My 600-Lb Life: The Most Dramatic Transformations Ever Seen

For years, viewers have watched TLC's My 600-Lb Life, witnessing morbidly obese patients completely transform their bodies and lives. The patients profiled on the show all start out hundreds of pounds overweight, with the devastating health and emotional problems that come with that. From being unable to walk and do everyday tasks to being homebound, the patients suffer the most extreme physical and emotional consequences of obesity.

But all of them have something in common — hope and a desire to change. In comes the show's central figure, Dr. Younan Nowzaradan. "Dr. Now," as his patients call him, is a bariatric surgeon who performs weight loss surgeries on his patients and coaches them along the road to a healthy weight. Over the seasons, dozens of people have made a complete turnaround, going from barely mobile to active and fit. And while most patients on the show lose weight, there are some that really stand out.

Check out some of the most stunning weight-loss success stories to ever be chronicled on My 600-Lb Life.

Amber Rachdi's transformation is one of the most jaw-dropping. When she first appeared on the show at age 23, she weighed 657 pounds and said she felt like a "nasty, yucky monster." Her legs carried a great deal of her weight, and, as a result, she said she couldn't stand for more than 30 minutes at a time. After losing 20 pounds in order to qualify for gastric bypass surgery with Dr. Now, she underwent the procedure and ended up getting down to 377 pounds within a year!

But she didn't stop there, she ultimately lost over 400 pounds and kept it off, profiling her journey with glamorous pinup-style selfies on Facebook and Instagram, where her profile once read: "I spent a long time not liking me, so I'm documenting moments I feel pretty."

Rachdi, who confessed on her episode of My 600-Lb Life that her weight prevented her from being intimate with her then-boyfriend, now has a lot to celebrate when it comes to her personal life. She got engaged in 2016 and has since tied the knot.

Brittani Fulfer's desire to do more with her life is what led her to the office of Dr. Now, who knew then that he had his work cut out for him; despite being one of the shorter participants to have appeared on My 600-Lb Life, Fulfer still tipped the scale at over 600 pounds. In the end, she got "sick and tired of being sick and tired," she told Women's Health. "I wanted to be able to travel, have a family, and be the wife that my husband deserves. I felt I had more to offer myself, friends, and family than just having them help take care of me."

Fulfer was 605 pounds when we were introduced to her in Season 4, but, through will power and surgery, she got all the way down to 222 pounds. Shedding all that weight was like escaping from "prison" to her, she told the lifestyle mag. "Since losing weight, I am able to do things I have always wanted to do. I am no longer angry, upset, or feel the need to hide." She was given the okay for knee surgery and skin removal by Dr. Now in a Where Are They Now? episode and she looks like a different woman nowadays, but some issues can't be fixed by surgeons. Fulfer has revealed that she's been suffering from depression since slimming down, using the hashtags #mentalhealth and #bipolar in a 2020 Instagram post (via Olympia TMS).

Angela Marie Dunham-Johns was introduced to viewers as Angie J. The 643 pound Ohio native with an admittedly bleak backstory caused waves in Season 7 after she branded Dr. Now's dietary requirements "bulls**t" and derailed his treatment plan with illegal drugs. She managed to lose just under 50 pounds in the eight months that the cameras followed her, but that still left her a long way off the target weight she'd been asked to hit in order to qualify for gastric bypass surgery. Her episode ended with little to no progress made, and Angie J appeared to be a lost cause, but she carried on working towards her goal off-camera and appears to have finally achieved it.

Angie had set up a GoFundMe (via Starcasm) to help pay for her support prior to her debut on My 600-Lb Life, and she updated it the day after her divisive episode aired. She revealed that she had dropped the required amount of weight since filming and would indeed be going under the knife after all, but there was also some bad news to share — her husband had left her and her house had been "burglarized," all within the space of 48 hours. She's now had the surgery, and there's apparently a new romantic interest in her life, but her journey isn't quite over yet. In 2020, she started a new GoFundMe to help her get back to Texas so Dr. Now can take care of her excess skin.

Justin McSwain weighed 687 pounds at his biggest, and he was in a very dark place back then. "When I go into the bathroom, I do everything I can not to look at myself in the mirror because when I look in the mirror I see a mistake and someone who's destroyed his life for food by becoming one of the largest people alive," he said (via the Daily Mail). Dr. Now told him that he would need to lose 100 pounds if he was going to proceed with surgery, and even though he fell just short of that target (he hit the gym hard and got rid of 92 pounds), the doc gave him the go ahead. Today, he's a different man.

