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[catlover]

I found more info online............

Worse Case on ‘My 600 Lb. Life’: James K or Penny?

“My 600 Lb. Life” has given viewers years worth of things to think, talk and obsess about. In previous seasons, no one has caused a stir like James K, except for Penny.

We met her in early 2014 and each time the episode replays the same uproar is heard. Penny reappeared one year later in a follow-up show, and not only was she alive, she was still defiant about why her way of losing weight was superior to Dr. Nowzaradan’s method. She hadn’t gotten to a goal weight, but she had reduced a bit, insisting that Dr. Now didn’t know her body as well as she did.

Because the “My 600 Lb. Life” episode with James K stopped abruptly after he was sent away to fend for himself, we don’t know whether or not he straightened up. (Note: TLC told TVRuckus that there is no follow-up episode planned at this time.) The network left us wondering how he expected to stay alive and get healthy without strict adherence to the diet he and Lisa were handed at the initial visit to the doctor’s office.

Penny couldn’t or wouldn’t walk even after surgery. She did manage to get out of bed and sit in chairs after her time on the show. James couldn’t even sit without three people using all their strength to get him in that position. Of course, there’s a huge weight difference between the two with James topping out around 850 lbs. and Penny at around 600 lbs.

Speaking of the abrupt end, only the week prior Tanisha’s story covered a full 24 months in the life of the patient’s journey with Dr. Now. Here’s wondering shy she was the exception on the show. For sure, viewers are making themselves clear in the comments section under our published stories about James K that they want a conclusion to the case.

Throughout the episode we watched the couple “try”, then defend their efforts by copping to cheating a little. They looked dumbfounded when asked how a 150 lb. weight gain could be the result of a little cheating. Penny went further than that, asking Dr. Now and us to believe that she knew better than him, ignoring his warning of an early death. Unlike James, when she was weighed, Penny called out the scale in his office as malfunctioning.

The doctor’s plan has never varied. It’s so simple anyone can do it and that’s the rub. Stick to a 1,200 calories-a-day diet, or in extreme cases like James K, the calorie count shrinks to 800. The difficulty is twofold and both Penny and James K suffered from it.

Refusal to adjust to eating 10% of their previous daily intake is one, whether it’s called an addiction or just emotional eating. The other, and it’s unclear why this isn’t a focus, is the inability to comprehend the strict nature of the diet. There are no eating-bonus days, or splurge days as rewards for following the plan for a day, a week or even a whole month.

Some patients have rarely eaten a vegetable or a piece of fruit that was fresh from the grocery store. Many don’t cook at home because of their size and their enablers bring in food to satisfy them. Learning to cook lean meat and fish protein can be a first. Knowing what to buy to fill the void on their meal plates is a new phenomenon.

It’s time for it to be part of the regime to help patients who don’t know how to eat 1,200 calories-a-day. Rarely has the show gotten to the point of showing us how the doctor or his staff counsel patients about the eating plan. Shopping and cooking to save the life of a patient isn’t second nature to the enablers.

They also aren’t instructed about the damage cheating on the plan can do to the goal they’re given by Dr. Now. When he says lose 50 lbs. he doesn’t mean 30, or 40, or even 45, unless it’s the second or third time he’s turned them away.

Until last season, “My 600 Lb. Life” did not incorporate the use of a therapist in each show. If you look back at the early seasons, it was glaringly absent. Currently, a therapist has become a requirement in some cases, while in others it comes when the patient hits a wall during the first 12 months

.

How about educating the patients about how to plan meals, shop for what is needed and some cooking advice? Will that be the magic potion necessary? Not for patients like James K or Penny, that’s for sure.  

[catlover]

EXCLUSIVE Update On James K Of “My 600 Lb. Life”, He Is Alive, Moving and On a Diet

The story of James on the latest “My 600 Lb. Life” caused an uproar after it aired, and viewers are still chiming in on what they saw. Some of what irked them was the lack of follow-up on James and his girlfriend Lisa after Dr. Nowzaradan sent them home to fend for themselves.

