Demi
Fri, Feb-15-08, 02:35
The Telegraph
London, UK
15 February, 2008
Low Carb diet halves body weight of fattest man
The world's fattest man, according to the Guinness Book of Records, had shed half his body weight after going on a low-carb diet.
Manuel Uribe, 42, who lives in northern Mexico and once weighed almost 90 stone - half a ton - has shed just under 41 stone since a tearful appeal for help on national television drew responses from doctors in the US and Europe.
Medics from Italy and Spain visited him and offered to carry out gastric bypass surgery on the bed-ridden mechanic. But Mr Uribe refused and instead accepted the help of US and Mexican doctors and nutritionists who prescribed a high-protein, low carb diet and exercise regime that he has followed for two years.
This week Mr Uribe announced he has dropped 40.7 stone - 570 pounds - from his high of 89.8 stone - 1,257 pounds - in far less time than doctors had anticipated.
"I'm going to throw a big party," he said from his home in Monterrey, where his mother and fiancée take care of him. "I'm getting out of my house and going for a walk."
A plump child who reached nearly 18 stone while still an adolescent, Mr Uribe aims to drop another 19 stone over the next four years.
On March 9, Mr Uribe will be lifted out of his house on his bed by a special crane and driven around the streets of San Nicolas de los Garza, a Monterrey suburb, on a flat-bed truck. Last year, he did the same when he reached 60 stone, celebrating with champagne and a mariachi band.
Mr Uribe, who has been bedridden since 2002, said his weight really began to balloon in 1992. "By then, my gut was getting in the way and I saw a lot of doctors and did a lot of tests but they never found anything wrong," he said in 2006.
Before his diet, his usual breakfast would consist of four eggs, rice, beans and tortillas. Now a sample meal comprises fish soup, a grapefruit and 18 peanuts.
"People think that I can eat a whole cow but it's not just overeating, it's also a hormonal problem," Mr Uribe said two years ago, adding that he planned to consider surgery only if the diet did not work.
At his heaviest, Mr Uribe suffered from lesions and sores on his legs which he bound up with duck tape to stop them from getting infected.
Since he began his diet, Mr Uribe launched a website which he updates regularly - he keeps a computer near his bed.
"I feel great," he said this week. "The doctors say I'm healthier than ever."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/15/wfat115.xml
London, UK
15 February, 2008
Low Carb diet halves body weight of fattest man
The world's fattest man, according to the Guinness Book of Records, had shed half his body weight after going on a low-carb diet.
Manuel Uribe, 42, who lives in northern Mexico and once weighed almost 90 stone - half a ton - has shed just under 41 stone since a tearful appeal for help on national television drew responses from doctors in the US and Europe.
Medics from Italy and Spain visited him and offered to carry out gastric bypass surgery on the bed-ridden mechanic. But Mr Uribe refused and instead accepted the help of US and Mexican doctors and nutritionists who prescribed a high-protein, low carb diet and exercise regime that he has followed for two years.
This week Mr Uribe announced he has dropped 40.7 stone - 570 pounds - from his high of 89.8 stone - 1,257 pounds - in far less time than doctors had anticipated.
"I'm going to throw a big party," he said from his home in Monterrey, where his mother and fiancée take care of him. "I'm getting out of my house and going for a walk."
A plump child who reached nearly 18 stone while still an adolescent, Mr Uribe aims to drop another 19 stone over the next four years.
On March 9, Mr Uribe will be lifted out of his house on his bed by a special crane and driven around the streets of San Nicolas de los Garza, a Monterrey suburb, on a flat-bed truck. Last year, he did the same when he reached 60 stone, celebrating with champagne and a mariachi band.
Mr Uribe, who has been bedridden since 2002, said his weight really began to balloon in 1992. "By then, my gut was getting in the way and I saw a lot of doctors and did a lot of tests but they never found anything wrong," he said in 2006.
Before his diet, his usual breakfast would consist of four eggs, rice, beans and tortillas. Now a sample meal comprises fish soup, a grapefruit and 18 peanuts.
"People think that I can eat a whole cow but it's not just overeating, it's also a hormonal problem," Mr Uribe said two years ago, adding that he planned to consider surgery only if the diet did not work.
At his heaviest, Mr Uribe suffered from lesions and sores on his legs which he bound up with duck tape to stop them from getting infected.
Since he began his diet, Mr Uribe launched a website which he updates regularly - he keeps a computer near his bed.
"I feel great," he said this week. "The doctors say I'm healthier than ever."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/02/15/wfat115.xml