Facebook Maja Radanovic's episode of "My 600 Lb. Life" is re-airing tonight on TLC at 8/7c. Click here for an update on the reality star, and to see where she is today.
Maja Radanovic is the subject of tonight’s season 7 rerun episode My 600 Lb. Life. Maja, a Portland, Oregon native, moved to Houston last year to seek out the help of celebrity bariatric surgeon Dr. Younan Nowzaradan to try to shed some weight and get her health back on track.
Maja weighed 689 pounds when she first started her weight loss journey. A daughter of Serbian immigrants, Maja struggled with food addiction throughout her life and often used food as an emotional crutch. With the help of Dr. Nowzaradan, most commonly known as Dr. Now, Maja was able to shed over 100 pounds by the end of her episode.
So what’s going on with Maja today? Since TLC is re-airing her episode tonight, fans might be wondering where she is now, and if she managed to keep the weight off since she last appeared on the show. Here’s what we know about Maja’s life today:
Maja Struggled With Her Weight Since Childhood & Turned to Food to Cope With Abandonment Issues
When we first met Maja, she and her boyfriend Christian were struggling to make their way through the airport while attempting to relocate to Houston, where Dr. Now resides. In the clip above, Maja can be seen complaining about how much pain she is in, and how she didn’t expect to have to walk so far through the airport.
“This is so much more walking than I even realized I was going to have to do, and how far everything is is really frustrating because I called both the airports before I left and asked them how far everything was and how much walking there was,” she says in the clip. “I’m upset right now because my legs hurt and the lady lied to me about how far it was, because I would have made other arrangements for me to get here if I knew how far it was. I understand that I’m a big person but it doesn’t give people the right to lie to me.”
Maja, who weighed 689 pounds at the time and also suffered from lymphedema, opened up about the difficulty of her day-to-day life due to her extreme obesity. She was already at a high risk for infection due to her weight and needed the help of her boyfriend to do simple things like putting her socks on and getting around the house.
Maja turned to food at a young age as a way of coping with abandonment issues and emotions. Her parents divorced when she was just 2-years-old, and her mother had to work full-time to support her. She said on the show that she felt unloved by her mother, who was working so often that Maja had to be raised by other family members, which led to her food addiction.
Her mother often criticized her weight growing up and her father left her life entirely before she turned 10, so Maja’s food addiction worsened as she got older. By the time she was in high school, she weighed close to 300 pounds, and was over 400 pounds at her high school graduation. She was over 500 pounds by the time she turned 24.
She Decided to Make a Change After Realizing She Could Die
Maja decided to make a change in her life after realizing that she was dangerously close to losing her mobility, and that her heart could easily fail while she slept.
“If I were to slip and fall, I could easily break bones,” she said in a voice-over. “One trip, one fumble… I’m that close to losing my mobility.”
She continued: “When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is I thank God that my body didn’t give out during the night because my health is so bad now, I never know when my body is going to hit its limit,” Maja said during her episode. “And it’s only getting worse. There are a lot of days where I don’t even think I can push myself to shower.”
Maja had a few setbacks while working with Dr. Now, including a bad breakup with her boyfriend that caused her to turn to food for emotional comfort once again. However, with the help of Dr. Now, Maja was able to lose over 100 pounds by the end of her episode.
It Appears Maja Has Kept to Dr. Now’s Strict Diet & Has Continued to Lose Weight Since Her Episode Aired
Although Maja doesn’t often update her Facebook page and her Instagram account is private, photos on her Facebook indicate that she has continued to smash her weight loss goals and has kept the weight off since her episode first aired.
She uploaded her most recent profile picture on September 13 and the reality star looks nearly unrecognizable from when she first began her weight loss journey with Dr. Now. Another photo, which was uploaded in May of this year, features dozens of comments from friends, family and fans complimenting Maja on how good she looks.
It’s unclear at this time if Maja is filming a follow-up episode for My 600 Lb. Life; however, earlier this year, she had created a fan-specific Facebook page to keep her fans updated on her weight loss journey. Although the site is now deleted, Starcasm reports that Maja mentioned the possibility of a Where Are They Now? episode in her future.
“There is so much more to come,” Maja wrote on her page earlier this year. “I am reaching my goals, and letting nothing stop me.”
Tune in tonight at 8/7c on TLC to catch Maja Radanovic’s journey on My 600 Lb. Life.
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