McSwain is active on social media, where he shares snapshots of himself doing things that he never imagined possible, like wall climbing and mountain hiking. In May 2019, he shared a side-by-side photo with followers to show just how far he'd come in one year, and it was shocking. Maintaining his impressive new weight is a daily struggle, however, especially when it comes to having his picture taken. "I'm still very self-conscious about my body," he captioned a black and white photo of himself looking slimmer than ever in March 2021, via Instagram. "The loose and excess skin, how I hold myself and what parts I show. But every now and then someone manages to get a picture I feel confident in."

Zsalynn Whitworth weighed 375 pounds by the time she left high school. Instead of hiding behind her weight, she leaned into it, making friends through the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. "I met this whole world of men, really good-looking men, really well-off men, who liked fat women," she told My San Antonio. "I was like a kid in a candy store. I would travel to the NAAFA conventions, and I would meet people there who would fly me places." She ended up married with a daughter, but her marriage to larger lady-loving Brit, Gareth, fell apart when she got gastric bypass surgery and lost the weight.

"My life is so much better now, and part of that is because Gareth and I are finally, officially divorced," she said in her My 600-Lb Life follow-up episode (via the Daily Mail). "He didn't want me to lose the weight, and I didn't deserve to feel bad about choosing my health." Whitworth shed 316 pounds after her gastric bypass, and she feels obliged to keep it off. "I have a lot of people saying, 'You're so inspirational, I admire you,' but they're holding me accountable, and I like that," the Kerrville native told My San Antonio, adding that public recognition from the show even helps her avoid making bad decisions as small as buying "a candy bar" at a convenience store. 

Angel Parrish weighed 570 pounds when she first appeared on My 600-Lb Life, riding in a wheelchair and relying on her boyfriend, Donnie, for everyday needs. She said that her eating habits had been triggered by the trauma of placing a baby for adoption at age 14, and the situation got worse when she later experienced postpartum depression after giving birth to a son with Donnie.

Donnie went so far as to say (via the Daily Mail) that she "just stopped living" after their son Andrew was born. He threatened that if she didn't get help, he'd have to leave her and take Andrew with him.

Parrish rebounded in a big way by losing over 150 pounds through diet changes, and then undergoing weight-loss surgery with Dr. Now. She adopted a fitness routine and ultimately dropped over 300 pounds. After losing the weight, she reflected, "It's been a long time since I could look at myself and see someone that I thought was beautiful."

After slimming down, she was able to be a more active parent, and said, "I wake up and it's not to eat — it's to get Andrew ready for school!"

Nikki Webster is one of the most notable success stories on the show. She originally weighed in at 649 pounds, and her weight was affecting her career in costume design. Luckily, she had strong support from her family (her dad lost 40 pounds in solidarity) and was able to undergo gastric bypass surgery with Dr. Now.

According to People magazine, she ultimately lost 450 pounds. In 2017, she told the mag, "It's hard to imagine now how I used to live. It's just become so vastly different. ... It has been the hardest two years of my life, but it's been the most victorious and exciting."

She explained how she stays fit, telling People, "I do a lot of walking, that's my favorite thing to do. I'll walk at least 2 to 3 miles a day or I try to. I'll also try to do weight training and that kind of thing. I go to the gym every now and then and do those sorts of things."

In 2018, Nikki revealed on Facebook that she'd gotten married, writing, "I kind of got married. He's the absolute best, and I honestly couldn't be more happy...It's been a busy few months."

Christina Phillips' weight loss story is nothing short of amazing. After debuting on Season 2 of My 600-Lb Life, she shocked everyone when she lost over 500 pounds, going from a dangerous 708 to an incredible 171 pounds. Speaking to Women's Health, she revealed that she sought out Dr. Now's expert help when performing simple tasks became too much for her. "Getting up and walking just a few feet made me feel like I was going to die," Phillips said. "I couldn't drive, walk far, or go out with friends and family. I was miserable, and I knew I had to do something."

The Mississippi native just kept on shedding the pounds after her successful gastric bypass surgery, enabling her to do things that she never dreamed of doing before. "I've been able to try indoor skydiving," she said, but it's the simple things that mean the most to her. She added: "I can walk miles without getting tired. And that's a long way from when just a few feet made me feel like I was dying."

