"Are you ready to help me pee, sweetheart?"

I can’t stomach that series. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever watched and I cannot get past how fundamentally wrong it is to exploit the extremely sick people.

But I get it OP. When I first watched it, I sat on the edge of my bed, repeating “Oh My GOD!”, for at least an hour. It was unfuckingbelievable, and the circus drew me in, ring master, prancing ponies, flying elephants, and the ever requisite fat lady who had yet to sing.

It’s a show about someone so fat he can’t move?

Kk.

One of my favorite shows! It makes me feel bad about myself though.

I love how gangsta Dr. Now is becoming. Some of those patients are hopeless and when he starts saying "the taxpayers aren't paying for you anymore", you want to scream "YES!".

Some of the patients make it clear how they got so obese. They have no motivation, cheat on their diets and constantly blame everyone else for their weight. They see surgery as a magic solution and one where they don't have to do anything to lose the weight. That's not true, of course, but it's always amazing to see them fighting that concept.

All of the women on that show always have a boyfriend.

And I'm all alone, posting on The DL at one in the morning.

I don't watch often, but one thing I do appreciate about the show is that it doesn't come off as exploitative. It's more documentary style.

[quote]when he starts saying "the taxpayers aren't paying for you anymore",

That sounds like right-wing revenge porn.

No one gets to be 600 lbs just out of stupidity or laziness. It physiologically does not work that way. These are people with something emotionally or physically wrong with them, and never in the history of humanity has a TV show designed to bring in ad dollars and nothing more actually HELPED someone with a complicated problem.

It's insane that we don't have better treatment options for people this large. They'd probably benefit from in patient mental health care but the US insurance system isn't going to pay for that.

R7 Have you ever watched the show? The bariatric surgeon sends people to counseling all the time, sometimes it has been in-patient. Partcipants of the show say it is mandatory to start with. (The show often edits it out.) They have amazing resources with psychotherapists, nutritionists, surgeons, and long stretches in the hospital with their every whim catered too.

Many of these people are master manipulators, and Dr. Nowzardan has seen it all. If you watched, you’d see why sometimes he takes that approach. Sometimes it does come across as a bit much, but he gives people more chances who are non-compliant than many doctors would.

I have to look away when they film “bath time”. All that powder in their folds creeps me out.

Can you imagine the BMs they must have after consuming all that food?

How do they take a shit without it just squishing into their enormous ass crack like chocolate soft serve? A friend of mine and I one day talked about creating a reinforced toilet with a special separating seat for the super fatties. They would sit down on on, and pull a handle causing the seat to spread out, pulling the ass cheeks apart. We wouldn't figure out a safe way to retract it though unless the person got off it first, so it seemed like a magnet for lawsuits.

We got the idea from the infomercials for the Wipie Wand for people who are too fat to wipe their ass.

I love the Comfort Wipe commercial -- the women are all thin.

Please r11, tell me that’s a SNL parody !!!!!

I’m in love with the WASP who says the Wipe Wand is really just about maintaining your personal dignity.

I also hate the doctor.

These people are dealing with deep seeded emotional issues & he is unprofessional at best & an asshole at worst.

I'm a RN and find it ridiculous that they have shown a bariatric surgeon also doing post operative body lifts. That is way out of his scope.

That doctor always seems shady AF.

Strap them to the top of a pickup and run them thru the car wash. Lite wax cycle.

Are these people really any different than anorexics? It's just another eating disorder stemming from other issues.

[quote]I'm a RN and find it ridiculous that they have shown a bariatric surgeon also doing post operative body lifts. That is way out of his scope.

They always look hacked up after he's done with them.

R17 there's an eating disorder in the same family as anorexia and bulemia called binge eating disorder. Basically you eat a lot like a bulemic does but don't barf it up.

Most seem to have a boyfriend or girlfriend, it just shows there is someone for everyone. I can't really watch the show because it's painful to watch on so many levels.

But few of those relationships seem very healthy, r20

This is what Dr. Now has to deal with.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I remember her episode, r23. She broke the toilet in the doctor's office.

R9 and R10 = scat queens.

F&F and blocked.

Eric's was one of my favorites. Her sister was kind of a bitch to her. Erica has to lose 100 pounds before Dr. Now will operate on her,she,s complaining to her sister: I can't have hummus with pita chips and chocolate fudge cake like other people. Her sitter says: Other people don,t weigh 600 lbs! The sister is 50 lbs overweight herself!

Yeah - most of these people need a psych doctor more than a bariatric surgeon. And Dr Now is so NOT the guy to be giving counseling. How did he end up doing medicine with these type of people? My guess is he is super shady and went to med school in the Caribbean or something.

