The Worlds Fattest Man

[Kevin Milkins]

I watched this programme tonight and could hardly believe what I was watching. I know being overweight is relative and I am no exception and would like to be four stone lighter, but this guy is just about the most incredible thing I have seen.

Paul Mason was sensationalised by the media to be about 70 stone, but when it came down to having to weigh him to see if it was at possible to transport him to hospital for a life saving operation, he was actually a trim 56 stone. Although the guy was often pretty emotional about his predicament (he really flew off the handle when they said they were going to cut his weekly career allowances from £700 a week).

I have mixed feelings of sorrow and anger and feels he should take some of the responsibilities for how he got that big and the NHS is not being used for its intended purpose, but I am open to debate
70-stone Briton Paul Mason is world's heaviest man | The Sun |News (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2690244/70-stone-Briton-Paul-Mason-is-worlds-heaviest-man.html)

[theone]

There comes a point with extreme obesity that the person cannot physically feed themselves. Therefore, to maintain or increase weight, somebody is feeding them.

Maybe the overweight individual has physical or mental issues that cause their overindulgance, but I think those making the situation worse are guilty of abuse.

[Walter Ego]

Why doesn't he just eat less?

[_Ju_]

Why doesn't he just eat less?

Probably for the same reason that the heroin addict takes heroin, the acloholic drinks and the smoker cannot bear the thought of not smoking. Pointing out others failures are quite easy. Our own are very hard to look at and take ownership off.

[onecalledk]

He also didnt just wake up one morning and find himself 56 stone there was all the weight that was added on a daily and weekly basis. Was there any help given to him when he was "Just" overweight at all? have watched programmes like this before , didnt watch this one, the trailer was shocking enough. There was another english guy who was extremely overweight and his mother made his meals, he ate something like 3 plates of fry up for breakfast. Someone perhaps should have asked his mother how she thought she was helping a person by feeding him so much, she was killing him by what she was feeding him.

Usually there are underlying mental health problems. We are becoming a nation of overweight people just like the US due to sitting about doing nothing much ! Kids dont go out to play in case they get kidnapped so sit on the couch with a playstation (or similar) for example. The TYPE of food we eat in this country has gone rapidly down hill as well. When I was my sons age there was no such thing as a Macdonalds and we certainly didnt get take away food to eat at any point in the week, if we were lucky we maybe ate out once in a blue moon as a treat.

Compare that with todays food where convenience is the key to it all. My god you can buy already GRATED CHEESE!! We are on a cycle that will have more people ending up the way this man has ended up. This could be added on to the facebook thread. If we all sit at home communicating through the pc then we dont need to venture out, god TESCO will deliver to you. Boredom would quickly set in and before long you would be on facebook for a few hours a day (if not more) with you hand in a box of milk tray. Do this often enough and you may well need the firebrigade to get you out the house.....

Its a bit of an extreme analogy but it could happen. Education is perhaps the key, its not really rocket science is it, consume food but use up MORE calories than you consume.

After seeing the trailer for that programme, the guy is not even living he is just existing. Saw one where in the US it was a lady who was about that size. She underwent gastric banding and didnt survive the anaesthetic, she left behind young children .......


K

[Gizmo]

Probably for the same reason that the heroin addict takes heroin, the acloholic drinks and the smoker cannot bear the thought of not smoking

Those three have proven addictive qualities, you really can't compare them to food. I just don't believe for one moment that anyone could have an addiction to food that would lead them to become the size that Paul Mason became, it's just pure greed, and a diet of the unhealthiest foods.

[Gronnuck]

Those three have proven addictive qualities, you really can't compare them to food. I just don't believe for one moment that anyone could have an addiction to food that would lead them to become the size that Paul Mason became, it's just pure greed, and a diet of the unhealthiest foods.

Given your expertise in the field will you define 'addiction' and tell us what 'addictive qualities' are please.

[The Drunken Duck]

What a crock, and just another symptom of Britian today where you can always blame someone or something else. I watched the programme and the guy had the energy to get upset when his 700 quid a week allowance was going to be cut. Pity he couldn't put the same effort into trying to sort his life out a bit. There are cancer patients being denied life saving medicine these days and limbless servicemen and women who aren't getting 700 quid a week to be looked after. This guy just lies there and hoovers up food all day. At our expense.

