For brothers John and Lonnie, food was the way they got “that happy and safe feeling” starting before they turned 10, following their mother’s remarriage. Their weight only went up from there, when food became their go-to coping mechanism.
John and Lonnie started equating food with comfort from a very early age, dating back to the time when their mother remarried. When we first met them on the show, they weighed 686.5 pounds and 612.7 pounds, respectively.
Source: https://www.distractify.com/p/john-and-lonnie-my-600-lb-life