My 600 Pound Life

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Replies

  • Sarahb29
    Sarahb29 Posts: 952 Member
    I watch the show sometimes and it's frustrating to see their SOs bringing them fried chicken, take out etc. If my SO was struggling with their weight so much that it became a health issue it would be time for a little tough love and a Dr visit. I know I'd get yelled at, begged for food and they'd be cranky but it's the addiction talking. There'd be a major family overhaul on what we all keep in the house and eat and all the junk would get TOSSED!

    I'm sure they just don't want to be "the bad guy" saying no to them.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    Yes and have you ever noticed the enabler's are often obese ? I must be honest I have no sympathy for someone that eats so much that they weigh 600 pounds I can't imagine.
    I must be honest I have no sympathy for someone that eats so much that they weigh 600 pounds I can't imagine.
    I must be honest I have no sympathy

    Fixed it for ya
  • makeydoo
    makeydoo Posts: 5 Member
    I watch this show and am so inspired by all. I find myself routing for them and cheering them on in their accomplishments and am saddened when they fall back. They deserve so much credit for their courage, determination and exposing themselves both physically and emotionally for all the world to see. The common denominator in all their stories is some kind of trauma in their past. If they can resolve those issues seems like they are successful in their weight loss journey. I think about their struggles everyday and find strength to continue on my journey as well.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    Seriously. If you see someone that's 600lbs and your first thought isn't "OMG you must be suffering terribly I will pray to whatever god I pray to that something can be done to help you so you don't have to suffer anymore", I'm ashamed to share the planet with you.
  • Maxematics
    Maxematics Posts: 2,287 Member
    vegmebuff wrote: »
    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!

    Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

    Unfortunately, as you said, a lot of people live this way. I've always envied families I knew or on TV that had sit down family dinners at the table with home cooked, healthy food. I can't even stomach the things I had to eat as a teenager. A lot of people, especially those from lower income families, have no idea about proper nutrition nor do they live in the vicinity of a supermarket. The McDonald's Dollar Menu looks great when you don't have much cash in your pocket and want to eat something other than ramen noodles every night. People will say it's easy to eat healthy, but those same people won't subject themselves to having PB&J, beans and rice, or noodles every night like they expect poor people to. It's tough and food is just one of many vices people have.
  • peachyfuzzle
    peachyfuzzle Posts: 1,122 Member
    You don't understand how people can do that because you've must have never experienced any sort of addiction, especially addiction predicated upon serious childhood trauma. You also must not be able to grasp the idea of body dysmorphia in the way that BDD serves to distort one's own body image as opposed to reality.

    I never had any serious childhood trauma that I'm aware of. I've always just had poor eating habits partly due to the way I grew up, and never being taught what a proper diet really was. However, when I got up to 320lbs at my heaviest, I would look in the mirror, and sincerely believe that I wasn't "that big." I would look at other bigger people, and sincerely believe that I was about their size, or even smaller, when the truth was that I had been at least 50lbs heavier in most cases.

    My brain would not allow me to see myself for what I had become, and even now that I am down a significant amount of weight, I still don't really see much difference. I have to rely upon the tape measure, the way my clothes fit, and other people saying how different I look.

    That is real, and while you're not heartless for thinking the way you do, you're most assuredly ignorant (likely not your fault due to no previous experience) bordering on callous.
  • biggsterjackster
    biggsterjackster Posts: 419 Member
    When I first came to the U.S I was shocked to see so many obese people. Especially in Florida. Now it seems totally normal. I don't even notice it so much anymore. Its just sad!
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    synacious wrote: »
    vegmebuff wrote: »
    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!

    Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

    Unfortunately, as you said, a lot of people live this way. I've always envied families I knew or on TV that had sit down family dinners at the table with home cooked, healthy food. I can't even stomach the things I had to eat as a teenager. A lot of people, especially those from lower income families, have no idea about proper nutrition nor do they live in the vicinity of a supermarket. The McDonald's Dollar Menu looks great when you don't have much cash in your pocket and want to eat something other than ramen noodles every night. People will say it's easy to eat healthy, but those same people won't subject themselves to having PB&J, beans and rice, or noodles every night like they expect poor people to. It's tough and food is just one of many vices people have.

    THIS.
  • LBuehrle8
    LBuehrle8 Posts: 4,044 Member
    You don't understand how people can do that because you've must have never experienced any sort of addiction, especially addiction predicated upon serious childhood trauma. You also must not be able to grasp the idea of body dysmorphia in the way that BDD serves to distort one's own body image as opposed to reality.

    I never had any serious childhood trauma that I'm aware of. I've always just had poor eating habits partly due to the way I grew up, and never being taught what a proper diet really was. However, when I got up to 320lbs at my heaviest, I would look in the mirror, and sincerely believe that I wasn't "that big." I would look at other bigger people, and sincerely believe that I was about their size, or even smaller, when the truth was that I had been at least 50lbs heavier in most cases.

    My brain would not allow me to see myself for what I had become, and even now that I am down a significant amount of weight, I still don't really see much difference. I have to rely upon the tape measure, the way my clothes fit, and other people saying how different I look.

