The race to lose ONE TON: Morbidly obese at over 600lbs, four of the world's heaviest people attempt to change their lives on shocking new show

By Daisy Dumas


645 pounds and counting: Melissa features in the new TLC series, My 600 pound life. She aims to lose a third of her bodyweight to save her life


They are larger than life for all of the wrong reasons.

A new TLC show is set to introduce audiences to four morbidly obese individuals as they attempt to shed pounds and live a more normal lifestyle.

My 600 Pound Life, premiering on February 1, sees the group, each member of which weighs over 600 pounds, attempting to lose an astonishing one ton between them.


The story has taken an amazing seven years to document. In 2004, cameras started rolling to film the four overweight Americans as they each underwent a life-changing gastric bypass operation.

They were some of the heaviest patients ever operated on for the revolutionary surgery, with one woman, Melissa, weighing 645 pounds alone.

The chance of the grave procedure having a lasting successful outcome was just five per cent.


Uncomfortable truth: Melissa says that she could cope with being 337 pounds but when she hit 645 pounds, she knew she had to make a change

Not so happy couple? Melissa and three other individuals aim to lose an astonishing ONE TON between them on the four-part series which has been filmed over seven years

The four-part series shows the life-saving but traumatic experience of surgery, the highs and lows of dealing with addiction and dependence - and the transformation from being utterly dependent to gaining a modicum of normality and a sense of self worth.

At the outset, their extraordinary weight means the foursome have little or no independence, relying on care just to live from day to day.

Bypass for your life: All four of the show's subjects have life changing gastric bypass surgery in 2004 - the four-part series charts their struggle to lead normal lives

Some are bed-bound, unable to move from their homes.

'It's awful to realise what I had done to myself,' says one woman in a sneak peak of the forthcoming first episode, while a man is heard admitting: 'I knew that I was gonna die.'

But lives are very much interlinked, with the transformations affecting not only the health and happiness of the individuals but those around them.

One husband and wife couple show the strain, with the newly less-weighty wife admitting that her husband is struggling to come to terms with his newly active wife.

'He's afraid I'm gonna leave him,' she sobs.

The clip shows a horrendous post-surgery wound - and many a tear as the changelings come to terms with what they had done to themselves.

Melissa said: 'I could tell you this whole journey was easy, but that would be a lie. But it wouldn't be a lie to tell you it was worth it.

Losing it: The show sees a morbidly obese man falling as he attempts to get off the sofa - landing and shouting for help from his companion

'No-one can understand it's like to go from where I was to where I am today.'

Embodying that dependence - and independence - the story is about a lot more than weight loss: Facing the horrendous truth and taking the hard journey from forced medical intervention to developing a sense of pride.




source:dailymail