ProTourist

Although it wasn't mentioned on the show, I found an article that says Angela has Multiple Sclerosis, and her daughter Andrea too. [Starcasm] Don't know whether or not this is accurate. Found another article that says Lacy's parent(s) were in prison. [Monsters & Critics] Must have been due to those 'bad choices' they made. Regarding the ice cream run at end of the episode, that was for Lacy only. Angela did not get any for herself. As for Angela's son Chris, he was the one who took her grocery shopping, and also assisted her to get situated in the van when she was leaving for Houston. An article said he had been a caregiver for his mother for years, but had just got a job and was about to move out on his own. He was 19.

Yes, it makes sense for people who have failed with other types of weight loss surgery such as stomach stapling and lap bands -- they could benefit from the sleeve gastrectomy or gastric bypass. But for someone like Angela who has already had the bypass, I don't think there is anywhere else to go. Except perhaps to repair any damage done to the bypass. In the case of Angela, I think she was also looking for help with the lymphedema.

Another challenge of weight loss surgery, even of the sleeve gastrectomy, is adequate hydration. The small stomachs that cannot hold much food cannot hold much water either. From what I've read, the patients are generally told to sip water all throughout the day, to avoid dehydration, but even so they still do not pee very much and it is generally a dark color. For people who tend to perspire heavily, this would not work -- the amount of lost water could not be replaced. And for people like me who tend to form kidney stones and so need to drink a few quarts of water daily to flush out our kidneys, we could never have weight loss surgery. In fact, kidney stones tends to be one of the complications of WLS due to the reduced hydration.

The ones who live closer to Houston do that, such as Nikki Webster who lived in Little Rock, Arkansas. When she had her weight loss surgery and then later her skin removal surgery, she spent about six weeks along with a family member in a rented house in the Houston area. But truth be told, after she went back home after convalescing near Houston from her skin surgery, a doctor in Little Rock installed a new wound vac in her, which was contraindicated and ended up slowing down the healing process. Once she saw Dr. Now again, he removed it. This has happened with some other patients too, who have received bad medical care back home, which Dr. Now then had to fix. I'm reminded of Angel from season three, who had a feeding tube installed, which defeated her bypass and prevented weight loss. Dr. Now had to remove it. But I do agree that people like Angela who live far away shouldn't make multiple trips to Houston just for weigh-ins, especially when travel is hard on them. They should have a partnership with a doctor near home who can do the weight checks and send the records to Dr. Now. And then the patient and Dr. Now can do the Skype meetings to discuss progress. Save the trips to Houston for the surgery, unless they want/are able to relocate for a year or two. [Or unless Dr. Now admits them to hospital upon their first appointment.]

Maybe Eric just wanted to be on television, or maybe he was still carrying a torch for her. 😍

P.S. As some mentioned in the live chat, since Angela has already had a gastric bypass, which is the most aggressive form of weight-loss surgery, I don't know what kind of surgery she expected to receive from Dr. Now. Once the intestines have been bypassed, they stay bypassed, but perhaps he could have reduced the functional area of her stomach again if she had stretched it out. So I'm surprised she was accepted as a patient to begin with.

I think Angela did lose weight in the few months after her one appointment with Dr. Now. She looked smaller to me, was walking better, was going out without oxygen, and was able to drive. I don't know if she put it back on again toward the end, but she did seem to stop losing. The impression I got was that Angela did not want to return to Houston just for a check-in on her weight, because the round-trip van ride was so hard for her. I don't think she could face it a second time, but for some reasons did not want to admit it and made excuses instead. If she had told Dr. Now the truth, he may have been able to arrange alternate transport for her. But she should have allowed a local doctor to weigh her and report to Dr. Now, because I think she really did lose some weight. Honestly, I was surprised at how little Dr. Now did for her at their first/only appointment. Considering the condition Angela was in after her trip from Ohio, I thought he was going to admit her to hospital. He didn't even examine her terrible lymphedemas. Anyway, I think Angela's dishonesty and/or delusions got the better of her -- she could have had a better outcome if she had just been candid about what she was feeling instead of spinning tales, but that kind of candor may have been beyond her.

I can see your point, but I don't think the goal is to avoid upsetting the person, but to give him/her the best chance of succeeding -- and I think the whole family would be motivated to want the person to succeed, especially if the person has been a big drain on the family's resources for a long time, so that their home situation would improve. Make the sacrifice of no junk food in the house, at least for the first several months, and they will all be better off in the long run. In the case of Annjeanette with her father, she was following her therapist's advice in talking to him about it, and she was in her own home -- he was visiting for her surgery, which had been delayed due to lack of weight loss. And we've seen nutritionists who make home visits tell them to get rid of all the forbidden foods, because there have been disagreements about just who is eating it, and because it's too much temptation. Obviously there is a difference of opinion here. Perhaps if the patient is still in the family home, it might be too much to ask. But whoever makes the move to Houston with him/her, should be prepared to live in a "clean house" for the duration.

I have to disagree. One's home should be a safe haven, at least during the early stages of trying to change one's diet or to break an addiction. For example, if a family member were recently diagnosed as diabetic, it would be insensitive for other family members to eat cake or ice cream in front of the person while they are struggling to make the adjustment. Annjeanette went through this same issue with her father in last week's episode. She talked to him about it and he agreed to stop bringing the unhealthy foods into the home. Eat it at the store, in the restaurant, in the car, etc. I think give the patient six months to a year, depending on how well they are adjusting, before the household goes back to 'normal'.

