'My 600-lb Life': Joyce gained weight because her grandmother constantly fed her, says food is killing her
Tonight's episode of TLC's 'My 600-lb Life' follows a morbidly obese Joyce Del Viscovo, who weighs over 600 pounds.
The 44-year-old Joyce says her enormous frame makes her feel like a prisoner. She needs to use an external supply of Oxygen to breathe as her body is unable to support itself. And she can barely move due to the lymphedema underneath her stomach, which also causes her immense pain.
She pays one of her friends to take care of her daily needs. Washing her body filled with sores is excruciatingly tiring and Joyce worries that if they aren't taken care of she might be put in the hospital, which has happened earlier.
The entire process of cleaning her up takes about an hour and by the end of it, she is both mentally and physically exhausted.
However, eating is the only factor that gets Joyce excited. She says the first bite is the best moment of her day and has nothing to worry about as she sits on her recliner and binge eats to her heart's content.
Reflecting on her childhood and factors that led to her weight gain, Joyce said that she was a normal-sized child. But when her parents got divorced everything fell apart for her. She was taken care of by her grandmother, as her mother chose to remarry and live with her stepfather.
Although her grandmother took good care of her, she gave Joyce constant attention by overfeeding her, which initiated her weight gain. She weighed around 90 pounds by at the time she was eight.
After separating from her second husband, Joyce's mother reunited with her. However, even her mother failed to stop her from eating as she had gotten too dependent on food by then.
She only got bigger with time. Despite Joyce's mother helping her start a daycare to keep her distracted from food, nothing could stop her from feeding herself.
She weighed around 350 pounds by the time she was 18, which increased to 400 pounds much before she turned 20. Joyce, who is 44 now, worries that she might end up losing her life to her toxic habit, similar to her father who died at the age of 33 due to his overweight.
Joyce, who hasn't been out of the house in three years, says she's letting food kill her.
'My 600-lb Life' airs on Wednesdays on TLC.