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'My 600-lb Life’: Tommy says he 'can't and won't stop eating', hopes for a miracle to fix his life

When his relationship with his father turned toxic, Tommy found comfort in food. He developed trust issues, which made his relationship with everyone difficult, except food

This episode of TLC’s ‘My 600-lb Life’ follows the life of a morbidly obese Tommy Johnson.  He’s 38-years-old and weighs over 600 pounds. He is taken care of by his fiancée Amanda. 

Although Tommy’s life is mostly driven by his eating habits, due to his enormous frame, his home has become a cage.  He says the life he’s leading is deeply entangled in pain and misery and so he turns to food unable to cope with the pain caused by him being overweight. However, to add to that, Tommy’s also highly disappointed in himself as he isn’t working towards fixing it. 

His reason is that he “can’t and won’t stop eating” and calls himself a “food addict”. Expressing his love for Baloney sandwiches, Tommy said he eats about eight times a day and when he is eating, his pain goes away and it brings him immense joy. 

“Food is one thing that won’t give up on me," Tommy said. 

But, he also said that food has been more than the pleasure of eating for him. Recounting a few disturbing incidents from his childhood, Tommy revealed that his father was an alcoholic, who would often bicker with his mother. When the relationship with his father turned toxic, Tommy found comfort in food. 

After his father passed away from a heart attack and when he couldn’t talk about the abuse he was being subjected to from an acquaintance, Tommy’s dependency on food increased. He has never spoken about the abuse to anyone to date, including Amanda, and continues to be bogged down by the unpleasant memories of a traumatizing past. 

He developed trust issues, which made his relationship with everyone difficult, except food. He said he ballooned to just about 500 pounds by the time he was 18. 

Tommy started developing Lymphodema at 22. When his mother couldn’t take care of him, he moved in with his friends, who took care of him in exchange for babysitting their children. He eventually moved out from there and started living with his mother. 

Although Tommy now has Amanda to take care of him, he is afraid she’s going to lose her patience with him soon and walk out of the relationship. Tommy hopes a “miracle” will fix his life. 

'My 600-lb Life' airs on Wednesdays on TLC.