    That is real, and while you're not heartless for thinking the way you do, you're most assuredly ignorant (likely not your fault due to no previous experience) bordering on callous.

    Stealing this, agree.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,843 Member
    I'm not sure that I understand what the OP was looking for with this comment or this thread. Are you looking for validation that you're allowed to feel what you're feeling about someone you don't know? Are you looking for camaraderie with other people that lack compassion like you do? This is a site for people to lose weight, and that means everyone that has weight to lose, whether it is 5 pounds or 400 pounds.

    You're right, you just don't understand it and you don't have to, because the world is not your place to figure out how everyone needs to live.

    I am not 600 pounds, but I am well aware that I have the propensity to get to that point if I am not mindful of what I'm eating and how I move my body, do I then fall into that category of people who you just couldn't imagine being? Or is it okay because the scale doesn't say that about me?

    Eh, I think some people are being too hard on the OP. I used to be a heavy drinker but I still couldn't imagine me drinking on the job, and when someone I knew got fired for this, we were all freaking out about it. Eating so much that you are not able to leave your house for years is a much bigger deal than being functionally overweight, so to speak.

    Being shocked at someone's behavior does not mean you don't also have compassion for them. At 12 step meetings, I was often taken aback, yet always compassionate.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited February 2016
    You don't understand how people can do that because you've must have never experienced any sort of addiction, especially addiction predicated upon serious childhood trauma. You also must not be able to grasp the idea of body dysmorphia in the way that BDD serves to distort one's own body image as opposed to reality.

    I never had any serious childhood trauma that I'm aware of. I've always just had poor eating habits partly due to the way I grew up, and never being taught what a proper diet really was. However, when I got up to 320lbs at my heaviest, I would look in the mirror, and sincerely believe that I wasn't "that big." I would look at other bigger people, and sincerely believe that I was about their size, or even smaller, when the truth was that I had been at least 50lbs heavier in most cases.

    My brain would not allow me to see myself for what I had become, and even now that I am down a significant amount of weight, I still don't really see much difference. I have to rely upon the tape measure, the way my clothes fit, and other people saying how different I look.

    That is real, and while you're not heartless for thinking the way you do, you're most assuredly ignorant (likely not your fault due to no previous experience) bordering on callous.

    And this.

    Although I would say ignorance is different from lack of knowledge in that it's willful, and it IS in part brought about by a lack of empathy. It's the difference between "I just can't understand why [insert literally any-phobic comment here]" and "I'm legitimately trying to understand your POV, but I just don't have the information or experience required to do it, can you explain it to me". The difference between a kid raised by racists who just isn't aware of reality due to lack of exposure and a Klan member who willfully ignores the evidence of his incorrectness even when presented with it.
  • CoffeeNCardio
    CoffeeNCardio Posts: 1,847 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I'm not sure that I understand what the OP was looking for with this comment or this thread. Are you looking for validation that you're allowed to feel what you're feeling about someone you don't know? Are you looking for camaraderie with other people that lack compassion like you do? This is a site for people to lose weight, and that means everyone that has weight to lose, whether it is 5 pounds or 400 pounds.

    You're right, you just don't understand it and you don't have to, because the world is not your place to figure out how everyone needs to live.

    I am not 600 pounds, but I am well aware that I have the propensity to get to that point if I am not mindful of what I'm eating and how I move my body, do I then fall into that category of people who you just couldn't imagine being? Or is it okay because the scale doesn't say that about me?

    Eh, I think some people are being too hard on the OP. I used to be a heavy drinker but I still couldn't imagine me drinking on the job, and when someone I knew got fired for this, we were all freaking out about it. Eating so much that you are not able to leave your house for years is a much bigger deal than being functionally overweight, so to speak.

    Being shocked at someone's behavior does not mean you don't also have compassion for them. At 12 step meetings, I was often taken aback, yet always compassionate.

    I think the crux here is that you were able to be shocked and maintain your compassion in spite. If you read a little more of OP's later comments, I'd say it's pretty clear she is not doing that.
  • Seriously. If you see someone that's 600lbs and your first thought isn't "OMG you must be suffering terribly I will pray to whatever god I pray to that something can be done to help you so you don't have to suffer anymore", I'm ashamed to share the planet with you.

    I love that you posted this. I would think most people look at a super obese person and their first instinct is to laugh, make fun of their size or look in disgust. My guess is rarely do they think that the person must be in great pain, both physically and emotionally, to be that size.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    I'm not sure that I understand what the OP was looking for with this comment or this thread. Are you looking for validation that you're allowed to feel what you're feeling about someone you don't know? Are you looking for camaraderie with other people that lack compassion like you do? This is a site for people to lose weight, and that means everyone that has weight to lose, whether it is 5 pounds or 400 pounds.

    You're right, you just don't understand it and you don't have to, because the world is not your place to figure out how everyone needs to live.

    I am not 600 pounds, but I am well aware that I have the propensity to get to that point if I am not mindful of what I'm eating and how I move my body, do I then fall into that category of people who you just couldn't imagine being? Or is it okay because the scale doesn't say that about me?