This idea that it must be a "mental issue" or, "look its all those nasty people making delicious fattening food tempting me into it" is crap. No one stands and puts a gun to your head saying "Eat !!", the simple fact is that some people are just greedy and enjoy eating to the point they end up overweight or obese. And then the lack of self discipline that allowed them to get that way tells them that it cant possibly be their fault and it turns into "Who can we blame". Unless someone was standing over him firing pies into his mouth HE is solely responsible for his condition, a condition that is costing you and me as taxpayers. So I have zero sympathy for him right now, it's all his own making, but if he wanted to make a real effort to change his life then he should get every help to do so.

But until someone gives him a solid boot up his lardy backside nothing will change, not with an army of people at his back willing to make excuses for him. It's always struck me as funny that smokers are derided for their "filthy habit" but if you are overweight every excuse is made for you.

[EDDIE]

The guy has a eating disorder so he cant control his habit dealing with addiction is not as easy task.
Were i feel sorry for him none of his family talk to him and he has no friends its understandable why he got upset when his care allowance got cut its quite disgusting seeing photograhers outside his house trying to get photos of him and for the newspapers to profit out of his badhealth.

[The Pepsi Challenge]

Those three have proven addictive qualities, you really can't compare them to food. I just don't believe for one moment that anyone could have an addiction to food that would lead them to become the size that Paul Mason became, it's just pure greed, and a diet of the unhealthiest foods.

What a load of Colin Nish.

[Gizmo]

Given your expertise in the field will you define 'addiction' and tell us what 'addictive qualities' are please.

Never said i had any expertise in anything, it's purely my opinion on the matter.

[pat]

Can remember looking after a lady who was 33 stone, in hospital to help alleviate some of the health problems due to her weight and try to encourage her to lose some weight. First day brothers and sisters all as large looking as the lady came to visit with bags loaded with food, all set too and had a picnic around her bed - there was enough food to feed a ward of 28 for a day. Before the visitors left I asked them to please not to bring food on any other visit as there were other patients to consider.
There was 4 of them in the home - they went through usually 26 loaves a day, they ate meals but continually filled up with sandwiches, after the evening meal they would usually went for a chippie only trouble was it was triple suppers of fish, chicken or sausages each washed down with several bottles of fizzy drinks and slices of buttered bread. I have trouble managing a fish supper never mind a triple supper on top of a very hefty evening meal. Mars bars also played a very large part of her diet, cannot bear the thought of eating a mars bar. The whole family thought this was normal eating.

[kitty]

I only saw about 5 minutes of this programme. What does he get £700 a week for...... and from who does he get that?

[viking]

Excellent reply OnecalledK!

[theone]

Education is perhaps the key, its not really rocket science is it, consume food but use up MORE calories than you consume.

K

Never a truer word spoken.

Regardless whether there are physical or mental issues at play the fact is that, in the words of Scotty from Star Trek, "you canna change the laws of physics". The law of conservation of energy is true.

People can only gain weight if they consume more energy than they use.

[sweetpea]

Pat, your right. I've been watching loads of these programmes lately, there was one about teenagers in America on the other night and one mum was saying how she couldn't padlock the fridge or the girl would go loopy. I REALLY don't get this idea that she couldn't say no to her or just stock healthy stuff in the fridge.

[RecQuery]

LOL those programmes 'The Worlds Fattest Man', 'The Boy With Two Heads', 'The Girl Who Gave Birth To Her Sister' - tuppence a jab, shilling to buy your own stick! The modern day equivalent of the Victorian Freak show...

I'd like to make the point that humans are hard-wired to eat and have sex, all of out ancestors did it in abundance that's why we're here. We've come up with birth control to deal with the consequences of one; we don't enforce abstinence.

[Bobinovich]

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/221734/Britain-s-fattest-man-blames-the-NHS-for-his-obesity/

Now apparently going to sue the NHS for his obesity...can't see that one working myself!

[The Drunken Duck]

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/221734/Britain-s-fattest-man-blames-the-NHS-for-his-obesity/

Now apparently going to sue the NHS for his obesity...can't see that one working myself!

Oh but it will, because here in modern Britian there is always someone to blame for your own shortcomings. The fact is this self pitying waste of skin ate his way to his own condition. There are plenty of people with depression and social problems, and who have no friends or family connections, who dont eat themselves to a size that can be seen from space. Look at his attitude when his allowances were going to be cut, if he had only diverted the same energy into going for a walk when he still could maybe he wouldnt look like he does. Last time I checked only he could chew and swallow the food that got him there.

Anyway, even if he won he would only spend it on pies. I bet Ginsters step up production as soon as this hits a court.

[unicorn]

Could he not at least attempt to cover up, even a sheet, I don't want to have to look at his nakedness. :(

[Metalattakk]

LOL those programmes 'The Worlds Fattest Man', 'The Boy With Two Heads', 'The Girl Who Gave Birth To Her Sister' - tuppence a jab, shilling to buy your own stick! The modern day equivalent of the Victorian Freak show...

