My 600 Pound Life?
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Did you see the episode where her father made her a healthier breakfast or lunch (I forgot) but she insisted on what she had made for herself which wasnt a healthy choice. Then she proceeded to eat her sandwich along with what her father had made for her.
I think this might be because overall there seems to be a huge, and I mean HUGE element of control going on here. That is just so frequent. "You're not going to tell ME what to eat." Even if the person speaking is the one who made the decision to lose weight. I believe the "control" thing may be a factor across the gamut of the weight gain/loss experience. It just seems such a common thread.0 -
I watch a lot of TLC shows (my mom watches that channel a lot so it's just on a lot in our house). My 600lb life makes me kind of sad, because of how so many of the people have gotten to that point, despite a loving support system. There's no reason for it in most of the cases. On the flip side I also watch my Big Fat Fabulous life and it makes me sad for other reasons. Her story in general doesn't, because she owns her situation, and she is such a positive role model for bigger girls, but because she is not lazy, she tries so hard, and works out so much and it just makes you realize that looking at a fat person isn't always as it appears. So many people judge us because we are fat without knowing our circumstances, and I watch her and know exactly how she feels. It's really hard to be positive and live life with eyes on you in disgust because they think they know. I applaud the bravery of the people on those shows, just as I applaud the bravery of everyone who puts themselves out there on this website. It's hard, and remember only he who is without sin can cast the first stone.
Just wanted to point out that MOST of the people on this show DID NOT have a healthy support system. The majority (and I've seen most of the shows - missed last week's) have a strange family dynamic, other family members who are obese and often, had a lot of misery (not always sexual abuse, of course) growing up. They always seem to have a codependent relationship with at least one family member and sometimes, it's more than one. And many feature family gatherings that involve food, food, food, food and more food. They also seem to feature lots of family takeout with the family not even sitting at the table, but rather, stuffing everything onto paper plates and sitting and staring at the TV while eating, and in one I remember a parent feeding the infant fast food.
Not being facetious or sarcastic as I believe your intentions were good here, but there is no way, no how any type of healthy living surrounding the growing-up and usually, current system of family in any of the shows I've watched. As for support, sometimes that support is in family members continuing to sneak in food to the obese person, sometimes it's an actual healthy form of support (rarely from a family member, sometimes from a friend - and pretty often, against the strident objections of at least one other person, sometimes more) and sometimes there's deliberate attempted sabotage, such as Gareth, the husband who jeered constantly at his wife and shoved fast food in her face in an effort to get her to overeat again.
I believe I've seen at least three shows that involved a mention of another family member also receiving the surgery. In one case, the wife got the surgery after the husband did. In another it was the sister and I can't remember the specifics of the third one.
Although these people's lives (and eating) ARE, indeed, in their own hands, I just don't see that there's a healthy support system overall in any of the shows I've watched so far except from others who have seen the light and are scared because the person might die (following years of no attempts at support, generally), and as for "there's no reason," gosh, there are dozens of reasons. Not excuses. But reasons? Oh for sure.
Something to wonder about in terms of the show - are people in these horrible co-dependent relationships simply more likely to get into that super-morbidly obese category, therefore there's an abundance for the producers to choose from, or is it that people in that category are more likely to want to be on a tv show, or are the producers intentionally self-selecting the worst of the worst relationships for the sake of good tv?0 -
I watch a lot of TLC shows (my mom watches that channel a lot so it's just on a lot in our house). My 600lb life makes me kind of sad, because of how so many of the people have gotten to that point, despite a loving support system. There's no reason for it in most of the cases. On the flip side I also watch my Big Fat Fabulous life and it makes me sad for other reasons. Her story in general doesn't, because she owns her situation, and she is such a positive role model for bigger girls, but because she is not lazy, she tries so hard, and works out so much and it just makes you realize that looking at a fat person isn't always as it appears. So many people judge us because we are fat without knowing our circumstances, and I watch her and know exactly how she feels. It's really hard to be positive and live life with eyes on you in disgust because they think they know. I applaud the bravery of the people on those shows, just as I applaud the bravery of everyone who puts themselves out there on this website. It's hard, and remember only he who is without sin can cast the first stone.
Just wanted to point out that MOST of the people on this show DID NOT have a healthy support system. The majority (and I've seen most of the shows - missed last week's) have a strange family dynamic, other family members who are obese and often, had a lot of misery (not always sexual abuse, of course) growing up. They always seem to have a codependent relationship with at least one family member and sometimes, it's more than one. And many feature family gatherings that involve food, food, food, food and more food. They also seem to feature lots of family takeout with the family not even sitting at the table, but rather, stuffing everything onto paper plates and sitting and staring at the TV while eating, and in one I remember a parent feeding the infant fast food.
