632-Lb. Man Gained Hundreds of Pounds After His Dad Went to Jail: ‘I Just Ate Because It Made Me Feel Good’

Michael Dominguez wanted more than anything to eat freely while he was growing up, but he lived in fear of retribution from his strict father. So when his dad went to jail when Dominguez was just 10 years old, the floodgates opened.

“Growing up, there was a lot of anger in my house, because my dad was strict, and everything had to be a certain way or he’d be mad. He had rules for everything, including food, and I was just afraid of him being mad at me. And I wanted to take on my fear and just eat, but he wouldn’t let me,” Dominguez, now 32, says in this exclusive clip from My 600-Lb. Life. “And then when I felt any kind of pain, any kind of hurt, I just ate, because it made me feel good.”

He was able to hide any food binges for years, but when his dad was arrested, there was no longer a need.

“It changed my life, because I started eating more of what I wanted, and I started being lazier because my dad wasn’t around to stop me,” Dominguez says. “So for the next few years, I just ate and gained.”

By age 14, when his dad was released from prison, Dominguez was almost 300 lbs.

“Even though I was a lot bigger, I was still afraid of him, and my dad and I started fighting about how much I would eat,” he says. “But I wasn’t going to give up food, so I wouldn’t back down on that.”

Dominguez’s dad kicked him out of the house, and he continued to gain weight. By the time he graduated from high school, he was up to 400 lbs.

“But my eating didn’t slow down after that,” he says.

Now a married father, Dominguez weighs 632 lbs., and relies completely on his family to live. He hopes that gastric bypass surgery will be his ticket back to health.

My 600-Lb. Life airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EST on TLC.