My 600lb Life is a TV series on TLC that follows a year in the life of a 500+ pound individual who will eventually receive weight loss surgery by Dr. Younan Nowzardan in Houston. I don’t know if it’s sad or not, but this show (and Fat Doctors from the UK) is one of my guilty pleasures. While seeing someone be in a situation where they’re so obese they’re trapped in bed is sad, I love rooting for them and see them finding a new lease on life after their surgery and their body starts melting away.
I don’t know if I’m obsessed with the show (and weight loss in general) because I can’t lose weight, but I’ve now run across a few episodes where I really want to slap the crap out of the women being featured in the show.
The My 600lb Life episode that enraged me the most was Penny, from season 2. Penny was 46 years old, had been bedridden for 4 years, and moves her husband and son from Maryland to Houston for major weight loss surgery. This woman is a master manipulator. Even after being checked into the hospital and put on a super low calorie and low carb diet she doesn’t lose any weight. What does this tell you? She’s found someone to feed her more food than she should have.
Here’s the thing about weight loss surgery, it’s a tool not a fix. If the person isn’t in the right mental place, if they haven’t fixed their issues with food, then the weight loss surgery will slow things down a bit until they manage to stretch their stomach to a bigger size so the patient can consume more. The person getting WLS has to got to WANT to change, and while she says she does, her actions spoke much louder.
Dr. Nowzardan got frustrated and finally discharged Penny because she refused to get out of bed and walk. She had (and has) an excuse for everything. Meanwhile, her husband kept on enabling her instead of just telling her if she wants the food, get out of her bloody bed and get it herself. I mean, it can’t be easy watching the person you love and have committed your life to suffer but there’s a point where you just have to practice tough love. Personally, I much rather have my loved one hate my guts temporarily vs. watching them eat themselves to death.
The whole time I watched Penny’s My 600lb Life episode (and the ‘Where are they now’ follow up episode) my blood was boiling. In order to get the surgery she proved she could lose 50lbs in a few months. She doesn’t have a condition that KEEPS her from losing weight. She doesn’t have what amounts to fat tumors on her lower body, stomach and arms that keeps her from losing and saving her joints. She was given a gift and she tossed it out the window into the street.
Emotionally, it’s become pretty hard to watch people like this. Until you’ve spent years eating at a deficit, exercising to the point where you burn yourself out and start wearing your body down with no results, get accused by your doctor(s) and loved ones that you’re secretly eating or not trying hard enough, then you have no idea.
So if you’re simply overweight and can lose weight, even if it’s a .5lb a week, take that and run. Don’t throw the gift of a healthy body out the door. And, if you’re a lippy lady, take care of yourself. I know emotionally it’s trying, but someday they’re going to find a cure or maybe you’ll be able to keep your body in good condition for liposuction when insurance companies finally pull their heads out of their collective asses and start approving it.
Until then, try not to become obsessed with weight loss shows like My 600lb Life. It’s not worth the anger (or looking silly yelling at the TV).
PetraAnn
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