Bedridden morbidly obese people

Elsewhere

Every now and then I see a news article about a 600 pound man or woman who is so fat they are bedridden and cannot get out of bed. They normally need a family member to “clean” them on a regular basis and feed them. I once saw an article about a man who’s skin had literally bonded with the fabric upholstery of his couch and needed to have to fabric surgically removed.

I’ve been sitting here wondering…. How is it possible for someone to get to that state? If they cannot feed themselves it means that SOMEONE is feeding them. You’d think the person doing the feeding would refuse to give the morbidly obese person more than X calories a day. Hell, what could the fat person possibly do force the feeder to feed them even more?

Lilycurly

Hmmm....maybe it's actually some kind of illness, where they keep on pilling the pounds even if they eat very little. Or maybe the family members just don't have the heart to deny them some fried chicken...I realy don't know, but I'd like to be explained....awk, my mind is just totally taken over by the expectation of the Big News!

Ingenuous

If they cannot feed themselves it means that SOMEONE is feeding them. You’d think the person doing the feeding would refuse to give the morbidly obese person more than X calories a day. Hell, what could the fat person possibly do force the feeder to feed them even more?

There is actually a type of fetish known as "feederism," though I don't know how common it is.

jstalin

I recently saw a show about this type of situation. The Dr. who was a specialist in this sort of thing said that in 100% of these cases, the people are eating a lot of food. It is physically impossible to gain that much weight while eating a small amount of food.

Woodsman

I just saw a show on this. A man was 1,072 lbs. Thats right. He hadn't left the house in 7 years. Probably hadn't gotten out of bed in close to the same. His wife cleaned everything up if you know what I mean. His skin was stretched to the limit so it would no longer hold in his body fluids and he leaked. He had open sores everywhere. He was suffocating from the weight so his wife called 911. They tore a wall down to get him out. They needed a forklift and specially constructed stretchers.

He actually did well in the hospital. They put him on 1,200 calorie a day diet and made him "move". He dropped to 600 and lost more once they stapled his stomach.

The wifes Pastor said he felt her continuing to feed him all that junk was the same as assisted suicide.

She said if he didn't get what he wanted he was nasty.

I'll give people a break with saying overeating can be genetic. But one doesn't have to choose potato chips and cinnamin buns. Thats being a pig.

Buster

Anyone with extremely obese people in their family knows it is a very complex subject involving lifelong habits (perhaps addictions), deep-seated emotional problems, genetics, and social interactions with enablers.

For the most part, the super obese are dangerous to themselves and others. They suck up energy (yeah, along with a lot of pizzas) from those around them. The truly successful super obese have a whole passle of enablers that live off the need to be needed. A bedridden lump cannot possibly round up the 30- to 60-thousand calories a day some of these behemoths ingest. Its a black hole of codependency and all those involved deserve their share of blame.

But I too saw that show others referred to. The most interesting part to me was from a guy that had lost 800 pounds or so, then gained most of it back. His point was that eating addictions are unique in that everyone has to eat. He asked, 'how high would your expectations of recovery be for an alchoholic that for some reason literally needed a few drinks a day?'

Darned interesting point.

kittyeatzjdubs

I just saw a show on this. A man was 1,072 lbs. Thats right. He hadn't left the house in 7 years. Probably hadn't gotten out of bed in close to the same. His wife cleaned everything up if you know what I mean. His skin was stretched to the limit so it would no longer hold in his body fluids and he leaked. He had open sores everywhere. He was suffocating from the weight so his wife called 911. They tore a wall down to get him out. They needed a forklift and specially constructed stretchers.
He actually did well in the hospital. They put him on 1,200 calorie a day diet and made him "move". He dropped to 600 and lost more once they stapled his stomach.
The wifes Pastor said he felt her continuing to feed him all that junk was the same as assisted suicide.
She said if he didn't get what he wanted he was nasty.
I'll give people a break with saying overeating can be genetic. But one doesn't have to choose potato chips and cinnamin buns. Thats being a pig.

i saw that same one! i almost fell out of my chair when they were interviewing the wife and she said, ''i didn't realize how big he really was till i saw them pick him up.'' puleeeze...i feel bad for people in that situation, but they're the ones who got themselves there luv, jojo

MsMcDucket

We have patients come in who are morbidly obese. They can't even wash there own behind. It takes several nurses to get these people rolled over. Once, you roll them over to clean them up, your whole arm disappears into mounds of fat. It's not a pretty picture. Of course, we get a little upset (well more than a little). Anyway, there's always someone there to help them to eat. Even while in the hospital, the patients will be noncompliant with their diets. They'll have family members sneak in foods or they'll manage to get someone at the hospital to feeling sorry for them and get this person to repeatedly go to the snack machine. I was told that one woman had spent her whole disability check in the snack machine!

These patients can be the most demanding. Could you hand me this, can you pull my covers up, will you help me to roll over, I can't find my remote control, will you scratch my ***, you didn't bring enough food on my tray, you brought the wrong food on my tray, you took too long to answer the light....They'll, also, be the first to try to get you into trouble with your boss. Some of them can be very manipulative.

MsMcDucket

We have to use bariatric lifts to get these people out of bed.

seattleniceguy

Hmmm....maybe it's actually some kind of illness, where they keep on pilling the pounds even if they eat very little.

That's not physically possible. Your body runs on calories. You take them in when you eat, and you pay them out over the course of the day. It's like accounting. It's not possible to end up with bonus money on the balance sheet that you didn't take in. Obviously, there are some people who have naturally higher metabolism rates, but this effects the "expenditures" side of the balance sheet, not the "revenue" side.
There are 3500 calories in one pound of fat. That means that someone who is 300 pounds overweight has amassed a staggering 1 million calories "in the bank," so to speak.
Your body is the only hardware you have. You've gotta take care of it.
SNG

Bedridden morbidly obese people

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