Not being facetious or sarcastic as I believe your intentions were good here, but there is no way, no how any type of healthy living surrounding the growing-up and usually, current system of family in any of the shows I've watched. As for support, sometimes that support is in family members continuing to sneak in food to the obese person, sometimes it's an actual healthy form of support (rarely from a family member, sometimes from a friend - and pretty often, against the strident objections of at least one other person, sometimes more) and sometimes there's deliberate attempted sabotage, such as Gareth, the husband who jeered constantly at his wife and shoved fast food in her face in an effort to get her to overeat again.
I believe I've seen at least three shows that involved a mention of another family member also receiving the surgery. In one case, the wife got the surgery after the husband did. In another it was the sister and I can't remember the specifics of the third one.
Although these people's lives (and eating) ARE, indeed, in their own hands, I just don't see that there's a healthy support system overall in any of the shows I've watched so far except from others who have seen the light and are scared because the person might die (following years of no attempts at support, generally), and as for "there's no reason," gosh, there are dozens of reasons. Not excuses. But reasons? Oh for sure.
Something to wonder about in terms of the show - are people in these horrible co-dependent relationships simply more likely to get into that super-morbidly obese category, therefore there's an abundance for the producers to choose from, or is it that people in that category are more likely to want to be on a tv show, or are the producers intentionally self-selecting the worst of the worst relationships for the sake of good tv?
It could be both. Certainly having been "trained" in an environment to seriously overeat, to maintain unhealthy relationships despite one's instincts and so on are going to push one into the direction of way more overweight than the average overweight person (because these person ARE still in the minority). OTOH, there does seem like there's an abundance to choose from, but how many people have been profiled? Like a dozen, maybe 15? That's still a tiny percentage of the U.S. overall.
As for the self-selecting, naturally, the producers are going to want the most sensationalist platform possible. Train wrecks will always be a draw for a producer who's hoping for $$$ rather than simply $$. Again, that's why I dislike the first portion of the show and often skip over it, looking toward the part I do really enjoy, which is (more often than not) the losses, the successes and victories, the happy faces, the self-pride and the knowledge that this CAN be done, one way or another.
But let's face facts. I can't really see, personally, how anyone can get to 600 lbs. and NOT be leading a (comparatively) strange, uncomfortable and usually very very emotional, unhappy life. (I could be wrong. I actually don't personally know anyone who's even 400 lbs. so perhaps there are 600-lb. people out there who lead happy lives and have no issues other than eating.) I don't know that the producers necessarily have to look at a pool of hundreds of 600-pound people in order to eventually find one who's leading a life that is going to look sensationalist to viewers (though they probably do, as I imagine they get more submissions than they film and air shows).
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lulufee317537 wrote: »lulufee317537 wrote: »I find it fascinating. I also liked that documentary about the man who had a face transplant.
But it also makes me shake my head. Only in America can a person be killing themselves with too much food when there are people in other countries whose children are starving. I hate that aspect of this western culture, the "I can have anything I want" culture. It's no wonder they can go off the deep end when simply being 200-300 lbs in this country is considered normal.
Also, this "fat is beautiful" attitude doesn't help. Beauty is subjective and whatever, etc. But being fat is unhealthy and we shouldn't pretend it's OK. Telling someone they are unhealthy and that they should try to be healthy isn't the same as saying they are horrible ugly people, no more than telling someone they should quit smoking is implying they are a bad person.
Ugh!! Seriously...that attitude really is hurtful, and in my mind it's just a way for people who have nothing going for them but their weight to feel superior by putting others down.
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There have been some unfortunate changes in the way WLS is done. It's more of a for-profit business now than ever before. Before lapro was an option, the screening was a lot stricter, including the psych screen, and very few surgeons were even available to do it. Now they pop out of the woodwork like Dr. Nick on The Simpsons, and I've seen so many horror stories in the support group I used to moderate. I get the impression there isn't nearly as much attention paid to the home environment as I had, either - if someone is living with a feeder, or a person who has a bad co-dependent relationship vested in keeping the person obese, surgery is just a lot of pain and misery that won't win in the end. That relationship has to end first.
It's a shame isnt it. I think it would be more beneficial if they had at least 6 months prior therapy requirement before surgery. There has to be core issues (aside from those who have serious health issues that prevents them from losing) why someone allows themselves to eat and eat to the point they cant walk and/or are house bound.
You mentioned Angel - I was worried about the outcome of her surgery when she lost 165 *before* getting the procedure and they noted that she was basically not eating at all.
