CarolMK

After reading all the articles linked to this thread, I'm starting to think that Pauline is just a major famewhore like the Kardashians and the Duggars. She doesn't want to lose weight, she wants to be on tv and in news articles and collect whatever paycheck is available. As soon as I saw that she'd been on Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew, and the Supersized vs. Superskinny show, she lost all credibility. Sadly, she'll probably be one of those people who manages to hang around the next 25 years trying to cash in like getting herself put into the Guinness Book of World Records. I couldn't believe it when I read that she actually contacted them to confirm herself as the "world's heaviest woman".

I'm late to this thread, but wanted to congratulate Wanderwoman on the birth of your daughter Maisie! I'm so glad she is doing well :)

Since Jessa and Ben are now married, aren't they allowed to make their own decisions? I noticed that Jill, like Kelly Bates said in an earlier episode of her show, said that the way she and Derrick did things were different than the Duggar household, in that they go to bed and get up early. Kelly had mentioned this in regards to her married kids, that once they leave the Bates house, the married kid's house rules will be their own. So if that's the case, what's wrong with Jessa and Ben using birth control? Or if they do, are they even allowed to admit it? For the sake of the show, probably not.

OMG. I am glad that the show is showing us a few people who fail with this, lest we all think that everyone who weighs 600 + pounds will be successful. Pauline is as bad as an alcoholic in the gutter or a homeless herion addict. She appears to be beyond hope. I think Dr. Now did her surgery and previously hospitalized her because he truly feared that she would die soon without it. I'm amazed she already made it to 50 years old at her weight. I'm now wondering if it's possible for someone in this weight range to live until they're 70. If so, her poor son has a lifetime of misery ahead of him. Upthread, somebody mentioned a nursing home. If a severely obese person has no caretaker, is this the alternative? And how much extra care do these people need? I imagine it would take several nurses to lift her and clean her properly. Again, like others have said, I wonder how they have enough money to constantly buy fast food while on disability.

Did Jessa say in the past few years that she was interested in becoming either a hairdresser or makeup artist? I can't remember where I heard that or if I just imagined it. Reading over Kelly Bate's blog, I remember that before she was married, their daughter Alyssa worked for a florist. I do wonder what Jessa plans to do if she doesn't have kids right away..maybe write another book? I think if anyone in the Duggar family ever writes a tell-all, Jessa is one of the top candidates to do it.

I think that the ratings are high now because the show is focused more on Jill and Jessa rather than Jim Bob and Michelle. From what I observed , it seems like Jessa doesn't care all that much about the details of her wedding and really wanted to just get married and leave home. I believe I heard her say the word elope to Jim Bob both in this episode and the previous season. It might have been a strong possibilty that she and Ben would have done so if Jim Bob had not granted Ben permission to ask Jessa to marry her. She would have probably been just as happy to move to Hot Springs and live with Ben and his family for awhile than to continue to live as a single woman with the Duggars. It makes me wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at that house. Also, someone on another side said that Michelle is starting to sound like Elmo, and I have to say I agree. She did look better in her TH with the darker sweater rather than that hideous green maternity shirt. Now if she's just cut her hair a few inches, she'd look much better.

I believe Whitney was adopted by a minister and his wife when she was a young teen after her parents died. Not sure if she has any siblings, the show hasn't talked about that as far as I know. She did not grow up following Gothard if I recall correctly, but has embraced it now that she and Zack are married.

I"m glad to see that Alyssa is able to make her own clothing choices now and defend herself on Instagram or whatever she uses. Finally, a Gothard raised female who doesn't think that it's a sin to wear pants. Hopefully in the future some of her sisters will follow, and hoping that maybe a few of the Duggars girls do, too.

