December 9, 2010

"My husband is my guardian angel."

"He's stuck by me through everything. Most men would have left a long time ago and who could blame them but Myron is a living saint."

What is the symbiotic relationship between a person who is too obese to get out of bed and the person who brings her the food that is keeping her that big?

(To maintain a weight of 700 pounds you need to eat 8400 calories a day. )

58 comments:

AllenS said...

Bringing the food is one thing, but think about removing the waste.

kent said...

Were she an American citizen, she would legally qualify for two state senators of her very own.

Triangle Man said...

A regular Claus and Sunny.

chickelit said...

Robert Hughes was the heaviest man on record last time I checked. He was a single man and only lived to age 32.
Perhaps if he'd been yoked to a woman he'd have lived longer.

kent said...

What is the symbiotic relationship between a person who is too obese to get out of bed and the person who brings her the food that is keeping her that big?

If their relationship is genuinely a "symbiotic" one... does that make him her tapeworm?

the traveler said...

They're feeders or "stuffers" (the woman being referred to as a "stuffie"). It's a kink. Basically, bondage by your own body, except that the eroticism of eating (and, often, eliminating) is added.

As said *Bitch* magazine, "Feeders get off on the idea that their feedee might one day become too 'satisfied' -- and too obese -- to move, thus making them completely dependent on their feeder. It's an extreme manifestation of the idea that masculinity in men involves eroticized dominance over women.

MadisonMan said...

One (wo)man's guardian angel is another (wo)man's enabler.

Tank said...

THANK YOU for not showing her butt in a bikini.

Kev said...

(the other kev)

What is the symbiotic relationship . . . ?

I'm pretty sure Stephen King could write something about it.

yashu said...

As sixrivets notes, there's a creepy kink subtext to this. It's like a "Boxing Helena" situation.

Mary Beth said...

She is an American. She lives in Cleveland, OH.

kent said...

She is an American. She lives in Cleveland, OH.

Oops. Didn't see the final 'graph, underneath the photos. My bad.

Misty said...

A true guardian angel would have gotten her help before her weight got to this point. Certainly some mental health issues here for both of them.

@sixrivets - ew.

Unknown said...

If her husband were her guardian angel, he wouldn't be enabling her.

PS The Blonde used to work a bariatric floor. The problems these people present can be astounding for the hospital staff.

Ann Althouse said...

@sixrivets Thanks. That was my inference. I don't know the real relationship between these individuals, but thinking about the situation in general, I think there has to be something like bondage going on, with mutual participation. She can't get the food herself. She's helplessly sprawled on the bed, but only because she chooses to eat huge amounts of food.

Trooper York said...

Sigh.

Gabriel Hanna said...

It is hard, presented with the end result of something that's been going on for decades, not to conclude there is something abnormal and twisted and work--and maybe there is. But they might be relatively normal people who got caught up in something that snowballed. Once you get too fat to move, it is very hard to come back. And it's hard to notice things that change little by little.

kent said...

(To maintain a weight of 700 pounds you need to eat 8400 calories a day.)

We need a new unit of measurement for discussing caloric intake at elevated rates such as these. I humbly submit: "The Baconator."

Withyouanon said...

http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3406369/Fat_Girls_and_Feeders_%28Documentary%29_%28SweSub%29_%5BTV-AnayRip%5D

Phil 314 said...

And as for the Professor's renewed sympatico with our embattled leader, she is
Madison as hell and she's not going to take it anymore!

former law student said...

To maintain a weight of 700 pounds you need to eat 8400 calories a day.

What's the source of this remarkable factoid? I'd think once you reached 400 or so your metabolism would barely be ticking over.

Withyouanon said...

Sorry - not a bot not a bot!
preview malfunction earlier.

For those with torrent capability - Channel 4's 2003 documentary, Fat_Girls_and_Feeders was enlightening.

(earlier)wv=proad -opposite of proana? as in proadipose

Gabriel Hanna said...

@fls:

What's the source of this remarkable factoid? I'd think once you reached 400 or so your metabolism would barely be ticking over.

The more tissue you have the more you need to do to maintain it. Fat cells need to be fed just like other cells.

Seriously, crack a goddamned biology book.

Gabriel Hanna said...

