My 600 Pound Life

bellabonbons
bellabonbons Posts: 705 Member
edited December 19 in Health and Weight Loss
I watch this program a lot. And frankly I just am shocked that someone could eat so much to weigh 600 pounds. I love the doctor on this program. He never minces his words.
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Replies

  • Emi1974
    Emi1974 Posts: 522 Member
    I believe I have watched an episode many months ago. I was so disappointed with the enablers. Often these people can't move, shop or cook for themselves. It is the family and friends who often feed them. On the other hand I know how absolute bitchy I get when I can't have what I want or someone in the family tries to talk to me about what I am doing to myself. I have thrown a massive tantrum a couple of years ago because of food... I rather forget about...
  • cbelc2
    cbelc2 Posts: 762 Member
    The issues go beyond food. Compulsive overeaters feel they have no control. It's an addiction.

  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    bellabonbons wrote: »
    I watch this program a lot. And frankly I just am shocked that someone could eat so much to weigh 600 pounds. I love the doctor on this program. He never minces his words.

    I'm sure he's seen too many people die because he cut them slack.
  • bellabonbons
    bellabonbons Posts: 705 Member
    As as incredible as his surgery is as an attempt to help, sadly some have died due to cardiac arrest from the mayor shock of the sudden weight loss. My late husband was a surgeon and there was a obese women that came to see him because all other doctors turned her away. This motivated her to lose weight. The worst for morbidly obese people is their family members load them up with every fast food imaginable if you love someone you don't enable them.
  • bellabonbons
    bellabonbons Posts: 705 Member
    And I am sure that there are many here on my fitness pal that has the same tendencies to eat nonstop to gain up to 600 pounds but they choose not to.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    People debate food addiction versus things like alcohol addiction often. I can't verify any of it one way or another.

    My only input is that the only time I really don't feel sorry for someone is when they say things like "I gained 75 pounds overnight!" Aside from extreme outliers, anyone is going to notice a 75 pound gain. Either own up to the fact that you noticed it and didn't care or weren't in the position to take control of it rather than act as if it's a shock and you truly don't understand how the weight was gained.

    I understand because I've been there. Not 600 pounds there, but once I reached high school I ballooned up to 190 pounds by the time I graduated. I lived with my mother and had a home life where she didn't provide lunch for school, so I was buying McDonald's and Wendy's with my allowance money from my father since it was cheap and filling. Other days my lunch was Skittles and M&Ms from the vending machine. She only made breakfast, a bagged lunch, and dinner every day for her husband. I knew nothing about nutrition and if I was hungry, the response was "eat cereal" or, if I was lucky, I was thrown a couple of bucks for cheap fast food. I didn't eat often, but it was enough cheap food with super high calories that it made me put weight on. Seeing myself at 190 was a real eye opener for me. I was 18 and on my own after high school, so I had the power to change things and I did. I haven't seen that weight since. Any time I've fluctuated in the past, I've always taken control before it got out of control. Some people don't have that willpower and discipline. Some people have emotional blocks. Quite frankly, yes, it takes a LOT of food for someone to reach 600 pounds, but for someone who doesn't have much else going on in life that may be easier for them to do.
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    Emi1974 wrote: »
    I believe I have watched an episode many months ago. I was so disappointed with the enablers. Often these people can't move, shop or cook for themselves. It is the family and friends who often feed them.

    thats exactly why this show pisses me off and i refuse to watch it

  • bellabonbons
    bellabonbons Posts: 705 Member
    Emi I agree. If you love someone and they are so obese that they cannot move or walk why would you bring them fast food, liters of Coke and dozens of donuts that is just beyond comprehension. I loved reading a post here where he said he knew he had a choice and wouldn't allow himself to gain that much. You know you hear a lot of comments about no compassion but there's also another element called tough love these people who are saying that there's no compassion could be the very type a personality that would be enablers to people they love it's really sad. We all are given a choice.
  • LizaMarie78
    LizaMarie78 Posts: 35 Member
    bellabonbons wrote: »
    Emi I agree. If you love someone and they are so obese that they cannot move or walk why would you bring them fast food, liters of Coke and dozens of donuts that is just beyond comprehension. I loved reading a post here where he said he knew he had a choice and wouldn't allow himself to gain that much. You know you hear a lot of comments about no compassion but there's also another element called tough love these people who are saying that there's no compassion could be the very type a personality that would be enablers to people they love it's really sad. We all are given a choice.

    Can you just stop for a moment and think that its not just the 600lbs person having issues and it's the whole family? They all need help! and please about there's people saying that there's no compassion can be the same type that would be enablers? How you know?

    Your whole post is just sad!
  • singingflutelady
    singingflutelady Posts: 8,736 Member
    I really like the patients from this year but I can never, ever get behind and support Penny.
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Fascinating OP. I stumbled upon this show while in a hotel with limited cable offerings. I found it compelling, and, while I've never been obese, I could empathize on many levels. The DOCTOR is the one who I have trouble wrapping my head around.
  • vegmebuff
    vegmebuff Posts: 31,389 Member
    synacious wrote: »
    People debate food addiction versus things like alcohol addiction often. I can't verify any of it one way or another.

    My only input is that the only time I really don't feel sorry for someone is when they say things like "I gained 75 pounds overnight!" Aside from extreme outliers, anyone is going to notice a 75 pound gain. Either own up to the fact that you noticed it and didn't care or weren't in the position to take control of it rather than act as if it's a shock and you truly don't understand how the weight was gained.