TVRuckus reached out to TLC to ask if the network had a follow-up episode planned. The answer was no, not at this time, but there has been tremendous interest in whether or not the man was still alive, nevermind well.

Now we have news, thanks to the physical therapist featured in the final scenes of James’ episode on “My 600 Lb. Life”. In an exclusive interview with him, we learned that James has lost weight and is in better physical condition than he was when we last saw him on TV.

Rudi Pijnnaken President of Physical Therapy International and the therapist treating James, told us that the scene of James being taken to a seated position for the first time in years was the product of multiple visits to his apartment. Pijnnaken said he treated James’ “mindset”, not just his body. He also worwhhwhoked with Lisa so that the two of them understood what was necessary to get James well.

While he is not a psychologist or therapist, which he stressed to us, he has had success with other patients by working them through the “mindset” necessary to help themselves heal. He has YouTube videos of two patients he has helped in this way.

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RECAP

Not since the story of Penny, has an episode frustrated us like this. James K and girlfriend Lisa were alternately sympathetic people and maddeningly clueless. While we watched them lie about how much food the sick man consumed, it was blatant and unusual enough to make you feel like they were in a trance,

Bayley, the couple’s daughter seemed like the only one who was trying to speak above the noise and warn her father and mother that James would die if they kept feeding him the way they did.

James longed for his mother who was taken away from him early in life due to her alcoholism. He was unable to resume any kind of relationship with her before she passed away. He and his brother were sent to live with his grandmother.

He was close to his dad, but when the man remarried, James felt even more shunted aside. That’s because he suddenly had a lot of step-siblings. Isolated more and more by his weight, his only friend became Lisa, who just happened to live nearby. She was married with children, but the two began an affair.

They had two children together, who were only acknowledged as his years after their birth. While he was morbidly obese during his early years with James, the pounds came quicker once he hurt his foot and became immobilized.

The man was a dictator from his own bed, and once we picked up the story, we learned that Lisa feared his verbal abuse if she didn’t feed him exactly what he wanted. His only hope was getting into Dr. Now’s program and for the first time in years, if ever, the first contact with the doctor was via a video chat.

Without resources to pay for an ambulance and attending medical professionals for the long ride to Houston, James was bedbound. An online plea for money failed, as did local efforts to raise about $15,000.  James’ father, still in the picture and came through by refinancing his own home to get his son the money for the trip. The man had just suffered a mild stroke in front of his son, but recovered enough to be of aid.

Each time James had to be moved the screams of “Oh, my leg!” or “Don’t drop me” rang out. You knew he was terrified, and yet because of his attitude, it was difficult to sympathize with him. Then we all learned why we shouldn’t be ashamed of it all. Given the chance to live James and Lisa were unable to make it work.

The only weight he lost was when he spent time in the hospital getting fed only 800 calories a day, while Dr. Now kept the rest of his body as healthy as he could. Nothing was ever done about the open sores on his legs, yet we never heard about an infection. The lies about staying on the eating plan once he left the hospital never stopped.

Everything became an obstacle. Lisa’s car got towed and they didn’t have money to get it out of impound, so their only choices of food were prepared or fast, with places nearby that Lisa could walk to. Could they have cut down on the amount of food he ate? Yes, and some attempts were made, but each time it became difficult to comply with the diet, the couple used it as an excuse to “cheat”, as they called it.

Neither of them realized that he could put on more weight, and he did. So much so, that the doctor hospitalized him again. We’ve never seen Dr. Now as angry and verbally nasty as he was with Lisa and James. Tired of the lies and their inability to understand that 100 % adherence to the program was necessary, he washed his hands of James as he released him from the hospital for the final time.

Without him losing more than 100 pounds, Dr. Now wouldn’t treat him. The doctor did help James get some physical therapy and the end result was getting him into a sitting position for the first time in three years. It wasn’t without his screams and fears, but he was so proud of himself when he finally accomplished it.

That brought vows of him ready to comply with the diet, which we all knew he wouldn’t be able to handle. The sadness of his daughter, never acting up and watching as her parents committed what could be called assisted suicide, was just awful to watch. She’d been taken out of school to help her mother care for her father.