I did think it was really backwards that she didn't see a therapist until way later in the year. Because you can see her getting thinner...but you don't see her smile until after therapy. That girl was really depressed.
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lulufee317537 wrote: »lulufee317537 wrote: »I find it fascinating. I also liked that documentary about the man who had a face transplant.
But it also makes me shake my head. Only in America can a person be killing themselves with too much food when there are people in other countries whose children are starving. I hate that aspect of this western culture, the "I can have anything I want" culture. It's no wonder they can go off the deep end when simply being 200-300 lbs in this country is considered normal.
Also, this "fat is beautiful" attitude doesn't help. Beauty is subjective and whatever, etc. But being fat is unhealthy and we shouldn't pretend it's OK. Telling someone they are unhealthy and that they should try to be healthy isn't the same as saying they are horrible ugly people, no more than telling someone they should quit smoking is implying they are a bad person.
Ugh!! Seriously...that attitude really is hurtful, and in my mind it's just a way for people who have nothing going for them but their weight to feel superior by putting others down.
I tried to adopt this attitude for a while and it didn't work. I didn't feel beautiful. My body was ponderous and hard to move around, I wasn't graceful, couldn't cross my legs and my skin was awful. Just didn't see, nor feel, the beauty. It had nothing, absolutely zip to do with being "hot" or wanting to attract men or even just being accepted overall. It had everything to do with the fact that beauty truly does come from within - and unhappiness and bad health just don't necessarily translate to beautiful, at least for most people. Even if I had looked like a million bucks to other people at 220, I would have lost the weight anyway because what good is it to have someone else think you "look" just great, but inwardly to feel like you're dying?
I'm still quite overweight, but with the loss I've had so far, the grace is back, my body "working well" is coming back, and I'm feeling the beauty again.
Now the attitude that five or ten pounds above one's ideal weight is ugly, "fat" and unacceptable - that IS hurtful. But there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere. I do feel we need to adopt the attitude that bodies of different types and sizes can be beautiful, without swinging totally to "...which means being morbidly obese, unable to function well and having significant health issues is beautiful." Isn't there an in-between? Why does it have to be one or the other?
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Now the attitude that five or ten pounds above one's ideal weight is ugly, "fat" and unacceptable - that IS hurtful. But there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere. I do feel we need to adopt the attitude that bodies of different types and sizes can be beautiful, without swinging totally to "...which means being morbidly obese, unable to function well and having significant health issues is beautiful." Isn't there an in-between? Why does it have to be one or the other?
I think what really bugs me is that it's part of this culture where everyone co-owns every female's body. Nobody's telling guys this stuff, because men are not valued based on how much other people want to have sex with them. Women, however, are de-valued based on their size alone, NOT the fact that they might have health problems or struggle with daily life, it's solely because they have failed to live up to their social obligation to be attractive.
Telling someone they're beautiful means "I see past your sexual desirability", it doesn't mean "knock yourself and eat a billion Twinkies". So claiming that is what means, to me, is a complete tell that someone is just being an a-hole.
But that's just me lol...
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tracyannk28 wrote: »Italian_Buju wrote: »tracyannk28 wrote: »Have ya'll noticed that a lot of these women are blaming their weight on prior sexual assult/sexual abuse/child molestation?
I get a little irratated when I hear that because (sadly) I know victims of these awful things and none of them weigh 650 pounds...I feel like they're using it as an excuse and I find it offensive.
You really need to educate yourself on this matter.....I am not saying that to be rude, I am being dead serious....
I already apoplogized for my ignorant comment.
Again - I am sorry my comment was offensive. I truly didn't mean it that way. I know 4 victims of sexual abuse - 2 rape survivors, and 2 that were victims of molestation as small children (one from a family member, one from a neighbor). I can only go by what I have experienced personally.
If you look, I posted this several hours before you admitted your comment was ignorant
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Drives me nuts that the person(s) living with them...brings the very foods in that is making the person ill into the house.
I do use it as a motivator. I have been concerned that watching these cases...normalizes that (600 pd) size to my eyes.
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yes i have watched it. Some episodes have motivated me and also made me feel sad. I think to myself thank God I never got that bad but then I think why didn't I stick to a diet and keep it off when I first started.
One thing MFP has taught me is that I do not need weight loss surgery and a quick fix is not the answer. consistently monitoring what I eat and being accountable is the only way to be successful and never give up on myself0 -
Drives me nuts that the person(s) living with them...brings the very foods in that is making the person ill into the house.
I do use it as a motivator. I have been concerned that watching these cases...normalizes that (600 pd) size to my eyes.