The sad truth is that most of these men and women are beyond help and will never recover. The people who produce and run this show know this, however, continue to exploit these people for ratings and advertising dollars.

No matter how you slice it, this show is a carnival featuring freaks. Even clinically obese people can watch this and say to themselves, “Well, at least I’m not THAT fat!”, as they devour their bag of Chips A-Hoy in one sitting.

These people are really, really sick. They’re probably never getting better.

R14 That is what throws me. He does skin removal after weight loss, but he is not board certified in plastics. At least one patient in an update episode said they chose to go somewhere else. Smart move.

I can't watch this show or Hoarders. It's just too upseting.

These are not illnesses to belittle or minimize. These people are seriously ill.

The best line ever was on a recent episode where the patient tried to claim her recent major weight gain was all water weight and Dr. Now barked back "YOU'RE NOT 700lbs OF WATER, SCHENEE!"

That's exactly why this show is exploitation entertainment and nothing more, r31.

I have never the Doctor mention taxes. The people are sad beyond belief, I can't watch it anymore. An addiction to food is pretty much like any other addiction.

Dr. Now never spoke like that in the early years that I remember. Telling patients to “stop doing weird things” (when they have comorbid mental illness), that they act like big babies, look like elephants, etc. I don’t know if he’s amping it up for ratings or if he’s becoming crotchety in his older age. (He’s in his 70s.)

Either way, it’s not a good look for a medical professional. You say that on Resdit, they eat you alive. They think he’s a God. I rarely posted there and deleted the app a while ago. (So many fraus, especially on The Handmaid’s Tale board.)

I had no idea the Wipe Wand existed before reading this thread, and now I am fascinated and repulsed at the same time. The things you learn on DL!

The absolute worst of the worst is Steven Assanti. He's a pure psychopath. He did videos on YouTube that would make your hair stand on end. Absolute scum, he it.

Other truly revolting subjects are Schenee, Lisa and James. ALL were utterly hopeless and would makes excuses for gaining weight when they were supposed to be losing and tell the most blatant lies. I don't feel a bit sorry for these worthless blobs. They just make me sick. They get all the help in the world and they still can't stop stuffing their faces with burgers, pizza and Chinese food. What pigs.

This is the lovely Schenee. Included is his comment to her that she's not 700 pounds of water. R32, R34, why don't you donate to her GoFundMe page where she said she wants funds so she can tell everyone how she was exploited. After almost five months, she's raised $230 of her $50,000 goal.

Schenee's Go Fund Me page. Have at it.

I think Dr. Now handled her fairly well considering she was a hopeless case. Note how she tries to trick him into a conversation about God.

Lisa was quite something. She told her nutritionist that the ice cream in the refrigerator was her boyfriend Herbert's "prizes when he do things that I like for him to do. Please don't take 'em because if you do ah cain't get what I what." So she rewards him with ice cream in exchange for sex? She should be rewarding him with caviar and filet mignon. He deserves a better reward than ice cream for having sex with a blob with maggots in the folds of her skin.

R38 WOW, I am speechless. Rare for me. Well done, Schenee.

R36 Don’t forget Penny!

“WHERE’S MY YELLOW BRICK ROAD?!?!”

R39: Someone over at PreviouslyTV posted this regarding Schenee asking the surgeon if he believed in God:

"I think Dr. Now would have folded his hands, bowed his head, and said: "Heavenly fadder, hey y'all doing? Dis is not good sichwayshun. Dis is very pat-ological dynamic, and you're killing her. I'm putting her on 1,200-calorie-per-day high-protein, low-carb diet so she can lose tirty pound in next munt. I don't want you bringing her snack between meal. See you later. Amen."

Who was the cute red haired women who lived with her parents and cerebral palsy brother and every morning she would have a snack before breakfast of 3 donuts and a glass of chocolate milk. Who has a snack BEFORE breakfast?!

[quote]Who has a snack BEFORE breakfast?!

A great big fat person.

R43 that was dead on. Lol

"Are you ready to help me pee, sweetheart?" is my new catchphrase du jour.

600 pound Lee:"I don't want to be malnourished"

Dr. Now: "Do you look malnourished?"

R44 Nikki. She was also one of the few with a job. She looks to be doing really well now.

Sad

R50 That is damn sad.

The other James, James King is the one viewers think is really on borrowed time. One of the sickest, and his update just a couple of months ago, was so bad, Dr. Now tried to grt adult services to remove him from the home because of his insane wife.

Never expected this for this James. Tragic news.