Losing weight doesn't always mean shedding all your problems, however. Christina divorced her long-time husband, Zach, after he failed to adjust to her new life as a mobile person, and she's been beset by mental health struggles, too. "My fear of gaining weight has crippled me," she said in a catch-up episode (via Metro). "But I have to move past that fear if I want to live my life."

606 pound mother Tara Taylor was barely able to stand when she came under the care of Dr. Now in Season 2. She was relying on her family to take care of her two kids, though thankfully she doesn't need them anymore; she burned 300 pounds and was able to be a parent to her children for the first time in a long time. She was also able to start dating, as she revealed in her Where Are They Now? episode. "I have never in my life been on a traditional date," she said (via Starcasm). "This is a whole new world for me."

She'd known the man that she went on that date with for a long time, which made things easier. Old pal Eugene was blown away by how "stunning" she looked, and they went from friends to partners that night. Before long, they were engaged. "The reason I am willing to give Eugene a chance is that he is a good man," she said, though it seems as though she may have spoken too soon.

In 2020, the former My 600-Lb Life participant took to social media to call her fiance out for creating a profile on a dating website to organize flings behind her back. "He had the nerve to make this when he was engaged to me," Taylor said (via Starcasm). "When someone shows you who they are, believe it."

Melissa D. Morris shed almost 500 pounds with the help of Dr. Now, who she now calls boss. In 2019, the former My 600-Lb Life participant revealed that she'd secured a job at his office in Houston, calling it her "favorite place in the world" in a celebratory Instagram post. At her heaviest she weighed 653 pounds, but, after surgery and some strict dieting, she got down to an amazing 157 pounds. "Before I lost the weight, I was miserable and barely living life," she said 10 years after her surgery. "My dream was to have kids."

Her dream became a reality; she and her husband brought three kids into the world, all of whom are big fans of Dr. Now. "They just find it amazing that Mom works for the cool doctor on television but little do they know that without him they wouldn't not be here," she captioned a pic of the kids with her savior and new employer. Morris dotes on the children, but being a mother came a cost — her weight has crept back up to 270. "I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be when you have kids and have food for them around you all day long," she said in her 2016 follow-up episode. She's still aiming for her ideal weight of 150 pounds, but she's doing it without the support of her husband, Chris. In 2021, Morris confirmed that she was a single mom.

When Paula Jones decided to lose weight, she had a powerful and tragic motivation — her husband had died from weight-related complications from weighing over 600 pounds. A year after he passed away, Jones herself weighed 542 pounds and worried that she too would suffer a life-threatening complication from obesity, leaving her four children on their own.

She decided that it was time to change and paid a visit to Dr. Now, but she was stunned when she set foot on the scale and saw her weight. "I'm huge. I look like a monster," she said sadly.

Jones followed through with her commitment to trim down, moving her family from Georgia to Texas in order to have surgery. According to Woman's World, it paid off and she experienced amazing results, ultimately losing 400 pounds! The mag reported that her relationship with her kids has improved, with Jones saying, "I can be more active with them. I've learned how to be emotionally healthy as well as physically healthy."

Chuck Turner weighed in at 693 pounds when he first appeared on the show. He said that he started gaining weight years earlier after his first wife was murdered. He eventually married his second wife Nissa and they adopted a son together, but his marriage became strained when his obesity prevented him from helping her with anything around the house.

According to In Touch Weekly, his situation had grown even more complicated because a 40-pound growth called a lymphedema had developed on his leg, hindering his movements even further. He told TLC producers, "I'd rather be a dead man than have to live like this for the rest of my life."

Luckily, he was able to have weight-loss surgery with Dr. Now, and he ended up losing 433 pounds! Unfortunately, he and Nissa eventually split up, but, according to In Touch, he said in a reunion special that he was looking for love again.

Donald Shelton's weight loss journey was a bit of a bumpy road with lots of twists and turns. When viewers were first introduced to him, he weighed 678 pounds and his weight made it hard to move around, causing him to ride in a wheelchair. His immobility led to severe bouts of depression. 

After weight loss surgery with Dr. Now, he was able to lose almost 400 pounds, but, according to In Touch Weekly, he was unfortunately diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, which affected his ability to walk and required him to be wheelchair-bound again. Unfortunately, after this devastating setback, he reportedly gained back 200 pounds.

