Tonight on ABC EXTREME WEIGHT LOSS returns for its fourth season premiere called, “Ty and Charita.” On tonight’s show a 310-lb. 32-year-old hairstylist and a 480-lb. 19-year-old baseball player attempt to lose weight in the Season 4 premiere.
The hit series “Extreme Weight Loss,” is a unique, non-competitive show about weight-loss that documents the unprecedented 365-day transformation of courageous, “super-obese” participants with host and trainer Chris Powell.
In the Season 4 premiere, “Ty and Charita” (Oklahoma City, OK; Colorado Springs, CO) reveal two very different – but equally compelling – stories of struggle. However, for the first time in the series’ history, only one will succeed at shedding hundreds of pounds, while the other is the first ever to quit Chris’ program!
On tonight’s episode Charita is a 32-year-old hairstylist who stands 5’6″ and weighs 310 lbs. Raised in a strict, religious family, she turned to food to cope with a bad decision she made at 19. She works two jobs, struggling to support her husband and three sons. 19-year-old Ty is a 6’4″, 480-pound baseball phenom who’s struggled with his weight since he was 10. Then already over 300 pounds, Ty was nearly twice as big as everyone else on his baseball team. Baseball agents and coaches have informed him that the only thing standing between him and a professional contract is his weight.
Tonight’s episode looks like it is going to be great and you won’t want to miss it, so be sure to tune in for our recap of ABC’s Extreme Weight Loss. While you wait for our recap hit the comments and let us know how excited you are for season 4?
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
It’s another year and an entirely new season of Extreme Weight Loss. And the premiere episode promises to be full of surprises.
Chris and his lovely (pregnant) wife Heidi Powell were contacted by a young man named Ty. He has aspirations of one day playing professional baseball, but so far his weight has put a damper on such dreams. Ty who at 19 is currently 200 pounds overweight so even though he has the talent – and Chris even tested him himself – he might never get the chance to prove his worth to the scouts.
The only chance he has is Chris and that’s why Chris chose to help him. Over the next three months, Chris is going to be pushing Ty to his limit. He wants the younger man to lose at least 130 pounds by the end of it.
But will Ty stay committed to this daily and somewhat extreme regiment? It was running from his demons that led him here and unfortunately that’s the only running he’s used. Ty has been overweight all of his life and despite numerous attempts from the people that care about him, including both his father and his former high school coach; he’s only ever gained more weight. So can he stick out the program or will he be the one that surprisingly quits mid-way through?
That’s the shocker – someone is going to quit and no one knows who. It’s either Ty or Charita. Charita is a young mother of three. At 32 years old she’s managed to put on 310 pounds. Chris figures she can lose about 85 of those and he’s volunteered to help her for the next three months.
However Charita appears apprehensive about the length of Chris program. She knows it would mean missing out on her family and is already having doubts after a mere minute of being accepted by Chris for the show. Even now when she’s with her family – she tends to take a backseat in group activities out of fear of embarrassing herself, but it seems she rather be ashamed than separated.
Does she have what it takes to see her program to the end? Like Ty, Charita has her own personal demons to contend with. She had an abortion back when she was a teenager. And because she’s never been able to discuss that single action with her family – she managed to repress her feelings with food.
Ty’s story is of course different. He was raised by a loving father and that aided him in life. But he could never let go of wanting to be loved by his mother. Although, sadly, the abusive alcoholic just didn’t have it in her to be there for him. All she was capable of was putting him down and she would always win no matter how much his father tried to build him back up again.
Both Ty and Charita needed to confront their issues. It was the only way they’d be able to move on from them. So Charita did what she always feared – she told her very religious parents that she had an abortion at 19. And you know what – it wasn’t as bad as she feared. Her parents didn’t condemn her. They just loved her and accepted her.
That’s all Charita needed.
Once she had a firm base of support at home, she and Heidi went back to exercising with a whole new vigor. They did Zumba classes and even studied nutrition. After all getting healthy is about more than lifting weights. You also have to eat the right foods.
Charita struggled with the last part. And that’s why at the end of her 90 days – she didn’t meet her goal. Charita was supposed to lose 85 pounds and what she lost was 75.