Lisa in a quest for her Academy Award.

Academy Award Part 2. Let's see Meryl Streep top this.

^Fabulous performance. The Academy can present her award at her bedside à la Joan!

Steven Assanti.

Re: anorexia.

Most anorexics see themselves as fat when they look in the mirror, hence the mental need to starve themselves to "feed" the perception.

These people do not see themselves any differently in a mirror. So the mental component is not really the same.

R57, interesting observation.

Not only do these morbidly obese people see themselves exactly the way the world sees them, they've developed a weird codependent relationship with their caregivers. While Dr. Now regularly chastises the people that bring them food, you can see that they get something from it. In some instances, it's definitely control, like those fat chicks who marry guys in prison. Others, like Pauline's son, seem like they have PTSD with them continually fighting with them about what foods they want to eat and having absolutely no life. Pauline's son seemed like he was just waiting for her to die so he could move on. Most of the patients have been so used to others doing everything for them, including wiping their asses, that they honestly believe that Dr. Now can simply wipe away 500 pounds without them doing a single thing. It's why they keep saying "I have to have this surgery" and eventually fail in weight loss.

It's not exactly like anorexia but they are all seriously mentally disturbed imo. "Binge eating disorder" is an actual diagnosed eating disorder and I bet most of them have that.

R56 clip shows how totally selfish and self absorbed these whales are. Who pays for all the food and medical coverage?

r59, I am not arguing that it's a mental disorder. But there is a perception component of anorexia (and I know it's not the case with every anorexic) that is almost understandable because they see themselves differently.

A lot of people who are that fat avoid mirrors or looking at themselves if they can help it. So it's not exactly the same.

It almost sounds like you are trying to say anorexia is more of a mental illness than binge eating disorder. By picking on that specific point.

I mean ... mental illness or not, someone like this must know on some level they look close to death.

r62, not at all. I just saying it's difficult to compare the two when there are different components.

r64 that's why they are different disorders in the DSM. But they are both classified as eating disorders.

How is that woman even walking around?

And how is she even alive r66?!

This woman thought she was bulimic. She said her problem was that she didn't want to eat to which Dr. Now had the perfect comeback.

I feel bad for the woman in r69, but ... WHY NOT GO INSIDE AND GET YOUR FOOD?

Riding through the drive-thru on your scooter does look rather odd.

Not trying to be a bitch, but she most likely has lots of difficulty getting in and out of her buggy, and probably struggles to stay up and walk for periods of time, r70.

Like 98% of those folks have PTSD from childhood abuse sexual or otherwise.

There's an older woman in the office building I work in that has anorexia, R63. I've seen her going on a run and she wears workout tights that HANG off of her legs. She has zero muscles in her legs.

R63 that woman seems to enjoy being that thin if her pics are anything to go by. What a helluva voice to have in one's brain.

What fun, a Jeopardy question! Is it "How a prostitute greets Donald Trump"?

I'm sorry but the doctor is being an asshole. Some of the posts on this thread applaud his unprofessional & cutting behavior. You wouldn't condone that if he were treating a schizophrenic or a deeply depressed person. It seems like some here condone it because they view the patients as "lazy pigs"

These people are gorging themselves for the hell of it. Their issues are multi-system with deep mental components

They're addicts just like crack addicts. They have a physical & mental addiction to food. They are also trying to fill some sort of emotional void within. I'd also wager some are trying to kill themselves this way due to self-loathing & an overwhelming sense of hopelessness.

If a TV channel wanted to do a show like this they needed to due its due diligence in finding a true bariatric surgeon that is also trained in how to care for/guide their patients without the harsh belittling

I'm not hungry, I'll just pick.

How do these people use the toilet?

R76, you type fat.

r79 I hope a fat person sits on you.

"How do these people use the toilet?"

Most of them can't. They're bedridden, so someone has to clean them like they're an infant. Did you see the clip with Lisa where she's whining about how she can't spend money on groceries (yeah, right!) because she has to spend the money on "diapers" and "pads?" They're like infants. They can't even wipe their own asses. The ones that CAN move around a bit are very limited as to what they can do and have to be very careful when trying to use the toilet. On one of the episodes poor Lupe has gained some mobility and wanted to use the toilet like a normal person but sat on it and got stuck (it broke beneath the weight of her ass). It took several men to extricate her. Another episode showed a woman who couldn't fit in the bathroom anymore so she had to go out on the back porch of the house and was shown naked and being hosed down like a circus animal. Some of the most revolting scenes on this series are the ones showing the naked morbidly obese people getting cleaned and wiped by medical personnel or their own long suffering relatives. You think: how can anyone let themselves get in this condition? It is truly unbelievable. But it's true.