    I understand because I've been there. Not 600 pounds there, but once I reached high school I ballooned up to 190 pounds by the time I graduated. I lived with my mother and had a home life where she didn't provide lunch for school, so I was buying McDonald's and Wendy's with my allowance money from my father since it was cheap and filling. Other days my lunch was Skittles and M&Ms from the vending machine. She only made breakfast, a bagged lunch, and dinner every day for her husband. I knew nothing about nutrition and if I was hungry, the response was "eat cereal" or, if I was lucky, I was thrown a couple of bucks for cheap fast food. I didn't eat often, but it was enough cheap food with super high calories that it made me put weight on. Seeing myself at 190 was a real eye opener for me. I was 18 and on my own after high school, so I had the power to change things and I did. I haven't seen that weight since. Any time I've fluctuated in the past, I've always taken control before it got out of control. Some people don't have that willpower and discipline. Some people have emotional blocks. Quite frankly, yes, it takes a LOT of food for someone to reach 600 pounds, but for someone who doesn't have much else going on in life that may be easier for them to do.

    That is a sad story...I think of this as child abuse! Unfortunately, there are far too many families that live this way. BTW - you look like you are in fabulous healthy fitness land now!
  • Cynsonya
    Cynsonya Posts: 668 Member
    JanetYellen wrote: »
    Compassion is one of the most beautiful traits a person can have.

    ^^This


  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    bellabonbons wrote: »
    Emi I agree. If you love someone and they are so obese that they cannot move or walk why would you bring them fast food, liters of Coke and dozens of donuts that is just beyond comprehension. I loved reading a post here where he said he knew he had a choice and wouldn't allow himself to gain that much. You know you hear a lot of comments about no compassion but there's also another element called tough love these people who are saying that there's no compassion could be the very type a personality that would be enablers to people they love it's really sad. We all are given a choice.

    Tough love has a place, but compassion can be much more powerful and empowering, when you know the appropriate times for each.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Compassion =/= complacency or ignorance of reality. FYI.
  • zoeysasha37
    zoeysasha37 Posts: 7,088 Member
    edited February 2016
    100df wrote: »
    Tough love is overrated. Kicking people when they are down rarely has a good effect.

    Yep.. You'll never make a good dog by kicking a puppy ( don't kick someone while they are down )

    Op- go walk a day in their shoes and see how it feels before throwing stones. You know what they say about glass houses ??
  • Lourdesong
    Lourdesong Posts: 1,492 Member
    I found it really shocking that 2 patients this season divulged they never once tried to lose weight before. Never attempted any sort of diet or reign it in, like, ever. They became 600 lbs and just went straight for the gastric bypass option.

    Trying and failing is one thing, but never trying? Not even diet fads, nothing? Blew my mind, all I could think was the patients must have been really checked out of their life to not make any attempts to lose weight as their lives got harder and harder due to the pounds piling on and on.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    I think about how much I used to eat. I'm amazed I topped out around 240.

    There but for the Grace of God go I.
  • mrsloganlife
    mrsloganlife Posts: 158 Member
    edited February 2016
    singingflutelady wrote: »
    I really like the patients from this year but I can never, ever get behind and support Penny.

    Preach! She drove me insane. I feel for her it was just so she could get on TV. She never made an effort once.

    I find this show intriguing, but at the same time my heart breaks for these people. I do enjoy when the family stands behind them and helps them with their journey. I have also noticed that in later seasons it is not as much about the surgery and losing weight, but about these people discovering themselves as well as facing their demons. And then I find myself screaming at the TV when they inevitably go to a drive thru restaurant.

    There was one a couple of weeks ago...I think Chad was his name. His had me blubbering. Towards the end of the episode he admitted that this was his fault, that he let himself get into this situation, and he made his wife and his kids' lives miserable. His wife was bathing him at the start of the episode and he would be so tired from that he would go back to sleep. He was not engaged in his family due to his size. At the end of the episode he was going to the park and playing with his kids, apologized to his wife, and looked 10x happier.

    EDIT: And I just reread OP's post--dear God. It's called compassion and empathy. I saw that you are a photographer. Photographers can find beauty in all they see--I suggest you take that same outlook and apply it to what you see when you are not looking through a lens. Yikes.

    And yes I did judge Penny but come on...compare her episode to others, Google her, and you will quickly realize her intentions being on the show were not to better herself or her life.
  • IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt
    IdLikeToLoseItLoseIt Posts: 695 Member
    edited February 2016
    I think it really does land in the realm of addictions and psychological problems, and as such it's important to view extreme obesity through that lense. The show Hoarders? There's an example of living, daily, in a home that literally becomes life threatening, bags of excrement and adult diapers piled to the ceiling. Most people think, "How could you ever let it get that far?" or "Why don't you just clean?" However, it's far far more complicated and deeper than that, it just happens to manifest itself in an externally visible way. With extreme obesity, I think it's far far more complicated than "trying to diet."

    And even among the extremes, there is still a spectrum of people, some of whom can be helped and help themselves (and want to change) and some of whom may never be able to live in the way "society" deems acceptable.

    Fat shaming is one of the last widely accepted forms of prejudice and judgmentalism in society today. We live in a time where people can change their gender and their physical body parts and that is accepted, we have compassion and understanding. But a 600 lb person? Let the outward negativity and nastiness fly, let the holier than thou attitudes prevail!

    It makes me sad and angry.
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