Half Ton Man documentary

I saw the documentary about the man who was morbidly obese and weighed over 1000 pounds. They also showed the doctor who did WLS on him. The doctor was a good spokesman for gastic by-pass and had had the surgery himself. But the man who was so obese was really not typical of all of us who have had surgery. He appeared to be a little retarded and at the end I was shocked when they went to the doctor for his appointment in a near by city and then his wife went and bought a huge bucket of Kentucky Chicken for him and a plate with other stuff. He just said great, I can save the other chicken for a snack when I get hungry again! All thru the program he was calling for her to bring him diet drinks and they showed the trash cans running over with pizza cartons and diet drink 20 pack wrappers. Didnt the doctor tell him that he could not have all that stuff???? It was so insulting!!!!! Why cant Oprah and other people who document people who have gastric surgery show the NORMAL people who are not like this, rather motivated, educated and successful with this surgery. At the end of the program they said that gastric surgery does work for a while but in the end people end up gaining back all of the weight. Now we all know that is not true! Of course you must maintain the eating patterns after surgery for the rest of your life!!!! They also showed Richard Simmons with his exercise programs and visiting people who are in this center. They are losing weight by diet and exercise , but just return back to the center because they cannot do it by themselves. Why would people go on like this for 17 years (Richard said he had been visiting them for that long) instead of opting for WLS???? All in all it just makes all of us who went the WLS route look like we are fools!!!!!! That makes me really hot because I know many people who have done great for years and years, one I know has been normal for the past 20 years. Why are people putting such a negative spin on WLS? I just cannot understand it, when people are dieing from being obese!!!!! I think that we all need to write to Oprah and demand equal time. She should show the wonderful part of the surgery. Lots of us have good things to say. I just hate that it is not presented in a positive light.

Here Here! Couldn't have said it better myself! It's maddening! GRRRRR!!! What can we do? HUGS K

Hey Cheryl, I hear ya . I saw that special as well and there was another one just after that about a man who was bed ridden and he was transported to that (well they called it a nusring home for the severely morbidly obese) What I can't understand is why someone would wait til they got to that point (1000 pounds +) to even try and get help ,what happened at 400 pds or even 300 pds. I have struggled all my life with my weight and I DON"T want to be one of the ones they feature on one of those shows because they had to take a wall out of my house to get me out. You know what I mean. The man in the second show actually died because he was just to far gone with his health for them to do anything. He said one day he was in the kitchen and his knees just gave way and he crawled to his bed and never got out. His wife and sister had to wait on him. It was really sad. I am having the surgery on march 27th and I CAN"T WAIT. I agree with you Cheryl there is not enough positive things in the media or anywhere for that matter about the wonderful success stories about this surgery. I am still getting neg. things about it here. But i just as much support here at work as well as on this site. I do love each and everyone of you on here dearly. I hope to meet some of you sometime in the near future. Well i will get off my soap box for now... hugs Tonya

I want to apoligize to anyone that I offended by the post i replyed to for Cheryl. I said something about why would anyone let them self get to that point. I did not mean any disrespect to ANYONE here that started out before the surgery being 3or 4 hundred pounds .I my self weigh 280 rite now but hope to change that realllll soon. Again I am sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings I would NEVER do it on purpose.Just not that kind of person. I went back and read what I posted and thought that I should go ahead and apoligize. I do have lots of respect and admiration for all of you that have already been on the loosing team for a while now. Well take care again..... I luv yall tonya P.S. I think yall know what i was trying to say.....

Tonya, I wasnt offended but I will say no matter if you are 1000 pounds or 500 pounds or 280 pounds - we should all know that it is very hard to lose weight and once you get to that point you just cant try anymore. I am sure he did not want to be 1000 pounds but probably felt like he could not do anything about it. My highest was 275 pounds and continuing to climb - I dont doubt that one day I would have been in the 300s... At 275 pounds and feeling low about yourself and having absolutly no energy leaves you to do nothing but sit on the couch and eat. Depression, fatigue, and lonliness for some people. Food becomes the comfort you are looking for. I didnt get to watch the documentary but I hope that someone who did watch it can reach out to that man and tell him what he is still doing wrong and if he truly wants to succeed he will listen.

No I dont think anyone was offended. His wife was an enabler. She went to get him anything he wanted to eat, and she said that she did not realize that he was that big. He gained over 500 pounds after he married her. He was so big that she could not even keep him clean. But she continued to feed him and did not try to help him or herself either. He, I felt, did not have the intellect to do something for himself. I feel he was a bit mentally slow, from his responses and speech. But the doctor realized that he needed help, and help is there for anyone who is trapped into a vicious weight cycle. It IS genetics and some people are super absorbers and taking in more and more calories is a gradual thing. You do not realize you are eating so much. I was a big grazer before, never realized that. What I was the most disgusted about was the fact that the man did not follow the diet and although he was losing weight, was still taking in junk foods. This is not an accurate picture of WLS patients.

I kinda half-way watched that show so I missed alot, I guess. I remember seeing the over-run trash can full of pizza boxes and thought maybe it was a flashback to BEFORE the surgery....But, you know, they didn't SAY it was from before....I guess I was just hoping it was that way. Those shows tend to upset me, because "there except for the Grace of God, go I" and I get nutz, too, when they aren't behaving....I mean we all misbehave and yep, I have tried a bit of KFC and all I can say is - WAY, WAY too much grease.....But to stockpile KFC FOR FUTURE SNACKS is a bit over the top....HOWEVER, none of us, Thank YOU GOD, have ever filled his man's shoes.....I tend not to watch this stuff since I watched the documentary on the girl that had WLS and then started hitting the bars and bringing home strangers (men) to her home with her little girl there and letting them stay the night with her...My Sissie watched that one too and called me up and threatened my life if I turned into the same kinda girl she did after surgery.....(But I think she was that way BEFORE the surgery too!) Smoochies Arlies

You are talking about Christies Story arent you?? I watched that before my surgery. That girl had major issues. Major issues. I hate that they show all this bad stuff and not the stuff like us on this board. We have a lot of successful, determined, energetic, supportive, non judgemental people on this board whose lives have changed for the better. They need a show where people can see support and positive lifestyle changes. Someone needs to call MSNBC and get them to Mississippi. We could invite them to our next bash.

How about inviting Oprah????

I guess what made me so angry is that they did not show the typical WLS patient who is motivated, stays on the diet and exercises! I know that this man needed help, and he had big problems, but he was not the right person to show when you talk about WLS, he was atypical, and gave a negative picture to people, ie, if you have to have WLS you are weak and will never be successful. We all know that is not true, look at all the successful people here on the board. Why don't they feature us? As for Bars, I think some people go a bit crazy afterwards and perhaps the running around bug was always there as you said, but I could live without a drink for the rest of my life and never miss it!!! LOL!!! :smile: Cheryl