I just watched an episode about a 22 year old girl named Christine (or Christina, can't really remember...oops) and her husband and mother were sneaking her food in the hospital when she was supposed to be on a strict diet. That made me really angry.0 -
Now the attitude that five or ten pounds above one's ideal weight is ugly, "fat" and unacceptable - that IS hurtful. But there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere. I do feel we need to adopt the attitude that bodies of different types and sizes can be beautiful, without swinging totally to "...which means being morbidly obese, unable to function well and having significant health issues is beautiful." Isn't there an in-between? Why does it have to be one or the other?
I think what really bugs me is that it's part of this culture where everyone co-owns every female's body. Nobody's telling guys this stuff, because men are not valued based on how much other people want to have sex with them. Women, however, are de-valued based on their size alone, NOT the fact that they might have health problems or struggle with daily life, it's solely because they have failed to live up to their social obligation to be attractive.
Telling someone they're beautiful means "I see past your sexual desirability", it doesn't mean "knock yourself and eat a billion Twinkies". So claiming that is what means, to me, is a complete tell that someone is just being an a-hole.
But that's just me lol...
This bugs me too. WhyTF does the entire world have the right to tell me whether my body is acceptable *to them* or not? I frankly couldn't give a fart in a high wind if my exact body type is appealing to some dude. Go get your own girl, one you DO like. But leave your judgments at home.
Really I was just questioning why there isn't some level of acceptance of every body (male or female) being different from every other one - without totally swinging to, "That means that a person who is extremely uncomfortable and unwell must be beautiful too." No, she "mustn't" be hands-down, any more than blue eyes MUST be either ugly or beautiful to every single person. I hope that made any sense at all, LOL. Dodging between posts and actual work.
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It's really insensitive (not to mention IMMENSELY OBLIVIOUS to your own privileges) to use the exploitation of mentally ill and/or unhappy people as motivation. People are not props to be used.
I don't think that was the meaning. I think, for a lot of us, we can empathize with what is happening. Someone on here summed it up well with "but by the Grace of God go I." For many of us, it could have been and could still become us.0 -
Now the attitude that five or ten pounds above one's ideal weight is ugly, "fat" and unacceptable - that IS hurtful. But there has to be a happy medium in there somewhere. I do feel we need to adopt the attitude that bodies of different types and sizes can be beautiful, without swinging totally to "...which means being morbidly obese, unable to function well and having significant health issues is beautiful." Isn't there an in-between? Why does it have to be one or the other?
I think what really bugs me is that it's part of this culture where everyone co-owns every female's body. Nobody's telling guys this stuff, because men are not valued based on how much other people want to have sex with them. Women, however, are de-valued based on their size alone, NOT the fact that they might have health problems or struggle with daily life, it's solely because they have failed to live up to their social obligation to be attractive.
Telling someone they're beautiful means "I see past your sexual desirability", it doesn't mean "knock yourself and eat a billion Twinkies". So claiming that is what means, to me, is a complete tell that someone is just being an a-hole.
But that's just me lol...
This bugs me too. WhyTF does the entire world have the right to tell me whether my body is acceptable *to them* or not? I frankly couldn't give a fart in a high wind if my exact body type is appealing to some dude. Go get your own girl, one you DO like. But leave your judgments at home.
Really I was just questioning why there isn't some level of acceptance of every body (male or female) being different from every other one - without totally swinging to, "That means that a person who is extremely uncomfortable and unwell must be beautiful too." No, she "mustn't" be hands-down, any more than blue eyes MUST be either ugly or beautiful to every single person. I hope that made any sense at all, LOL. Dodging between posts and actual work.
So, we go from one end of the pendulum to the other...but the good news is, at least now there is a pendulum. Things are more black and white the less experience we have discussing the grays, so hopefully this is a situation that will improve.
I'm also slacking off on my Friday afternoon - must be the thing to do today
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rendash49221 wrote: »It's really insensitive (not to mention IMMENSELY OBLIVIOUS to your own privileges) to use the exploitation of mentally ill and/or unhappy people as motivation. People are not props to be used.
I don't think that was the meaning. I think, for a lot of us, we can empathize with what is happening. Someone on here summed it up well with "but by the Grace of God go I." For many of us, it could have been and could still become us.
This. And by the way, it's really insensitive, not to mention immensely oblivious, to assume that any given person likes to watch the show in order to gape at the mentally ill as motivation rather than, say, witness another person's joy and success as our motivation. Or even to assume that it's for "our own" motivation at all but rather, again, to simply celebrate someone else's joy.
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Super morbidly obese are completely dependent on...whoever. Family members, staff members in residential facilities, visiting healthcare workers, friends who bring them what they need.