But, like the other highly motivated stars of My 600-Lb Life, Shelton didn't give up. According to In Touch, he was ultimately able to drop some of the weight he put on, and he looked trim and happy in later social media posts.

Every story on My 600-lb Life is heartbreaking, but when Laura Perez revealed the origins of her episode of the show, it made for particularly difficult viewing. At five years old, an older cousin began abusing her, and food became her coping mechanism. "I never told my parents anything, so the molestation went on for years," she revealed (via the Daily Mail). "My whole life just changed, so I turned to food. That was my comfort."

When viewers were introduced to Perez in season 3, she weighed 594 pounds. She was confined to a wheelchair and needed an oxygen tank to breathe. "She is physically in one of the worst shapes I have ever seen," Dr. Nowzaradan said. The surgeon removed 80 percent of Perez's stomach during a gastrectomy and she managed to shed an amazing 412 pounds, but her new figure caused problems with her marriage.

During her March 2018 Where Are They Now special, Perez revealed that her husband was having a hard time accepting the new her. "Joey and me seem to be fighting more than ever," she said. "I want to keep becoming more independent and get a job and have a career. He doesn't want me to do that... I'm not 600 pounds anymore, I don't need to be trapped." In April 2018, a man named Eric Juarez revealed that Perez (who has been going by the name Angelika) had left Joey for him.

Like Laura Perez, Diana Bunch's food addiction was triggered by childhood trauma, but it didn't take over her life until years later. According to The Wrap, she "was molested by two older boys at 11 years old," and binge eating helped her cope. But her mother pressured her to diet even though Bunch spent her teenage years weighing around 115 pounds. Once she flew the nest, however, that all changed.

According to InTouch, the Seattle resident joined the Air Force, but was discharged because her size meant she couldn't perform her duties. Out of work, Bunch started getting bigger. She became confined to her one-bedroom apartment, eating herself to a dangerous size — a reported 620 pounds at one point.

"When you're morbidly obese, everyday life, just getting through it, it's miserable," she said during her first appearance on the show. "Pain is a constant visitor throughout my day, but my legs are what hurt the most." Her lymphedema was crippling, leaving her with swollen legs covered in open sores. "I don't look human," she said. "If I don't get help, I know that this apartment is where I'm going to die."

It was her niece, Megan, who convinced her to move to Texas and see Dr. Now, who removed 70 percent of her stomach. She was able to shed 265 pounds as a result, and is now living life to the fullest. Every Tuesday, Bunch updates her Facebook page with something she's thankful for.

When My 600-lb Life viewers first met June McCamey, her relationship with her girlfriend had reached breaking point. Longtime partner Sadi was buying fast food for McCamey on a daily basis, sometimes making up to three trips out a day in order to avoid confrontation. "She acts like an addict," Sadi said. "Her fix is food." McCamey was well aware that she'd become a burden on her girlfriend, admitting that she felt like a prisoner in her own home.

"I'm living in a nightmare," she said during her first appearance on the show (via Life&Style). "I feel imprisoned into my body. I have three seats; the bed, the bathroom toilet, and my chair. My world is confined. I feel suffocated." McCamey had steadily gained weight over the course of four pregnancies, and let herself go altogether after the tragic death of her 17 year old son, Mack. By the time she agreed to meet with Dr. Now, she was worried that her knees were about to give way. "I don't think they're going to last," she said.

They did last, however, and today those knee joints are under considerably less pressure. After going under the knife, McCamey was able to start losing weight for the first time in a long time. By 2018, she'd dropped in excess of 200 pounds. "I'm way more mobile than I was almost a year ago, I'm not sick like I use to be," she said. "I'm truly enjoying life again."

Nicole Lewis was just 23 when she debuted on My 600-Lb Life, but she was already too big to fit into her own bathroom. The 684 pound mother-of-two's relationship with her own mom (who had become the primary caregiver to the kids) was at breaking point by the time Dr. Now entered the picture. "When I was little, me and my mom never really got along, because she had a really bad temper, and would explode on me for things that I just didn't understand," Lewis said (via the Mirror). "And when that happened, I would always run to the garage, because my dad would be out there working on something. So I would just sit with him, and he would give me a snack."

Her weight problems really exploded after her truck driver dad was jailed for crimes related to drugs, which were apparently a regular sight at home. By the time she turned 16, Lewis was tipping the scale at 400 pounds. She's shed hundreds of pounds since her My 600-Lb Life days, according to Starcasm, but she's not on good terms with the people who make the show. Lewis is one of the many former My 600-Lb Life participants suing production company Megalomedia, which failed to meet its contractual obligations to her, she claims. The lawsuit (obtained by Starcasm) alleges that producers "failed to pay for [Lewis'] surgeries and medical care and this has caused her injury and damages."