@fls:

Here's a place to start:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adipose_tissue


White fat cells or monovacuolar cells contain a large lipid droplet surrounded by a layer of cytoplasm. The nucleus is flattened and located on the periphery. A typical fat cell is 0.1mm in diameter with some being twice that size and others half that size. The fat stored is in a semi-liquid state, and is composed primarily of triglycerides and cholesteryl ester. White fat cells secrete resistin, adiponectin, and leptin. An average adult has 30 billion fat cells with a weight of 30 lbs or 13.5 kg. If excess weight is gained as an adult, fat cells increase in size about fourfold before dividing and increasing the absolute number of fat cells present.

Toad Trend said...

Nothing like an unhealthy co-dependency to ruin a family. They are both to be pitied, she for continuing to eat, and he for enabling.

Gabriel Hanna said...

@fls:

All those fat cells need a supply of blood so they can get oxygen and get rid of waste. All that blood requires blood vessels to carry it and the heart has to work harder to pump through all the extra blood vessels. Those blood vessels have to be built and maintained which requires a great deal of energy?

Isn't this obvious? Where on earth did you get the idea that fat person's metabolism "barely ticks over"?

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

2000 Calories per day will get this woman down to about 250 to 300 pounds in a year, on the lower end of that range if 7 or 8 months from now you get her out of bed and moving around.

There are people who legitimately struggle to get below 250 pounds, but the super obese have no excuse.

Feed her enough carbs to burn existing fat, give her lots of high-mineral vegetables (like kale) to keep her somewhat healthier, and restrict her protein to sardines.

She'll lose weight.

Triangle Man said...

@Gabriel

This calculator says that 4,705 calories would be needed to maintain 700 pounds, assuming she is 5' 6" tall. I checked others and they gave estimates of 4,500 - 4,600 calories per day. Clearly a larger body needs more calories than a smaller one, but 8,400 is way out of range.

AllenS said...

We need a Michelle Obama intervention.

yashu said...

True, we don't know what their relationship is; we're only speculating about strangers. But in support of the notion of a symbiosis in this apparently tragic situation, that each partner may be getting something (psychologically, and possibly erotically) from this relationship of extreme dependence, consider these quotes:

"I used to help people wash, feed and dress themselves. Back then I never thought that the tables would turn and someone would be doing all that stuff for me. […] I prayed for a man like Myron and he came to me. He's kind, gentle and he loves me for who I am. Even now he tells me I'm pretty, that man is amazing."

That "the tables would turn and someone would be doing all that stuff for me" is phrased, oddly, in such a way as to sound like something positive. She prayed for and found someone who would fufill that role.

Tank said...

This is a job for Michael Bloomberg.

Gabriel Hanna said...

@Triangle Man: Clearly a larger body needs more calories than a smaller one, but 8,400 is way out of range.

Not necessarily. Those calorie calculators were not developed with the super obese in mind, and they aren't that precise to begin with. They are linearly extrapolating from more-or-less normal people, and aren't always good for the super-athletic or the super-obese.

Anyway, the point is a really fat person does need to eat a lot more than a normal one just to stay fat. How much more, exactly, I doubt anyone really knows that very precisely.

Roger J. said...

as long as she is not living on the dole, then she can do what she wants--yeah she's obese--her problem, not mine, nor is it the states problem.

Something about personal responsibility etc etc

David said...

My wife brought me a dish of soup in bed today.

Should I worry?

kent said...

Related: Michael Moore checks in to $4,500 a week luxury weight loss spa

"Local Farmers, Grocery Chains Hardest Hit."

former law student said...

This calculator says that 4,705 calories would be needed to maintain 700 pounds, assuming she is 5' 6" tall.

And that assumes the woman is at least "Sedentary," while she is way beyond, at "Immobile."

I mean even the most sedentary person walks to and from the car, and to and from the bathroom. This woman doesn't even roll over in bed.

Titus said...

In one of the pics you can almost see her tits.

ricpic said...

She could tilt Cleveland into Lake Erie!*


*According to congresscrittur Hank Johnson.

CachorroQuente said...

8400 kcal is a lot. Where does all that energy go? She's not doing much work, so, the vast majority (almost all) of that energy is used to convert water to water vapor. If she were actually consuming 8400 kcal/day, it would be like a rain forest in there.

former law student said...

This article studied 25 people with BMI greater or equal to 35. (280 lb on a 5-11 frame) On average, they only burned 2000 calories a day.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
/17097530

Dust Bunny Queen said...

She is an American. She lives in Cleveland, OH

And as such, everyone in Ohio who works for a living and PAYS taxes is probably supporting this enormous bucket of lard, her entire family and paying for the enormous medical bills that she is getting from the Welfare State.