They can't shop and cook generally and if they're not brought the food they want to eat, they'll call a restaurant for delivery.
There used to be a show on Discovery called Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic which beat the heck out of the reality shows about the super morbidly obese being broadcast today.
I think I remember that one, wasn't Dr. Now from that show first? I used to watch a show set in the hospital he works at, and I think this was it.....0 -
I remember the Brookhaven show, and people in treatment calling for take out pizza! These people are addicts. Surgery won't fix the addiction. These folks are hard wired that food takes away their emotional pain. They are as addicted as a heroin addict. And I believe that their withdrawal from the types of food they eat, usually high carb, high fat, high sugar is very challenging.0
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softblondechick wrote: »I remember the Brookhaven show, and people in treatment calling for take out pizza! These people are addicts. Surgery won't fix the addiction. These folks are hard wired that food takes away their emotional pain. They are as addicted as a heroin addict. And I believe that their withdrawal from the types of food they eat, usually high carb, high fat, high sugar is very challenging.
Was that when they first started Discovery Health as its own standalone channel? It sounds familiar, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering the same one. Did they follow 2 people as in-patient and then outpatient on each show?0 -
I'm bothered by both this show and Hoarders because I think the vast majority of the people who watch (not any individual here, but the millions of others who tune in) do so from the perspective of "Oh, THOSE PEOPLE are gross, I'm so much better than those AWFUL PEOPLE."
If you can't watch without compassion, or at the very least humility for your own failings, then you are just a *kitten*, IMHO.0 -
I'm bothered by both this show and Hoarders because I think the vast majority of the people who watch (not any individual here, but the millions of others who tune in) do so from the perspective of "Oh, THOSE PEOPLE are gross, I'm so much better than those AWFUL PEOPLE."
If you can't watch without compassion, or at the very least humility for your own failings, then you are just a *kitten*, IMHO.
I agree with this statement. When I've watched shows like these, I am always rooting for the person to be successful in the outcome, and I'm sad when they don't succeed in the end. I don't like the idea of people watching because they like the trainwreck situations. That being said, I'd be lying if I didn't say there was a small part of me that doesn't say "Thank God I'm not this far gone"0 -
softblondechick wrote: »I remember the Brookhaven show, and people in treatment calling for take out pizza! These people are addicts. Surgery won't fix the addiction. These folks are hard wired that food takes away their emotional pain. They are as addicted as a heroin addict. And I believe that their withdrawal from the types of food they eat, usually high carb, high fat, high sugar is very challenging.
I suspect (but of course can't know) that they're not addicted to the actual foods. They're addicted to the overstuffed feeling, the multiple taste sensations all at once and just kind of "blanking out" after a binge - you really can't think about anything else. It covers any possible deeper negative feeling. This is only my experience with binges, but I don't believe I was ever addicted to given food but rather, that "zoned-out" feeling afterward. Also the 100% focused stuffing and stuffing and stuffing - you can't do anything else - you're just stuffing, stuffing. Even the shame feelings afterward were better than some other feelings I was having. It really overtakes all else and covers a multitude of sins, to coin a phrase.
And when it's not an actual binge - when it's more like just continuous snacking, then very large meals - you're still "killing" all the stuff you don't want to deal with, by smacking your taste buds with something hyperpalatable (super-salty, super-sugary, super-greasy, super-whatever-y).
Of course, the downside is that it kills you.
A lot of people here have said that therapy might be the first course of action. I have to agree but again, I'm only agreeing based on my own personal experiences. Nothing is going to take the cause of the overeating away. You have to deal with it. Sometimes on the show, the person will talk about what's really ailing them and get it out there, and start to deal with it. Those people seem to be more successful (unless I'm seeing it in a slanted way). Others just keep up their behaviors and manage to get lots of food in anyway - possibly eating much more frequently even though the "meals" are small; and sometimes, which the show just loves to portray, eating smaller portions than they used to, but of fast food and so on. Because all their "stuff" just hasn't gone away.
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Oh, as for the POV that it's just gluttony and people just want to be able to eat whatever they want to eat and so on: That can surely get you overweight. But to get up to 600 pounds? I don't see how "just" eating lazily or even overeating to a careless extent - even if you're making a good deal of that food fast food and so on? I can tell you that nobody WANTS to feel horrid indigestion, bloated, possibly vomiting (depending) just from sheer bulk, dizzy, headachy-y and of course, self-hatred. (ETA: Dear God, the grammar in that last sentence...I'm not even going to correct it because it's just too funny.) That's not "laziness". Laziness would be AVOIDING those feelings. It would be NOT going to every length to smuggle, hide, lie about and manage to somehow procure more and more and more food when there's already plenty of food available. That's another reason that, in my opinion, there's more than simple gluttony or even just a lack of knowledge of nutrition going on here.
