• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, May 28, 2025

Connoisseurs of the original Dr. Now show, “My 600-lb Life” on TLC will likely notice a significant difference between that show and the new obesity docuseries Lifetime introduced this week.

The new show, titled “The 6,000 lb. Diaries with Dr. Now” is a new incarnation of the old show that has been a staple of TLC’s program lineup since 2012.

The star of both shows is Houston-based bariatric surgeon Younan Nowzaradan M.D., 80, known as “Dr. Now” (photo above). 

In both shows, people weighing 600+ lbs. come to Dr. Now from around the country to ask him to approve them for life-saving bariatric surgery. 

The premiere of the new show this past Monday on Lifetime centered on two 27-year-old women -- identical twins who both weighed in at almost the same weight, roughly 610 lbs. apiece.

Like the morbidly (and sometimes gravely) obese participants in “My 600-lb Life,” the sisters -- Destiny and Dynastiee -- have come to the conclusion that their devil-may-care approach to binge eating must stop if they are to have any hope of leading more normal lives.

The big difference between them and the patients seen for 13 seasons on “My 600-lb Life” is that the latter often ended up at Dr. Now’s Houston medical building because their obesity and the effects it was having on the rest of their overtaxed bodies virtually guaranteed an early death.

In that show, Dr. Now told them this in no uncertain terms. The message was clear: These people had better dive whole hog into Dr. Now’s program or else kiss their futures goodbye.

But in the premiere episode of “The 6,000 lb. Diaries,” the twin sisters do not behave as if their situation is grave. 

Indeed, Dr. Now never says this to them in the show, which represents a departure from the old show.

And, unlike the patients in “My 600-lb Life,” Destiny and Dynastiee are a very bubbly, upbeat pair seeming to possess very little (if any) of the emotional baggage being carried around by the typical patients on the old show.

The difference between the old and new shows is demonstrated at the outset of “The 6,000 lb. Diaries.”

The former show was famous for its opening scenes in which the morbidly obese subjects of the show were seen, up close and personal, living in a state of hopeless, isolated, dire misery as they consumed well over 10,000 calories a day binging on junk food.

In scenes that became some of the best-known scenes in each weekly, two-hour episode of “My 600-lb Life,” the men and women on the show were seen completely naked (with private parts pixelated) as they struggled to take showers, use the bathroom and in many cases, just manage to get out of bed.

None of this was on view in the premiere episode of “The 6000 lb. Diaries,” which may be an indication that the new show intends to hit the subject of morbid obesity a little less hard than the preceding series.

Maybe Lifetime, in partnership with Dr. Now and his son Jonathan Nowzaradan, long-time executive producer of both shows, have decided that the new version should set a different tone.

If so, they run the risk of removing the very elements that made the old show so compelling for 13 years. 

In fact, at various times, “My 600-lb Life” was such an important and successful part of TLC’s weekly prime-time lineup that it could be seen for two hours on Wednesday nights and two hours on Thursday, taking up four hours of prime-time real estate per week.

It could be also that, as a piece of intellectual property, the new show cannot baldly imitate the old one. 

In other words, the actual show -- “My 600-lb Life” -- has not moved bodily to Lifetime. Dr. Now and his production company, Megalomedia, have made the move, but apparently to make a new show.

As it happens, the old one is still airing on TLC, with at least two episodes set to air this 

Thursday -- a rare coincidence in the annals of TV shows and their star personalities switching networks.

Obviously, the new show was likely not allowed to adopt the same title. That is a shame because the new one is awkward.

According to Lifetime, the 6,000 lbs. in the title refers to the total amount of weight of 10 participants on the show averaging around 600 lbs. each, although these 10 are seen in separate episodes.

“The 6000 lb. Diaries with Dr. Now” airs Monday nights on Lifetime.