I could totally see how it happens. Especially in most of US where you never have to walk. Definitely si,iPad to drug addiction - something is calmed in the brain by the food. Seems like there should be rehabs like for drugs where food is restricted and psychological issues addressed.

R81, that was the first thing I saw when I saw the episode that gave me the headline for this thread. The guy fatass oozed into the shower and the girl fatass went in there with him and washed inside all his crevices and folds.

r76 Yeah be he an asshole or not, he's pretty much the only game in town for these people. They are manipulative assholes for the most part and nobody else wants to deal with them. It's also very dangerous to do that surgery and nobody wants to risk that for people who are liars and ingrates.

I tried reading about this show on Reddit but they worship the shady Dr. Now there and don't you dare post anything negative about him, I got flamed to high heaven.

Thanks, r81. I've only seen clips of this show, and never any of the scenes where these people get cleaned up. So instead of going to the toilet like a normal person, they wear Depends and mess themselves like infants, and the poor relatives have to clean and change them. They're basically 600lb. adult babies. JFC what a life!

R84

I doubt he's the "only game in town".

Doesn't the show take place in Houston or some like sized city?

Bariatric surgeons are in every major & mid-size city. I would bet good money this doctor is not board certified. The network should have found a reputable doctor.

I get the impression that most of the people on the show don't have insurance for the surgery (or their insurance won't cover it for some reason) so they turn to Dr. Now and have it comped.

Is this correct?

Here’s a good article on Dr. Nowzaradan’s prior experience as a surgeon for those who doubt his skills.

Many bariatric surgeons have weight limits for patients that they will operate on, and he says in this article that many plastic surgeons wouldn’t perform this type of skin removal surgery, which makes sense. Removing 60 pounds of skin is not a tummy tuck or a boob job and comes with different risks.

r87 Yes by the only game in town I meant on a larger scale (no pun intended) Nobody else will work with these people because they are petulant brats. I don't know why you dislike him so much, he gets results and works with people no one else wants to touch. He has to be tough because they don't respond to anything else.

[quote] I’m in love with the WASP who says the Wipe Wand is really just about maintaining your personal dignity.

What is with her voice. It sounds like some actress on a tv show. But I can't remember who

She starts at 0.45 seconds

[quote]600 pound Lee:"I don't want to be malnourished"

[quote]Dr. Now: "Do you look malnourished?"

Obesity can cause malnutrition in a few ways: eating the wrong kind of foods because of an eating disorder, thus robbing the body of essential nutrients, and by causing medical problems that prevent the absorption of nutrients.

WLS is notorious for causing malnutrition.

Being a little bitch with the USA Today attitude of "fat people can't be malnourished" is just insane. Is this man actually a doctor?

And why is that his fault r92? Also, that bitch is not malnourished and neither are any of these people.

What the hell are you even talking about, r93?

No, the clearly defined comorbidities of obesity are not this one single doctor's fault, but I don't know why you thought I said they were.

R92 I consider that one of his flippant responses he never gave in the early years, but it needs more context before assuming Dr. Now ignores the possibility of malnutrition. In fact, Dr. Now has actually addressed malnourishment in patients on the show. My guess is he fired back with that comment because they did a bunch of tests, and there was no evidence of malnutrition in that case.

James K always had this "WTF" look on his face. I wish Dr. Now would have slapped that look off his face. He didn't believe that what he ate (his psycho wife perpetually sneaked in food to him) caused him to gain weight! He considered it "swelling"due to water retention. That's an excuse a lot of them give; it's water weight. As Dr. Now told Schnee: "you're not 700 pounds of water!"

Yeah, Dr. Now is running a bariatric clinic, not a fucking feelings factory, these people have been coddled enough.

Are any gays in this show? I'm fascinated by this subject. YouTuber Shane Dawson is now out as a gay guy and ive always thought his obesity was rooted in the conflict between his religious upbringing and sexuality.

R92, here is the entire exchange and you can see it's almost exactly what you said in your post. And you type fat.

R98 Steven Ashanti was flamboyantly gay and out. Not buying this new girlfriend that’s been seen on his Facebook. In the upthread, someone mentioned his YT. It is a clusterfuck for other reasons, but he discussed being gay.

And a show like this that has been on for years would not be complete without someone identifying as trans. That’s Chay. (His real birth name.) He has a butch dyke mother, and he just seemed a fem gay, but in his update episode he said he was MTF. Changed his name to Lola. He changed it back to Chay later. No idea if he still wants to transition. Dr. Now said no way until he lost much more. Ohheychay is his Twitter and IG. Haven’t looked at it in at least a year.