You get to 600, 700 pounds, shoving it in and feeling sick over and over again, becoming incapacitated, sick and having your kids come around to your bed in tears begging you not to die but you STILL can't stop, and there's probably something other than laziness or gluttony going on there.0 -
Oh, as for the POV that it's just gluttony and people just want to be able to eat whatever they want to eat and so on: That can surely get you overweight. But to get up to 600 pounds? I don't see how "just" eating lazily or even overeating to a careless extent - even if you're making a good deal of that food fast food and so on? I can tell you that nobody WANTS to feel horrid indigestion, bloated, possibly vomiting (depending) just from sheer bulk, dizzy, headachy-y and of course, self-hatred. (ETA: Dear God, the grammar in that last sentence...I'm not even going to correct it because it's just too funny.) That's not "laziness". Laziness would be AVOIDING those feelings. It would be NOT going to every length to smuggle, hide, lie about and manage to somehow procure more and more and more food when there's already plenty of food available. That's another reason that, in my opinion, there's more than simple gluttony or even just a lack of knowledge of nutrition going on here.
You get to 600, 700 pounds, shoving it in and feeling sick over and over again, becoming incapacitated, sick and having your kids come around to your bed in tears begging you not to die but you STILL can't stop, and there's probably something other than laziness or gluttony going on there.
That's what I was thinking watching the show. You must have to train for 600 pounds like people train for the Olympics. The sheer amount of time involved in obtaining food, preparing food, eating food, thinking and fantasizing about food, planning meals and how and when you can eat again that has to happen in order to even want to ingest eight or ten thousand calories a day, let alone actually achieve it... I can't even wrap my head around it. I'm too lazy to go through the drive-through at McDonald's when I've got perfectly good food at home.
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Larissa_NY wrote: »Oh, as for the POV that it's just gluttony and people just want to be able to eat whatever they want to eat and so on: That can surely get you overweight. But to get up to 600 pounds? I don't see how "just" eating lazily or even overeating to a careless extent - even if you're making a good deal of that food fast food and so on? I can tell you that nobody WANTS to feel horrid indigestion, bloated, possibly vomiting (depending) just from sheer bulk, dizzy, headachy-y and of course, self-hatred. (ETA: Dear God, the grammar in that last sentence...I'm not even going to correct it because it's just too funny.) That's not "laziness". Laziness would be AVOIDING those feelings. It would be NOT going to every length to smuggle, hide, lie about and manage to somehow procure more and more and more food when there's already plenty of food available. That's another reason that, in my opinion, there's more than simple gluttony or even just a lack of knowledge of nutrition going on here.
You get to 600, 700 pounds, shoving it in and feeling sick over and over again, becoming incapacitated, sick and having your kids come around to your bed in tears begging you not to die but you STILL can't stop, and there's probably something other than laziness or gluttony going on there.
That's what I was thinking watching the show. You must have to train for 600 pounds like people train for the Olympics. The sheer amount of time involved in obtaining food, preparing food, eating food, thinking and fantasizing about food, planning meals and how and when you can eat again that has to happen in order to even want to ingest eight or ten thousand calories a day, let alone actually achieve it... I can't even wrap my head around it. I'm too lazy to go through the drive-through at McDonald's when I've got perfectly good food at home.
They have a not as fat/immobile person doing it for them
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There have been some unfortunate changes in the way WLS is done. It's more of a for-profit business now than ever before. Before lapro was an option, the screening was a lot stricter, including the psych screen, and very few surgeons were even available to do it. Now they pop out of the woodwork like Dr. Nick on The Simpsons, and I've seen so many horror stories in the support group I used to moderate. I get the impression there isn't nearly as much attention paid to the home environment as I had, either - if someone is living with a feeder, or a person who has a bad co-dependent relationship vested in keeping the person obese, surgery is just a lot of pain and misery that won't win in the end. That relationship has to end first.
It's a shame isnt it. I think it would be more beneficial if they had at least 6 months prior therapy requirement before surgery. There has to be core issues (aside from those who have serious health issues that prevents them from losing) why someone allows themselves to eat and eat to the point they cant walk and/or are house bound.
You mentioned Angel - I was worried about the outcome of her surgery when she lost 165 *before* getting the procedure and they noted that she was basically not eating at all.
I did think it was really backwards that she didn't see a therapist until way later in the year. Because you can see her getting thinner...but you don't see her smile until after therapy. That girl was really depressed.