When Chay Guillory joined Season 3 of My 600-Lb Life, it was the beginning of a journey in both weight loss and gender identity. Guillory was determined to lose all that debilitating weight and start living life as a transgender woman, and that's exactly what happened. "I feel like for so long I have lived a lie ... once I lose the weight, it will be possible for me to be the person I have always identified as — and that person is a woman" she explained in her 2016 Where Are They Now? episode (via the Daily Mail). She even toyed with changing her name to "Lola," but revealed in a subsequent update that "once people started calling [her] that, she didn't like it for [herself]." 

The Louisiana native weighed just shy of 600 pounds when she first arrived at Dr. Now's HQ in Houston, but the surgery helped her shed almost 220 of them. "My body moves easier. There is more pep in my step, and I just feel so much better, and I can do so much more," she said in 2016 following her weight-loss surgery. 

Big changes happened in Chay's personal life since the, too. She got engaged to her boyfriend in 2019, and the lovebirds tied the knot the following year. A happily married Guillory shared a wedding photo on Instagram to celebrate their first anniversary in March 2021, captioning the pic, in part, "Can't imagine life with anyone else."

My 600-Lb Life has shown time and again how weighing over 600 pounds can be crippling. Add another 200 pounds to that, and this is the life that Charity Pierce was living when she turned to Dr. Now. She'd weighed at least 500 pounds since her early teens, and had gotten to the point where she "would rather die than live this way," she told a documentary crew. At just shy of 800 pounds, she was considered one of, if not the heaviest woman in the world at the time, and she knew changing that would be a mammoth task. She shed 100 pounds in order to get the green light for gastric bypass surgery, which helped her shrink down to half the original size, losing a whopping 400 pounds.

She continued to lose weight (by her Where Are They Now? episode she was under the 300 pound mark for the first time in years), but her health took a sudden turn for the worse. In a 2020 Facebook post, Pierce revealed that she had been diagnosed with kidney cancer. "The next step was to get my kidney removed as soon as possible before it had a chance to spread to other organs in my body," she said. "So on March 2 my kidney was removed. And now I'm recovering at home trying to heal." A few months later, her daughter posted to say that Pierce "had some struggles but is doing great now."

Season 3's Marla McCants began her weight loss journey weighing almost 800 pounds. The mom of three spoke candidly to Sister Circle Live about her traumatic upbringing, including being sexually abused by her father, and explained that was when she began overeating — and her habits got worse after she was kidnapped by her high school sweetheart. "I stayed indoors, I didn't wanna endanger my children," she explained. "Food was my comfort." 

She lost control of her weight, but as she wrote on her website, "Even though I weighed that much, I never thought of myself [being] that size." Her a-ha moment didn't come until she realized she couldn't walk without pain. "I knew then something had to change," she shared. "I had to do something because I had seen and heard of stories about people being trapped in bed and dying."

When Marla's caretaker suggested she write in to "My 600-lb Life," she did. Once accepted to the show, she gave it her all. In 2019, she told Sister Circle Live she had lost 560 pounds (70% of her starting weight!) in two years and was down to 240 pounds. And while she acknowledged that food was an addiction she'd always struggle with, she was adamant she could overcome it. "I never want to go back to that place," she said. "It's lonely."

These days, in addition to staying healthy, Marla also works as a motivational speaker for a grief support group called L.O.S.S., or "Lending Our Shared Stories."

Bettie Jo Elmore's weight loss journey has been riddled with grief. When she first appeared on the show in Season 3 in 2015, she weighed 654 pounds despite being just 24 years old. She listed a history of sexual assault and a complicated relationship with her parents as catalysts for her weight gain, but she soon proved to be one of Dr. Now's most committed patients. Bettie Jo ended her episode at 498 pounds and kept going to lose over 200 pounds within the first two years.

However, she was faced with a major health scare in 2016 when she learned she was pregnant and that she had a large bone mass growing on her spine. Bettie Jo faced a difficult decision: have surgery to remove the mass and risk losing her baby, or forgo surgery and risk being paralyzed. She chose to have the surgery, and luckily the operation was a success. In August 2016, she welcomed a healthy, happy son named Preston Isaiah Linn Elmore with longtime partner Joshua Elmore. 

