My 600 pound life- Cautionary tale or fetish fuel?

Looking on the site I am a bit surprised no one has talked about this show in particular. Now for those of you who don’t know about this show it is a multi-documentary series depicting several individuals in their journey to lose their excess weight (kind of similar to Biggest Loser). However unlike Biggest Loser these people have gone beyond a threshold and have got themselves to a point that their weight is now creating serious problems for them; such as excess eating/constant hunger, limited mobility to immobility, lymphedema growths, even the risk of obstacles beyond the patients’ control interfering.
Personally I find this show as an important series showing how weight gain, while is something we do have a desire for, can get out of hand and even turn dangerous. It is due to this show that while I like reading literature or playing games with weight content that reach some of the weights featured in the show, that having someone going through it in real life is a terrifying prospect as their own bodies turn against them (preventing total weight loss or keeping them hungry all the time). However I can see some people who can watch the show and feel annoyed as the pounds are falling off (it doesn’t happen all the time, some patients are real “jerks” depending on which point of the journey they are on).
Now I know that this is a place to improve content related to weight gain and other associated fetish acts (like vore or inflation), yet why aren’t people discussing this show and how some of the patients have got to the point they are at now. So the question is how do you feel about this show, do you root for them to lose the weight to be at a healthy weight or are disappointed in them losing what makes them… unique (maybe not the best term, but every patient so far have different weights and body shapes)?

Also sorry if the topic offends anyone, was not the intent when making it.

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I certainly don’t find it fetish fuel. I always found it to be a pathetically sad TLC show that really sets an example as to why health is important. On the topic of kinks, many BBW models and the like are very cautious when it comes to their health because as neat as it is as their fulfilling their and others’ kinks, it can also be very detrimental if it isn’t moderated. Shows like 600lb Life is a reminder about stuff like that, and I don’t think the people featured on there would be very happy if they knew someone was turned on by the thing they’re trying to get rid of.

It’s why stuff like this is kept to fictional art rather than performed IRL… mostly.

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As has been said, it is a shameless money grab to exploit the people who have severe hurt themselves for entertainment.

I can appreciate the idea of people getting to obscene weights through fiction (such as some of the games seen on this site depict), but to support and/or fetishize that lifestyle in reality is a horrid disregard for the person that has to suffer with the literal weight of their actions. It is no different to fetishizing anorexia or other such body-dysmorphic centred mental illnesses; you are putting your own personal enjoyment above the self-harm a person is inflicting upon themselves.

Personally, I do not discuss that show because it leaves me with a gut-wrenching sadness to watch these people struggle as their own bodies are more like a jail cell to them. While I may enjoy the fictional weight gain and what not, no human body is ment to ever hold that much weight and it hurts to think of how poor their quality of life is and what they must endure just to live their daily lives.

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This is def one of those fetishes that just becomes sad and depressing in real life. Too many downsides to want a real person to go through it

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People probably don’t talk about it because it’s exploitative shit. That kind of TV program is the modern day equivalent of going to the freak show, so people can feel horrified and disgusted and glad that they’re “normal”. The misery and struggling is deliberately played up for that reason. They find vulnerable people and wring as much pathos and suffering out of them as possible to make money.

You can’t trust anything in mainstream media when it comes to any kind of look at fat people. I’ve seen countless “documentaries” on stuff like feedism or fat people in general, it is never an honest take, it’s always more ‘look at what these stupid freaks are doing to themselves’ garbage on some level.

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I feel this is such a tricky subject because for some, the idea of being so big to cause health problems turns some people on and scares the rest. Obviously the show contains massive ssbbws and ssbhms who are wanting the assistance of others to lose weight. If my partner was one of these obese people, I would want them to be happy. If they felt they would be happier weighing less, then I would wholeheartedly support them. Yet, if they still wanted to gain or even maintain and they were happy, I would support them with that as well. It’s hard to have an opinion on such things when you’re not in that situation yourself but it’s important to remember a feedee’s body is their body and not the feeder’s, and the feeder should be able to respect and support a feedee’s decision about their body.

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This show is one of the rare opportunities to see such massive people, and some of them are really good-looking (in my opinion). But I hate the freak-show part of it - so meh. At least some of the people decided at some time that loosing weight is not what they really want, just like myself. So it has some good parts.

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