“My 600 Pound Life” reaches the obvious end point - Reality show “My 600 Pound Life” reaches the expected conclusion

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertai...-robert-buchel-dies-filming-article-1.3849820

‘My 600-Lb. Life’ star Robert Buchel dies during filming
BY RACHEL DESANTIS
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Thursday, March 1, 2018, 6:43 PM

Buchel — whose weight ballooned to 842 pounds thanks to a lifelong food addiction — made quick progress at first, shedding 217 pounds at a Houston hospital in preparation for lymphedema removal surgery.

Once Buchel had his surgery, however, his previously unacknowledged addiction to painkillers kicked in, and he grew depressed and struggled to make progress as his body deteriorated. In a desperate bid at scoring more painkillers, he tore his surgery stitches.

Buchel was forced to leave his rehabilitation center for a long-term care facility after it became clear he was no longer trying to stay active, and shortly after, suffered a heart attack and died.


His final moment on screen ended on a hopeful note, as Buchel expressed interest in making progress for the sake of his fiancée.

But not long after, Lemanski appeared on screen to recount their final night together, saying that Buchel told her he didn't feel well and didn't think he'd make it through the night.

"He told me, 'I don't think I'll make it through the night. I love you and I always will,'" she said. "I lost my best friend and the person I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with."

He’s dead Jim! Yeah, show of hands, who’s surprised at this?

 

[Yop Yop]

He looks like he was pulled straight out of an animated CGI movie
View attachment 394076

This is the truest thing anyone has ever said. Like a cross between the fat guy from toy story 2 and wall-e

 

[sperginity]

I just don't understand how they can get so fat.

Well once you are fat it is much harder to exercise, and once you've lost your mobility what is there to look forward to every day besides eating? Elderly people have expressed the same sentiment about only really enjoying meal time to me, these people were not fat, just too tired to do much at their retirement homes. It's a lot easier to diet if you can go out and do things or get wrapped up in your work. Sitting in the same spot for days with not much to do besides read, watch TV, and eat makes it easy to eat. So does the horrible feelings about being so heavy, and having so few people to talk to.

 

[Maggots on a Train]

It's his mortician I feel sorry for. I've just been reading a book about cremation and apparently fat people, if cremated, melt internally then burst and you get torrents of scalding hot liquid human fat pouring out of the cremation machines and down the floor drains. It stinks for weeks afterwards even if you pour a ton of detergent down after it.

Sounds like they need to poke a few holes in the top before they put them in the microwave.

 

[AnOminous]

Sounds like they need to poke a few holes in the top before they put them in the microwave.

They should render them into biodiesel to recoup some tiny fraction of the cost of keeping these revolting monsters alive.

 

[LazarusOwenhart]

What's the name of the book?

As @Daughter of Pomona rightly guessed it's "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" by Caitlin Doughty.

 

[Maxliam]

It's bullshit that this is somehow different from Celebrity Rehab and the like. Addiction is addiction and the fact that there is a tendency to place one addiction over another is really disturbing to me. These hambeasts on this show are no different from black ghetto crackheads or heroin junkies. Addiction is addiction and trash TV is trash TV, it's all just a sideshow for us to gawk at, and the fact that the sideshow is featuring broken, diseased, dying people is fucked up in it's own right.

I'd say the one difference for food addiction is you can't quit food. You have to modify what kind and how much. But yes this is the modern freak show. Tlc is a freak show with this shit. I admit I watch clips online and the fatties and hoarders fascinate me.

I just don't understand how they can get so fat.

Every drunk and junky has an enabler. A codependent enabler.

 

[U 'MIRIN BRAH?]

They should render them into biodiesel to recoup some tiny fraction of the cost of keeping these revolting monsters alive.

Would make it kind of weird every time you smelled your cars exhaust though

 

[Maxliam]

Would make it kind of weird every time you smelled your cars exhaust though

I don't know about you but I can't smell my car's exhaust when I'm driving. If you can, you might need that checked out because the cabin should not emit that smell. No joke, that could be a serious carbon monoxide leak. I smoke in my car and I can't smell it with the window rolled down.