I figured this thread would be lit up with how she was starving herself. I think towards the end I saw her cooking up some onions but all they ever seemed to show her eat during her weight loss phase was a cup of jello. Thought it was odd that the show mentions that she starved herself to 170 lbs down, but Dr. Now's spin is simply that it's not unusual for people that big to drop 200 lbs in two months. I mean I guess the show is just following them and wouldn't snitch on them but I just found the whole thing... odd. There were no real details offered to this. I mean was she practicing a form of IF where she may have skipped a few meals but really was getting enough food for a normal person, but it just seemed like very little food for a person her size?
Was pretty interesting to see Dr. Now have a fit because she went to some other hospital for treatment and didn't inform/involve him. Too many people under a professional's care go outside seeking advice. It was nice to see the effects of that demonstrated. Anyway, I'm rambling...
And yeah she really was just so sad. She kept saying how she's going to all these events for her son but you could see her just stare like a zombie. I liked how towards the end she was at least getting into the game. "*Shoot* the ball, kid!!"
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I watched "Angel" last night. She seemed to have a problem walking, even after she lost weight. She seemed clinically depressed to me. That case alone looks like therapy, and psychopharmacology could have made a difference.
I don't see how anyone could think a 400 pound woman needed to be tube fed for nutrition.
I do think she got sick from overeating, the food addiction, was not cured by WLS.
That show was sad. Even after losing weight she did not seem happy.0 -
Larissa_NY wrote: »Oh, as for the POV that it's just gluttony and people just want to be able to eat whatever they want to eat and so on: That can surely get you overweight. But to get up to 600 pounds? I don't see how "just" eating lazily or even overeating to a careless extent - even if you're making a good deal of that food fast food and so on? I can tell you that nobody WANTS to feel horrid indigestion, bloated, possibly vomiting (depending) just from sheer bulk, dizzy, headachy-y and of course, self-hatred. (ETA: Dear God, the grammar in that last sentence...I'm not even going to correct it because it's just too funny.) That's not "laziness". Laziness would be AVOIDING those feelings. It would be NOT going to every length to smuggle, hide, lie about and manage to somehow procure more and more and more food when there's already plenty of food available. That's another reason that, in my opinion, there's more than simple gluttony or even just a lack of knowledge of nutrition going on here.
You get to 600, 700 pounds, shoving it in and feeling sick over and over again, becoming incapacitated, sick and having your kids come around to your bed in tears begging you not to die but you STILL can't stop, and there's probably something other than laziness or gluttony going on there.
That's what I was thinking watching the show. You must have to train for 600 pounds like people train for the Olympics. The sheer amount of time involved in obtaining food, preparing food, eating food, thinking and fantasizing about food, planning meals and how and when you can eat again that has to happen in order to even want to ingest eight or ten thousand calories a day, let alone actually achieve it... I can't even wrap my head around it. I'm too lazy to go through the drive-through at McDonald's when I've got perfectly good food at home.
They have a not as fat/immobile person doing it for them
Well, sure, once they hit those goalposts, though a lot of the people on the show do seem to do their own shopping. But in order to get to 600 pounds they had to blow through 200, 300, 400, 500, and every pound in between, and they probably weren't bedridden for at least the first couple of hundred. Twenty pounds can creep up on you, but I think of the work I'd have to put in to pack on 200 and I just want to throw up my hands and never eat again.
Like the poster above was saying, you can't really call that laziness. Laziness might keep you moderately overweight, but it's not going to take you through 450 pounds of gain over a healthy weight range.0 -
There have been some unfortunate changes in the way WLS is done. It's more of a for-profit business now than ever before. Before lapro was an option, the screening was a lot stricter, including the psych screen, and very few surgeons were even available to do it. Now they pop out of the woodwork like Dr. Nick on The Simpsons, and I've seen so many horror stories in the support group I used to moderate. I get the impression there isn't nearly as much attention paid to the home environment as I had, either - if someone is living with a feeder, or a person who has a bad co-dependent relationship vested in keeping the person obese, surgery is just a lot of pain and misery that won't win in the end. That relationship has to end first.
It's a shame isnt it. I think it would be more beneficial if they had at least 6 months prior therapy requirement before surgery. There has to be core issues (aside from those who have serious health issues that prevents them from losing) why someone allows themselves to eat and eat to the point they cant walk and/or are house bound.
You mentioned Angel - I was worried about the outcome of her surgery when she lost 165 *before* getting the procedure and they noted that she was basically not eating at all.
I did think it was really backwards that she didn't see a therapist until way later in the year. Because you can see her getting thinner...but you don't see her smile until after therapy. That girl was really depressed.
