Melissa From “My 600-lb Life” Looks Like A New Woman Following 450-Pound Weight Loss

Dec 07, 2020 by apost team

In an update episode that aired in 2016, we follow Melissa Morris, a former star of TLC’s My 600-lb Life to take a look at how she’s doing after featuring on the show four years before.

If you watch TLC, you would be familiar with My 600-lb Life. It is one of the network’s longest-running reality shows that spans eight seasons with over 100 episodes. Each episode focuses on a single individual struggling with morbid obesity.

They are placed under the care of Houston-based surgeon Dr. Younan Nowzaradan aka Dr. Now, who helps the patients lose weight by getting them on a strict diet, and then, depending on the progress of the individual, may offer gastric bypass surgery or sleeve gastrectomy.

In 2017, Dr. Now spoke with People about his experience with working with his patients on the show. “It’s a daily challenge to work with some patients that can be self-destructive,” the surgeon told the magazine.

“My job is not to get aggravated, but to find a way to motivate them to work hard to get to their goals. There are times where I think it’s necessary for some tough love and I have to be stern with them, so I show some of my concern and frustration.”

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He added that a patient’s loved ones and family members can either be enablers or encouragers to their weight loss journey, and that having a supportive circle is an important component to reaching their health goals.

Melissa Morris was the first patient to feature on the show in 2012. She was 31 years old during the filming and is the only patient to star in more than one episode of the show. In 2016, TLC did a follow-up on her life to find out how she’s doing after four years.

Morris, a Texas native, weighed at 653 pounds at the start of the show. Her husband, Chris, had difficulty dissuading her from unhealthy habits and lifestyle choices and as a result, she led a sedentary lifestyle, spending her days binge-eating. She was obese to the point she could barely walk or even participate in normal everyday activities. She desired to become a mother but her state of health made it near impossible.

“It’s been 10 years since my weight-loss surgery and life is so different now,” she told the network. She added that she “was miserable and barely living life,” before she lost the weight.

“Now, I’m able to be active all day and I have two wonderful kids, Allona and Eli,” the mom said. Morris lost almost 500 pounds after getting by gastric bypass surgery, and got down to 157 pounds. But she did not remain at that weight

“The last time I got my weight checked I was back up to around 270 pounds,” she told TLC. Morris attributes most of that weight gain to her pregnancies.

“I gained around 20 pounds when I had Alana four years ago. But during my pregnancy with Eli I gained almost 100 pounds."

The stay-at-home mom said that having food around her all the time because she had to prepare meals and snacks for the kids made it hard to resist eating. “I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be when you have kids,” she lamented.

At the time of the filming, Morris had a total of four kids in her house because her nephew and niece moved in.

“I’m feeding kids all day long so it’s hard to stick to a diet. And I didn’t expect how much my world would change being a mom, and the struggles that would bring.”

Besides the excessive eating, Morris added that feeling “depressed,” — because she quit her job to raise the kids — had contributed to her weight coming back.

“I was happy to be a mom but I was depressed because of everything I had to give up.”

But things got better. According to Morris’ Instagram page, she is now a mom of three. Her youngest, Austin Wayne, is now four years old. She has also rejoined the working world, and regularly posts pictures of herself at her work place. In September 2019, she posted that she was looking for a job, and in the same month, she announced that she landed a job at the office of none other than Dr. Now! And iit looks like she still works there.

Just last month, Morris shared a picture of her three kids with the doctor. She wrote:

“November 17, 2005 the first visit I ever had with @younannowzaradan it was an eight hour visit with the promise I would have kids. Here we are 15 years late and my kids believe he is the coolest man on the planet. Thank you Doc for giving me everything I ever wanted. So much love.”

Did you follow Melissa's weight-loss journey on the show? What do you think about how far she's come since? Let us know in the comments and be sure to pass this along to somebody who could use some motivation.