At only 24 years old, Amber, from Troutdale, Oregon, weighs 660lbs and lives at home with her parents and boyfriend of two years. She says she feels like 'a nasty yucky monster.'

Amber, who will undergo high-risk gastric bypass surgery as part of the series, fears she will 'never be able to change' by herself. She suffers from pain in her back and her shins, and must bathe sitting over a toilet.

Amber, who admits she is 'killing herself' with her over-eating, dropped out of Portland State University and quit her job a while ago, but hopes having surgery will allow her to return to her education. 

'I feel trapped,' she says. 'I feel miserable. I feel like I have failed myself and my parents.' 

The hit reality series will also follow the lives of seven other morbidly obese individuals as they undergo gastric bypass surgery in a bid to shed the weight that has rendered most of them housebound for years.

One thing all the subjects have in common, aside from their weight struggles, is at least one traumatic childhood event they point to as a cause. 

According to TLC, Susan's life consists of work, the fast food drive-thru, and sitting in her trailer, and she no longer feels comfortable going out in public. 

Pauline, 50, from Sacramento, California, also attributes the start of her problems with food to her parents' divorce, after which she says she did not get enough to eat.

After her parents reconciled, food was suddenly plentiful again, but Pauline found she 'didn't know when to stop eating' and had ballooned to over 200lbs by the age of 12.

By the time she was married, Pauline weighed 500lbs and since her divorce, she has climbed to nearly 700lbs.

Bettie Jo is 24 and lives in Potosi, Missouri with her husband of four years, Josh. Bettie Joe is eager to start a family but at nearly 700lbs, is unable to.

She is confined to a chair in her living room and her weight is a constant source of conflict between her and Josh, who is described as her Jo's 'primary caretaker rather than romantic partner.'

Laura, 40, from San Antonio, Texas, has been gaining weight all her life and now at 554lbs is 'close to giving up.' She too is confined to her chair due to lymphedema - a chronic swelling of the body tissue - and skin ulcers.

Because her husband has multiple sclerosis, neither can properly care for one another, so they live with Laura's parents.

Angel is 42 and lives in Kerville, Texas. She grew up 'thin and gangly' but began to put on weight when she was forced by her mother to give up her baby at the age of 14.

She had her second child when she was 20 and weighed 300lbs. After the death of her father and the birth of her third child, Angel fell into a deep depression and 'ate herself into oblivion.'

She now weighs 596lbs, is nearly immobile and her boyfriend Donnie feels she has 'shut herself off from life.'

Charity, 38 from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been overweight since the age of five, having been physically and emotionally abused throughout her childhood.

She gave birth to her daughter Charley at the age of 19, who became her mother's caregiver when she was only eight. Charley and her boyfriend now share the care taking duties of Charity, who weighs 787lbs.

Joe, the only male subject to appear in the upcoming series, is 31 and lives in Johnson City, Tennessee. He weighs 802lbs and was 'a chunky baby and a picky eater as a child, who eschewed all vegetables.'

Joe recently lost his job in IT and now eats, sleeps and lives in the same living room chair 24 hours a day. He is completely immobile and unable to bathe himself, and like the rest of TLC's subjects, desperately hopes he can win his life back after undergoing surgery.

(dailymail.co.uk)