I figured this thread would be lit up with how she was starving herself. I think towards the end I saw her cooking up some onions but all they ever seemed to show her eat during her weight loss phase was a cup of jello. Thought it was odd that the show mentions that she starved herself to 170 lbs down, but Dr. Now's spin is simply that it's not unusual for people that big to drop 200 lbs in two months. I mean I guess the show is just following them and wouldn't snitch on them but I just found the whole thing... odd. There were no real details offered to this. I mean was she practicing a form of IF where she may have skipped a few meals but really was getting enough food for a normal person, but it just seemed like very little food for a person her size?
Was pretty interesting to see Dr. Now have a fit because she went to some other hospital for treatment and didn't inform/involve him. Too many people under a professional's care go outside seeking advice. It was nice to see the effects of that demonstrated. Anyway, I'm rambling...
And yeah she really was just so sad. She kept saying how she's going to all these events for her son but you could see her just stare like a zombie. I liked how towards the end she was at least getting into the game. "*Shoot* the ball, kid!!"
It may just be an issue of when they shot their footage. I lost 50 between my surgery and 2 week follow up. At the same time, I wasn't really eating solid foods yet. The first 5 days I got nothing but sponges to keep my tongue from drying out, then I got liquids, and the 2nd week was soft foods only. After that I had a timeline for reintroducing solids. If they used filler shots from that timeframe, it would look like she wasn't eating much real food, especially if it played into the story they wanted to give her (I haven't seen that one).0 -
Larissa_NY wrote: »Larissa_NY wrote: »Oh, as for the POV that it's just gluttony and people just want to be able to eat whatever they want to eat and so on: That can surely get you overweight. But to get up to 600 pounds? I don't see how "just" eating lazily or even overeating to a careless extent - even if you're making a good deal of that food fast food and so on? I can tell you that nobody WANTS to feel horrid indigestion, bloated, possibly vomiting (depending) just from sheer bulk, dizzy, headachy-y and of course, self-hatred. (ETA: Dear God, the grammar in that last sentence...I'm not even going to correct it because it's just too funny.) That's not "laziness". Laziness would be AVOIDING those feelings. It would be NOT going to every length to smuggle, hide, lie about and manage to somehow procure more and more and more food when there's already plenty of food available. That's another reason that, in my opinion, there's more than simple gluttony or even just a lack of knowledge of nutrition going on here.
You get to 600, 700 pounds, shoving it in and feeling sick over and over again, becoming incapacitated, sick and having your kids come around to your bed in tears begging you not to die but you STILL can't stop, and there's probably something other than laziness or gluttony going on there.
That's what I was thinking watching the show. You must have to train for 600 pounds like people train for the Olympics. The sheer amount of time involved in obtaining food, preparing food, eating food, thinking and fantasizing about food, planning meals and how and when you can eat again that has to happen in order to even want to ingest eight or ten thousand calories a day, let alone actually achieve it... I can't even wrap my head around it. I'm too lazy to go through the drive-through at McDonald's when I've got perfectly good food at home.
They have a not as fat/immobile person doing it for them
Well, sure, once they hit those goalposts, though a lot of the people on the show do seem to do their own shopping. But in order to get to 600 pounds they had to blow through 200, 300, 400, 500, and every pound in between, and they probably weren't bedridden for at least the first couple of hundred. Twenty pounds can creep up on you, but I think of the work I'd have to put in to pack on 200 and I just want to throw up my hands and never eat again.
Like the poster above was saying, you can't really call that laziness. Laziness might keep you moderately overweight, but it's not going to take you through 450 pounds of gain over a healthy weight range.
Even I would think this is semantics but I wouldn't say laziness (that is, a moral deficit) so much as just being sedentary. I can think of a couple bigger people I know who tend to ask people to do things for them, more so than their lower weight acquaintances. I even had to catch myself doing that. A lot of the aspects of day to day living that would be considered just being efficient - your buddy is already going somewhere, so just have him pick something up or get some information for you while there - could little by little contribute to a more sedentary life
A significant amount of calories is indeed required to maintain that weight. Hmm to put on 200+ lbs. I just think of ALL the times I've said no to high calorie foods and say yes instead.
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softblondechick wrote: »I watched "Angel" last night. She seemed to have a problem walking, even after she lost weight. She seemed clinically depressed to me. That case alone looks like therapy, and psychopharmacology could have made a difference.
I don't see how anyone could think a 400 pound woman needed to be tube fed for nutrition.
I do think she got sick from overeating, the food addiction, was not cured by WLS.
That show was sad. Even after losing weight she did not seem happy.
I wondered if she had a disability or if it was the effect of carrying the additional weight for so long
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