In 2021, the couple celebrated 15 years together (10 of them married), and in May 2022, they had their second son, Oliver Lamont Elmore. At the time, Bettie Jo faced another health scare, as Oliver was born at just 27 weeks, but in 2023, she shared he was healthy and thriving. She also told fans in April 2023 that she had lost another 10 pounds and was just 30 away from her skin removal surgery. "Getting nervous/ excited!" she wrote.

Olivia Cruz had already undergone two failed weight loss surgeries when she starred in Season 2 of "My 600-lb Life." She weighed in at 578 pounds and was confined to her mother's basement, but this time around, she decided things would go differently. She was dedicated to getting healthy and in the end, she shed nearly 400 pounds. 

That's when knee problems put her progress on hold and she oscillated around 200 pounds. Eventually, she underwent the necessary knee surgery, and as she shared during a 2016 episode of "My 600-lb Life: Where Are They Now?" she was back on track. "For the first time since I can remember, I can be active as much as I want, without having to use my cane or rest my knee," she said. "I had to stop training [to be a chef] because I couldn't stand and move around like I needed to, but now that I can stand all day, I'm going back to pick back up where I left off."

Better mobility meant she could finally pursue her ultimate dream: becoming a chef. During the follow-up episode, viewers got to see Olivia learning the ropes in a professional kitchen, prepping food, and cooking. "I can go back out in society again and I can make a living for the first time in almost a decade and a half," she enthused. Olivia was also approved for skin removal surgery and she vowed to keep going. "I'm dedicated to making more progress," she said.

Ashley Dunn Bratcher struggled with her weight for as long as she could remember. As she shared in her Season 4 debut, she had an unstable home life and grew up with a single mom who struggled with drug addiction. What's more, she told viewers she was sexually abused by her babysitter's husband at age 6 and turned to food for comfort. By the time she was in sixth grade, she weighed 250 pounds. When she graduated high school, she was 400 pounds. 

Ashley was just 26 when she first appeared on the show, and at 725 pounds, she couldn't take care of herself or her family. Because her husband, a truck driver, was gone most of the time, much of the household responsibility fell on her 5-year-old son, Patrick. Ashley's biggest motivation was to be a better mom and by the end of her episode, she was down to 397 pounds.

In a 2017 follow-up, she told TLC her greatest joy was being able to take care of Patrick like he deserved. "He can be a kid and I can be a mom and that's what I'm most thankful for," she enthused. In 2018, she was approved for skin removal surgery and reached 300 pounds. Since then, Ashley has continued to focus on her family and her health, and in a 2021 Facebook update, she celebrated her 12-year wedding anniversary with Jacob Bratcher. "Here's to many more," she wrote.

Joe Wexler was eating 10,000 calories a day and weighed in at 777 pounds when he was introduced to viewers on Season 3. His mobility was greatly restricted and he admitted, "I was ready to give up on life." Joe blamed his bad eating habits on a difficult relationship with his dad and on being allowed to eat as much as he wanted as a kid. 

However, he was devoted to turning his life around, and the year after undergoing weight loss surgery, he was down to 287 pounds. He later called losing the weight to qualify for his surgery "one of the hardest things I ever did," but it paid off. Joe was finally able to take care of himself and his mom Robin, and he started his own family. In 2018, viewers tuned in to see him marry Sarah, a woman he met in a weight loss support group. Unfortunately, the pair ultimately split in 2019, with Joe announcing on Facebook that she had cheated on him. Joe admitted the divorce affected his diet — "I did slip into a bad habit and ate my emotions and gained some back" — but not for long. 

Joe soon refocused on his goals and in 2021, he shared on Facebook he was working in IT while going to school to get a doctorate. He also found love again. "I reconnected with a friend I had known for over 12 years at the time and I married her and adopted her daughter," he wrote in 2022. "Life has been good."

Annjeanette Whaley's food addiction went back to when she was just a young girl, and she shared that she began eating to push down the sadness she felt over losing her mom to addiction. By the time she appeared in Season 7 of the show, she weighed 679 pounds at just 30 years old. But she was ready to make a change and fully embraced Dr. Now's plan, losing 274 pounds by the end of her episode. 

However, the transformation took a toll on her relationship with her then-girlfriend Erica. Annjeanette told viewers that Erica had become insecure as she lost more weight and their priorities diverged so much, leading them to break up.