Though she shouldn’t feel too disheartened. Ty didn’t reach his goal weight either. And he had a lot more riding on the line than Charita did. Chris had introduced Ty to a scouting agent and the other man was able to validate Ty’s talent. So reaching his set goal would have opened the door to the major leagues. But Ty managed to be one pound short at boot camp. He lost 129 pounds when Chris was relying on him to lose the full 130.
Hopefully Phase Two will be different…
Coming back home is the easy part. Especially for Charita. Her family was willing to accept her no matter her weight. As for Ty, he had a sit down with his mom. It was time he let go some of the things she said to him. If he didn’t want to be the guy he used to be then he had to give his mother the same opportunity.
Ty started to work on his new beginnings when he let go of his past. He kept up his regiment. The one he learned from boot camp and Chris had even brought in a major league baseball star to come be his workout partner during the training part of it.
So Ty’s life was going great and then it all came crashing down. That scout from earlier, the one that promised him he would be signed in a heartbeat after losing all that weight, was a fraud. Chris and his team did some further digging and what they found was a mile long history of scams. That man will most likely end up in jail by the year’s end and that leaves Chris concerned about Ty.
Ty wanted to quit. Everything was resting on this one scout and when he found out that it was a sham – he lost some of the confidence he had only recently gained. Chris tried to help by introducing to a new athletic gym. He wanted Ty to know that he could still pursue his dream. The only difference is that now he’s going to have to go out and get it on his own. And Ty wasn’t happy with that.
Ty quit. He claimed he didn’t want to be part of the program anymore because of the way “Brian” let him down. He says he wants to be a normal college student and as for weight loss – he doesn’t want any part of it. Ty signed on in order to get into baseball. He was relying on making money from baseball and without guarantees – he wants to go back to being “normal”. Though he later claims that he needed to be by his family to support him.
So what was his motivation for losing the weight? Was it the money or did he at one point in time truly loved baseball? And more importantly shouldn’t his own health be his top priority?
Ty dropped out of prior to hitting his goal weight. Luckily, Charita is different. She wants to keep up the program. It’s given her back her confidence and as it turns out it also opened up the doors to a new career path. After returning home, Charita lost one of the two jobs she was holding down. Yet never fear, she ended up being ok when she got a new job as a Zumba instructor.
It allows her to work out to her hearts content and remain employed. So essentially it was a win-win. The only downside was that she again missed out on her goal weight. When the time came around for her to be weighed – she came in at 203 pounds thereby missing out on her goal by eight pounds. Still, this was only six months in and she had another three to go in order to qualify for skin removal.
The next three months saw some setbacks and there was a time or two when Charita felt like quitting, but she never lost focus. By her nine month checkup, she finally came in under her goal weight. So Chris and Heidi brought her in to have her extra skin removed. And with much regret the doctor told her that she needed to lose a few more before he was prepared to do surgery. Doctors prefer to have as little fat on their patient as possible when doing a surgical procedure that requires anesthesia.
Which is why Charita’s new goal weight is 165. When she gets to that weight then and only then will the doctor agree to remove her extra skin. So for the last three months on the program – Charita really had to give it her all. The reason she missed out on her goal the second time was because real life had interfered. She was working mom with responsibilities. So here’s hoping that she maintains her current weight loss rate.
It isn’t easy losing weight when you become that obese. Just ask Ty. He thought he could still be fine with his own exercise routine and instead he gained back 40 pounds.
Ty called Chris and Heidi out of the blue around the nine month mark. He said he wanted to come back and complete what he started. But the trainers warned him that he had already missed out on more than three months of work. If he wanted to reach his goal in the last three months then he was going to have to agree to leave home and come back to stay with them. And just like last time – Ty quit again.
He wanted to lose weight on his own terms. Even if that meant he was sabotaging himself. So he told them for the last time that he wanted to be left alone.
At the end of the show, Charita was left alone on that stage and she stood proudly as she was weighed. And she came in at 160. Overall she’s lost 150 pounds. The desired forty percent that Chris told her she could always do, but she hadn’t believed him.
Charita was able to see her weight loss to the very end while Ty constantly changed his mind on what he wanted. Yet they’re both left with some glaringly obvious results that speak for itself.
The End!
