My 600-Lb. Life Star Dolly Martinez Dies at 30

I personally had to stop watching the show at some point because some of the stories were very difficult to hear. A woman shared that when she was a kid, her step-father would sneak into her and her sister's room at night to molest her. And she always insisted on sleeping in the bed closest to the door because she believed that if the step-father got to her first, he'd leave her sister alone. She was just a little kid. The only comfort she felt was when she was eating. Food became her only form of escape and she started gaining a lot of weight. That kind of trauma doesn't go away on its own and she ended up getting professional help to deal with it.

I don't understand why the jokes come easy for some. Someone this heavy suffered a lot in their life. Nothing funny about it. And it's just sad that it lead to them dying this young.

Thank you. I'm in recovery from the other extreme of an ED, but I also worked in healthcare, where many of my clients were towards her size/coping. In many ways, we suffered from the same dysfunctions. I just got the benefits of being praised for my figure. Before going the next day to try to turn over my clients to avoid bedsores, bathe them, whatever. It's two sides of the same coin. A previously banned sub would be celebrating this tragedy... 30y is too young. Edit: sun ≠ sub

I was quick to crack a joke too my myself. But im on a journey to better myself, so Thank you for reminding me that there is always context. Hope you know your comment made a difference

Life is f****** hard. It gets harder when your particular brand of metal strain makes you overeat, cause then you get you wear your struggles and shame for everyone else to see and judge. I've never seen the show or knew about this woman, but this is really sad. 

Yup and of course the top comment on here is a joke

I have a sister who is physically disabled for reasons unrelated to her weight. She also has issues with food addiction. She’s very overweight and it is badly affecting her life and health. She’s had an incredibly difficult and traumatic life. I know that food is one of the ways she copes with all the trauma she’s endured. It’s very difficult to lose weight and overcome mentally when food has served as such a comfort through so much pain. People are so judgmental when they have no idea what other people have gone through.

As a person that used to be close to that weight, I can tell you that life expectancy at that weight is not much past 30. 35ish afaik varying depending on other factors obv.

You’re not wrong, but also TV shows should not be a lifeline to healthcare in the first place.

Well according to the article she was someone who didn’t follow the program and was rejected by the doctor. My understanding is that the people who legit follow it and have the surgery tend to do well.

One dude was on the show, lost like 500lbs, then died in a car accident.

Syk diving accident

I get the flippancy but suicide could be a real possiblity.

I mean, I'm not gonna act like some other deaths are not possible. Accidents, suicide, etc. Lots of mundane stuff could have happened

Maybe, but overeating and depression often go hand in hand. I imagine that living at that size is a hard demoralizing life. Suicide is a very real possibility

Decapitated, whole big thing. We had a funeral for a bird

Yakuza!

Deaths sometimes happen in the kumite.

As someone who used to watch at 300lbs, it was a mindset of "I'm fat but at least I'm not *that* fat".

A lot of replies pointing to people wanting to feel better about their lives, but I think there are a lot of people who have morbid curiosity and watch for the spectacle. Not any less gross or exploitative, but I don't think everyone only watches to feel better about themselves.

The trick is to fast forward until they meet Dr Now. The beginning of every episode was to show how terrible their lives were. It always included hygiene, a meal, and the strain on their relationships. It was brutal. But these are people that can’t get weight loss surgeries normally. They’re TOO large for standard doctors. After they meet the doc on the show, he gives them a diet plan, he makes them set up systems. He will not do the surgery if they can’t follow the plan. He refers them to therapists. He calls out their enablers. It’s not every episode, but most episodes end with their lives better than they started. The start awful but, most of them, end with hope. That is why I watched.

Some of the best episodes are the success stories.

I've never had a weight problem. I don't think my BMI has ever been anything but ideal. But ~10 years ago I'd watch episodes as a motivation to keep my diet clean and to keep hitting the gym. But the longer you watch the more apparent it becomes that a lot of their weight struggles are rooted in childhood trauma and the food is simply a symptom of a much deeper problem. And once I realized that it stopped being motivating and it just got me angry that TV producers were exploiting these people.

I watch this show because I also have an eating disorder and I’m fascinated to hear my own thoughts spoken aloud. The only other person that I know that watches this show is the same way.

In a way it's a similar vein to a show like 24 Hours in A&E, or The Incredible Dr. Pol, it brings in a person (or animal) who is having health issues and you watch with the hope they get better.

We're trying to watch them change their lives for the better with the help of a doctor, nutritionist, and psychologist that they probably couldn't afford otherwise. I used to be over 300 lbs myself and it's one of my favorite shows. Unfortunately some of them live in their own little world and refuse to listen to anyone else or even try their suggestions to see if they could be right

Because both the trainwreck episodes and the success stories CAN be motivational, if you have the same struggle. I’m currently losing some much needed weight. It helps to see someone way bigger than me figure out and gain the self control that I’m trying to develop. It also helps to see the people who absolutely f*** it up and refuse to change. That forces you to look in a mirror and wonder why you’re doing the same thing, just on a smaller scale. It reminds you of the consequences of not…Trying. But even if you don’t need to lose weight, some episodes are still motivating. Jeanne (If I’m thinking of the right person?) was a bad one for that. Her house was disgusting and cockroaches were actively crawling around her face during interviews. She lived with her elderly parents and they had like 20 dogs who all looked sick and uncared for. At one point, both her AND her mom had to be hospitalized, due to the complications from obesity, and then her mom just getting a random infection due to the unsanitary living conditions. While they were in the hospital, her dad died. Alone. On a mattress covered in dog piss and no sheets. That episode spurred me to clean my house, buy more spinach, and check on my friends who have too many dogs and make sure we’re all okay.

