Mother of four Lashanta White had been bedbound for two years when she sought weight loss help from Dr. Nowzardaran of My 600 lb. Life. Her life was in a constant state of misery, she had limited mobility, and was in considerable pain. Once she started making a little progress in her program, however, her boyfriend J.T. left because he felt he wouldn’t be attracted to her if she lost weight.
Since her parents split when she was 10 years old Lashanta started using food to cope with depression, anger, and other difficult feelings. For the brief time that Lashanta was eating, food made her feel “on top of the world.” Of course, that feeling didn’t last and the consequences of overeating just made her situation worse.
Lashanta started having children young and was a working single mom by age 15. By 17 she had an abusive boyfriend who tried to kill her. He was jailed for the attack, and she was left alone with two small children before she turned 18.
When we meet Lashanta on My 600 lb. Life, her boyfriend Jeremy “J.T.” lives with her and two of her kids, Geramy and Shaun.
At first, J.T. complains to the cameras that Lashanta gets angry if she doesn’t get her food, but later we learn that he didn’t want her to lose weight at all and would have preferred to keep enabling her food addiction.
After Lashanta’s first appointment with Dr. Now, which included difficult travel and a hospitalization, J.T. confided to Lashanta that he was worried that she was going to “lose too much weight.” She told him that she would always be sexy, no matter what.
“I’ve always been attracted to big women,” J.T. says in interview. “So when I see Lashanta is continuing to lose weight I worry a little bit.”
Lashanta was cheating on her diet a bit by sneaking fried chicken and stashing it in her bed but felt confident that she would hit her weight goals.
J.T. broke up with Lashanta soon after she started her weight loss journey in earnest. He told her he wouldn’t be attracted to her if she went through with this weight loss program.
Lashanta was shocked because she thought that he was going to support her even though he prefers bigger women. While Lashanta reveals that J.T. left her, she’s filmed eating from a bag of chips, which is definitely not on her diet. Without J.T.’s support, Lashanta no longer had someone to take care of her and help her get back to Houston, TX to see Dr. Now.
During her call with Dr. Now she tells him that she hasn’t been to see him again because her boyfriend broke up with her and she has financial issues, but she also admits that she’s been cheating on her diet.
Lashanta needed medical transport to get back to Dr. Now, and when she arrived he found that her condition had deteriorated significantly. Dr. Now asks Lashanta how she’s been getting food since her boyfriend left and she says that she’s been getting food from “the man across the street. My neighbor.”
“He trying to kill you or what?” Dr. Now retorts.
What Lashanta didn’t disclose to Dr. Now is that her sons have also been getting food for her.
Lashanta tells Dr. Now that this neighbor is always calling her asking if she wants food. But Dr. Now doesn’t have time for this excuse. He tells her that she’s found another person to manipulate into enabling her.
Lashanta continued to cheat on her diet by ordering in pizza (which she ate with gloves to keep her hands clean,) and continued to disappoint Dr. Now.
During a confrontation with Dr. Now, Lashanta begged for one more chance to lose 50 pounds in a month. Dr. Now makes a deal with Lashanta that he can call her whenever she had succeeded in losing 50 pounds in a month.
At the end of Lashanta’s episode, she called Dr. Now to tell him she had achieved her goal, even though she had no idea if she really had or not. Once she was weighed at the hospital in Houston, it was found that Lashanta had lost 47 lbs., just shy of her 50 lb. goal.
Dr. Now accepted this weight loss and asked Lashanta to stay in the hospital until she could stand on her own. Once she could do this, Dr. Now would schedule weight loss surgery for her.
We haven’t gotten any updates about whether or not Lashanta went through with weight loss surgery with Dr. Now.
Lashanta’s episode premiered on April 17, 2019, as a part of Season 17. Her episode airs again tonight on TLC at 9/10 c.
Lashanta now works as a song/jingle writer according to her Instagram.