Even so, she kept going. Her dad continued to encourage her and she shared, "I'm super motivated to make it to my target weight as soon as possible because once I do, I can move back to Oregon to be with my family." She did just that, and she and Erica even reconciled. In May 2022, Annjeanette shared on Facebook they were getting married and that she was loving being a mother figure to Erica's twin sons from a previous relationship. She also appears to be moving forward on her weight loss journey. She made headlines in 2020 when she sued "My 600-Lb Life" production company Megalomedia for $1 million. She accused producers of making up storylines for ratings and alleged that following their extreme diet and strict filming schedule took "a tremendous psychological toll."

Lucas Higdon put much of the blame for his struggles with his weight on his family when he first appeared in Season 10. He was 33 years old, weighed 619 pounds, and told cameras that living on the same lot as his parents and sister wasn't healthy. "A lot of my stress and anxiety comes from them," he said. "Whenever they stress me out, or they fight, or they argue with me, I have to go and eat something and I hate it." 

Lucas told viewers he was in constant pain and even had to give up his job as a pizza delivery driver a year earlier because he could no longer handle his duties. Instead, he was helping out by homeschooling his sister's kids, but his goal was to lose enough weight to get a job that could fund his dream of going back to school to become an IT tech.

Lucas committed fully to eating right and working out and, with support from his sister, he hit his goals, was approved for weight loss surgery, and ended his episode having lost 218 pounds. In 2022, he told Instagram he was down to 380 pounds and shared on Facebook (which has since been deleted but was recorded on Looper) that he received an IT certification from Google Coursera and was going on to study cybersecurity. In the meantime, he got a job fixing computers, and in February 2023 he shared, "The next big goal in life is moving to Colorado at the end of March."

When Milla Clark started Season 4, she weighed 751 pounds and had been confined to her home for two years. She relied on her five kids to take care of her, and once she started Dr. Now's program, they pushed her forward. "Having them here to encourage me and help push me, there's no greater motivation than that," she told viewers. Indeed, they were helping her exercise each day and stick to a healthier diet. "I'm looking at hunger pains as melting off the fat," she quipped in Month 3. Milla eventually had her weight loss surgery, and in 2019 she weighed in at 216 pounds. She kept going and lost enough to be approved for another surgery to remove a 38-pound lymphedema mass from her leg.

Milla's record-breaking journey also involved several skin removal procedures, and by 2021 she was just 155 pounds. That's a total loss of 596 pounds, making her the biggest success story in the show's history. And while some may criticize Dr. Now, she'll forever be thankful to him. In 2019, she posted a photo with Dr. Now to Instagram and praised, "You gotta love this man. He is such a blessing to me and all morbid obese people." As of 2023, Milla's Instagram bio proudly proclaims that she has lost 600 pounds and notes, "My mission is to share my journey, inspire and motivate you."

When viewers first met Lupe Donovan in Season 4, she was 39 years old and weighed 642 pounds. She had been confined to her bed for over a decade and was on the verge of heart failure. The health scare was a real wake-up call and, with help from her husband Gilbert Donovan, she worked hard to drop 300 pounds. However, despite her success, she still continued to spend most of her time in bed due to hip pain. She didn't want to get up for fear of falling but tried to remain active by shadowboxing with Gilbert. 

Eventually, she got down to just over 200 pounds and was approved for both skin removal and hip replacement surgeries. They made all the difference, and in 2019 she revealed on Facebook she was just 21 pounds away from her goal weight of 180. "I GOT THIS!!!!" she enthused. "I'm going to finish this journey with a big smile on my face, tears in my eyes, and lots of gratitude in my heart."

As for her personal life, that hasn't been as successful. In 2017, Lupe accused her husband of cheating, drinking, and abuse, and she left him after 10 years together. She later began dating Andrew Renteria, but after just 17 months together, he died unexpectedly in 2019. Taking to Facebook to share her sadness, she wrote, "You are forever in my heart and never forgotten."

Sarah Neely didn't have an easy time growing up. As she revealed in Season 6, she weighed 200 pounds by the time she was 8 years old. She said her parents' substance abuse triggered her overeating, and that she really began binging when they divorced. "My mom tells me I would overeat from my earliest age and I think it started when I was around three," she shared. By the time she appeared on the show at age 24, she was 642 pounds.

