Why Some My 600-Lb Life Fans Are Upset With The Show's Editing

Alongside shows such as "Little People, Big World," and "Untold Stories of the E.R.," "My 600-lb Life" is one of TLC's longest-running programs, debuting in 2012 and finishing its 10th season in early 2022. The show follows the lives of various morbidly obese individuals and their journey to lose weight, often with help from Iranian-American surgeon Dr. Younan Nowzaradan, also known as Dr. Now. Fans have their varying opinions on the show, but nevertheless, seeing these individuals overcome their struggles is eye-opening and inspiring, to say the least.  

Over the years, discussions regarding "My 600-lb Life" have expanded to more than just questioning the potentially problematic subject matter, such as the exploitative nature of the show's premise and the conditions its participants are placed under (via The Hollywood Reporter). Conversations have also started regarding the believability of the show and its subjects, including what is being presented as real in the first place. One very real aspect of the show's presentation, however, has started to really bewilder fans. 

In a Reddit post from June 2021, confusion regarding the show's editing was brought up by a now-deleted user, who wrote, "I am watching Season 9, Episode 5 right now. It's Melissa M's story. The editing is always pretty bad on this show, it's almost funny, it's so bad and we all know it. BUT they did her so dirty." The user highlighted how the episode has many editing mistakes throughout. Other fans joined the conversation to bring up some specific issues regarding the editing of "My 600-lb Life."

U/chillthrowaways responded, saying, "The audio editing on this show is alarmingly bad. The voiceovers sound like the audio equivalent of a ransom note made from letters cut from a magazine ... it's particularly noticeable during Dr. Now's voiceovers." Editing voiceovers to cut out the natural pauses and stammers in people's speech patterns is a normal process of editing in most reality shows (via Voices.com). However, it appears as though the choppy nature of the TLC series' editing is too intense for fans to ignore.

U/stabbyspacehorse comments, "Over the course of [nine] seasons, it's gotten progressively worse ... It's like they gave up even trying to make it seem cohesive," while u/Impressive_Event_264 stated, "The people who work on this show are not professionals. They do it as cheaply as possible." Whether the editors of the team have little time to put together episodes or executives are making harsh decisions as to how to tighten up runtimes, delivering sloppy storytelling like this not only makes the show's subjects look bad, but also clearly rubs fans the wrong way.