[quote]I would bet good money this doctor is not board certified.

Good call, r87. I looked it up. He's certified in General Surgery only, it seems.

Just looked it up and it’s actually one h— @oheychay on both. He’s using Lola again, I guess.

" Steven Ashanti was flamboyantly gay and out."

I never heard anywhere that Steven Assanti is "flamboyantly gay and out." He's certainly never said that he's gay. In fact, he was flaunting his "girlfriend" in revolting videos where she tells him she loves him "with all my heart and soul." She looks like a prostitute and probably is one, or maybe just some crazy broad who thinks her association with him will lead to a career as a reality show celebrity.

One of the funniest moments in an episode of "My 600 lb. Life" is the one where Steven Assanti "fall off" a golf cart. He doesn't really fall off; he slides off deliberately. And then starts howling and crying for an ambulance. He's a drug addict and wants pain medication. I'm surprised he hasn't been arrested for fraud. He would constantly call for ambulances to take him to an emergency room because he has "pain" and demand pain meds. He's abused the system over and over and it's been verified on camera. So why isn't this fat fuck in jail?

R101 Dr. Now’s page says he has memberships with both the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons and the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (A.S.B.S.). Presumably, he couldn’t be a member without necessary training after his surgical residency. Actual fellowships in bariatric surgery look to be relatively new. I can’t even find if there is board certification for it. I looked at other doctors, and they did not have board certification in bariatric surgery. They all had credentials similar to Dr. Now.

I’m not a fan of Dr. Now’s tone sometimes, but he looks to be well qualified in these gastrointestinal surgeries. Still not sure about the skin removal though.

R103 I said he put it on his YT. Much of it is beyond disturbing, and he is a con, no doubt. You’ll have to decide if he’s faking his orientation when he discusses it multiple times on camera.

It’s under his real first name, John.

I warned you.

You can't believe anything Steven Assanti says. He's a psycho. I think he's probably a virgin. I don't think even a seasoned prostitute would be able to find his wee-wee under all that blubber.

Let’s just hope to the Gods Steven Assanti is asexual because gays and straights do not want him.

I don't think Assanti has had a boyfriend OR a girlfriend. He just likes to shock people and he has a pathological need for attention. On one of his videos he claims to be eating his own shit! He reaches behind himself and comes up with some brown stuff and eats it. It's probably cake icing; he can't even wipe his own ass, so he can't even get to his own asshole to get poop out of it to eat.

If you read the comments of that video, that poor guy was Steven’s caretaker who quit not long after that video. Not like anyone on planet earth could believe Steven’s outrageous claim they hooked up.

I’m 100% sure Steven hasn’t ever screwed a human being. Pies and cakes, yes. An actual person, NO.

R14 His body lifts seem purely functional, with little regard for aesthetics.

Pre-lift, one patient's body was starting to look pretty good. He was so excited about soon being able to take his shirt off at the beach. After the lift, his areolae were cross-eyed. I was so disappointed for the guy. His nipples were about 3 inches apart. Dr. "Now" seemed very pleased with his work, though.

I guess his attitude is, "It's better than what you started with, fatty."

Dr. Now seems like he's reading off a teleprompter or like another obese cow - Marlon Brando - getting his lines from an earpiece.

r109, is Steven Assanti the DL scat troll??!

Before the series "My 600 lb. Life" there were specials on TLB about morbidly obese people. One was "The Half Ton Teen"; it featured two teenage boys, an African American boy who was a dead ringer for Fat Albert and Billy Robbins, a white boy with a pathological smother mother. The African American teenager wanted weight loss surgery, but at the end of the special it was unclear whether he was ever going to get it. At one point the camera shows a burger in his BED. The tale of Billy Robbins warranted a follow up special, probably due to the fact that his relationship with his mother is one of the sickest things you'll ever see on these types of shows. She had a baby die before she came birth to young Billy, who she calls "mah babee" and she gives him whatever she wants and waits on him hand and foot and basically treated him like an infant. She says to him "you want Mama to make you a sandwiche? You hungies?" Dr. Now and psychologists try to help him but it' s hard going when there's an enabler that powerful in the equation. They didn't do a follow up after the second special. I wonder what happened to Billy Robbins, the half ton teen? He had lost some weight but was still wholly dependent on his Mommy Dearest. I expect hie's still living with Mommy and Daddy and living the life of a dependent blob.