This is a case we’d like to see in a “Where Are They Now” special. Any bets that James K was able to stay alive and help himself?

“My 600 Lb. Life” airs Wednesdays on TLC beginning at 8 p.m. ET/PT   Image/video credit: TLC, used with permission 

[catlover]

It's so funny that you guys mentioned Penny and then I see these articles.......very interesting!  

[febe1]

Thanks for posting, @catlover. I read them all, and it was interesting and informative.

I think they should have included Pauline, who was another miserable failure, and a woman who told herself lies and believed them. Her poor teenage son waited on her hand and foot. She was almost as unlikeable as James.

I think to understand the seriousness of their sickness, they should let us know about all of the 95% who fail the program.

Thanks again, @catlover.

[Othereeeen]

RE; James:

My recommended treatment:

Buy him a mirror.

 And sew his lips shut.

Cheaper and more effective.

One pound of human fat contains 3500 calories of energy. At 600 pounds overweight, his BODY could supply him with TWO MILLION ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND calories of energy.

Some of these patients lose 40 pound a month pre-surgery. That's 140,000 calories.

(40 x 3500=140,000).

James could STOP EATING ALTOGETHER and it would take 15 months to lose 600 pounds.

(15 x140,000=2,100,000 calories or 600 pounds),

It'd cut down on the whining and bawling out too.

Remember the Andes survivors -the rugby team that crashed in the Andes in 1972? The survivors were on the mountain for 72 days with ONLY protein to survive on..very small amounts per day. And they DID survive. They were NOT 600 pounds overweight, yet they survived mostly on thier body fat for the most part. 98% of those men are still alive today.

I am serious.

It's amazing to me the right now, this minute, there are people HALF the weight of these obese subjects that are on the same path. They KNOW where they are headed.

The "enablers' actually thrive on the power they hold over the immobile patient. They have all the control...and they inevitably choose the path that keeps them in a position of that power. They probably regale anyone they can force to listen about how much a burden thier "job" is, as they are on the way home with another barrel of fast food.

And the ones like "James" and "Pauline" fear that thier enablers (kids) will move on to a real life instead of waiting on them hand and foot.

What  symbiotic relationships..

If I were that big, with oozing sores and 200 pound legs, I'd a) buy a needle and some titanium thread or b) a .22.

Can't wait til they showcase one who weighs OVER 1000 pounds!! I'll have my box of tissue ready (for when the weepies begin).

[Plaid Pants2]

I stopped watching that show a long time ago,

I got fed up with the enablers, and the whining and "poor me" pitty parties that paitents would have for themselves.

It's also why I stopped watching "Intervention".

[Othereeeen]

My favorite part is when the Doctor comes in the first time and the patients already

have that "poor me" tone, and he says "You're bedridden and can't get out? So who

is the enabler who brings you the food?" while looking at the "family" standing there.

He really is no nonsense.

I also wish I could be the one that initally peirces that enormous mountain ot belly fat with the instrument. I SHOULD be able to......after all, from the looks of it, I'm paying for all the enabler AND all the food....

Just one little jab. PLEASE!! Then Dr. Now you can take over.

"His stomach is the size of a football....we need to make it the size of a small orange".

I always find myself hoping the Dr. is wearing steel toed boots in case the operating table were to collapse....

[Othereeeen]

One last thing. The show is in re-runs at noon where I live.

I watch while eating lunch.

[momtochloe]

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@aubnwa01 wrote:

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@chickenbutt wrote:

I totally remember that Brookhaven show!    I watched every episode.  

I remember when some of those patients, WHILE in the hospital were calling in delivery food, like they were being sneaky with security cameras picking up every bit of it.  D'oh!  

Anyway, it was tough to watch.  I did enjoy the show, though, from a clinical POV.

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I remember watching another weight loss type show that was on, I think it was called "Big Medicine" or something like that.  I think it was also in TX & the bariatric surgeons were a father & son & the father was from South Africa.  I really enjoyed that show & liked both the drs. a lot.

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@aubnwa01 I remember that show and it did air one season on TLC:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Medicine