ProTourist

That actually worked for me to quit smoking. I cut down gradually over the course of a year, and didn't tell anyone what I was doing. When I was down to one cigarette every other day, I stopped, and then I told people. That was thirty years ago, and I've never smoked again. But for a couple of years I did keep a sealed pack of cigarettes in a drawer, so that if I ever wanted one, it would be right at hand. Eventually got rid of it, and never looked back. But I don't know if that approach would work so well with food. If you gave up potatoes, for example, you could just eat more rice or pasta. I think you'd have to do it in bigger stages; first give up all sugars, then give up all starches, then lower fat intake, then cut portion sizes on what's left. Hmmm.

Actually there is a french name 'Vianney' but spelled with two n's. [I know this from Saint John Vianney. ]

Poor fellow. I hope someone will be able to help him, or that his suffering will be brief.

It took Jeanne to make me do it -- I couldn't hold out any longer! 😃

1) Yes, I can see your point that Steven might be a worse human being, with criminal bent, if he were more physically able. But I think the same could be said for Angela as well, and she is already an ex-con. Since she thinks that someone not giving her the same apartment that she viewed online as 'murdering' her, that kind of mind might justify a similar type of retaliation. Their modus operandi might differ, though. 😉 2) Must admit I don't understand the distinction, regarding Steven's seeking amusement from other people while Angela seeks for them to 'be there for her'. I suppose that is not so uncommon for people who live such physically-restricted lives, and who are mean-spirited -- they enjoy watching others jump through hoops to serve and entertain them. I never got that feeling from Steven, that he was evil -- Angela J. is the first one to bring out that reaction in me. Steven has always impressed me as a big baby + drama queen, although he does abuse those around him. And I do believe his mind is somewhat twisted too, although that could be caused (or worsened) by all the drugs. Her daughter had already moved out before Angela moved to Houston, thank goodness. She took her kids and boyfriend and went to stay with a friend. That happened when Justin moved back in, because Desirée did not trust Justin. If Angela does eventually move back to Ohio, I doubt that Desirée would live with her again, even if Angela would be permanently separated from Justin. I don't know how we know that "her newborn came into the world without drugs being found in his system" ? But I didn't think Desirée was on drugs, although she was smoking cigarettes during her pregnancy, which certainly could have harmed the baby. That doesn't really speak anything to me. I took it at face value that she didn't want her husband to become her care-giver. Although she didn't say why, I figured perhaps she thought it would hurt the sexual relationship between them, or that he would be unwilling and would just leave her. But yes, she does seem to have no hesitation to force her daughter to do all sorts of things for her. That was my impression as well, as one possibility.

Thanks for the response, CrazyInAlabama. With Katrina, maybe because she had had it in for so long, it became less effective due to deflation or an adaptation the stomach might have made to it over that longer period of time. As I recall, Dr. Now found Janine to be delusional too, but maybe because she had moved to Houston already and so he could monitor her more closely, he may have thought it was worth a try. That's why I thought it might have been worth a try for Mercedes too, since she had already moved to Houston, wasn't losing enough weight on her own, couldn't take the time to be hospitalized for a few months (due to child care issues) and was running out of time to save her life. Well, I guess we'll find out soon how well it worked for Janine.

I've been thinking recently about Janine, one of the patients from early last season, whose follow-up episode should be aired soon. She was not successful at losing weight on her own, and since surgery was still not a safe option toward the end of the year, Dr. Now placed a gastric balloon in her stomach, which forced her to eat less. This was supposed to be a temporary measure, maximum of six months, which should have allowed her to lose enough weight to have the surgery. She said it was uncomfortable, that it felt like having bad indigestion all the the time, but we'll find out how it worked for her in the coming weeks. I've been wondering why this is the only time in the whole series that Dr. Now has offered the gastric balloon to one of the patients who had already moved to Houston, or who lived nearby, but were unable to lose enough weight on their own. This season alone, the gastric balloon might have helped Jeanne, Maja, Mercedes, and even Angela J. I think Mercedes could have been an especially good candidate since she was running out of time and there is no hospitalization involved. Any thoughts on this?

But the main compensation the poundticipants receive for their year-long commitment to the show is their weight-loss surgery. So when they are putting in the time and effort and the loss of privacy for all the filming, they may indeed feel entitled to receive their surgery. If we knew the language in the contracts they sign, then we'd have a better idea of how right/wrong they would be to feel so entitled.