I miss him too r114! I looked him up many times and found no updates. Yeah the shrink on that show basically said he was being crucified by his mom in the form of her overfeeding him to compensate for her lost baby. I remember her going to Game Stop in like a hurricane to get him video games. I felt bad for him, his mom was insane, one minute she's doing that "hungies" shit and the next she's yelling at him for being so fat. I was shocked his dad was normal and not at all shocked that he had a job as a truck driver which kept him away from his family all the time.

Many of them have been sexually abused as children

r116 meet r72

R104

Dr. Now does not have the board certifications that I would encourage someone to demand if I was looking into bariatric surgery

#1 I would only consider a surgeon that was accredited as a member of a Center of Excellence in Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery

#2 Likewise the hospital must be deemed a Center of Excellence in Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery

#3 American Society for Metabolic & the Bariatric Surgeons (ASMBS)

#4 FACS

According to your link he's only accredited to 1 out of the 4.

Okay r118 but these people can't afford to be choosy, no one else will do the surgery on them so they're lucky he has 1 out of 4.

55% of RNs are either overweight or obese. You DO type fat R118.

R120

I'm not fat. I'm 6ft 1in and weigh 175lbs.

I run 5 days a week ( 8miles), lift weights & eat well.

And aren't you precious with this "type fat" bullshit. I just refuse to denigrate anyone who is obviously ill & suffering.

R121, you forgot "I'm startlingly handsome and all the doctors in the hospital are after me." But I do now see why you take this conversation so personally.

And you still type fat.

I remember when Billy Robbins had his bypass surgery, they had him all prepped and I think they had to stop cause they didn't have big enough iv's. They then had to give him like 7 x the amount of propofol that it takes to put down a normal size person, I mean it was literally like tranquilizing an elephant. That's why they have to go to Dr. Now, no one else is gonna fuck with this, I guarantee every other doc told them they couldn't do anything until the person lost x amount of weight, and that fat person then stormed out to seek another opinion.

The last TLC special featuring Billy Robbins had him wailing "It's not fair! It's not right!" Seems he wanted his video games and his cat. To appease him they brought him his video games. His mother was still overfeeding him. My guess is that Billy Robbins is not as big as he used to be but is still huge and living with and being supported by his parents. He seemed to be one of the hopeless cases.

R118 It looks like Dr. Now has 2 of the 4 you listed. The other two are exceptional but just don’t look to be necessary when deciding on a qualified surgeons in this field. It’s subjective, I guess, so you’re not wrong, but as I said in R104, his qualifications look on par with other Texas bariatric surgeons I looked up.

There may be a question about one on your list though, and if he is not a member of ASMBS, I am right with your sentiments. His page states ASBS, and that is simply the old name for ASMBS, changed in 2007. Downright sloppy to not update this. Unless, worse yet, he let his membership lapse. (It’s done every three years.)

For what it’s worth, this page states he is a member of ASMBS. Makes me wonder if that could be outdated too though. His page stating the old membership term is disgraceful to me. I didn’t even register it until your post. I wonder if a bariatric surgeon is even insurable if they let membership lapse, especially someone dealing with the highest risk patients virtually no other surgeon will take on. I couldn’t find a clearcut answer. If Dr. Now did let it lapse, I’d tell any perspective patient to run for the hills. I have no patience with doctors who let board certification lapse, and this membership is the equivalent of that for bariatric surgeons.

Dr Now seems to not be reputable if he's taking on clients that other bariatric surgeons won't touch because they deem a patient too high risk.

There are guidelines set & him disregarding them tells me he's not reputable.

This doesn't pertain to just bariatric surgeons. Guidelines are important in planning for patient safety & outcomes.

Examples= knee replacement surgery. It should not be performed on people above a certain BMI. People undergoing ECT must check a whole host of boxes to qualify

Dr. Now's certifications (if he ever had them) would be snatched if he was performing outside certain parameters and/or his patients had higher than normal negative outcomes (stands to reason his would if he's operating on higher risk clientele)

I'd also be curious if he has hospital privileges. The few times I've seen the show he operated out of a surgical center. High risk patients need to have surgery in a hospital setting.

Billy Robbins aka “Half Ton Teen” had three specials. My memory was hazy, so I looked it up to confirm. The third episode had a third teen, in addition to Billy, the Fat Albert lookalike—John Wayne is his real first and middle name—and an 18-year-old named Murphy. I remember him, and a search confirms he was the one whose family wanted him to get to Dr. Now from Kerrville, TX. Dr. Now did meet him, but it was too late. He was in organ failure in Kerrville, had to be intibated (I think even before the trip to Houston), and he died in Houston.

