My 600 Pound Life?
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Did anyone see Joe's story last night (3.11.15)? I was so moved by the fact that he was able to lose 150 POUNDS pre-surgery! I wish the show didn't end before he had lost more of the weight. I need an update on him!
I know someone already asked this upstream, but I have to ask it again -- if someone like Joe is capable of losing 150lbs on his own pre surgery, why do they do the gastric bypass at all instead of just carrying on with diet and exercise? He's doing so well on his own and has already improved his health so much, why cut into him and mess around with his insides when you could just let him carry on?
My husband and I were asking each other the same question last night. The only thing I could come up with was that they were motivated by the thought of the surgery, so they were hanging in with the pre-surgery diet, but with that taken away (the possibility of surgery) they might just give up because they felt it would feel as difficult (as the diet) for the rest of their lives without the surgery.
I mean I don't actually know - only they know.
The great news is that he is able to lose weight but is he willing to change his way of eating for the rest of his life to keep losing the weight without the surgery? Which the surgery is just a tool and he would have to keep up the healthier lifestyle after the initial honeymoon period of the surgery anyway. Did he get the surgery??? I havent watched this episode its still in my DVR.0 -
If that is the case then I was misinformed and I apologize to anyone I offended.
The data is old as you can see from the years the data was observed but the article states:
According to one recent nationally representative sample, obesity prevalence was higher in lower income and education groups, but the rate of increase in obesity over two decades was faster for higher income and education groups (Singh et al., 2011). For instance, between 1992 and 2008, obesity prevalence increased by 42.3 percent for the lower income group compared to 88.5 percent for the higher income group.
NHANES data from 1971 to 2002 indicate that rates of obesity increased among both the poor and non-poor over a 30 year period, and those rates of obesity were 5.1 to 6.5 percentage points higher among the poor compared to the non-poor (Jollife, 2011). However, this relationship between obesity and poverty “appears to no longer exist” as more recent NHANES data (2003 to 2006) suggest no difference in obesity rates between the two groups. In addition, rates of obesity increased by 62 percent among the poor and by 155 percent among the non-poor from 1971 to 2006.
National data from over 3 decades (1971 to 2002) suggests a weakening association between SES (based on the poverty income ratio) and child obesity over time, especially among adolescents (Wang & Zhang, 2006).
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JessieLMay wrote: »Its sad. I cant say it motivates me, but definitely scares me. I am pushing 300 lbs and I just keep getting heavier and heavier. But I am hopelessly addicted to sugar, pop, and fast food, and even though my weight depresses me enough to give me suicidal thoughts ever now and again, I still find it incredibly hard to give up what is making me fat and unhappy, because on some level, those things make me happy.Its a struggle, and I
can strongly relate to some of those people.
Those things relieve anxiety, which can be mistaken for feeling happy but isn't really the same thing. Have you thought about therapy?
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Did anyone see Joe's story last night (3.11.15)? I was so moved by the fact that he was able to lose 150 POUNDS pre-surgery! I wish the show didn't end before he had lost more of the weight. I need an update on him!
I know someone already asked this upstream, but I have to ask it again -- if someone like Joe is capable of losing 150lbs on his own pre surgery, why do they do the gastric bypass at all instead of just carrying on with diet and exercise? He's doing so well on his own and has already improved his health so much, why cut into him and mess around with his insides when you could just let him carry on?
Surgeons don't get paid unless they do surgeries..
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Did anyone see Joe's story last night (3.11.15)? I was so moved by the fact that he was able to lose 150 POUNDS pre-surgery! I wish the show didn't end before he had lost more of the weight. I need an update on him!
I know someone already asked this upstream, but I have to ask it again -- if someone like Joe is capable of losing 150lbs on his own pre surgery, why do they do the gastric bypass at all instead of just carrying on with diet and exercise? He's doing so well on his own and has already improved his health so much, why cut into him and mess around with his insides when you could just let him carry on?
Surgeons don't get paid unless they do surgeries..
True. . . I guess I'm still holding out hope for doctors making decisions based on ethics instead of dollars. I still wonder about Joe himself though -- is it a self esteem issue and he has himself convinced that he has to have the surgery or he will ultimately fail? I'm viewing it through the lens of my own experience, I know, but if it were me I would jump for joy at having proved to myself that I don't really need to go under the knife to lose weight.0 -
Did anyone see Joe's story last night (3.11.15)? I was so moved by the fact that he was able to lose 150 POUNDS pre-surgery! I wish the show didn't end before he had lost more of the weight. I need an update on him!
I know someone already asked this upstream, but I have to ask it again -- if someone like Joe is capable of losing 150lbs on his own pre surgery, why do they do the gastric bypass at all instead of just carrying on with diet and exercise? He's doing so well on his own and has already improved his health so much, why cut into him and mess around with his insides when you could just let him carry on?
