Marla McCants is one of the most memorable figures from the series My 600-lb Life. She couldn’t walk, was morbidly obese, and at one point weighed over 800 pounds. Marla’s life was at risk if she didn’t get help, and she eventually landed her spot on the show. Today, she’s lost more than 500 pounds – and the transformation is just amazing!
A healthy diet can be a hard thing to maintain. If you have a family, a partner or many interests, it can be time-consuming to cook healthy food, and sometimes pretty expensive as well.
Fast food is definitely a trap. Sure, it can be good now and then, but in the long run it’s bad for your health if you eat too much of it. That’s why we’re always told we should work out to improve our minds, bodies and souls!
There are many inspirational people who try to teach us how to live a healthy life through exercising, eating healthy and working on our inner peace in order to feel great.
Marla McCants – ‘My 600-lb Life‘
But as inspiring as these physically fit people can be, so too are people like Marla McCants.
Marla McCants
A number of years ago, she appeared on My 600-lb Life, weighing over 800 pounds. Due to her unhealthy lifestyle, she was thought to be very close to dying.
However, with great dedication and Dr. Now’s help, Marla turned her life around. These days, she looks amazing!
So how did she do it? Here’s all you need to know about Marla McCant’s incredible journey!
Marla McCants
Even after someone makes it onto the show, there’s plenty of work yet to be done. When Marla McCants appeared on My 600-Lb Life, Dr. Younan. Nowzaradan, also known as “Dr Now”, wasn’t convinced that he could help her at all.
Marla McCants – weight loss journey
In fact, Dr. Now has actually walked away from several patients over the years because he felt that he could no longer help them.
“There have been a few patients I felt I could no longer help,” he told People.
“I will always be available if they need me. If they won’t stick to the program, at some point, I can longer help them and they are taking resources from someone else who needs it.”
Marla McCants was so morbidly obese that she couldn’t even get up to walk by herself. She was eating food in bed, even frying food in a small fryer that she always had with her.
Marla was addicted. Addictions, as we know, are never easy to break.
Marla McCants
Marla McCants became one of Dr Now’s most difficult patients. She decided to move to Houston, Texas, where he was stationed, with her daughter, and underwent a gastric bypass surgery to help her in her weight loss journey.
Didn’t want to cooperate
However, things would get complicated. She stayed at the hospital for a while, until Dr Now decided that enough was enough.
It appeared that she didn’t want to cooperate and refused to try to stand up as part of her recovery. Eventually, she was discharged.
In an interview with Houstonia Magazine, Dr. Nowzaradan said he didn’t make any money performing the surgeries, instead focusing on giving people a second chance at life.
“Looking at the moral obligation that we’ve got, you see somebody who has no life who could have a life,” he said.
“We don’t need to be rich. We do make a living, but we don’t need to worry about making a living out of every patient we see.”
So, his motivation is truly to help people live healthy, productive lives, rather than eat their lives away.
“I never let the camera change my behavior toward any patient,” Dr Nowzaradan explained. “I do exactly the same thing if the camera is there or not.”
Dr Now
Speaking to People, Dr. Now said that there have been many cases where patients haven’t been able to keep their weight down even after undergoing gastric bypass surgery.
Dr. Now: ‘Necessary with tough love’
“It’s a daily challenge to work with some patients that can be self-destructive,” he said.
“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.”
Dr. Nowzaradan added, “Even during those times, my job is to find a way to work with them to get their weight to a healthy place. They are the patient because they need help and it’s my job to help them no matter what.”
Marla McCants
Marla McCants’ journey could have ended the moment she was discharged. It was her daughter, Sierra, who decided that this was not going to be the end. She gave Dr. Now another call, begging him to help.
Stood up for the first time in years
In the follow-up program, McCants was seen sitting in her bed at home, still relying on her daughter Sierra for practically everything. By this point, though, she had lost an impressive amount of weight and weighed in at 534 pounds.
At that point, her next big operation was a skin removal surgery. Yet she still hadn’t lost enough to go through with it.
