My 600-Lb Life’s Tanisha Cleveland Is Letting Her ‘True Light Shine’ Post-Weight Loss: See Her Now!

Former My 600-Lb Life star Tanisha Cleveland made her debut during season 10 and fans got to see the Texas resident shed 119 pounds. The episode 5 star previously lost her own mother to extreme obesity, so she was determined to change her unhealthy ways to avoid suffering the same fate. 

Tanisha has gone mostly under the radar after her time on the TLC series, but she does post updates once in a while highlighting her positive new outlook on life. “God has brought me a mighty long way,” her Facebook bio reads. “Old things have been washed away and because of God’s grace and mercy, I am a new creation.” 

The TV personality shared her latest selfie in January 2020 and the image was captioned, “be yourself and let your true light shine.”  

Tanisha previously gained over 100 pounds after her beloved mother’s death, but she attributed her eating habits to a difficult childhood.

“When I was really young, I didn’t really struggle with my weight. But I didn’t have a happy childhood. I didn’t even get to have a childhood,” she explained to cameras on the show. “My mom struggled with addiction to alcohol and drugs. And her boyfriend was a violent addict, and he would take his anger out on me.”

When she moved in with her grandparents, Tanisha said her problems only got worse. “I was happy for a bit, but it wasn’t much better living with them, because when I was nine, I was molested by my grandfather, and there was nothing I could do to stop it,” she said. “And that’s when I started to run to food to find peace. Cause when I ate, no one was hurting me.” 

The incident sent her back to live with her mom, but the same thing happened there. “She had different people living in the house with us, and I was molested by one of her boyfriends. So I felt like I couldn’t control who touched my body.”

By the time Tanisha was 24, she weighed more than 480 pounds and her weight continued to spiral out of control. She relied on her two daughters to take care of her, but after her mom passed away, she decided it was time to make a change. 

The season 10 alum made the decision to meet with Houston-based weight loss surgeon Dr. Younan Nowzaradan (a.k.a. Dr. Now), who told her she needed to shed 50 pounds before she qualified for weight loss surgery. 

During her first month on the program, she lost only 11 pounds and quit for three months after she and her husband, Troy, got a divorce.

“Troy and I started fighting because I felt like he wasn’t being supportive of me trying to get my life turned around for the better. So, he decided to leave,” she explained. “It was definitely painful. I am thinking this is my soulmate; this is the person I am going to spend the rest of my life with,” she recalled. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it for a while because I am like this is the man that helps me with everything basically.”

Tanisha came back to the show once more, but after learning she gained 10 pounds, she turned to food for comfort and quit again. 

It wasn’t until a producer showed up at her door four months later that she decided she needed to seek the help of a professional if she wanted to move forward. Dr. Now only agreed to give her another shot if she saw a therapist, which she did. These days, she is thriving and looks so happy!

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