Surgeons don't get paid unless they do surgeries..
Because it's freaking hard to eat that little all the time when you are that size and have life long food issues. I had wls at the first of the year. I lost 15lbs during me pre op diet, but there was no way I could of kept doing that for much longer. I have PCOS and tried dieting and exercising for years. I was super athletic growing up. But man the weight just kept piling on no matter how hard I tried. I'd have *kitten* it moments and just eat what I wanted cause I was sick of trying so hard and getting no where, which didn't help things. My health went down hill fast. Wls was the best thing that I could have done. I'm down 50lbs, I'm running and lifting weights everyday. I love the show cause I know and get the struggle.
Ps.... The egg comment made me roll my eyes too. Lol
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Wow, that comes across as really judgemental, but statistics show that if you're poor and have low standards of education, you're more likely to be very obese than a richer, more educated person.
My grandparents had only grammar school education maybe went until 5th-6th grade and were poor but they were not obese, not even remotely. So I totally disagree with this. My parents didnt go to high school and were poor. By the time I was in grammar school we poor enough to qualify for food stamps, the free block of cheese, free xmas dinners at the YMCA with a gift and public housing. Neither of my parents or my siblings were obese. So I strongly disagree with this once more. Just saying.
The fact that some children are born without arms doesn't change the fact that, generally speaking, humans come equipped with two of them. Statistics do not have to apply to you personally or every (or any) member of your family to be valid indicators of the general trend in a population.
Statistics are what they are. Gravity will continue to be gravity whether you agree that things fall when they're dropped or not. If you have contradictory statistics to cite, sure, trot them out and let's have a discussion, but "I don't agree because me" doesn't invalidate someone else's empirical results.
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Joe kept saying if I don't get the WLS it would have all been a waste and my life would just be over - while prancing around with a lot less effort, hopping and jumping into the back of the van rather than taking each step with painstaking anguish and hoping he does not fall down (again). That's when the statement that I sometimes truly hate "it's not all about the scale" (to a person whose goal is weight loss, really? ...but I digress) comes to mind. There were clearly so many benefits he was already getting even though he was not yet at target weight
And yes, shout out to MFP!! Keep up the good work, you're changing the world
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Larissa_NY wrote: »
Wow, that comes across as really judgemental, but statistics show that if you're poor and have low standards of education, you're more likely to be very obese than a richer, more educated person.
My grandparents had only grammar school education maybe went until 5th-6th grade and were poor but they were not obese, not even remotely. So I totally disagree with this. My parents didnt go to high school and were poor. By the time I was in grammar school we poor enough to qualify for food stamps, the free block of cheese, free xmas dinners at the YMCA with a gift and public housing. Neither of my parents or my siblings were obese. So I strongly disagree with this once more. Just saying.
The fact that some children are born without arms doesn't change the fact that, generally speaking, humans come equipped with two of them. Statistics do not have to apply to you personally or every (or any) member of your family to be valid indicators of the general trend in a population.
Statistics are what they are. Gravity will continue to be gravity whether you agree that things fall when they're dropped or not. If you have contradictory statistics to cite, sure, trot them out and let's have a discussion, but "I don't agree because me" doesn't invalidate someone else's empirical results.
Why the tone??? As I stated above with the article the dates are very old. And even with the most recent 2003-2006 they found no real difference between the poverty and richer people in regard to obesity. So there goes those empirical results. I will copy and paste in case you didnt get to read it.
However, this relationship between obesity and poverty “appears to no longer exist” as more recent NHANES data (2003 to 2006) suggest no difference in obesity rates between the two groups. In addition, rates of obesity increased by 62 percent among the poor and by 155 percent among the non-poor from 1971 to 2006.0 -
it's definitely motivating.0
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Did anyone see Joe's story last night (3.11.15)? I was so moved by the fact that he was able to lose 150 POUNDS pre-surgery! I wish the show didn't end before he had lost more of the weight. I need an update on him!
I know someone already asked this upstream, but I have to ask it again -- if someone like Joe is capable of losing 150lbs on his own pre surgery, why do they do the gastric bypass at all instead of just carrying on with diet and exercise? He's doing so well on his own and has already improved his health so much, why cut into him and mess around with his insides when you could just let him carry on?
That's what I thought about, too. My friend had WLS and she said it was better than losing on her own because she was able to immediately get off the blood pressure and diabetes medications she was taking. Also, for her it took away all of her cravings. She believes the WLS does more than just make your stomach smaller; it helps in other ways, too.
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Larissa_NY wrote: »
Wow, that comes across as really judgemental, but statistics show that if you're poor and have low standards of education, you're more likely to be very obese than a richer, more educated person.