"The Boy with a Face and Head Like an Arse!"

Coming to a third-rate TV channel near you soon!*




*Channel-switching options and remote control 'Off' buttons will be automatically disabled throughout this broadcast.

[Anfield]

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/221734/Britain-s-fattest-man-blames-the-NHS-for-his-obesity/

Now apparently going to sue the NHS for his obesity...can't see that one working myself!

Whilst we continue to live in a compensation culture world, there will always be shyster solicitors willing to take on claims like this.

[upolian]

Can hardly compare being overweight to a heroin addict!!!!!

[roadrunner]

Has nobody ever heard of the term 'cruel to be kind'. Who is the cruel person feading this man. If they were starving him, they would be charged for it. I think both overfeeding until obese, and starving any living being is equally abusive!!!

[cherokee]

I have mixed feelings of sorrow and anger and feels he should take some of the responsibilities for how he got that big and the NHS is not being used for its intended purpose, but I am open to debate
70-stone Briton Paul Mason is world's heaviest man | The Sun |News (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2690244/70-stone-Briton-Paul-Mason-is-worlds-heaviest-man.html)

I must admit that I didn't see this programme, but saw trailers for it prior.

I agree with you, Kevin, my initial response was, "Oh the poor, poor man, I feel so sorry for him" - but, then again we should all take at least some responsibilities for our own actions.

Mind you, as an Orger on here has as their signature...

"Walk in someone else's shoes.............etc......" (sorry, canna mind the whole quote off-hand, but I've always agreed with it)

[bekisman]

Looks like this bloke has a compulsive eating disorder, maybe he has psychological problems - is he really any different to an anorexic who is hospitalised?, calling him a greedy git, is not helpful..

As an aside Prader–Willi syndrome is also frequently associated with an extreme and insatiable appetite, often resulting in morbid obesity..

[Dog-eared]

I must admit that I didn't see this programme, but saw trailers for it prior.

I agree with you, Kevin, my initial response was, "Oh the poor, poor man, I feel so sorry for him" - but, then again we should all take at least some responsibilities for our own actions.

Mind you, as an Orger on here has as their signature...

"Walk in someone else's shoes.............etc......" (sorry, canna mind the whole quote off-hand, but I've always agreed with it)


I think the saying is " Walk a mile in another man's shoes before you judge him "

Or

"Red Indian he walk a mile in other brave's moccassins. Now Indian one mile ahead "

:D

[northener]

Did someone mention pies?

[Kevin Milkins]

I know the media can make you believe or form an opinion based on what they decide to show you and it will be interesting to see how this series develops and ends.

My first thoughts where poor guy when his surgeon suggested that going on a diet was not going to help him loose weight so surgery was his only hope, but as the programme progressed and it showed what the effort and costs involved just to get him from his home to hospital the reality of what a mammoth task, (excuse pun) it was going to be.

They needed a jumbulance to carry him in and a crew of hefty guys, a specialist team of men and equipment just to weigh him, a special table to operate on, (and that turned out to be still to small ) and they had to codge some extension boards onto it, plus a crew of structural engineers to conduct a survey on whether or not the floor of the operating theatre was going to strong enough to hold all the weight of the patient plus operating team.

Having gone to all that trouble and expense on his behalf, when they interviewed him prior to being collected for his trip to the hospital, he was scoffing six slices of toast with strawberry jam on them and even showed off his packed lunch for the journey.
This sort of behaviour displayed to me the sort of selfish attitude that he has developed and took everyone and everything for granted.

If there is one good thing that might came out of this programme, I am sure anyone watching it will consider how best not become like him and when they surgically removed one and half stone of blubber from his leg to help him get mobile, I gave my ham sandwich to Casper.

[unicorn]

What did the poor dog do to deserve becoming overweight :)

[jar]

Sorry but I have to join in this thread...


How desperate to lose weight do you think a person must be – to be able to join in with society (as displayed in this thread most are not kind to the overweight / obese) - to be told by a leading weight loss surgeon that you have a 50 / 50 chance of dying in order to do so?


How desperate to lose weight do you think a person must be to permanently change their way of eating (potentially their one true comfort in life (they think)) to be told that they might die trying to do this? Although the stomach can stretch somewhat over the years following this surgery the ability to eat to previously comforting / satisfying levels has gone pretty much forever...


What a joke the whole drama of maybe needing a Chinook for airlifting the guy into the hospital and the engineers to check that the hospital structure could take the weight – made to make the viewers realise just how big this guy was – but was it ACTUALLY needed (I don’t think they had even weighed him at this point.)


