Extreme Makeover: Weight Loss Edition: Season 3, Episode 9

3 - 9:

When she was just 10 years old, Alyssa was in a horrific car accident that took her mother's life. In response to that trauma, Alyssa ballooned to her present 414 lbs. Living in Kalamazoo, Michigan with her dad, Alyssa is delighted to be selected for the show. But just a few weeks into her weight loss journey, she begins vomiting during her morning workouts. Chris explains that her body is detoxifying from her poor diet, and to prove it he tries eating her past diet himself for one day - and it results in Chris vomiting! Chris then calls in celebrity trainer Drew Manning, author of Fit to Fat to Fit - he intentionally gained and lost 80 pounds in a year - to share his experience with living on a bad diet. At the 6-month mark, Alyssa gets a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of learning to snowboard, and her teacher is none other than champion Lindsey Jacobellis. Late in the year, Alyssa admits to Chris that she has been binging and purging, and Chris brings in his wife, Heidi, who dealt with her own eating disorder, to help counsel her.