My grandparents had only grammar school education maybe went until 5th-6th grade and were poor but they were not obese, not even remotely. So I totally disagree with this. My parents didnt go to high school and were poor. By the time I was in grammar school we poor enough to qualify for food stamps, the free block of cheese, free xmas dinners at the YMCA with a gift and public housing. Neither of my parents or my siblings were obese. So I strongly disagree with this once more. Just saying.
The fact that some children are born without arms doesn't change the fact that, generally speaking, humans come equipped with two of them. Statistics do not have to apply to you personally or every (or any) member of your family to be valid indicators of the general trend in a population.
Statistics are what they are. Gravity will continue to be gravity whether you agree that things fall when they're dropped or not. If you have contradictory statistics to cite, sure, trot them out and let's have a discussion, but "I don't agree because me" doesn't invalidate someone else's empirical results.
Why the tone??? As I stated above with the article the dates are very old. And even with the most recent 2003-2006 they found no real difference between the poverty and richer people in regard to obesity. So there goes those empirical results. I will copy and paste in case you didnt get to read it.
However, this relationship between obesity and poverty “appears to no longer exist” as more recent NHANES data (2003 to 2006) suggest no difference in obesity rates between the two groups. In addition, rates of obesity increased by 62 percent among the poor and by 155 percent among the non-poor from 1971 to 2006.
Okay, that's fine. As I said, if you have other stats, by all means bring them out. If the data are no longer current, that's a valid criticism. My point wasn't that those results will never change ever, my point was that "This doesn't apply to me" is not a valid criticism of empirical results, and not everything is a matter of opinion - data don't care what you think of them.
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I watched a few last night. I can sit and watch all that stuff and it inspires and motivates me. Then they showed one girl who's calves enveloped her feet as she walked. I was speechless and saddened.
Here is a pic, I did not want to embed the pic so you can choose to see it or not.
Not for the faint of heart.
Ambertracyannk28 wrote: »Kinda OT but I didn't know where else to post this...
Have any of you seen this show on TLC? I'm just curious of your thoughts...knowing what we've all learned here about eating at a deficit to lose weight and watching these people struggle and have such a hard time giving up fast food, etc. even when it's threatening their lives and costing them their families.
He used MFP app in his phone. I thought it was cool. I shouted out...heyyyyy that's mfp!!! Yes, I love the show0 -
It's such a sad state to be in. The only true joy they find in life is the act of eating. I don't judge them anymore than I would someone suffering from Anorexia. A life-threatening eating disorder. I often find myself most angry at the enablers in their lives.0
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There was a meta-analysis that suggested this, but the data analysis may have merely obscured the facts. I don't know anything about this doctor's blog, but he says dietary cholesterol is indeed as bad as ever:jennifershoo wrote: »Lourdesong wrote: »Just finished Joe's story. Couple things about his story annoyed me, and a couple things I thought were really good about his episode.
First, his "trauma" or issue or whatever that drove him to overeat was that his dad didn't pay much attention to him. Gave him lots of games and movies instead of, I dunno, hugging him all day long or tossing a ball with him like a hallmark card commercial come to life. Good grief. Guy must have had a pretty great life if that was the best excuse for his overeating habit that he could craft.
And, unless I missed it, no one seemed to notice or comment on the fact that his mother must have been 500+ lbs herself. What drove her to over eat to where she's almost the size of her 700 lb son? It's almost like there may have been some bad habits that went on in the same household or something.
She should have her own episode.
What I liked was that they didn't do the surgery until the end, and that Joe had to learn about diet, nutrition labels, and eating right from a nutritionist and put what he learned into practice to lose weight himself in a sensible way prior to surgery. It also looked like they showed him tracking his diet on the MFP app, but that camera shot of his logging was too quick for me to be certain.
This episode was much more sensible in that Joe appeared to get some actual direction on what to do, rather than that starvation jello diet that Angel apparently concocted herself to lose an obscene amount of weight in a few months.
+ 1
Although, I cringed when I heard the "nutritionist" say that he shouldn't eat the egg yolks because they contain cholesterol. Arg! Dietary cholesterol does NOT increase serum cholesterol. Eat the damn yolks!
http://www.pcrm.org/nbBlog/index.php/page/2/http://www.pcrm.org/nbBlog/index.php/page/2/0 -
Did anybody see last nights episode with Laura? I was happy to see her family were all for her success and didn't enable her after she got the surgery. She did great on losing weight. Her husband does seem to love her and supports her.0
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I can't watch that show or any show about morbidly obese people. I've seen a couple of episodes. I can't relate and it makes me shake my head in disgust. just being honest.
