TLC - My 600 pound Life

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of the episodes this season have been so strange. Many of the people who have become morbidly obese suffered traumatic child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, and other horrific traumas.

But a few of them this season have literally said "my parents divorced and they fought which made me sad and so I ate." I... don't understand that. There wasn't any abuse, anything really traumatic or horrific. They also still grew up to have relationships with their parents, just... separate! This seems so light on the "trauma" scale, like saying "I ate myself to 600+lb pounds because my parents made me do chores I didn't want to do."

There's having an imperfect life (which we all have), and then there's real trauma. Some of them have actually had such an easy life.

It's not really hard to understand. It's a habit they developed and like all habits they are hard to break.

They may have started over eating due to the divorce but then life moved on and things improved but they liked eating and crappy food just tastes better

And once you start gaining weight, you can actually eat more because you have a bigger stomach capacity so it takes more and more food till you reach the full point.

Add in the fact that over the past 20 years, there are far more overweight people everywhere all the time so it became more acceptable to be overweight so food tastes good, it's a daily habit and there are lots of other people around who are fat as well. This all equals up to how morbid obesity happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this was discussed, but how on earth do they afford all that food? Government assistance? And even their homes/ cars? I know sometimes family pays for apartments and such, and maybe the show pays for the temp. housing in houston? But their food costs must be through the roof.

Food that’s bad for you, e.g., high fat, high salt, high cholesterol, lots of preservatives, hardly anything natural or organic in it, tastes “better,” is much cheaper and is more plentiful in lower income neighborhoods. You can get a lot more for $10 - $15 from fast food place than Whole Foods — that is, if there is such a grocery store anywhere near where some of these folks seem to live.

They probably eat $50 worth of fast food a day, at minimum. None of them work. They must get disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this was discussed, but how on earth do they afford all that food? Government assistance? And even their homes/ cars? I know sometimes family pays for apartments and such, and maybe the show pays for the temp. housing in houston? But their food costs must be through the roof.

Food that’s bad for you, e.g., high fat, high salt, high cholesterol, lots of preservatives, hardly anything natural or organic in it, tastes “better,” is much cheaper and is more plentiful in lower income neighborhoods. You can get a lot more for $10 - $15 from fast food place than Whole Foods — that is, if there is such a grocery store anywhere near where some of these folks seem to live.

No way they are only eating $10-$15 worth of fast food/day. Have you watched the show??!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I watch this show too. My doctor relatives are disgusted that doctors would operate on thee people, they are disqualified at nearly every hospital in the country. They all go to the one doctor in Houston, who is one of a handful who will see them.

What does this mean? That they are too obsese to be operated on by most standards of medical practice?

Their size makes them a huge liability. You have to have proper equipment, an anesthetist willing to take them on, staff trained in how to treat them. Many hospitals won't allow bariatric surgery b/c insurance companies (covering the hospital) won't allow it.

You're right about the super-morbidly obese (600 lbs) but not about bariatric surgery in general. Most hospitals want to do bariatric surgery on "normal" obese people - 300 lbs range.

This. Most hospitals and baratric surgery places can accommodate the 300 lb patients safely. They can't accommodate the 600 lb ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if this was discussed, but how on earth do they afford all that food? Government assistance? And even their homes/ cars? I know sometimes family pays for apartments and such, and maybe the show pays for the temp. housing in houston? But their food costs must be through the roof.

Food that’s bad for you, e.g., high fat, high salt, high cholesterol, lots of preservatives, hardly anything natural or organic in it, tastes “better,” is much cheaper and is more plentiful in lower income neighborhoods. You can get a lot more for $10 - $15 from fast food place than Whole Foods — that is, if there is such a grocery store anywhere near where some of these folks seem to live.

No way they are only eating $10-$15 worth of fast food/day. Have you watched the show??!!

seriously
there was a woman a few episodes ago (maja?) who would stop at several fast food places each morning and eat average meals at each of them. that alone must cost at least $60

[Anonymous]

^^
eat several (not average) meals at each of them

[Anonymous]

These people are really in the extreme. I don't think that most of us could get anywhere near 600 pounds before our bodies broke down.

I think that these people must have a genetic predisposition to be extremely obese. Most people would be completely bed ridden well before they got so huge. I can't see myself being able to walk across the room at 350 pounds, much less walk down a driveway, get in a car and drive around all day eating fast food at or approaching 600 pounds.

The compulsion to eat and their ability to keep on packing on the weight and getting bigger and bigger is just astonishing.

And the enablers who bring these people food....WTH???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These people are really in the extreme. I don't think that most of us could get anywhere near 600 pounds before our bodies broke down.

I think that these people must have a genetic predisposition to be extremely obese. Most people would be completely bed ridden well before they got so huge. I can't see myself being able to walk across the room at 350 pounds, much less walk down a driveway, get in a car and drive around all day eating fast food at or approaching 600 pounds.

The compulsion to eat and their ability to keep on packing on the weight and getting bigger and bigger is just astonishing.

And the enablers who bring these people food....WTH???

Dr. Now has said this. It takes a LOT of effort (eating) to maintain 600 pounds.

[Anonymous]

It is staggering. An average height 30 year old person weighing 600lbs, has to be eating 4,000 calories a day JUST TO MAINTAIN. That doesn't include activity - a 600lb person will burn way more calories showering, walking to the mailbox, etc than a normal weight person. And it also doesn't include obvious calorie surplus needed to gain. They must be eating around 6,000+ calories every single day - it's mind boggling.

I can't really blame many of the enablers - like in the last episode, a boyfriend who is tired of being abused, bullied, harassed, for saying "no" - so he caves to avoid constant arguments. It's a difficult situation to be in. At the end of the day, we're responsible for ourselves - no one except the morbidly obese is responsible for constantly shoveling food into their mouths.

[Anonymous]

How do their skeletons not collapse under that weight?

[Anonymous]

Are there any animals that will eat and eat and eat to this kind of extreme or is this a uniquely human thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are there any animals that will eat and eat and eat to this kind of extreme or is this a uniquely human thing?

Yes, animals will overeat. Generally their diet is limited, so it usually isn't a huge problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When they sign the contract to be on the show and get free support / surgery...do you think they HAVE to also agree to be filmed taking a shower and eating a pizza?

One of the show participants said they are paid extra to have the shower filmed. That would be so degrading no matter how much they pay.

[Anonymous]

Most, if not all of them are probably type 2 diabetics. It would not be hard to maintain their weight or gain weight, when they have out of control blood sugar levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are there any animals that will eat and eat and eat to this kind of extreme or is this a uniquely human thing?

Yes, animals will overeat. Generally their diet is limited, so it usually isn't a huge problem.

I know that animals can overeat and get overweight. But could an 80 pound golden retriever ever balloon up to 3 or 4 times their normal body weight. Have you ever heard of a 240 or 360 pound golden retriever?

My sweet golden loves her treats and she weighs a few more pounds than she probably should. She would weigh a lot more if I allowed her to have her to eat bagels and pizza. But I simply can not envision any food loving animal eating themselves to two or three times their normal size.