My 600-Lb Life is an American Reality TV series on TLC that began in 2012 and continues airing to this day.
The show focuses on individuals across the United States who weigh at least 600 pounds or more who are trying to lose weight and reach their goal weight. The show originally began as a five-part miniseries, but due to its popularity, became a full series outright.
The series takes place in Houston, Texas and the individuals are put underneath the care of bariatric surgeon Younan Nowzaradan, more commonly known as Dr. Now. Early episodes took place over the course of seven years, but more recent episodes take place over the course of six months to one year, with varying degrees of success from participants.
Many times there is only one person attempting to lose weight, but in later seasons, couples and entire families have had their journeys chronicled as well.
In 2015, a spin-off series called My 600-Lb Life: Where Are They Now? began filming, which went back to patients featured in early seasons of the show to see how their journeys have been since they last left them.
This show is currently in its ninth season.
Tropes featured on the show include:
- Abusive Parents:
- An unfortunate backstory for many of the people seeking Dr. Now's help.
- Many viewers consider patients with kids child abusers. With one patient, this was so egregious that she had her five-year-old son literally climbing inside the dryer to retrieve laundry. Other patients' children spend most if not all their time caring for obese parents, and James King's seventeen-year-old daughter actually dropped out of school to take care of him. It's assumed that James forced her.
- Annoying Patient: Most patients who don't try to follow Dr. Now's instructions fall into this. Some make a comeback, but others, such as James King, Steven Assanti and Lisa Fleming, remain entrenched in drama, manipulation, and whining.
- Big Eater: Every patient featured on the show, but many friends, significant others and family members of the patient tend to eat a lot as well.
- Blame Game: Many of the patients who don't do well in Dr. Now's weight loss plan in the beginning tend to blame their move to Houston, not having enough money and other things as to why they didn't do well. Dr. Now usually tells them that's no excuse and makes them work harder.
- Breakout Character: Many in the first season, which prompted the My 600-Lb Life: Where Are They Now? series to be made. The spin-off often features many of the fan favorites throughout the show. Also, Steven and Justin Assanti, who have had four episodes made featuring them, and counting.
- Brutal Honesty: Dr. Now has no problem being brutally honest to the patients who aren't taking his weight loss plan seriously. This has varying degrees of effectiveness, but usually provides a wake up call for most.
- Catchphrase:
- "Hello, how y'all doing? I'm Dr. Now."
- "You've lost only (small amount of weight) in 2 months"; if not, the patient's even gained weight.
- This actually became, among other things, a
meme and fridge magnet.
- This actually became, among other things, a
- Dr. Now also constantly tells patients to stop "playing games", "telling lies" or "making excuses" over not losing weight.
- It's common to hear a variation of "I just hope Dr. Now doesn't give up on me" throughout the series.
- It's also common to hear patients claim they are "trying hard" or "doing their best" when they clearly have not. When confronted with evidence, it's common to hear them claim the scale is messed up or, "I don't understand how this happened."
- From Dr. Now, especially in recent seasons: "The scale doesn't lie, people do."
- Some patients repeat the same things over and over, such that they become morbid catchphrases. Two examples are Cindy Vela, who repeatedly claimed, "No one is listening to me" and James King, whose "Ow, my legs" became infamous enough to appear in a drinking game.
- Character Death: Fourteen patients have died so far since the beginning of the show, though only two have died while filming:
- Henry Foots, featured in season one, died of an unrelated illness on May 16, 2013.
- Ashley Randall, also featured in season one, died on October 2, 2021.
- Laura Ann Perez, featured in season three, died on November 17, 2021.
- Sean Milliken, featured in season four, died from an infection on February 17, 2019.
- James King, featured in the fifth season, died on April 3, 2020.
- James "LB" Bonner, featured in the sixth season, died by suicide on August 2, 2018.
- Lisa Fleming, also a sixth season participant, died on August 23, 2018.
- Rob Buchel, featured in season six and suffered a fatal heart attack on November 15, 2017, during filming of the show.
- Kelly Mason, featured in the seventh season, died on February 15, 2019, from heart failure.
- Coliesa McMillian, featured in season eight, died on September 22, 2020.
- Renee Biran, featured in season six, died on May 14, 2021.
- Gina Krasley, also featured in season eight, died on August 1, 2021.
- Destinee LaShaee, featured in season seven, died on February 8, 2022.
- Angela Gutierrez, also featured in season seven, died on March 21, 2023.
- Chubby Chaser: Quite a few spouses on the show say that they were attracted to the person showcased because of their weight. One episode had Dr. Now notice that a female patient's young husband was not being supportive to his wife, and outright asked if it was because he wanted her to keep getting larger and was now disappointed she was on the weight loss program. The man didn't answer.
- Commercial Break Cliffhanger: A patient's second or subsequent weigh-ins are often shown teased before a commercial break and shown right after the break.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Almost every patient suffers from this and blames their troubled childhood for their overeating.
- Don't Look At Me: A lot of the patients despise being seen in public which proves most painful for them when they're grocery shopping.
- Downer Ending: Any episode where the individual starts out successful, but manages to gain the weight back by the end of the episode. Special mention goes to, Henry Foots in season one, who successfully got the weight off and married his long-time love, only to have an "In Memoriam" card shown at the end of his episode. Rob Buchel, in season six, and Kelly Mason, in season seven, also qualify, having died before the end of their episodes.
- Drama Queen: Steven Assanti (who constantly acted up in the hospital; calling the nurses into his room even when he didn't need them, in one instance throwing urine on the floor in anger) and James King (who screamed "Ow! My legs!" so often during his episode, you could play a drinking game while watching), among other notorious patients.