Agreed, unless Justin may have had a medical issue that caused him to learn about his eating. But don't discount my theory of the gypsy curse, a la Stephen King's novel/film "Thinner." 😉 In fact, Angie may have cast the spell herself, one day when she was particularly annoyed with Justin. To me she's right up there with Roman and Minnie Castevet, although she's less polite than they are. 😏 😄

Welcome deepfriedcake -- I am a recent lurker-turned-pounder myself. ☺️

Angie doesn't explain this on camera, but I think she means that she gives financial help, in that she lets people live in her house, pays for the basic living expenses, etc. But even if she does share her home with family, boyfriends, etc., it comes at a high price for them. 😈

That was Angie's other daughter, not sure of her name or where she resides.

Agree 1,000 percent. It's still up: here it is.

There were so many posts I wanted to comment on, but the list got unmanageably long and I gave up, so some freehand comments instead: 1) To my thinking, Angie J. is now the worst of the worse. More delusional than Penny and Schenee, more dishonest than James K., more disrespectful than Marla, more entitled and overbearing than Steven Assanti. That is quite an accomplishment. 😧 2) This is the first time I can say I've actually hated one of the patients, not disliked, where I have no sympathy and see no glimmer of good at all. But I don't enjoy hating her. In my opinion she goes beyond narcissism, drug-addiction, manipulation, delusion, and any other personality disorder. To me she is evil -- 99 44/100 percent evil. I feel a bit afraid of her and don't like to look into her eyes, even though in video and photo. 3) Steven had been my #1 up till now, but he was primarily a selfish, obnoxious baby who liked to act up and dramatize to get his own way and for the attention, and yes he hurt and abused others in the process. To his comparative credit, as some others have said, he had not produced any children upon which to inflict horrendous parenting, so that's one less black star for him. But while I didn't find anything to like in Steven, I never got the impression that he dipped into the same dish with the man downstairs as I did with Angie J. 4) Yes I agree that Angie J. is full of lies and cannot be trusted or believed about anything at all. I'm sorry I missed the comments on her GoFundMe page; have read some good ones on FB but they do get repetitive after a while. But it looks like she edited her second update to her GFM statement today, to remove several of the falsehoods and other controversial statements which had been there yesterday and this morning. This is how it reads as of right now: Of course I don't believe she was accepted into Dr. Now's program, not only because she would not have met the weight loss requirement, but because she would not have changed her mind about rehab nor would have agreed to stop smoking. So I don't believe she was approved for surgery or is filming a follow-up episode. 5) I agree that it's possible that Justin ate more than Angie or Desirée -- he said in the doctor's office that he eats 8,000 - 10,000 calories a day -- and remain thin. Although I'm not a doctor and Dr. Now said otherwise, I think it is possible either due to metabolism or effects of certain types of drug abuse. Or perhaps a tape worm, or a gypsy curse, that makes him "thinner" no matter how much he eats? 😉 6) At the beginning of this episode, one of the first impressions I had was that it was a put-on; that it had been purely dramatized and was not real at all. It was difficult to believe that one of these patients could be such a monster. But even after the horror of its reality sank in, I think that parts of the episode may have indeed been staged/fictionalized, such as the "friends" who helped with the move down to Houston. As some others have said, I doubt this one would have any friends at all, unless they needed her for something, owed her big time, or perhaps she had some compromising information on them and so they did as she asked. 7) Here is a family photo found on one of her FB pages. It appears to be from before Desirée had the new baby:

Yes, you are correct. Corn, peas, and beans are starchy vegetables which are generally excluded from low-carb diets. Although some will say that beans are okay because they are metabolized more slowly (have a low glycemic index value).

Yes, I agree with most of this. Although certainly several of them live in nice, clean homes, not in squalor. For example, Amber Rashdi, Nikki Webster, Justin McSwain, Paula Jones, etc. Sorry for the posting tear tonight folks; I let it build up for a few days. I will stop now. Cheers. 😊

Yes, I think this is very possible. And perhaps there are some other known or suspected abusers in the family these days. Mercedes may not trust her mother to care for her children and keep them safe for the few months she would have needed in the hospital.

Yes, I agree with most of this, especially with the line I bolded above. I'd like a follow-up episode too, but Mercedes may have already given up after her year one failure.

Actually, Pauline Potter is doing pretty well -- I wouldn't put her in the same sentence with James King. She has lost a few hundred pounds. Here is a recent photo, from her FB page: But I agree with the rest of what you said -- the requirements before surgery were a lot lighter during the first few seasons. I remember in the third season, Amber had been given a weight-loss goal of 25 pounds. She lost only 17, but was still approved for surgery.

