"I had a fantastic surgeon," the weight loss guru added.
Simone earned internet fame after losing half her body weight and documenting the progress online.
"If I put my weight, and photos of me, online, then I knew that there was no going back," she explained on FABLife.
"For me I knew if I made it a public journey and put myself online then I would be kept accountable. I knew that if I put my weight and my measurements and a photo of me literally half naked online for the world to see that there was no turning back.
"I could have no bad days, no bad weeks, that was it."
The make-up artist also addressed the pressure she felt, working in the beauty industry, to always look perfect - and to conform to society's views about the ideal look.
"I definitely felt that pressure, you're around beauty 24/7 and you're seeing these gorgeous, stick-thin models so it was always something that was in the back of your mind," she explained.
By cutting out processed foods and eating smaller portions, Simone shrunk dramatically over the course of a year, improving not just her appearance but her life.
She explained that she didn't just want to look better - she also wanted to feel better.
Small tasks that should have been easy, like taking out the garbage, had become hard because of her excess weight, so she commuted to the goal of getting healthy.
And she pulled it off.
"Within a few months, I had inspired thousands of other girls and other men around the world to start their weight loss journeys, and when I got to my goal weight, that photo went viral," she said, noting that Daily Mail Online was one of many major outlets to write about her.
Unfortunately, though, the feedback wasn't all positive. Some people claimed that she couldn't possibly have lost all that weight because she didn't seem to have any excess skin - though the truth was just that it was hidden in the pictures she posted online.
"It was not something I was ashamed or embarrassed of or anything like that," she added to Daily Mail Online.
"But when I was sports training I would need to wear compression pants under sports tights to keep it all in place and stop it from bouncing up and down. It would rub and cause bleeding under the skin and I would get belly button infections, it was just incredibly uncomfortable."
But the haters were vicious: 'The depth and the level they go to - it's mind-blowing. I wouldn't even think to write that to my worst enemy.
"It was definitely a violation. I worked so hard for this, and you can't take this away from me."
So she revealed her excess skin to the world. In her FABLife segment, a clip rolls in which she points out the skin on her stomach, back, and chest, making it clear that she really did lose all that weight.
Once she hit her goal weight, Dr. Remus Rapta, a doctor in Arizona, offered to perform the surgery to remove her excess skin.
"No amount of diet or exercise is going to get rid of that loose skin," Dr. Rapta told People before the procedure.
Last week, she flew there and went under the knife for nine hours. He performed an abdominoplasty, a bra-line backlift to remove the loose skin from her stomach and back, a breast lift, and an augmentation.
Simone was excited by the prospect of never again having to tuck her loose skin into her pants, telling People that she expected to be more confident once the surgery was over.
And though she was in a lot of pain and was "quite miserable" shortly after the procedure, Simone was very pleased with the results: "My body is so, so amazing, I couldn't be happier.
"I cannot wait for summer ... I'll be fully recovered and definitely be in a bikini."
In the meantime, she's sticking to slinky LBDs like the one she wore on FABLife - where she told Tyra she's received 'overwhelming support' - and belly-baring work-out clothes, like the ones she posted photos of herself wearing on Facebook.
And if she needs some other fashion help? Tyra - who praised Simone for "silencing her haters" - got co-host Joe Zee to offer her some wardrobe tips for transitioning a closet after losing a lot of weight.
- Daily Mail
