Nothing Promised II

You may recognize Darlene Cates, the 512 pound woman, from the 1993 movie “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape,” where she played the mother of Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio. Before gastric bypass reached the popularity it has today, Cates underwent an operation known as stomach stapling in 1981. She dropped from 412 to 310 pounds but her weight loss stalled after a year. “One day it dawned on me,” she says, “Wait, I should have been able to eat just a fourth of this burger; how was I able to eat half?” By the mid 80’s she was back to her former habits and her former weight. She explains, “That thing that made you fat in the first place? They don’t cut that out during surgery. The pressures that caused you to seek solace in food are still there when you come home from the hospital. They don’t help people think about the consequences down the road.”

Today, the 56-year-old Cates weighs 542 pounds and relies on a motorized wheelchair to get around. Her daughter Sheri has been urging her to get gastric bypass surgery, but Cates worries she would die on the operating table.

Source: People Magazine Vol 61. Issue 20

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