck and collarbones.”
Krzyzak wanted to heal, but people kept telling her she looked good
Image credits: carolina.mariie
Krzyzak’s offramp into fruitarianism was marked by her connection to another advocate for the—in her case, especially—perilous lifestyle, who declared to The Cut, “only eating fruits is the right way” to detox.
This individual had been contacted by Krzyzak in 2017 and was asked if it was possible to recover from anorexia so that she could start having her period again.
Image credits: carolina.mariie
Krzyzak wanted to heal, but those who knew her said she was set back by people who encouraged the behavior, telling her she looked good.
“She needed medical and psychological help, and the community often validated her behaviors instead,” a friend confirmed.
Krzyzak's passing has stirred a controversy among netizens
