Weight loss: Morbidly obese woman reveals how she lost 17 stone on ‘My 600lb Life’

Tamy Lyn Murrell, 45, from Covington in Kentucky, started overeating as a child after witnessing her father’s sudden death from a heart attack.

But after reaching 42 stone 8lbs, Tamy appeared on ‘My 600lb Life’ in a bid to lose the weight.

Folds of skin on her stomach nearly reached the floor – and Dr Younan Nowzaradan promised to remove them if she lost weight.

The mum-of-one was put on an immediate 1,600 calorie a day diet, and lost 12 stone 7lbs on her own.

She then underwent gastric sleeve surgery, losing a total of 17 stone.

Tamy explained how turning to comfort eating after her father’s death started her weight gain.

Her mother fell in to a deep depression, and Tamy was left to ear “whatever I wanted”.

She explained: “I could just eat whatever I wanted, when I wanted, and it was my friend. It was my parent, my friend, my loved one.

“I bought it because she would just give me money, and she let me get whatever I wanted.

“So I ate junk food all of the time, and I would eat to the point of being sick. I don’t know why I did it. It was just I wanted it, so I ate it.”

She left school at 16, meeting her former-husband James when she was 18. Tamy fell pregnant a month after they started dating, and her weight spiralled.

Sadly James ended his marriage to Tamy just a month in to her weight loss journey – but she continued to progress.

Tamy even overcame a bout of pneumonia which saw her weight loss surgery put on hold while she recovered, and she continued to lose weight while she waited for the gastric sleeve.

Speaking about her size, Tamy said: “Living in my body, it’s miserable. My belly has gotten to the point where it’s got a mind of its own, and it’s so painful.

“I feel like I’m not living. I’m just existing. It’s horrible.”

To watch Tamy Lyn’s story, and see more from TLC’s My 600-lb Life series, click here.