This is true, but the other people in the household did not stand up to Lisa, giving her the demanded big bowl of Froot Loops, etc. And once they got to Houston, that same daughter continued to refuse Lisa the bad foods, both in the hospital and at home. It was when the daughter went back home to start a new job and Lisa's boyfriend took her place, that all was lost. He would not stand up to Lisa.

When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in the mid-1990s I received no education at all. My internist just told me to avoid concentrated sugar! I sought out on my own a diabetes educator and two nutritionists (the first one wasn't good), plus purchased and read books. [This was just before the internet got going, and I was not yet online.] But I must admit that learning what to do and what not to do was different from making it happen. It was a huge lifestyle change, in terms of both food and physical activity, and I resented the loss of control. I reached a point where I didn't want to eat harmful things but did not want to give up self-determination, so I just fasted. I fasted for several days, just drinking water, until I finally became hypoglycemic and then I started following the diet. Anyway, I can imagine some of the poundticipants might be in a similar situation. They may not actually receive the detailed training, as I did not until I sought it out (or if they do, then they may not really understand it due to lack of education) and they may resent the loss of self-determination. Plus there are the serious psychological issues that many of them have, where they don't know how to manage without using food to self-soothe. In Mercedes' case, I can understand how she could feel she could not follow the diet during the long road strips between Ohio and Houston: She suffered so much physically in the back of that van, and eating was the only way she had to cope with the pain. In my opinion, what she really needed was the controlled environment of a few months in hospital, combined with regular sessions in her room with a psychiatrist. I think that would have given her the best chance of survival.

By the time I found Mercedes' FB page Thursday evening, recent posts were no longer visible, and her GoFundMe page it was already closed -- so I didn't get to see any of this first-hand, but do trust the reports. I had been wondering if Mercedes checked herself into the hospital for those few months of controlled diet and medical monitoring that Dr. Now had ordered at the end of the episode; was trying to find this out online; and am sad to know that she did not go in. I could understand it if no one in her family would be willing to look after her children for that amount of time -- if that were the true reason why -- but not if it had meant that the children would just have needed to return to Ohio to be cared for by her mother or siblings, and Mercedes didn't want to be separated from them for that long. I mean, you'd think Mercedes would want to go into the hospital because weight loss is so much quicker and easier there, and she would come out at least a couple of hundred pounds lighter, in better health with better mobility, and better able to care for herself and her children. And then she could finally get her weight-loss surgery. She must have realized and understood all of this. So on the chance that child care was not really a show-stopper, then Mercedes must have had an unspoken death wish, and so would opt to continue to eat as she prefers rather than go into the controlled environment that would save her. But, I know that child care is often a big issue for the single-parent poundticipants. I recall Cynthia's follow-up from last season, where after she experienced how long and difficult the recovery was from her first skin surgery on her arms, she decided to stop losing weight, because she would not be able to afford the even longer recovery time for the abdominal skin surgery that would have been coming up next (the skin was already loosening) -- she would have had no one to care for her children for all those weeks. So Cynthia stopped at around 350 pounds. Yes, Mercedes' GoFundMe does sound like it was a bit shady, especially since she was asking for money to get to Houston after she had already been there and failed the program. I suppose Mercedes won't be on this earth much longer, probably for lack of child care during her necessary hospitalization. If no one in the family could take them in for a few months, goodness know where the little ones will end up once Mercedes passes. 😧

1) I would guess that Mercedes has those large pads placed under her during her period, like she uses overnight when she cannot get up to use the bathroom. 2) Most of the time there is someone who can drive them, but some of them do fly, some use medical transport, and at least one poundticipant (this season's Angela G.) couldn't find anyone in her family to drive her to Houston, and ended up calling upon an old boyfriend she hadn't seen in several years. 😒

I don't think this is possible in Mercedes' case nor for most severely obese people. Due to the girth of the thighs and the large belly hanging over the whole area, it's unlikely the genital areas would be visible at all unless the person were to lie back and hold the belly off to one side, such as during bed baths. So why blur the area on the video when Mercedes is just sitting there upright? Probably no real need to, but maybe the producers want to 'imply' that there is exposure when there really is none.

No, he loves his family and his home. He couldn't just disappear because he would be unhappy without you and the children. He's as lucky as you are. 😍