I'm not saying that this person has Prader-Willi Syndrome, but it is an example of a condition where one actually can gain weight on greatly reduced caloric intakes. This is compounded by the complete lack of a sense of satiation (they always feel as though they are starving and never feel full). Many with this have to be restrained from anything that they perceive as food, including baking ingredience and food waste (aka garbage). It is rare enough that few doctors know of it, but it has a distinctive development pattern as noted below.
http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1880.htm
History:
Infants with PWS commonly exhibit hypotonia, poor suck with requirement of gavage feedings, weak cry, and genital hypoplasia (eg, cryptorchidism, scrotal hypoplasia, clitoral hypoplasia). Neonatal hypotonia is one of the hallmark features of this disorder and is a valuable clue to initiate diagnostic testing.
Toddlers with PWS demonstrate late acquisition of major motor milestones (eg, sitting at age 12 months, walking at age 24 months).
Children aged 1-6 years manifest symptoms of hyperphagia with progressive development of obesity.
Short stature is generally present during childhood; a minority of patients present later with lack of pubertal growth spurt.
Most patients with PWS have growth hormone deficiency, as determined by provocative testing.
Pubic and axillary hair may arise prematurely in children with PWS, but other features of PWS generally are delayed or incomplete.
Testicular descent has occurred as late as adolescence; menarche may occur as late as age 30 years in the presence of significant weight loss.
Patients with PWS often exhibit behavioral problems.
Young children manifest temper tantrums, stubbornness, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
Behavioral issues often compromise the level of academic performance. Obsessive-compulsive behaviors and perseveration provide challenges for the child with PWS in the classroom setting.
Of young adults with PWS, 5-10% demonstrate features of psychosis.
Food seeking behaviors may include eating garbage, eating frozen food, and stealing resources to obtain food. High thresholds for vomiting and tolerance of pain can complicate binging on spoiled foods and delay treatment for gastrointestinal disease. After episodes of binge eating (eg, at holidays), both thin and obese individuals with PWS have developed abdominal discomfort with acute gastric dilation seen on radiography. Some patients have progressed on to develop gastric necrosis.
Mild mental retardation is a commonly associated characteristic.
Management of complications of obesity (eg, sleep apnea, cor pulmonale, diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis), hypogonadism (osteoporosis), and behavioral issues are common problems in adults with PWS.
I recall seeing something on the Discovery Health Channel about a child (a girl) who was gaining weight at an incredible rate. At first the parents were blamed for over feeding until other symptoms presented and a good doctor ran the right tests and made the diagnosis. It might have been Prader-Willi Syndrome but I don’t remember.
I do remember another case where a mother was accused of feeding her child anti-freeze as a result of Munchausen by Proxy. Blood tests showed that the child had anti-freeze in his blood. Despite her and her husband’s pleas of innocence the mother was convicted and sent to jail. But before she was sentenced she became pregnant and the child was taken from her at birth. While the second child was in foster care, he and the first child showed the same symptoms and had the same results from blood tests although the mother was still in jail.
She was later released from jail as further tests showed both children suffered from a rare blood disorder.
1 lb of fat = 3500 calories. PERIOD!!.
Basic calories that the little fella has to burn to stay alive is about 1500 calories, and that assumes he doesn't move!
the principal of energy conservation applies here too, fat is energy and it just doesn;t appear from anywhere. The kid has to be eating way more calories than he burns, and he shouldn't be eating more than 2000 calories. i would imagine 4-5000, which is what i did in college, but with high levels of activity.
That sounds nasty!