Food is all around us all of the time... Yes – most (at the moment) are able to maintain a healthy weight – albeit this statistic is changing all of the time. We are losing cooking, budgeting and shopping skills left, right and centre... We are constantly bombarded by advertising (subliminally or actually) and how many can honestly, truthfully say that we eat slowly enough at every meal to allow our brains to catch up with our stomach and then go on to STOP eating when our brain tells us our stomach is full. Fair play to you who can and do – but there is some evidence that says the majority of us cannot. When the ‘special offers’ in the supermarkets mean that the affordable foods are the ones more likely to make us pile on the pounds and ignore our satiety signals – is there any wonder that obesity – and super obesity are on the rise?


And how many commenting negatively on this post have experienced weight problems? As has been posted earlier – we should not judge until we have lived the life (or in the case at hand experienced the basics of survival rather than living) – and I truly believe that ALL of us in this modern commercialised environment should be thinking ‘there by the grace of *insert chosen deity* goes I’...

Despite posters asserting that this is a greedy and selfish man – someone who has gotten this big and so unable to live unaided needs help – and in my opinion – it’s a shame he didn’t get help sooner as he would have been able to lose more of his excess weight and be up on his feet, requiring less care and living a more productive life much sooner. Where comes the point that ‘help’ is only given to those who are ‘deserving’ – who makes such decisions – where is the cut off? I’m sure that those healthy joggers who might slip and break their ankle don’t expect to be helped? Surely this is a self inflicted problem?

While I don’t agree with the latest reports about this man suing the NHS for not helping him sooner – surely this does indeed highlight that it would be beneficial to help people sooner and prevent these massive care bills and contracts with the RAF for airlifting to hospital etc... (Tongue in cheek sorry).


A previous poster says that every excuse is made for the overweight but I think that assertion is incorrect – in fact as demonstrated in this thread – the overweight are one of the last safe bastions of derision and mickey-taking and being told to ‘pull themselves’ together and get on with eating less... If only it was so easy... There’s no patch to replace the cravings of food, nothing that can solve the cravings, no, NEED to eat to satisfy the emotional / physical / safety / comfort that many can find in food.

Sorry to go on.

[Aaldtimer]

Sorry but I have to join in this thread...


How desperate to lose weight do you think a person must be – to be able to join in with society (as displayed in this thread most are not kind to the overweight / obese) - to be told by a leading weight loss surgeon that you have a 50 / 50 chance of dying in order to do so?


How desperate to lose weight do you think a person must be to permanently change their way of eating (potentially their one true comfort in life (they think)) to be told that they might die trying to do this? Although the stomach can stretch somewhat over the years following this surgery the ability to eat to previously comforting / satisfying levels has gone pretty much forever...


What a joke the whole drama of maybe needing a Chinook for airlifting the guy into the hospital and the engineers to check that the hospital structure could take the weight – made to make the viewers realise just how big this guy was – but was it ACTUALLY needed (I don’t think they had even weighed him at this point.)


Food is all around us all of the time... Yes – most (at the moment) are able to maintain a healthy weight – albeit this statistic is changing all of the time. We are losing cooking, budgeting and shopping skills left, right and centre... We are constantly bombarded by advertising (subliminally or actually) and how many can honestly, truthfully say that we eat slowly enough at every meal to allow our brains to catch up with our stomach and then go on to STOP eating when our brain tells us our stomach is full. Fair play to you who can and do – but there is some evidence that says the majority of us cannot. When the ‘special offers’ in the supermarkets mean that the affordable foods are the ones more likely to make us pile on the pounds and ignore our satiety signals – is there any wonder that obesity – and super obesity are on the rise?


And how many commenting negatively on this post have experienced weight problems? As has been posted earlier – we should not judge until we have lived the life (or in the case at hand experienced the basics of survival rather than living) – and I truly believe that ALL of us in this modern commercialised environment should be thinking ‘there by the grace of *insert chosen deity* goes I’...

Despite posters asserting that this is a greedy and selfish man – someone who has gotten this big and so unable to live unaided needs help – and in my opinion – it’s a shame he didn’t get help sooner as he would have been able to lose more of his excess weight and be up on his feet, requiring less care and living a more productive life much sooner. Where comes the point that ‘help’ is only given to those who are ‘deserving’ – who makes such decisions – where is the cut off? I’m sure that those healthy joggers who might slip and break their ankle don’t expect to be helped? Surely this is a self inflicted problem?