I think watching it for me gave me more sympathy I would not have otherwise. Before watching this show and other addiction shows like it, I never understand why people got to that point, I only saw the point at which they were at their lowest. I would think "well, they brought this upon themselves for no reason other than not having any self control" and thats a terrible way to look at it. Now I work in healthcare in the ED. I see and have to interact closely with addicts of all kinds, probably more so than your average ED given my areas demographics. I think I'd be much crueler if I didn't understand that mental illness and trauma is behind the addiction 99% or the time. So I treat my addicted patients with as much respect as I possibly can. Of course some are downright mean, but there are sober mean people too, so they don't get treated any worse than a non addicted mean patient by me. But when you get a nice addict, ones who apologize or bare their hearts to you in my short time seeing them, you really just start to see the hurt person behind the addiction. And with the nice patients, usually they know they have a problem and are seeking out help. You can't be rude to these people like I see soo many of my coworkers do. I know from experience, If you look down on someone for stuff like this, they may not think its even worth getting better, and I never want any patient leaving my temporary care feeling like no one cares about them. This is why the only episodes I truly enjoy are the ones that get better. I'm nearly brought to tears for a lot of them. But yes, I still think and know they are being exploited and laughed at by a majority of watchers. I just like to make sure I'm watching for the right reason, and not to get a laugh out of.

I love the success stories!!

Because I was there before. Well, never 600 pounds but I had gastric sleeve surgery and got to 180 pounds then used Mounjaro (tirzepatide) to get to 120 pounds. Now on a glp1 for life because of this disease. I watch it to hope to see the succeed. I hope now that more research is out about obese people having to stay on glp1 for life we will see more success stories.

Morbid fascination. I never sat down to watch it but I would watch clips online. It was more of a "my god, how is this person okay with their life being like this"

Nah the internet is so weird when people die. The other day on a comment section about a 19 year old dying due to falling through a roof doing urban exploration every comment almost was mocking him or insulting people mourning in the comments who clearly knew him irl. One of his friends was absolutely going off at people. That was on IG but still, Listnook does this all the time. Someone's death announcement is just not the time or place to boast about how your parents didn't raise you right.

Im pretty old. People have been doing/saying this kind of shit online for a lonnnnnng time. The kind of people who dont have the balls to talk shit about someone like this in person for fear of disapproval or worse. The anonymous internet has given assholes the ability to be their true selves without worrying about consequences.

You’re not, it’s repulsive seeing people using something like this to scramble and try and get the next funny joke in, the internet has exasperated such an empathy gap that people care more about getting upvotes than actually being a decent person.

I've got a buddy that's between 4 and 5 bills. Insurance denied him ozempic when he decided to try and lose weight after a serious gealth scare. But TRT was fine for some reason. So fuckin dumb.

Although it’s helpful drugs alone can’t fix the underlying problem which is usually mental illness brought on by a host of terrible experiences. It will however help people stay away from dangerous weight gain until the issues can be addressed. It’s a tool in the toolbox.

Not always that easy. I was put on Ozempic at the start of 2025 for diabetes and still gained another 20kg because the binge eating hadn't been addressed. I was sick all year due to overeating on a GLP-1. If I'd had gastric surgery I would have undone it with my eating. Gotta fix the brain first.

I mean if its saving money, we should just do it for that alone. Being this size is a huge draw of resources for people that end up dying young anyways.

Not to mention all the life they did have unlived due to their condition

There's also the fact that she couldn't get approved for the weight loss surgery. Even if she didn't change much in her lifestyle she still would have initially lost 2 or 300 lbs.

Right? Didn't she end up in a hotel with a homeless person as a caretaker for a while? Then almost moved into a really bad c**** house that barley had walls and floors? All I think because her mom wanted her to eat better? Or am I mixing her up with someone else?

Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. It’s fascinating in a really sick way. I watched a British documentary about a woman who was morbidly obese and couldn’t get out of her house. She played her whole family like a fiddle. She was incredibly manipulative, and the whole household was a tangle of mental illness and misery. The show tried to be uplifting because she finally managed to get outside, but it was horrible. I felt like I was watching people be tortured. There was a show about a big woman named Ruby. My sister thought Ruby was so cheerful and positive in the face of her obesity. The longer we watched it, the more we saw how manipulative and unhappy this woman truly was. No, she wasn’t happy despite her size. I guess there’s a push to show some positives, but. I remain unconvinced.

They imagine harassment and degradation would have saved her life.

Thank you one person. Few details given, plus her age group, really puts the likelihood it was a death of despair quite high. 

She could just be ordering DoorDash or whatever straight to the window

Yes and no. You have someone screaming and yelling and begging for food 24/7, who cries and claims you don't love them and are abusing them if you don't get them what they want....it gets hard for a person to say no. At some point, they give up and give them what they want just to shut them up. Or these days, order home delivery and circumvent the caretaker entirely.

My uncle passed away in January and had no one to take care of him for the last six months so I did it. He was 350+ his entire life, he died at age 60. He begged me for whataburger every day. Even when the doctors said absolutely not. When they gave me the okay, I brought him whatever he wanted (bc he was dying, zero chance of recovery). It was annoying and disappointing, he was like a drug addict trying to get me to bring him some to the hospital. I loved him so I refused. It sucked, but I realized that, when it comes to food, he is like a child.  Enabling him would’ve been straight up murder. He acted like he didn’t understand anything about how the human body works, how blood sugar or carbs or any of that works. He simply didn’t *want* to know. And he was not ready to go. He said “I can’t believe I’m going to die at 60.” It was terribly sad.