I had a cousin who died from complications from morbid obesity. She easily weighed over 600 lbs., and was barely over 5 feet tall. She had married a man who was mentally challenged, but who had inherited a fortune. She wrapped him around her little finger. He probably saw no correlation between her weight and the massive amounts of food he brought her. She was very intelligent and understood nutrition, but was unable to overcome her lifelong addiction to food. Sadly, she had found an enabler who perfectly served that addiction. He himself died without her, a few years later.
This.
I used to work at a hospital that did bariatric surgery, and even if they passed all the physical protocols (upper and lower GI scopes, metabolic studies, etc.) it was the psychiatric evaluation that got most of them rejected. And even if they passed that test, it was not uncommon for the surgeon to refuse to operate on them because he knew it wouldn’t be successful, for any number of other reasons.
It’s also not uncommon for people who stop abusing drugs and alcohol to develop eating disorders, and this is one manifestation. Likewise, people who underwent bariatric surgery or lost a lot of weight by other methods not infrequently develop some other compulsive or addictive behavior to take its place.
p.s. After I left that hospital, I went to work at a grocery store, and two employees there later had procedures done by him, and both did very well. 
The first time I saw “Honey Boo Boo” while channel-surfing, I thought it was a program along these lines, until they showed a newborn piglet defecating on the kitchen table.
:eek: :smack:
Sad but predictable outcome of this story, John Keitz died a few months after that article was written:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/20/AR2005092001841.html
I know a 24 year old still living at home and weighs 420lb’s. I calclated that he drinks 2080 calories in soda’s just during a typical work day getting 4 large 44 oz fountain drinks. Not including what he drinks after hours. A typical McDonalds order is usually 5 Mcchicken sandwiches or McDoubles and large fry.
Needless to say, he’s also a virgin and with his lack of effort, must be planning on staying that way apparently. His parents say he’s saving himself…cute.
Anyone remember that scene in “The Nutty Professor” where Eddie Murphy squeals, “I can see my dick!” 
That said, I’ve heard of such patients needing to be catheterized, and when the nurse couldn’t find his urethra, they called in a urologist, who had to use a (hang onto your seat) VAGINAL SPECULUM to locate his penis! :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
One of those obesity reality shows was based in a nursing home in Ohio that specializes in this kind of thing, and I’ll never forget the ventilator-dependent 800-pound guy who was caught with 3 young girls in his room late one night. :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: My guess is that he was selling drugs (God only knows where he would have gotten them) out of his room. :dubious:
It’s as if people develop a tolerance for food the way an addict develops a tolerance for a drug. Their meals will grow in size, their stomachs will stretch, they’ll feel the need for more and more food to feel full. The two people I know who ended up over 400 lbs. were also very active and in very good physical condition before their weight went out of control, that probably helped them stay up and about while their weight gain continued. Eventually both became seriously ill and lost a lot of weight. Sadly one has relapsed and I’d assume already well over 300 pounds. He’s only about 5’7", that’s already a dangerous weight for him.
I remember seeing a show about a guy in a weight loss clinic. he was having KFC buckets sent up to his room vis a rope. While knowing he was endangering his life, he kept on eating.
Some of them also do not have the satiety shut-off that most of us do.
I saw a TV show a few years ago about the Galyon twins, conjoined twins who are also obese and mildly mentally disabled as well. They are obese because one of them does not seem to have that; a sibling said that one of them only eats until he’s full, and the other eats until he’s “done”, which could mean anything, and yes, he’s gotten sick from this many times.
There was a controversial news story a few months ago about an obese 12-year-old girl who was going to have bariatric surgery. It turned out that she’d had a brain tumor removed a few years earlier, and she lost most of her pituitary gland at the same time, as well as her appetite control mechanism. The operation was going to be done so she couldn’t eat unlimited amounts of food any more, and she wanted it done so she could live a more normal life. Last I heard, it was performed and she was doing well.
As for stomachs stretching, people who have been in a state of starvation can pack away prodigious amounts of food. I read Dr. Brantly’s book (he’s the first missionary who was sent back here with Ebola) and when he regained the ability to eat solid food and was allowed to have anything he wanted, probably ate more than he did when he was 16 years old. He’s a tall, skinny guy, and I’m probably not the only one who wondered where he put two super-sized fast-food meals, at one sitting. :eek: Unfortunately, he had a bit of a head start in the starvation department, because he lost more than 30 pounds in the 2 months between Ebola’s arrival in Monrovia and when he got it; the weight loss was from sheer overwork, which included missing meals.
The OP is asking about how these folks physically eat all those calories, not how they actually acquire them.
Just a point of clarification.
mmm
I have wondered this myself - I watched a video where a regularly active male tried to eat all of the food that Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) eats in a day to fuel his workouts and failed miserably. I also remember reading what Michael Phelps eats during training season and it boggled the mind.
I myself have certainly been very hungry as I work on my fitness, but also know when I have overeaten (we call it “Olive Garden Full” thanks to an unfortunate all-you-can-eat Soup, Salad and Breadsticks event). I did not feel good and would certainly not seek that sensation out.
Carbohydrates, especially sugar.
