The Worlds Fattest Man

[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/...r-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

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 "

[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!

[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.