While I don’t agree with the latest reports about this man suing the NHS for not helping him sooner – surely this does indeed highlight that it would be beneficial to help people sooner and prevent these massive care bills and contracts with the RAF for airlifting to hospital etc... (Tongue in cheek sorry).


A previous poster says that every excuse is made for the overweight but I think that assertion is incorrect – in fact as demonstrated in this thread – the overweight are one of the last safe bastions of derision and mickey-taking and being told to ‘pull themselves’ together and get on with eating less... If only it was so easy... There’s no patch to replace the cravings of food, nothing that can solve the cravings, no, NEED to eat to satisfy the emotional / physical / safety / comfort that many can find in food.

Sorry to go on.

Nah, sorry, no sympathy...sheer GLUTTONY...eat to live, don't live to eat![disgust]

[squidge]

Jar you are right when you say the overweight are the last safe bet for mickey taking. I am a fat lady. A big girl. Dawn French style lol. Most of my life if I am honest. I have had five babies and been fit and healthy most of my life. But I am a fat girl. The thing that has changed over the last wee while is people's attitude to me, their assumptions about me. I have been told that my children WILL be fat too.... None of them are. That I should cut out the processed and ready meals I eat cos they are often high In fat and sugar... I don't eat ready meals or much in the way of processed food. I cook healthy meals for my family and give them nutritious food. It has been assumed that i must eat takeaways five nights a week when if we have a takeaway once a month we are lucky lol. Never mind eating three at one sitting. I drink so little these days I have started describing myself as a non drinker.

The assumption has changed from people seeing me as an ordinary woman who struggles with her weight to me being a greedy lazy selfish cow. I eat no more than anyone in my house and I'm the only fat person. I run around after babies all day,I walk the dog, clean house, do the washing and so on and so on. I don't live to eat aaldtimer, but I'm never going to be a size 12 and stay there. Food is a pleasure but it's not the only pleasure in my life. It's not even the greatest pleasure. So here I am at new year looking at diets again. Don't assume that what is on tv is representative of real life. If we all did that, showed a bit of empathy, a bit of nouse to know that what we see is not true for everyone then maybe I could stop feeling defensive. It annoys me to feel like that



I'm 47 and I have cared little about peoples opinions for most of my life but this is starting to get on my nerves. I even had one rude person ask whether my darling babies were IVF and when I said they were the regular kind she expressed surprise that someone my age and as fat as me could still get pregnant. Where do people get off thinking they can be so rude.

I have an underactive thyroid gland but it's well controlled, I have done every diet imaginable and made little or no difference as it comes off for awhile then goes back on.

[Gronnuck]

I have to say I’m disappointed with the self righteous indignation of some of the posters on this thread. Paul Mason has major problems and the causes are probably quite complex. Just as with anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders there are probably multifarious psychological issues present that will require addressing. IMO comments such as “it’s just pure greed,” by Gizmo; “self pitying waste of skin ate his way to his own condition,” by The Drunken Duck and“sheer GLUTTONY...eat to live, don't live to eat,” by Aaldtimer are simplistic, unhelpful and show a lack of tolerance, understanding or compassion.
A Clinical Psychologist would recognise this man has problems but in many areas an appointment can take as long as 18 months. By then any problems would be entrenched and much more difficult to address.
As cherokee and Dog-eared said, perhaps we should "Walk a mile in another man's shoes before you judge him."

[jar]

Dear Squidge

I hope I didn't come across as stereotyping overweight people in my post? I'm a very big person too and I think that it means I can post more objectively than some of the other posters on here who obviously don't understand some of the issues involved. It's hard to imagine that someone would be rude enough to ask you that about the conception of your children!! Yes - I see exactly what you say about the attitudes of some people - those who don't know you - thinking because you're bigger than they are that you are lazy, selfish, greedy... Assumptions based on TV shows like this probably!

Aaldtimer - I'm sure this man will be absolutley devastated not to have your sympathy... Actually, no, I bet he won't because I doubt he was after anybody's sympathies - more to share an understanding of what life at that weight is like for him, to let people know that there is another 'answer' and possibly the thought that if it stops one person from eating that additional <insert food item of choice> then it would have been worthwhile whether that be through the viewers' disgust, education, information etc... Poster above actually fed his sandwich to the dog rather than eat it - YEAY - and all thanks to this man. See he's already helping people.

[billmoseley]

maybe he should be suing the people who fed him food when he couldn't feed himself

[skinnydog]

What got me is the complete and utter waste of NHS funds. This man received hundreds of thousands of pounds from them and then you hear of poor old souls either denied the care that they so desperately need or having their already meagre care cut. Ridiculous.