 

[AnOminous]

Would make it kind of weird every time you smelled your cars exhaust though

I don't smell my car's exhaust. That's a problem for whoever is behind me.

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

This show is great and anyone trying to lose weight should be forced to watch it for motivation. Shame on you that shame the fat-shamers.

 

[keksz]

Yeah, show's so good it's to die for!

 

[Strelok]

I just don't think anyone has a leg to stand on criticizing freak show programs when in the kiwi farms. It's basically the same thing, just without 15 unfunny speds repeating the same jokes over and over.

 

[keksz]

Says the guy who is criticizing Kiwi Farms which is "the same thing" as the freak show programs that we're criticizing... while on Kiwi Farms.

Somebody screenshot this dumb shit on to the KF reviews thread.

 

[sperginity]

I just don't think anyone has a leg to stand on criticizing freak show programs when in the kiwi farms. It's basically the same thing, just without 15 unfunny speds repeating the same jokes over and over.

I posted an excerpt from a book that shows precisely how it is different a couple pages ago if you're interested.

 

[Cheesegirl78]

I did. The guy was molested or raped by a neighbor when he was younger and he lost his brother at a young age. If I remember right, the dad told him that "it should have been you" and that's what caused his spiral. This is a common theme in a lot of patients in the show. A traumatizing event causes a deep psychological issue that has them coping wiht food and they'll straight up say it in the show. The food gives them comfort and brings them to a good place. It's not good to do that and 9 times out of 10 they'll acknowledge it but its their comfort. What I have noticed is that a lot of these people do not have hobbies or didn't have them. They don't have a positive outlet to cope with their feelings. Robert's case was sad because until his painkiller addiction came out full in the open he was doing so well. Better than the lady before him.


Her. This is the lady. You'll have people like her who game and manipulate a system that has the kindness to try and help and all she did was cry and whine and not try. Even her own kids were tired of her. Watching her story was just straight up frustrating. Steven Assanti was also another.



It's a mix of living with a parent who enables them or collecting EBT or disability. Steven Assanti had EBT and his father enabling him at the same time. Most of the time though, these people live with parents and have (obviously) no job. There was a guy in the recent season, L.B., who had a really inspirational story. He was suffering from depression but because he was about 6 1/2 feet tall it truly didn't appear that he weighed over 600lbs. He's a prime example of someone who tries to actually better themselves, go to therapy (they do offer psychotherapy becaus they know these people have deep psychological issues) and in the end, he ended up gettign a job and doing some construction with his father (he also has a prosthetic which was another focus point of his journey).

Some of them have spouses thay claim they're the fatties caretaker, so they get a government check for that. Penny and Edgar, for one.
The underage children also get a check. Plus the fatties get Section 8, health care, transportation, and other treats.

 

[Chan the Wizard]

I thought this was going to be about Tess or Boogie.

 

[Computery Guy]

I'm gonna put down money the executives were breaking out the champagne over this. They don't want to help others, they want to show some guy eating himself to death so that the American public has something to point and laugh at, but not feel bad about pointing and laughing at because they "get better" at the end of the season.

Most cable viewers nowadays are basically just natal Kiwifarmers, and you'll never convince me otherwise.

EDIT: Really, I'm not saying we're much better, but we don't usually try to pretend we're laughing at autists because we're "concerned for them".

 

[Your Weird Fetish]

Does it really matter why they do it? They're still getting a chance to fix their fuck up they'd never normally have.

 

[keksz]

It matters that the people in the show are dying while the network is making millions off of it - and as @Computery Guy puts it, they're not interested in helping at all, it's just drama. I don't watch the show but I wouldn't be surprised it the producers are hurting as much as they're helping.

The show isn't "Down from 600lb" but "My 600lb life". The difference is subtle but telling.

 

[Computery Guy]

I mean, I don't have any problem with the idea of helping these people lose weight. It's just that from what little I've gleaned, at least one of the subjects outright refused to cooperate at all, but they still took a season's worth of footage of them not improving at all before throwing up their hands and leaving. It's a modern day circus freak show with a thin veneer of "education" because most consumers are very, very scared to admit they just like watching weird people do weird shit anymore.