Nice to see the new grandbaby. I do wonder why labor was induced when she was only a week overdue, isn't the usual protocol 2 weeks? I know that induced labor can make it very intense, good thing Whitney didn't have any problem asking for an epidural. Kudos to her for allowing the entire family to be there. We told family we were going to the hosptial with our kids but didn't ask them to come until after the births..good thing too, as I ended up having 2 c-sections. Looks like Chad can do just about anything. I think he and Erin will be heavily featured through the show. Alyssa and John will be in the background, or may appear sometimes, but not all episodes. I'm wondering how many episodes are left and if they are going to have another season later on this year.

I wonder if Susan has some type of emotional problems that the show didn't talk about. During the scene where she's crying in the doctor's office while her mom and sister were arguing with each other, she looked like a frightened child, hiding her face, and from the way her mom was talking, the father wasn't the only one who was abusive. It's so weird that her mom seemed to see Susan as "her baby girl" and had this need to take care of her, and Susan always went along with it.What a sad life for the two of them. That said, I noticed that her brother's house was much nicer than the crappy trailer she was living in with her mom, and he didn't appear one time on camera. I do hope that Susan continues to do well. As for Ruby, I actually saw an update from her, Jeff and Georgia about a year ago on YouTube, and she said she weighed 318 lbs. It was about 40 minutes long. She does look better and quite a bit prettier now that you can really see her face. Ruby probably doesn't look all that much different from many other women now, considering she is 5 ft 9. She should have had skin removal surgery while she still had her show, that would probably take off at least 30 more lbs considering she was once 716 at her highest.

I honestly can't figure out if Whitney and Buddy are already together (possibly one reason she moved back home, in addition to doing the show) or if they brought him in to do the show as Whitney's friend, meaning somebody that she knew in the past but wasn't in touch with for quite awhile. That's another thing..wasn't she living overseas for quite a while? If so, when did all of these best friends come out of the woodwork?

I have read rumors that Charlie will be back for the finale. However, some sources suggested he would be appearing as Charlie Sheen and not Charlie Harper. I'm already confused and have no idea what's going to happen.

I saw a recent photo of Jill and Derrick along with Jessa and Ben, and Jill looks ready to pop. I can't believe she's not due until March 24. If their baby is born on her due date, I have a feeling it's going to be a big baby.

The show has been renewed for Season 2. Don't know when it starts again, but Whitney shared this on her Facebook page.

I think the reason we're seeing Chad and Erin more than the other married couples is that they're getting paid separately for their appearances and maybe like earning the extra money from the show in addition to Chad's paycheck. We probably won't see Alyssa and John nearly as much, because not only are they far away, they're probably much more well off, and John doesn't seem comfortable appearing on a reality tv show. Compared to the Duggars, that's why we see Josh and Anna on a regular basis, they like getting their paycheck as well. Erin's Heparin shots might also be expensive during this pregnancy, it might not be totally covered by insurance. Zack and Whitney might be better off than Chad and Erin financially since they seem to have a better house.

I have a strong feeling that Jana will wait until the show is canceled before she marries. She doesn't strike me as wanting to have her courtship and wedding televised for the whole world to see and I don't think that Jim Bob and Michelle would want her to keep it private. So, maybe she'll marry by the time she's around 30-32 to a man her dad picks out but is secretly fundy-lite, and moves across the country and has limited contact with her parents after that. She might be close to some of her littler siblings, but somehow I don't see her having sleepovers the way Jill and Derrick do. Actually, I'm not sure if even Jessa and Ben have her siblings sleep over, either.

In regards to seeing people get to their goal weight, as was asked upthread, the first 4 people who did the My 600 lb life were followed for a total of 7 years. I remember both Henry and Melissa getting to their goal weight, and the other 2 getting fairly close. It does take awhile with weight loss surgery to get the final results, but for this most recent set of folks, they had the weight loss surgery about 1 1/2 years ago and we're now getting the updates..some of them, it's been about 2 years that has passed. All have been succesful except for Penny, although according to her, she has lost some weight, but not anywhere near what the other people have done. Haven't seen Missy's show yet but I will tomorrow. I'm rooting for her.

Just wondering, how many episodes were filmed for this season? I saw an ad that stated the season finale was next week. Didn't it just start the middle of January?

