If you can't get through an episode of "My 600-lb Life" without feeling like your heart has been dug out with a grapefruit spoon, hang in there. TLC promises there's hope for obesity in gastric bypass and Chad Dean is living proof. The former 700-lb man just teased an update on his weight-loss after bariatric surgery and skin removal plastic surgery, and his makeover is nothing short of miraculous!
How much does Chad Dean weigh after gastric bypass?
That's the 600-lb question. The Maryland man can't reveal his weight-loss numbers until the "My 600-lb Life" update episode on April 26, but rest assured, they're incredible.
Just looking at Dean's Facebook photos, you can see how hard he's worked to end the obesity that was killing him. A few months ago, the truck driver fundraised on GoFundMe to undergo skin removal surgery (a type of full-body tummy tuck). Another reality television star, Mama June of "Honey Boo Boo" had this plastic surgery with dramatic results.
How did Chad Dean get so big?
That's another weighty question. Some TLC "My 600-lb Life" patients say they were thin as kids, but not Chad Dean. He weighed 300 pounds in high school partly because mom fed all their problems. But it didn't affect his life -- he played football and played well! Dean drove a truck and provided for the family. In fact, that's part of how he ballooned to such dangerous obesity.
Always being a big guy he didn't notice how heavy he was getting. When he came to the reality televsion show for gastric bypass surgery, the dad of two was almost completely incapacitated and reliant on his wife.
Why Chad Dean lost weight
In one word, Dean's motivation for weight-loss was family. The reality TV star was sick of being a burden.
His wife Ayesha expresses great love and compassion for her husband but you can hear the burnout in her voice. Chad heard it and worried that she would leave him, not for lack of love but just because she couldn't be his caregiver anymore. He says theirs was not a give and take relationship as he did all the taking. Dean was heartbroken that his kids only knew dad as someone to care for.
As YouTube commenter Jesse Pullum so aptly put it, the children "revolve around dad because he drew them into his orbit." But not anymore. As this family picture from Facebook shows, Chad (on the left) has rejoined the world. He is now giving as much as he takes and maybe more. Chad's become something of a celebrity with a social media following that encourages and is encouraged by his weight-loss updates.