A 2018 Reddit thread claims Billy Robbins and his cousin will be in a new “My 600 LB Life” episode. Never the best source of accurate info, I looked elsewhere, and couldn’t find anything.

r124 125 You can tell them to "run for the hills" but chances are they won't ride their rascal away in indignation because no one else is going to touch them, and that's okay with me, I don't think we need people training in obesity surgery just like we don't need ob/gyns getting training in how to deal with trans patients. It's fucking indulgent and stupid. And he practices at Rennaissance Hospital, whatever that is.

R126 They deem them high risk more for insurance purposes, althoug they’ll claim “standard of care” I’m sure. Since Dr. Now is one of the few to pursue this, I’d have liked to see peer review to go with all this “ground-breaking.” If he did his work based on studies before him, he didn’t continue it. I looked. He’s published but not regarding surgical outcomes for the 400+ LB patients (Most doctors’ cutoff, I believe it still is.)

Did anyone ever watch two specials on TLC in 2011 about a Haitian immigrant named Dominique. It was called “600 Pound Mom.” (Not to be confused with “Half Ton Mom” the episode tied with the Billy Robbins series, “Half Ton Teen.”)

Dr. Now looks like a Nobel Prize winner in Medicine compared to Dominique’s team. That is not saying much. She dis have to lose weight before surgery, like Dr. Now insists, but then Dominique gained it all and more leading up to surgery. It was clear she’d never be compliant. She died not long after the surgery, checking out AMA, and likely borged herself to death because after the surgery, she wanted to eat whatever. Dr. Now wouldn’t have touched her with a tenth foot pole.

R128 It’s not indulgent and stupid. What is indulgent and stupid is these people getting disability without taking any measures to treat their super morbid obesity. Just living for decades at times never getting better. At least they have a chance with bariatric surgery, as hit and miss as longterm outcomes are. Once they get this massive, they are unlikely to lose weight without surgery. And I don’t even mean 600 LBs, but even 300 LBs. It’s surgical treatment that has better results than medical treatments. (Still not great, but better.)

You can act all Darwin about these people, self-righteous when you claim bariatric surgery is a stupid, but that’s ridiculous. At least surgery gives them a chance to stop being a drain on resources once their health improves.

I don't think there will be another special on Billy Robbins. I remember Dr. Now saying that they'd done "all that they could do for Billy." And no way was his mother going to relinquish her hold on him. She would complain that they were trying to force poor Billy to do more than he was capable of and made it difficult for the health care professionals to get him to up and move around. I seem to recall someone saying that the only way for him to get better would be to get him away from his mother. I'm pretty sure that never happened. Only a mammoth effort on his part would have disengaged him from his mother and he was too far gone for that. She crippled him emotionally and physically. And he seemed to be resigned to being her "baby" forever.

I do not think you can lose weight on your own once you get to be 300 lbs or higher. I was always a thin woman until I hit menopause. I gained a ton of weight. I went from 130 at 5'4" to 180. I pretty quickly lost 20lbs but stayed at 160 for 15 years. I became pre-diabetic and decided to make an effort to lose weight but I have severe asthma and COPD so I couldn't really exercise. It took two years to get back down to 130 and I never stopped being hungry. The hunger situation was the worst of it. I would still be hungry right after eating. I was not really ever addicted to food because I was a picky eater and mostly didn't want to take the time to eat. It took me two years to lose the weight and two years for my stomach to stop being hungry all the time. It takes tremendous willpower. Someone really fat who is addicted to food would never get past the hunger aspect of it.

R131 Billy’s smother was AWFUL. From what I recall, they never once said how her baby before Billy died. I wondered. Maybe SIDS? Regardless, she’d talk about the death a but, and obviously she was crippled by that, and transferred all of her guilt onto Billy. Ironic seeing as she was helping put him in an early grave. I’m so sorry for anyone who loses a child, but there are limits. Billy’s mother exceeded my limits. At that point, she was just toxic.

Billy seemed hobbled the way Sean on M6LBL is. His mother was very similiar to Billy’s. Sean’s update was very recent. His mother had died not long after his first episode (obese like Billy’s mom, of course). Unfortunately, he hasn’t seemed to “be free” like one would hope when a stifling mother like that passes. Sean also seems slow like Billy. Whatever their potential with their genetics, their mothers helped stunt them for all time.

Only 5% reach normal weight or close to it, and don't regain the massive size.

Most don't live to senior citizen age. Heart, kidney, and respiratory failures, and related diabetic conditions and organ failures, do them in.