    Eh, I think some people are being too hard on the OP. I used to be a heavy drinker but I still couldn't imagine me drinking on the job, and when someone I knew got fired for this, we were all freaking out about it. Eating so much that you are not able to leave your house for years is a much bigger deal than being functionally overweight, so to speak.

    Being shocked at someone's behavior does not mean you don't also have compassion for them. At 12 step meetings, I was often taken aback, yet always compassionate.

    Alcoholism runs in my family. Many of my extended relatives have died young or prematurely due to either the direct effects of intoxication or the long-term health issues of heavy drinking. My parents warned me about it when I was a kid. I'm not sure if I lucked out and didn't get the genetic markers my relatives have, or if the early warning helped, but I haven't had a problem with it as an adult. I rarely drink, maybe 3-4x a year at most. For whatever reason, it's nothing I seek out, and something that's really easy for me to say no to. If overeating felt as bad as drinking a lot did to me, maybe I wouldn't have gotten overweight. But that still doesn't mean I'd dismiss alcohol addiction. I do think it's tricky comparing the two because they are not the same, but some of the self-medicating aspects and the fact that both are really prominent in our culture are the same.

    I never thought I'd get over 200 lbs. I never thought I'd let myself 'go' like that. And yet there I was. The decision to do something about it put off and put off again. 600 lbs seems only like a difference of degrees when I think about how often I let myself go past whatever line I'd drawn for myself, over and over again. How it's still so hard losing weight and sticking to it. How easy it is to slip up and lose it all.
  • fabiola_1
    fabiola_1 Posts: 12 Member
    OMG I am addicted to this show, sometimes it's scary because it's like a cycle, they hate their body but continue to over eat. I can understand the love hate relationship with food
  • Emi1974
    Emi1974 Posts: 522 Member
    edited February 2016
    Coming back and reading here I must smile...
    It is a bit weird seeing all these "good" people bashing on at the OP. Some of the comments geared towards the OP are lacking more compassion and empathy than anything the OP wrote in her starting statement...
    And yet...you believe you are better than her

    When I read her statement I thought to myself...Ok, it is unfortunate the way she put it, I am sure she didn't mean it that way. Not everybody on MFP is so eloquent and you should always give the benefit of doubt to whatever is written here. The OP herself might need compassion for writing those things. But noooo, let's judge from our high horses because we are so much better, aren't we.

    Myself, I thought... I don't understand how she is shocked that people can get so big, but maybe she just meant it like I would when I say statement like:

    "I am shocked how anybody could hold down 3 jobs and raise 2 kids at the same time"... because I can't imagine doing the same. I am way too lazy :D why think I say that too judge people?

    "I can't imagine ever prostituting myself" - Where did I state it is wrong to prostitute oneself or that I judge them for that? I just know that myself I would find other means of income (I hope :D )

    I am shocked/ can't imagine how anybody would vaccinate/not vaccinate their children..... I am not judging with these statements, am I?

    Why can't we all write anything without being judged for it. Yo have your opinion and I do mine. I hate, absolutely hate killing any insects, maybe you do it on a daily basis... are you a mean person? Who am I to judge.... and who gave you the right to do so?



  • ernestrodgers82
    ernestrodgers82 Posts: 203 Member
    kdblpn wrote: »
    I was at 442 when i started here on mfp. As i approached 300 i told myself there was no way i would ever let myself weigh over 300 pounds. The next thing i knew i was 320. Then as i approached 400 pounds i rold nyself there is no way you r going ro weigh over 400...then i hit 442. I could have very easily continued down that same road but i took control and now i am back down to 320. Yes i still have a long way to go and i will have to maintain this new way of life forever but i think of myself as one of the fortunate people in thia world. I finally realized i had a problem and took control of it. I am fortunate to have a supportive family. The people on that show are so obese they dont have the ability to take control. That show is the last chance alot of them have.

    Hey, I was going to make the snarky comment that I even sometimes eat in from of the television while watching the show, but then I read your post. God bless you @kdblpn. You should be commended for turning your life around. I was headed the wrong direction too but only got to 290 lbs before finding MFP, buying a Garmin to track my exercise and discovering a diet that worked. The fact that you're back down by almost 90 pounds is outstanding and a guarantee that you will never end up on that show! Good luck!
  • lcuconley
    lcuconley Posts: 734 Member
    I watched part of an episode once...mentioned above, the costume designer. I was FLOORED that this woman had a 2-donut snack BEFORE BREAKFAST. The enabling, or whole-family sickness, was shocking and I am really not sure why we should be watching people do this to themselves. Oh, and the doctor...this woman lost something like 60 pounds in a few months and the response was "let's do surgery". What?!? Why not continue to eat like a normal person instead of subject a 550 pound person to surgery?!? I know reality TV is all the rage, but I just dont get it...
  • Jesusjohnjames
    Jesusjohnjames Posts: 378 Member
    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.

  • cbelc2
    cbelc2 Posts: 762 Member
    I think there is a certain amount of depression involving hopelessness and helplessness that goes along with extreme weights. Same with extreme hoarding. Shaming doesn't help. Some people need a team approach with real solutions.