Anyone here familiar with a european film from the early 70s La Grande Bouffe? It's about a group of four old friends who meet at a country estate for a weekend, to cook and eat themselves to death. Literally. It was scandalous at the time, even in France and Italy, but by current standards would not be so far out, though it is far fetched. Anyway, I was reminded of this movie today, for the first time since I've been watching this series, and it made me think that quite a few of the poundticipants do want to eat themselves to death, and that if they could do it quickly and with little to no suffering as in this movie, that might just opt-in. At least they would have gourmet meals, rather than fast food and delivery pizza. Here's a trailer; it's available to watch online for a couple of dollars.

Personally, I think AJ precipitated the break-up, which she timed strategically for when she had fully recovered from surgery. She gave Erica no time to think about and formulate her own goals and didn't tell her that they were supposed to be short-term only. I think AJ was setting them up for failure.

If there is doubt as to whether or not Erica and AJ broke up, have a look at a line spoken by AJ in this scene. If they are together now, then they must have reconciled some time later.

The post was made by a Nikki DeBray Atkins, although she linked to an article about Nikki Webster within her post.

Just a note that this is another Nikki -- not the one who was a poundticipant.

Regarding Janine's mention of bulemia, I think she just didn't know what the word means. When Dr. Now questioned her on it, Janine said that she hadn't been wanting to eat, which shows that she doesn't realize it means binge/purge behavior. So rather than lying or delusional, as Dr. Now had commented, I think this was just a case of ignorance.

To illustrate the point of poor nutrition among these patients, I'm rewatching June's original episode tonight, from season 4. Dr. Now admitted her to hospital upon her first appointment at the clinic, and once tests had been run, found that she was severely malnourished. Although June was eating quite a lot, the foods she ate had very little nutritional value. So yes, ByMoreAndSave, this does appear to be a real issue with at least some of the poundticipants. [Although I don't recall Dr. Now pointing this out regarding other patients.]

True, most of them are eating both high-carb and high-fat diets. Lots of fatty meats, whole eggs, full-fat dairy products, and fried foods. They are eating lots of sugars and starches too, especially breads, potatoes, pizza, pasta, waffles, cookies and cakes, ice cream, etc. The healthy carbs, such as those you've mentioned, plus fruits and veggies, no, not so much -- although I can recall that Lisa liked fruit, Aaron liked peanut butter, and Justin would eat salads as part of some of his big meals. Yes, I agree with all of this. Most of the pounticipants, even if they eat a home-cooked breakfast of fresh foods like eggs and biscuits, are usually eating fast foods and processed foods the rest of the day. So they are probably getting a double-whammy from those foods in that they are designed to be addictive and are also low in nutrition (though high in calories) which could keep their bodies wanting more food. It should be illegal to calibrate processed foods for highly addictive traits, especially when they are also low in nutrition and high in calories and carbs.

To be fair, I think this is a general misconception of how weight loss surgery works, which is why so many think of it as "cheating," that it doesn't take the will power and work of traditional weight loss methods. For the people who apply for this program, the producers should take a little time to educate them on how the process truly works, so they will understand from the beginning what would be required of them. It seems like they do not do this, which may be for self-serving reasons, to create more drama for their show.

People are making good points in this discussion on what changes to society have permitted a "six hundred pound lifestyle" to develop. I think one big element has been the shift from high protein to high carbohydrate diets that began in the 1970s and '80s, in the push to lower cholesterol. People were encouraged to stop eating red meat and eggs, and so started making main courses of pasta dishes and rice dishes, which previously had been taken primarily as small side-dishes. Also the push to reduce fat in other types of foods, such as baked goods, dressings, and sauces, added sugar to replace the taste from the lost fats. Many people noticed that they were starting to gain a lot of weight as a result of this shift from protein+fat to carbohydrates, even though their blood lipids were going down, and some would counteract it by exercising more, or by going back to meat (leaner choices) and fish if they could afford it. Also with the evolution of the personal computer, the internet, and then mobile devices, we've become even more sedentary. Many of us don't even go shopping or go out to the movies any more -- we order online for home delivery, and have home entertainment systems or simply watch online too. It's cheaper and more convenient, but makes us less physically active. But what is causing the addictions that lead a person up to 600 pounds rather than 200 or 300 pounds? [I don't think we had this level of food addiction 50+ years ago.] Trauma, and particularly sexual forms of abuse, beginning earlier in life. Food may be readily at hand for a child, but not so much so for drugs or alcohol. And why would there be an increase, if there is one, in sexual forms of abuse these past few decades? It might be due to another broad societal change, in the cultural emphasis placed on sexual feelings and their expression, and their importance in ones life. For better and for worse. So here we are, set up by our culture to fail. Our minds are bombarded with sexual images in movies, television, music videos and song lyrics, pornographic photos and films quietly available online, news stories of pedophilia in what should be trusted relationships. So much so that what used to be more personal becomes so common that it falls to ground-level and mixes in with the dust. And with this supercharged-dust, different people do different things, some of us diverging far from the good path. The young victims turn to their kitchens for relief, finding mostly high-carb foods. And the foundation for their addiction is set. It's a grim picture. Not that we as a society could not recover from it, but not easily. When you've fallen so far, it can take a herculean effort to pull yourself back up. My two cents.

Me neither! I gave it up 22 years ago. Sure don't miss the commercials, and when I watch a free video online that includes them, it's an unwelcome blast from the past.

I couldn't find this anywhere either, not even on Amazon, but found it available for free viewing (with commercials) on TLC's website: https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/my-600-lb-life-where-are-they-now/full-episodes/milla-charity-2

I imagine they ended up rescheduled due to Kelly's emergency hospital admittance that night.

Maya and Christian were at the clinic the night Kelly got stuck in the taxi out front:

I've found a site to watch this second Milla/Charity update episode, for free: https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/my-600-lb-life-where-are-they-now/full-episodes/milla-charity-2

I just realized that Kelly Mason died two days before Sean Milliken. That must have been a real one-two punch for Dr. Now. 😟