Looking ahead, will Jill and Derrick continue to be interesting after they have their baby? Once we see the birth, etc, what about when their baby starts growing up? We've already seen Josh and Anna in this role. In the beginning, Josh did have the car lot and Anna worked there, too, so that setting could be filmed. But Derrick works at Wal-Mart so most likely we'll either see Jill alone with the baby, perhaps with one of her younger sisters along as "helper", or we'll see Derrick and Jill out at a farmer's market or something like that. I just wonder how long there will be interest in each Duggar girl after each one has one, then two, etc. babies. Also, I see less of the huge "megabus" family trips in the future. How many people can the family take along on their vacations and also, how much more will TLC pay for? In about 5 years time, there could be an extra 12-15 people in the family between new spouses, babies, etc. They'll need at least 2 huge busses to transport everybody.

So far, I think one of the main points of the show is just to get us to laugh. Which I do at least a few times each episode. Judging by the previews, I think that Whitney gets a health wake-up call and then decides to probably officially go on some type of diet/exercise program. If she gets a season 2, I have a feeling that they will be focusing more on that aspect than strictly her dancing.

Didn't one or both of Paula's older daughters go away to college? I thought I saw her mention that at least one of them lived near her mother. That could also contribute to their weight gain. I don't know why we never saw her son in the second episode.

I have a question about Amanda. Was she adopted? Because she looks as if she's Asian yet both her parents and her younger sisters look white. Also, I can't figure out why her parents are so rich if her dad's an engineer? My husband is an engineer and I work part time in bookkeeping but we're solid middle class. I'd like to know what type of job my husband needs to get to afford a house like that. LOL. The Fiona -Gus marriage is not going to work out. A shame, really, it would be nice for the rest of the family to have him around. I know they all seemed to really like Steve back in the day. And Ian-Mickey, seems to be focusing more on their problems than on the two of them as a couple, but we'll have to see where this goes. I still like Svetlana. Kev and Veronica, hope they can work out their differences. Unfortunately, Veronica doesn't appear to have too much interest in her kids. No kisses good bye when she's going off to work, just a smilel at them as she heads out the door.

If Whitney's mom eats soup a lot of the time, then her father probably does too. I have a feeling that Babs doesn't do much cooking at all if she's relying on canned soup for a lot of her meals..while it's fine sometimes, homemade is so much better imo, tastier, and you can make a lot and freeze for later (most kinds...my personal favorite is broccoli cheese soup that doesn't freeze, but my version is a lot lower in calories and sodium that Panera Bread's). So, Whitney most likely eats on her own, and that probably is stuff like pizza, fast food, etc. Isn't the average Big Mac, fries and Coke meal from McDonald's about 1600 calories for just one meal? If Whitney has one meal a day out, it's probably close to how many calories she needs for the whole day. A latte at Starbucks can be 400 calories, if she's a coffee drinker and I think the average slice of plain pizza is around 350 calories. So I'm guessing that Whitney is on the go a lot, has little to no idea how to cook for herself and relies on the drive in. That;s pretty much the same with the former Ruby tv show. Fast food twice a day, that her nephew would pick up for her when she got too big to fit into a car and drive. And an entire Hershey bar for a snack that was probably 700-800 calories. And Ruby never thought that "she ate very much", even when she was up to 700 lbs.

I agree too about getting everyone's opinions about the garden. It reminded me that whenever the Duggars do something, it's Jim Bob that gathers the family around for a meeting and says, Hey Guys, I decided we're going to do this...with no input from anybody else.

I haven't seen Kate's new show, but I can't help wondering what her life would be like if she had never had the sextuplets. I wonder if she'd still be married to Jon and working as a nurse. It sounds like she grew up in a rather unhappy household and was never able to truly learn how to love others, even her husband and kids. Maybe since she lacked love in her life as a child, she thought having a lot of kids would make her happy, but it didn't. It only created a great deal of stress and financial insecurity when the kids were babies, and if they had not gotten the tv show they may have had to go into bankruptcy.