I feel the same way...exactly... Again, everyone looks at these shows differently, and may not agree but that's the best way to put it...It makes me shake my head...0 -
I was super impressed with the husband. The mom irritated me a little when she was trying to talk to her in the restaurant about her feelings. It was amazing to see her change in attitude after she got sick.0
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tat2cookie wrote: »I was super impressed with the husband. The mom irritated me a little when she was trying to talk to her in the restaurant about her feelings. It was amazing to see her change in attitude after she got sick.
Yes it seemed like her mother didnt want to hear what she was saying she kept talking over her and didnt let Laura express her self and say all she had to say.0 -
We're talking about statistics, though, so individual cases don't really mean anything one way or the other.
The facts of the matter are more complicated, as usual, but it's not inaccurate to say that a poor person is more likely to be obese, generally speaking:
http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/are-low-income-people-at-greater-risk-for-overweight-or-obesity/
I don't see that comment being unreasonable. I'm from Mississippi where obesity is high and incomes are very low. Alot (not all) families eat fried foods, mostly carbs and more inexpensive processed foods with fewer fresh fruits and vegetables due to cost. Although I don't eat that way, I know alot of families that does. Plus, alot of "southern" cooks including myself feed out of what we think is love. My love of cooking just helped because I cook healthier for my family.
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It also made me super sad to see all the people who were taking Picts of her at the store. I would be pissed if I ever caught someone taking a pict of me without my permission.0
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Omg yea like she was a side side attraction. Some ppl are so ignorant. I could see a very obese person or someone with some kid of deformity and my reaction would not be to take pictures. I'm thinking maybe the people taking pictures were just curious and it was more about seeing her and all the camera crew? Because people cannot be that cruel...or can they?0
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I was watching the show My Little Family and they are all little people the parents and 3 kids and they had a trip I think to Washington(?) and people were taking pictures of them and the mom kept saying to the strangers, no no pictures, dont take our picture. Its just so cruel how people disregard that no matter how different someone looks they still should be respected.0
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I watched one where the lady had gained her weight after she was gang raped when she was 12, her weight was her safety net. that story really opened my eyes and I cried for her. She had no support since her family didn't believe her and just pretty much disowned her. at 12 years old, she had no other place to turn. and she chose food, I know she started at over 700lbs and when she finally started losing, she didn't whine or complain, or anything, she truly inspired me.0
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tat2cookie wrote: »It also made me super sad to see all the people who were taking Picts of her at the store. I would be pissed if I ever caught someone taking a pict of me without my permission.
Totally agree!0 -
that show scares me and motivates me i don't wanna be 600 lbs0
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Yes, I think this is more to do with socio-economic factors than mobility issues. They often live in pretty bad housing too, and seem to be not very well educated.AngryViking1970 wrote: »This is just an observation, but has anyone else noticed that a lot of these patients have really terrible teeth?
Wow, that comes across as really judgemental, but statistics show that if you're poor and have low standards of education, you're more likely to be very obese than a richer, more educated person.
This latest series of stories is making me more uncomfortable than previous ones. It's like the director says "OK, we have to make you look as gigantic and pathetic as we can. Can you take all your clothes off and try to wash yourself? Excellent. Now try to get out of the chair. Eat this. Now this. Let's take some footage of your terrible shoes..."
Also, Joe annoyed me with his whining. Usually I feel desperately sorry for the patients, but this time I was irritated by him and more concerned about his mother who could barely move.
I have also noticed that the latest stories seem a bit more salacious than previous stories. I am hoping this is just a coincidence and not a new trend.
I also could not get engaged with Joey's story. I was rooting for him in the beginning, but he was too full of excuses and whining for most of the episode. I was glad to see the meeting with the nutritionist. Really, do people not know to read labels? I can understand someone not understanding the significance of all the information, but it seemed like Joey and his mother had never even attempted to read and understand labels on packaged food.
I did think it was interesting that Joey was the first person on this show who lived independently. His mother and sister brought him food, but he lived alone and could drive himself places. He could also walk reasonably well. He had difficulty walking and needed a cane, but he could do it by himself which is more than most of the previous people could do.
I hope that they show a part two of Joey's story, more than just an update, since this episode just barely got him started on his weight loss journey.
I haven't seen last night's episode yet. Hopefully it is better than the last few have been.
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jlbrown1985 wrote: »
I wish I could watch Hoarders. I saw part of one episode featuring some old-ish man's house (I think he lived a trailer home by himself) and all they did was shift a box and it disturbed some huge nest of cockroaches. *shudder* Couldn't finish the episode, and I'm afraid to watch any other episodes.
I can handle watching bypass surgeries and 600 lb people getting bathed and ointment applied on mystery sores on their body...but I can't handle homes that are so filthy and neglected that merely moving a box disturbs nests of cockroaches. Blech!0 -
What are we gaining by being obese? are we sitting on a pity potty?0
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