Extreme Weight Lose Recap: Melissa and PTSD

Extreme Weight Loss is back with the story of Melissa Karkowski (her Twitter).

Melissa has a tough story, her husband Michael committed suicide due to PTSD from his time in the army. To cope with this tragedy, Melissa turned to food.

Chris Powell did not have the chance to choose the contestant, this time it was his wife Heidi who chose Melissa. It does seem like the network wants Heidi to be just as involved (if not more) than Chris.

There is even an argument between the couple later in the episode about Melissa being confused about staying on the show, but the argument seems pretty staged (so many camera angles).

The toughest part of this episode is the PTSD, which is seriously under-covered in main stream America.

Because not only did Michael grapple with the problem, but her son Cody now has been diagnosed with PTSD because of the incident.

It does seem like the problem is getting more attention slowly, but it really should be a bigger part of the main stream conversation.

Melissa weighs in initially at 301 pounds. And the journey to weight loss starts out rough with many emotional breakdowns, likely from the lack of interaction with her sons. She has a VERY hard time in her first workout and lets out some intense statements, like: "Mike, I'm sorry if I killed you" and "Cody please eat". She professes that she wants to quit and go home, and seems confident in her decision.

Chris supported her decision because he didn't believe she wants to do it.

Heidi pushes back and convinces her to stay on a modified schedule.

And then she kicks into gear:

Month 3: Loses 79 pounds (goal met)
Month 6: Loses 119 pounds in total (goal met)
Month 9: Loses 124 pounds in total (goal not met) [blames it on a new boyfriend]

In the year-long weight loss, she finds a new boyfriend named Kirk, travels to New Zealand, and bungee (sorta) jumps off a building. And, an important part of this show, she gets approved for skin surgery.

Final weigh in: 142 pounds lost in total (that's a final weight of 159 pounds!)

What an amazing transformation and accomplishment of overcoming tragedy. Could you have overcome what she did?