My 600-lb Life: Joyce Del Viscovo’s Food Addiction Began at a Young Age

Joyce Del Viscovo, a 44-year-old resident of Kansas who weighs £758 and has a BMI of 160, is the subject of tonight’s episode of My 600 Lb. Life. Joyce turned to bariatric surgeon Dr. Younan Nowzaradan for help after she was forced to close a nursery that she had been running for several years because of her extreme weight and immobility.

The TLC description of Season 8 Episode 7, entitled “Joyce Del Viscovo’s Story,” reads, “Joyce needs home care 24/7 and hasn’t left home in years. But it’s only the first step to Dr. Now in Houston, and if he prescribes therapy where Joyce has to relive an unhappy past with her mother, it may be more than she can handle.”

My 600-lb Life: Joyce Del Viscovo’s Food Addiction Began at a Young Age

According to Distractify, Joyce’s food addiction began at the early age of 8 when her parents divorced. Joyce’s mother moved in with her boyfriend and left Joyce with her grandmother, who overfed Joyce and kicked her dependency on food like an emotional stool.

Joyce gained 90 pounds before she was 9 years old, and when her mother came back and noticed how much weight she had gained, she was forced to go on “wrong diets” to try to correct the mistake Joyce’s grandmother had made, according to the reality star.

As a result of her mother’s strict diets, Joyce began taking drastic measures to sneak food and snacks, distracting reports. “Whatever someone did, I’ve found a way to get food,” she shares in tonight’s episode. By the time she turned 16, Joyce got a job at a fast food restaurant, and at 18, she weighed about 300 pounds. She was “well into the middle of the 400s” at 20, according to the site.

My 600-lb Life: She Ends up Dropping Out of Dr. Nowzaradan’s Program

Joyce ended up as a buzzing child during her weight loss trip, and eventually dropped out of Dr. Now’s program before the 12 months were over. According to Distractify, she lost 147 pounds and then regained 58 pounds with the figure of 9 months. The last weight she had before she left Dr. Now’s program was 611 pounds.

Joyce gave a dozen different excuses for why she was unable to lose more weight than she did, including claiming that the scales were broken and that Dr. Now’s diet was “unfair” and “unreasonable”. She also said she gave, “110% to the program, so I’m not abandoning the program, the program is abandoning me.”

It’s unclear if Joyce kept losing weight today, or if she found another program or doctor to help her on her trip. Her Facebook page doesn’t show any progress pictures or give any indication if the reality star continued to try and lose weight, and there are no recent pictures of Joyce on the page, so fans will just have to wait and see if she has a follow-up episode with My 600 Lb Life.