Her journey forward proved to be difficult. In addition to battling her food addiction, she was also dealing with substance abuse and she initially gained weight, which forced Dr. Now to postpone her weight loss surgery. Seizing her second chance, she was eventually approved, and a few months after had lost a total of 156 pounds. Sarah ended her episode at 393 pounds according to Looper, shortly after which she sadly suffered a miscarriage. However, she remained devoted to her journey and even checked into a rehab facility. 

In 2019, she shared on Instagram that for the first time since her early teens, "I got to enjoy Christmas this year sober." In 2020, she married Jonah Carpenter and they had a daughter, Gwendolyn Snow Carpenter, that December. "Being a good wife and a good mom are my focus," she told Starcasm that year. "That's all I want after all the chaos I've already lived."

Janine Mueller started Season 6 at 678 pounds and confessed, "I spend just about every moment of every day either eating or getting food." She lived alone and relied on a scooter to get around, even using it at home. "I just feel like I'm a freak show," she said. Janine explained she was adopted when she was around two months old and recalled, "[The] adoption agency told my parents that my birth mother was a large woman, therefore, I should be closely monitored." Her weight became an obsession for her mother, who put her on a diet at age 3 and started her on diet pills at 4.

Janine went on to fashion school and designed plus-size clothing before turning to plus-size modeling. At age 40 she weighed 444 pounds, and by 45 she was over 500 pounds. When she was 50, her dad died of cancer, which Janine shared meant, "[Any] desire I had to get my eating under control just went out the window." However, she was in constant pain and decided to make a drastic change. 

Janine lost 112 pounds on her episode, but it wasn't enough to qualify for surgery. She moved to Houston to be closer to Dr. Now, and in 2019 Starcasm noted she was down to 312 pounds. She eventually had the surgery, and in 2023 she weighed 281 pounds. She also has finally been able to return to fashion, this time selling jewelry for Paparazzi Accessories, which she shared on Instagram.

Susan Farmer's journey on "My 600-Lb Life" was made particularly difficult by two additional medical conditions: lymphedema and neuropathy. The latter, which she was diagnosed with after surgery, resulted in her losing feeling in her legs and needing to relearn to walk. But it was by no means the first hardship Susan faced. She debuted on Season 3 weighing 607 pounds and was in constant pain. Walking and breathing were painful, and as the then-37-year-old told viewers, she avoided mirrors. "I'm just disgusted of the way I look," she said. "I hate myself."

She shared that she began overeating at 17 following a violent incident in which her father drunkenly pointed a rifle at her mother. She turned to food for comfort but was ready to break the cycle. "You just have to hope it's not too late and try as hard as you can to do it," she mused. By the end of her episode, she had shed 267 pounds, eventually getting down to 305 pounds. Ahead of her skin removal, she enthused, per Daily Mail, "'It sounds kind of silly, but the first thing I am going to do ... is that I am going to get a pair of jeans." The procedure helped her lose another 46 pounds, and after hitting 210 pounds, she got her jeans. And while Susan's Facebook photo hasn't been updated since 2019, it seems she's sticking to her new lifestyle. In August 2020, she began working at RDI Xtract, a health records and data company.

Brothers David and Benji Bolton tipped the scales at a combined weight of over 1,300 pounds when they started their journey on Season 6. At the time, David was 747 pounds and explained, "Because it's so miserable to do anything, I've become almost immobile." He wasn't able to stand for more than three minutes at a time and had lost his job. Meanwhile, Benji weighed 582 pounds and was still working, but he feared he would soon be bedridden like his brother. 

David's unhealthy relationship with food began at a young age when his mother would treat him to Twinkies and cupcakes to show her love. By age 6 he was 100 pounds and when he graduated high school he was over 400 pounds. Meanwhile, Benji began overeating after David got his driver's license, as the brothers would get fast food together, and by age 16, Benji weighed over 300 pounds.

While Benji initially struggled to follow Dr. Now's program, both brothers shed hundreds of pounds. Benji finished the episode at 258 pounds while David weighed 428. After their story aired, their sister Cindy Lee revealed on Facebook, per Starcasm, that David was 295 pounds and Benji was around 200. Sadly, despite supporting each other on the show, it seems the brothers became estranged around 2020 when David sued production company Megalomedia, as shared by Starcasm. He accused producers of not providing necessary mental health care, of staging drama for ratings, and of failing to pay for his surgery and post-surgical care, leaving him in debt.