
How the World's Heaviest Man Lost It All - DiabloD3
http://www.gq.com/story/how-the-worlds-heaviest-man-lost-it-all
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b6
Stuff like this resonates a lot with me, because I'm interested in Buddhism,
and Buddhism is very concerned with suffering, and how people deal with it.

Maybe we don't like to think it's so, but things like this could happen to
anyone. It's set and setting. Combine a certain mindset, and suffering, and an
environment that supports a certain unwise way of dealing with that suffering,
and stuff like this happens. Maybe your thing wouldn't be eating. Maybe it'd
be heroin. From the Buddhist perspective, it's the same thing -- doing
something unwise to get away from pain, even if it traps you in a local
minimum.

This is why I meditate, and why I encourage others to try it enough to get
what it's about. If you can get some kind of distance from your pain, to see
it as just feelings that shouldn't be confused for oneself, you can be sort of
like a firefighter, putting out suffering in yourself, helping to extinguish
suffering in others, and never ever fanning the flames.

I think it's easy to ridicule this guy because we wouldn't destroy ourselves
in the same way. But ask yourself whether you might be a certain unlucky one-
two combo away from feeling so desolate that you just want the pain to stop
and don't really care how.

~~~
colmvp
I recently finished "Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the
Business of Keeping Us Hooked", which I thought was an important read given my
role in designing apps and products.

One argument the author makes is that generally it's not that people merely
lack willpower, it’s that “there are a thousand people on the other side of
the screen whose job it is to break down the self-regulation you have.” And
you could certainly extend that to food.

I'm reminded of one of my very intelligent friends in school who practically
disappeared one year from all social activity and academics... because he got
addicted to WoW. I have a very addictive personality with regards to games,
especially RPG's/adventures, and have refused to ever play WoW because of the
fear of addiction.

As much as I love computer games, I also recognize that video gaming have
irrevocably resulted in stunting my social and personal development. I don't
blame video games so much as recognize my vulnerability to gaming. Just like
how alcoholics can't just have a sip, well neither can I. I know that if I
play even a simple game like Hearthstone, I'll go down a rabbit hole that will
take months to crawl out of. I'll stop doing certain regular activities, like
studying, seeing friends, pursuing my long-term career, exercising,
meditating, etc.

We talk about substance abuse and deride the addicts, but we also have a
growing number of people who have behavioral addictions to their smartphone,
games, news websites, e-mail, social media.

These addictions can arise when a person can’t resist a behavior, which,
despite addressing a deep psychological need in the short-term, produces
significant harm in the long-term. Deep gaming sessions for me tended to
correlate with a certain unhappiness, specifically loneliness, and lack of
fulfillment in my life. For one of my friends, gaming is a drug that placates
the fact that for years, he has hated his job and has had issues finding a new
one.

~~~
kaybe
That's when games with a definite end are good. After vanishing into them for
a finite time you're done. What also works are old-school LAN parties where
you only play with your friends present.

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dingo_bat
Quite an absurd story. I'm amazed at the lengths the NHS will go, without
assessing if their actions are causing more harm than good to the patient.

~~~
donquichotte
I don't quite understand why this is being downvoted so much.

The man appears to have had an addiction problem, maybe a treatment similar to
the ones used to treat opioid addicts might have been more useful than
building a house for him and giving him access to unlimited amounts of food.

~~~
aaron695
Compassionate countries give people access to their drug of choice and a safe
place to use it while encouraging them to quit.

> and giving him access to unlimited amounts of food.

I've seen no evidence of this anyway. This seems made up?

Was he not just spending his pension (that many people get) in a totally legal
way?

~~~
nerdponx
I have experienced food addiction. It does not work like that.

~~~
aaron695
> maybe a treatment similar to the ones used to treat opioid addicts

This would have made it illegal for over consumption of food, illegal for
supplying to much and eventually arrest if you did not comply.

You would have been offered treatment, but like opioid abuse it would be far
from perfect.

I'm not sure it's a better world this way.

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im3w1l
I'm just wondering why no one intervened. Why was he allowed to gain weight in
prison? Why was he left isolated in an old persons home? Why was he allowed to
gain weight there? Why wasn't he given psychological help there or something?

~~~
kbart
I thought similarly too. It was clear that he was _addicted_ to food, why we
don't provide same (maybe even forceful) treatment for such people as we do
for drug addicts or alcoholics? Government paying >100k$/year to _support_
person's addiction is beyond my comprehension.

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JPLeRouzic
Hi, I have a question, probably a stupid question: His cells have the same
size as ours, so when he was weighting 1000 pounds, he must have something
like 5 times the amount of cells of a "normal" person. Where went those cells
when he lost weight? Some of them (mostly skin) have been removed
chirurgically as usually done in similar cases, but do you have any insight
for cells in internal organs? (edited)

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jclos
It's not a stupid question at all. Here is my layman understanding of it: fat
cells actually don't have the same size, they get larger or smaller as the
effect of caloric surplus or deficit. You can create new fat cells (something
called hyperplasia) in some extreme cases of obesity, which probably happened
in this guy's case, but that's in addition to the growing fat cells
themselves. Nature has a short news on the topic here:
[http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080505/full/news.2008.800.ht...](http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080505/full/news.2008.800.html)

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pasta
1000 pound = 454 kilograms

~~~
to3m
Also, 71.5 stone for UK readers (nobody seems to have heard of this unit
elsewhere, but it's the standard Imperial unit for human body weight)

~~~
_archon_
1 stone is 14 pounds. I had commented earlier about stone being a unit of
mass; this twinged my mind and I looked it up. Turns out I was conflating
"stone" with "slug".

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nefitty
This poor guy got the brunt of life's tragedies. How many of us will ever
suffer the extremes he's endured? I propose we take his story as one of hope
and endurance. We're all much stronger than we know...

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elberto34
I wonder if he will keep the weight off. Most morbidly obese people regain it.

~~~
Broken_Hippo
Considering all things: His life has greatly improved and he's enjoying the
mobility he has. He enjoys food still - and enjoys that he has some control.
The surgery gave him a way to learn that control.He also understands that
gaining it back might kill him - and he regained a will to live some time
back. These things make it more likely that he'll keep much of it off.

The biggest kicker, however, is that he's still likely not getting
psychological care (it costs money) and loneliness is a huge issue. If these
outweigh the above, it might not work out.

~~~
kolinko
He's on antidepressants too, so this should help a lot. I wonder why he wasn't
prescribed them sooner.

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darawk
Why the _fuck_ was the NHS paying for this guy's food? That is unbelievable.

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sgift
Because he was sick and the NHS pays for sick people.

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laichzeit0
All 20,000 calories worth of sick food? To put it in perspective:

A horse eats approximately 15,000 calories a day. A strongman eats about
10,000.

~~~
misnome
> To put it in perspective

To put it in perspective, the NHS still operates on need (and thus
compassion), not headline-convenience or those for whom mob rule determine
"deserves it".

~~~
Chris2048
This guy _needs_ 20k calories? isn't it, thusly, more compassionate to not
give him that much food?

The mob, in this case, pays for the NHS, it's _entirely_ driven by who
deserves it.

~~~
MichaelBurge
Fat cells do replicate when they reach capacity. It's possible that he might
need 2x or 3x the regular amount just to maintain them. If you cut calories,
the fat cells might starve the rest of the body.

I'm not sure how he gets to needing 10x, though.

~~~
laichzeit0
I'm not a dietician but ketosis sounds like the perfect diet for him. Let him
eat nothing but fat and protein so his body starts using all those fat cells
as energy.