We evolved to like sugar so much because it fills us very little for the amount of calories it provides hence, when we found a source of sugar, we could binge on it and make energy reserves.
It’s the opposite of protein. Try to eat 1000 calories of protein in one sitting. Even 500 calories of protein will be difficult. 1000 calories of carbohydrates, especially sugar, is relatively easy.
With refined sugar, we make the pure stuff and add it to our food.
Look at what morbidly obese people eat, you’ll find a lot of carbs, especially sugar.
In addition, their stomach must become larger and they likely eat most of the day which makes it easier to eat more.
God this stuff is terrifying. Only one thing (yes, it’s that thing) brings me more pleasure and joy than food, and not just eating good quality, good tasting food, but eating lots and lots of good quality and good tasting food.
I’m a man in my mid-30s, and moderately active (20-30 minutes on the treadmill every day, plus 20-30 minutes walking to and from the train station every day), and I’m about 250 lbs, so at least nothing like this would seem to be in my future… but if I actually ate exactly what I wanted when I wanted, it easily could be, I think.
Fat is even better. The numbers I’ve heard are thus:
Protein: 4 calories per gram
Sugar/carbs: 6 calories per gram
Fat: 9 calories per gram
Arctic/Antarctic explorers eat a lot of butter to get their calorie intake up to 7000-9000 per day.
"When you are skiing across Antarctica and putting in 12-14 hour days of pulling a sled in minus 40C, you have to keep your calorie count up. A normal man burns about 2,500 calories in a day. We burn between 7,000 to 9,000. That means supplementing your dehydrated food with slabs of butter. In the first few days of the expedition, it tastes revolting, but then your body just craves the fat content and you eat the butter like blocks of cheese. "
“Expedition daily meal, consisting of 6,000 calories of fat-rich food:
•Granola
•Stick of butter (whole)
•Whole fat powdered milk
•3 servings of cane sugar
•1 stick of butter eaten with the below, in addition to the stick of butter in the granola
•Lara bar, various flavors
•1 full bar dark chocolate, 72%
•Pro Bar, various flavors
•Pecan sandy or shortbread cookies (5)
•Shot Blocks
•Almonds, various flavors
•Freeze dried dinners, various types”
“We have to eat a lot of food because we’re traveling so much during the day. In the morning, we eat a lot of oatmeal with a stick of butter in every meal. It sounds gross, but out here it’s totally normal. Then we have snacks on the trail: chocolate, snack bars and nuts, and some beef jerky. For dinner, we have freeze-dried food and spaghetti, again with a stick of butter. For dessert, it’s hot chocolate.”
So yeah, if you get the supersized meal that has a 1/2- or 3/4-pound bacon cheeseburger with mayo on it (e.g. Wendy’s Triple Baconator, 1330 calories) and a biggie-size order of fries (530 calories) and a biggie-sized non-diet coke (400 calories), you’re at 2260 calories, closing in on a reasonable adult-male total for an entire day. Now have that same meal for lunch, early dinner, and a late-night snack. And a comparable meal for breakfast. Now you’re hitting around 9000 calories in a single day. It would be challenging to achieve that kind of calorie intake on a diet high in sugar/carbs and low in fat.
Fat has more calories than sugar per unit of weight but not more calories for a given amount of satiety.
The reason arctic/antarctic explorers use fat for their food is because reducing carried weight is important for them.
Very true.
The lifestyle changes you have to make after bariatric surgery are so profound - a minimum of a year before eating “normally” (i.e. a full range of food, albeit reduced quantities) are daunting. They’ve got to do some screening to determine who is likely be successful - failure defined in my mind as either failing to lose weight, gaining it back, or developing other unhealthy habits.
We personally knew one person who had surgery and managed to lose a lot, and gain it all back plus more - she was actually mentioned on a Discovery Channel program or something like that.
Once you go down the slope of morbid obesity, all kinds of biochemical changes happen that make it harder to lose the weight. Your brain doesn’t respond to the “i-m full” hormones. Your metabolism slows. It’s harder to move so you burn fewer calories.
If a healthy 6 foot 2 inch 200 pound man needed 2200 calories to maintain his weight, and a healthy 5 foot 8 inch 160 pound man needed 1800 calories (making those numbers up for illustration), I’d bet that 5 foot 8 man, if he got to 200 pounds, would need less than 2200 calories to maintain.
And if he did lose the 40 pounds, I’d bet he would need less than 1800 calories to maintain.
This is why the Inuit eat whale and seal blubber, and the Tibetans drink tea fortified with yak butter.
Who was doing the sending? :eek:
But here’s the irony: if they had been that disciplined before they had the surgery, they could have loss all the weight they wanted.
Obese people don’t have the mental discipline to lose weight, because no one is telling them they must stick to a strict diet. But after surgery, the docs tell them they must stick to a strict diet. After surgery they stick to a strict diet - because the doc says they have to - and hence they lose weight.
Actually, many stick to a strict diet after bariatric surgery only because they physically cannot eat more. Their stomachs are smaller and they will get sick if they eat too much. In addition, some of these surgeries seem to have an effect on the appetite.