last month, at 14, she topped out at 445 pounds. does it hurt when people stare at you? yes. the first thing goes through their mind is why is she so fat? like oh, my god, why is she so fat? why doesn t she just hop on a treadmill? maria s parents are overweight, too. and ad military they don t eat healthy foods. maria has always been a junk food junky. diets haven t worked. a few years back, maria pleaded with her mother to find a doctor willing to do weight loss surgery on teenagers will their search led here in washington, d.c. and dr. evan nadler. i had to help her. she was 440 pounds and going nowhere except for gaining more weight. maria was 12 and already prediabetic. her bmi, a measurement we use to determine how obese someone is, put her in the highest risk category. not just morbidly obese but actually two categories higher