The Greatest Achievement nominee: Melissa Morris loses 400 pounds

Once the world’s heaviest woman, a 673-pound Melissa Morris decided she had enough and would lose the weight or die trying.

At her heaviest Melissa Morris weighed 673 pounds and seemed destined to live as an invalid, cared for by her doting husband. But miraculously, within four years of her peak weight, Morris would shed 400 pounds, an incredible achievement. A Shine Canada video reporting on the story garnered more viewers – 254,730 – than any other Shine video this year.

For the Texan, the hundreds of pounds of excess weight that hung from her frame was more than just fat, it was a shield that protected her from a world she did not trust.

Morris spent each day eating what a normal person would eat in a week, a severe overeating disorder she says was the result of childhood sexual abuse. “People don’t molest ugly people,” she tells ABC.

Morris realized she’d hit rock bottom when she was unable to sit by the hospital bedside of her cancer-stricken mother because her motorized chair did not fit through the door. It was time for change.

Morris signed up for gastric bypass surgery and within a single month of the operation had dropped 100 pounds. The public witnessed her miraculous change on the TLC reality television show “My 600 Pound Life”, which documented her journey from morbidly obesity to a woman healthy enough to become a mother.

Her story is an incredible achievement and an inspiration, yet for Morris, the change has been so monumental, it is hard for her to accept. In an interview in January, she tells ABC, “I might look like a normal person, but I’m still 673 pounds to me.”