- Lisa Fleming was probably the Grand High Drama Queen. After almost a year of not even trying to follow Dr. Now's instructions, she had a two-part "epic" meltdown which has garnered thousands of views on YouTube. As part of the meltdown, she went so far as to claim she was suicidal in order to manipulate Dr. Now.
- Dumb Struck: The initial reaction when somebody gets on the scale and doesn't hit the weight loss goal Dr. Now wanted them to, or has gained or loss more weight than they thought.
- Dysfunctional Family: Many of the patients come from dysfunctional families, which have contributed to their weight gain.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The patients who go through the hell of losing the weight to get approval for the weight loss surgery, go through therapy, and keep shrinking down are the ones who've earned their happy ending.
- Epic Fail: James King kept promising Dr. Now he got much smaller once he started the weight-loss program but his weigh-in revealed he gained 158 pounds. Dr. Now angrily moved to kick him out of the program before King's wife Lisa pleaded for a second chance. He stayed in the hospital's care and lost 58 pounds. On the next weigh-in to see how King would do if the hospital didn't supervise him, he gained back 3 pounds and Dr. Now finally kicked him out.
- Flipping the Bird: Steven Assanti did this to his father for asking him for a slice of his pizza. This is after he paid for the pie himself and said that he hadn't eaten anything all day. Steven would also flip off the nurses and his caregivers whenever they didn't comply to him.
- Going Commando: Many patients don't wear underwear in the early part of their episodes due to their size, or other health factors. Their nudity is censored accordingly.
- Gruesome Grandparent: At least two patients, Jeanne Covey and Margaret Johnson, had abusive grandmothers. Their abuse included not only the general verbal and physical kind, but specific psychological torture, such as forcing their granddaughters to smoke cigarettes, or to eat ten eggs in a row if they dared say they were hungry.
- Henpecked Husband: A lot of times, the enabler of the patients were their love interests or spouses.
- Huge Schoolgirl: Many of the women who are big during their childhood talk about suffering from bullying due to this.
- Jerkass: Steven Assanti, whose behavior was so bad in the hospital, Dr. Now kicked him out in part one of his episode and refused to treat him in any hospital again unless it was an emergency situation. It's also all but stated that he called an ambulance at one point for the sole purpose of getting more narcotic painkillers.
- Manchild: A lot of patients get called childish by Dr. Now for cranking excuses over not losing much weight and giving in to their temptations for junk food.
- My Car Hates Me: Some of the patients' cars tend to break down from their weight overloading the car.
- Never My Fault: The mindset of many patients and their family members, especially if they do as well as Dr. Now wants them to during the beginning of their journey and he tells them as such. In James King's case, he blamed everyone else for his overeating including not having a nutritionist brought to his home and Dr. Now fires back he was given clear instructions on paper to follow at home.
- Obsessed with Food: Pretty much every patient featured on the show.
- Once an Episode: Each episode begins with the individual getting up and showing the crew how they go throughout a normal day, including how they shower/clean themselves, what they eat and what they do on a normal basis. Also, a surgery or operation is featured at least once in every episode.
- Parental Blamelessness: A lot of the patients parents deny being responsible for the way their children turned out wen Dr. Now calls out a patient's parent(s) for bringing the food and for being overeaters themselves.
- Parental Favoritism: Steven Sr. is seen favoring his abusive and manipulative namesake instead of his often ignored and mistreated younger son Justin. One episode even had him steal some of the latter's pain medication to give to the former in spite of him not needing it himself.
- Previously on…: Usually shown at the beginning of a second part episode.
- Product Displacement: Many scenes shot in grocery stores. Often times, entire aisles will be blurred. When Steven Assanti was filmed eating a Big Mac from McDonald's and a Subway meatball marinara, only the packaging was blurred while the food was still clearly visible.
- Psychopathic Manchild: As mentioned above and below, Steven Assanti bullied hospital staff, regularly engaged in screaming matches with his family, and shamelessly abused medical resources at the expense of other people. It's all the more sweeter when Dr. Now rips into him for his criminal acts.
- Pull the I.V.: One episode had a female patient, fed up with her hospitalization, start to rip off several of her medical equipment, including her I.V. and her blood pressure cuff.
- Pushover Parents: Many are seen throughout the series - as rather than buy healthy low-caloric foods such as vegetables they often caved in and spoiled their offspring with fast food. The vast majority of parents cranked out the excuse that their move to Houston from other places made it difficult for them to make home-cooked meals.
- Rape as Backstory: For many of the patients.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dr. Now will lay it on you hard if you continue making excuses for far too long. Bonus points go to Steven Assanti whom Dr. Now threatened to call the police and throw in jail for felonies related to exploiting the medical system.
- Sickbed Smuggling: Frequently. Relatives of morbidly obese hospital patients will often sneak in forbidden, high-calorie food to them to Dr. Now (and the audience's) immense chagrin.
- Subverted with Steven Assanti. Although a news report states that the primary reason he was kicked out of a previous inpatient weight loss in Delaware was because he had ordered a pizza to his room, the main reason was his utterly abusive treatment of the hospital staff.
- So Proud of You: When his patients do follow his instructions and show results, Dr. Now is not afraid to genuinely praise them for taking better care of themselves.
- To Be Continued: Usually shown at the end of a first part episode.
- Weight Woe: Understandably, the reason why many seek out Dr. Now. The title isn't kidding; 600 pounds is over two and a half times the size of Homer Simpson (who is, by medical definition, morbidly obese), and that's the minimum weight required to be on the show.
- Where Are They Now: There's a separate show for that by this point, although not every patient gets an update.
- Worst News Judgment Ever: News outlets headlined Steven Assanti being expelled from a hospital merely for ordering a pizza — but the reality was he was kicked out for being hostile and aggressive towards the staff. Yes, ordering the pizza was against protocol, but that was the least of all reasons he was kicked out.
