My 600 Pound Life premiere date has been set for January 7, according to a press release issued by TLC. In season 3 of My 600-lb Life, viewers will revisit the participants of season 2 and meet 8 new people, who are over 600 pounds and hoping to drastically change their lives.
In a lengthy press release, TLC has announced that My 600 Pound Life premiere date is January 7 at 9 PM (ET/PT). Season 3 of My 600-lb Life will have 12 episodes.
The series will open with the stars of season 2, who are Olivia, James, Zsalynn, Christina, Chuck, Paula, Penny and Tara.
Viewers will be given updates on who kept the weight off and who is stacking up the pounds one year later. It is rumored that one former participant has found love, while another had surgery.
The cameras will also be rolling as a person is able to board a plane for the very first time. Fans of the show, will later meet 8 new morbidly obese individuals, each weighing over 600 pounds.
Each hour-long episode tracks a year in the life of one morbidly obese person, who often is immobile and dependent on caretakers for everyday tasks such as driving, bathing and even walking.
The new participants are between the ages of 24 to 50 and are from all over the United States. Amber, 24, Susan, 37, Pauline, 50, Bettie Jo, 24, Laura, 40, Angel, 42 , Charity, 38, and Joe, 31 are determined to change their lives for the better by undergoing high-risk gastric bypass surgery.
Here are brief bio elements from the new cast of My 600-lb Life:
Amber, 24 from Troutdale, Oregon
Amber, 24, grew up in a Portland, Oregon, suburb with her parents and younger brother. She still lives at home with her mom and dad as well as her boyfriend of two years. Amber started to gain weight when she was 4 years old, and as she grew older and moved less, it has taken over her life. She used to go out and see friends, travel, and go to school at Portland State University, but has since dropped out. She is extremely embarrassed of her size and has become a ‘shut in.’ Unable to stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time, Amber was forced to quit her job one year ago. Weighing in at 660 lbs., Amber knows she is killing herself with her weight. Ready to undergo surgery, Amber is determined to get her life back on track. She hopes to finish college, return to work, get married and hopefully start a family.
Susan, 37 from Eddy, Texas
Though Susan is a very independent and strong-willed women, her weight has kept her from living a normal adult life. She is 37-years-old and has never lived on her own. Susan lives with her mother who is her caretaker and enabler. Susan’s weight issues started when her parents divorced following a tumultuous marriage. She and her sister were split up as young children, causing depression and trust issues from an early age. Susan sought comfort in food and has eaten her way to near death. At almost 600 pounds, Susans’ life consists of work, the fast food drive thru, and sitting in her trailer. She no longer feels comfortable going out in public. Buried under her weight, Susan has a kind, gentle spirit that is crying for help.
Pauline, 50 from Sacramento, California
Pauline started getting heavy at the age of eight. Her parents got divorced, and she did not get enough to eat, so she would steal grapefruits from an orchard on the way to school. When her parents got back together, food was suddenly plentiful. Pauline did not know when to stop though, fearful that she would go hungry again. By the time she was 12-years-old, she weighed well over 200 lbs. By the time she got married, Pauline weighed 500 lbs. She used to run an at-home daycare, but was unable to continue due to her weight. Now divorced, Pauline is nearly 700 lbs, and hoping to rejoin society and turn her life around.
Bettie Jo, 24 from Potosi, Missouri
Bettie Jo was abandoned by her mom as a child, and was raised by her grandmother, who ruled with an iron fist and always put her down. She put on her weight as a defense against the harsh environment in which she was raised. At nearly 700 lbs., Bettie Jo is terrified she is going to die young and is desperate to live a real life. She has been married to her husband Josh for nearly four years and wants a family, but cannot have a baby at her weight. Josh is Bettie Jo’s primary caretaker though rather than romantic partner, and her weight is a source of conflict for them. Now, Bettie Jo spends her time in a chair in her living room. She wishes she could do simple things on her own such as cooking and cleaning or going out with her husband and friends, but she can no longer drive, and she does not like being out in public where people stare.
Laura, 40 from San Antonio, Texas
Laura is a kind, family-centric 40-year-old woman living in San Antonio, Texas. While she has always struggled with her weight, in the past four years it has “gotten ugly” and she is close to giving up. At 554 lbs., she does not know how she got to this point. Confined to her chair and her bed due to lymphedema and skin ulcers, she now watches her family live life around her. Her common law husband has multiple sclerosis, so he is not physically able to help Laura, which has forced them to live with her parents. Laura regrets letting herself get to this size and not having started a family of her own, but wants to fix that before it is too late.
Angel, 42 from Kerville, Texas
Angel grew up a thin, gangly young girl but when she was forced by her mother to give up her baby at age 14, her life started to spiral out of control. Never married, Angel had a second child at age 20 and was nearly 300 pounds. When Angel was 25, her beloved father died in a car crash after an argument with Angel, and the guilt caused her to put on even more weight. By the time she and her boyfriend Donnie got together, she was up to 500 lbs., yet still worked as a nursing assistant, taking care of others. After giving birth to her youngest son, Andrew, she fell into a deep depression, eating herself into oblivion, reaching an all-time high of 596 lbs., and making her nearly immobile. Donnie feels that Angel shut herself off from life. Angel is too big to be the kind of mother and companion she wants to be, and she desperately wants to regain her health and mobility, get back to work, and be a part of her family’s lives again.
Charity, 38 from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Charity only knows life as an obese person. Growing up in an abusive home, Charity quickly turned to food and was overweight by the age of five. Physically and emotionally abused by the men in her family, she sought comfort in food. The only thing she could control was her eating and the food she ate. At 19, she got pregnant and had her daughter Charley. Since the age of eight, Charley has been her mother’s caregiver. Charity now has a boyfriend who shares the caretaking duties but much is required to care for an immobile, demanding, unhealthy adult woman. At 787 lbs., Charity knows that her life cannot continue this way. She wants to free her family of the burden she creates and find life beyond merely existing.
Joe, 31 from Johnson City, Tennessee
Only 31-years-old, Joe is staring at certain death if he doesn’t reverse his lifelong weight gain that has exploded to an astonishing 802 pounds. A chunky baby and a picky eater as a child, Joe eschewed all vegetables. Teased and bullied through school, Joe developed a hard shell to survive his youth, but the damage to his self-esteem is immeasurable. Joe always felt neglected by his father growing up, so his mother tried to compensate by over-indulging Joe and enabling his food obsession. Joe had managed to work an I.T. job from home, but recently his company demanded that he return to The Office or lose his job. Now unemployed and unable to walk without falling, he now sleeps, lives and eats in the same living room chair 24 hours a day. On the precipice of being completely immobile and unable to bathe himself, Joe desperately wants to have this life-saving surgery and live a normal life.
Will you be watching “My 600 Pound Life” premiere?
It really looks interesting. I will probably check the first few episodes.
Losing weight is half easy, but keeping it off is the hardest part.
I wish them success.
Once the depression sets in, the weight is sure to follow. Hopefully they will treat the obsession; all the diets and exercise in the world won’t help unless the thought processes are reversed and the depressive factors eliminated. The heavy and continuous eating is really the by-product of a depressive mentality where the subject actually has no ambition to do anything (except eat)and gets to the point where they can do nothing for themselves because the weight now prohibits them from doing so, which causes more depression and more eating. The reason so many people put the weight back on is because the depression issues have not been resolved.