Woman Seeks Excess Skin Removal After Losing 180 Lbs.: I'm 'Healthier Now, But I'm Not Happier'

Rather than being proud of her 180-lb. weight loss, Angel Ortiz is haunted by the constant reminder of her past self: her excess skin.

“I definitely do not want to be reminded every day for the rest of my life that I used to be 350 lbs.,” the mother says in an exclusive clip from TLC’s upcoming episode of My 600-Lb. Life: Skin Tight.

She adds, “I’m certainly healthier now, but I’m not happier.”

Ortiz recalls being overweight her entire life, weighing 170 lbs. at age 16, and two pregnancies only made the number on the scale climb higher. But the unexpected death of her mother from from diabetes and high cholesterol during her second pregnancy marked the “worst time of my life.”

With her husband, Stephen Wagner, often out of town for his job as a general contractor, Ortiz became depressed.

She says, “That was what led me to my highest weight, which was 350 lbs.”

Although Wagner shares that weight is not a factor for him — “I love her no matter what she looks like,” he says — Ortiz remembers her “breaking point” came when she had to wear a different dress than the other bridesmaids in her sister’s wedding.

“Seeing pictures of myself in that dress was a real turning point for me,” she explains. “I was tired of being embarrassed. I was also scared about my overall health. I just didn’t want to die at a young age like my mom. I didn’t want to leave my kids sad and depressed. That’s when I realized I needed to make some changes.”

Ortiz had gastric bypass surgery, began to eat well and hit the gym. She was dropping 30 lbs. per month, leading to a total of 180 lbs.

After losing around 100 lbs., Ortiz began to realize that her transformation journey may not stop with dropping weight.

She said of her excess skin, “I feel like the ‘new me’ is trapped under the ‘old me.'”

My 600-Lb. Life: Skin Tight airs Wednesday at 10/9c on TLC.