A few years ago there was a series for cutting loose skin. One patient went to Dr. Now, the other to an upscale plastic surgery clinic in Austin where I live. Dr. Now's patients always looked better, always. And a few of the Austin patients, where the doctors were all board certified, got infected and had to finish with Dr. Now. I would never go to the place in Austin, the next year they were replaced. Sorry, Dr. Now knows what he is doing.

i remember way before My 600 lb. life there was a documentary following a very obese woman who had the RNY surgery. She lived in rural Arkansas across from Memphis, TN. i think her name was Tammy or Theresa. Anyway, she lost almost all her weight, but i think she developed a drinking problem. she had a young daughter who was also overweight. I just wonder what ever happened to her and if she succeeded in keeping off the weight.

A lot of people say they must have BED (binge eating disorder) to be that big. I studied psychology, and while I don't deny they certainly all have severe mental issues, I doubt any of them have BED. "Binge eating" refers to long periods of deprivation, followed by periods of extreme consumption. It's basically the same as bulimia (but without the throwing up/laxatives/exercise at the end). From what you can see on the show, these people just eat, eat, eat. They wake up and immediately gorge themselves on ridiculous amounts of food, and then they keep eating until they go to sleep. That's not bingeing, that's just excessive consumption. It's a bad diet.

ILOVEYOU, R5.

r133 I remember that his mom said he had some illness, when she would take him to the children's hospital he would bring his toys and give them to the other sick kids. He was a living SAINT and Billy can never live up to that!

Have him join us at Girt' and Mirt'!

R137 I'm not sure where you got the restriction that the binges have to be followed by long periods of deprivation. They don't. In fact if the binges are closer together the more severe the disorder. The deprivation isn't a requirement for it to be binge eating disorder. Here's from the Mayo clinic:

Most people with binge-eating disorder are overweight or obese, but you may be at a normal weight. Behavioral and emotional signs and symptoms of binge-eating disorder include:

Eating unusually large amounts of food in a specific amount of time, such as over a two-hour period

Feeling that your eating behavior is out of control

Eating even when you're full or not hungry

Eating rapidly during binge episodes

Eating until you're uncomfortably full

Frequently eating alone or in secret

Feeling depressed, disgusted, ashamed, guilty or upset about your eating

Frequently dieting, possibly without weight loss

Unlike a person with bulimia, after a binge, you don't regularly compensate for extra calories eaten by vomiting, using laxatives or exercising excessively. You may try to diet or eat normal meals. But restricting your diet may simply lead to more binge eating.

The severity of binge-eating disorder is determined by how often episodes of bingeing occur during a week.

These people are hopeless. Really. When they get THAT big, they've demonstrated that they don’t have the control or emotional wherewithal to lose or keep the weight off.

What happens when they get the extra skin removed and gain the weight back? Does the skin stretch? Does it rip at the seams?

On one of the Billy Robbins episodes it shows him in the operating room, getting huge slabs of flesh cut off his body. As one of the medical team brings out of the operating room a hunk of blubber, Billy's mother, who is hovering nearby asks "Did that come off of him?" When told yes she said "can I keep it in a jar?" I almost gagged when I saw THAT happen.

[quote]On one of the Billy Robbins episodes it shows him in the operating room, getting huge slabs of flesh cut off his body. As one of the medical team brings out of the operating room a hunk of blubber, Billy's mother, who is hovering nearby asks "Did that come off of him?" When told yes she said "can I keep it in a jar?" I almost gagged when I saw THAT happen.

I saw a show like this years and years ago, I don't remember what it was called but they showed the skin removal surgery of a woman who had literally lost 300 pounds and had almost 100 pounds of loose skin. I remember literally gagging at a shot where a surgery nurse was taking this huge basin out of the operating room with this gigantic mound of removed skin, I gagged because it was bouncing like Jello in the back of a station wagon.

You never used to see people this big when I was growing up. Now the majority of people are beyond fat. Look at the ‘fat’ character from movies and tv shows from 30-40 years ago and now they seem just average or a little chubby.

Yep r145, I am positively svelte by today's standards!

You rarely ever see people as big as on M600lbL anywhere because they don't really leave their homes, r145. They've likely always been around, but because of reality TV, we now see them more.

I see morbidly obese people on scooters everywhere. You did not see that commonly 25 years ago. They are well onto their way to being home bound fatties.

R146 compare the Skipper from Gillian’s Island or Ralph Kramden to today’s typical fat guys, not even in the same league. People are getting super fat.

I know r149, I was being serious. Even Rerun isn't that fat now.

terribly depressing.

How do you watch this show without feeling sick? Open heart surgery is less nauseating for me. If I ever decide I need to lose a few pounds, I'll watch a couple of these and never eat again.