Posted on 06/29/2006 10:52:23 PM PDT by Coleus
Health officials said Manuel Uribe weighed 1,235 pounds when he made a desperate plea for help on national television in January. Unable to leave his bed for five years, the 41-year-old mechanic in the northern industrial city of Monterrey longed to move again.
His plea was answered by doctors and nutritionists who prescribed a high-protein diet, helping him lose about 200 pounds since then. Gilberto Montiel, health secretary for Nuevo Leon state, said medical officials have been monitoring Uribe's weight and confirmed the loss.
"I feel better now, I can stretch and move a bit more," Uribe said Monday, flanked by Dr. Barry Sears, creator of "The Zone" diet, who came to check on his progress. Still, Uribe said he has just enough energy to sit up and move the sheet that covers his body. His goal is to lose another 770 pounds.
Uribe was a chubby kid, weighing more than 250 pounds as an adolescent. Starting in 1992, he said, his weight began ballooning further. Uribe drew worldwide attention when he appeared on the Televisa television network in January.
For the last five years, Uribe has been bedridden. He keeps a television and a computer he uses to update his Web site near his iron bed. "People think that I can eat a whole cow but it's not just overeating, it's also a hormonal problem," Uribe said. "For now, I'll keep doing the diet and if I get stuck I'll consider the surgery."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
These people always have someone who feeds them. I had a patient that weighed about 600 lbs and her family caretaker would give her an electric skillet that she would fry her own food in bed!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently, mechanics are exceptionally well-paid in Mexico, because this guy hasn't been crawling under too many cars recently...
Interesting...but don't we have overwieght Americans all over the place????
Gaining weight Americans won't gain...
What must his cholesterol be? I read where the gravest side effect of the obesity epidemic is that its causing an epidemic of adult diabetes. I am also surprised to see vending machines in schools, selling all sorts of junk foods. When I complained about this to a friend of mine whose a school administrator (we NEVER had such things in school when I was young), she responded that it raises money for the school and although its otherwise undesirable, the kids will simply walk down to the convenience store and buy their junk food there if the machines are not in school.
Atkins diet.
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