Please, do use her photo the next time the Democrats insist we should pay higher taxes to help out the poor starving masses.

madAsHell said...

My wife brought me a dish of soup in bed today.

Naaah...don't worry until she brings a bowl of soup!

ricpic said...

Was there a matzoh ball in that soup?

traditionalguy said...

There is a new Enabler born somewhere ever minute. But he forgot to bring her any water pills.

former law student said...

Apparently, 700 lb ladies are not all that rare. There was a dustup in Illinois a few months ago, when a Rockford-area ambulance company couldn't get the Springfield Fire Department to help them unload a 700 lb woman into her brother's trailer home. (Woman had been staying with a sister in Sherman, Ill, but had to be hospitalized* in Sycamore. After discharge she went to stay with her brother, Andy Johnson.)

The article goes on to state that an obesity epidemic was being felt by FDs across the country, with firefighters going on disability from the strain on their backs.

*The poor woman is chronically ill.

http://www.ems1.com/
fire-ems/articles/
880952-Ill-fire-department-turns-
down-request-to-help-lift-700-
pound-woman/

William said...

Sixrivets presents a persuasive explanation of their strange behavior. It does seem though that they are committed to a perversion that can never be consumated. Pehapss they're Catholics.

KCFleming said...

The husband -her guardian angel- reminds me of The Little Prince, tending an asteroid the size of a house, named B-612.

Which has three volcanoes...

KCFleming said...

All he needs is a little sheep.

cubanbob said...

Her required 'station keeping" calorie count can be measured with a simple basal metabolism test. Probably somewhere in the 4500 kcal/per day range.

Obviously she has a series of problems most of them medical that are the result of and continue too aggravate her weight. If you read the article she gained 91lbs in 30 days just from changing her diuretics. That sudden and massive weight (fluid retention) is not only shocking but points to medical malpractice. She should have been hospitalized then for immediately edema control. That sudden weight gain was the catalyst for her out of control wright gain.

I didn't see it in the article but at that weight she must be a type 2 diabetic and the medications for that stimulate appetite and weight gain. And what other medications she takes isn't stated but they too may increase appetite.

None of this takes away from her responsibility to try to gain control of her life and her husband's enabling but somehow if its a fat person it's all about one's character and how they should not be a burden on society. Yet when it comes to AIDS that attitude is deemed hateful. Or woman choosing to have kids without the benefit of marriage and without choosing a father that will stick around to help raise the kids, mention that and one is deemed a misogynist or worse. Or subsidizing people on welfare, are they not also a burden? Or subsidizing mortgages to people who under normal credit worthiness requirements would never qualify, that isn't a drain on society? The list goes on. What I find amusing is the libs who are outraged about the taxpayers getting stuck supporting the obese but are to obtuse to see the mote in their eyes.

Ironically The Cleveland Clinic is one of the best places in the world for weight loss surgery. A worse irony she is so heavy that she would probably need to lose a substantial amount of weight just to be healthy enough for the surgery. In the meantime her husband could do her a favor and put her on a liquid protein diet for rapid weight loss and reduction of organ inflammation and do so under medical supervision.

Craig Howard said...

It is hard, presented with the end result of something that's been going on for decades, not to conclude there is something abnormal and twisted and work--and maybe there is. But they might be relatively normal people who got caught up in something that snowballed.

I can buy that one. I am intrigued by the sexual overtones (undertones?). Men can fetishize most anything.

But I do wonder if it isn't just an old-fashioned situation that got out of control and became the new normal.

chickelit said...

My husband is my guardian angel

He stuck by her through thick and....
...oh wait.

♫ Gettin' lost in her lovin' was his first mistake ♫

Anonymous said...

Thank god for trailer trash to make fun of. Otherwise, you've got nothing around here.

Ann Althouse said...

"This calculator says that 4,705 calories would be needed to maintain 700 pounds, assuming she is 5' 6" tall. I checked others and they gave estimates of 4,500 - 4,600 calories per day. Clearly a larger body needs more calories than a smaller one, but 8,400 is way out of range."

My calculation is based on 12 calories per pound, which is what I have read is the standard. Obviously, she's extremely sedentary, so it needs to be less. But... whatever. If she ate 3000 calories a day, which is heavy eating, she'd get down to a reasonable fat weight like 300 and be able to walk around.

Unknown said...

While there might be some sexual tone to this one, morbidly obese people come in both sexes and are enabled by both sexes, indicating some other issue prevails.

the traveler said...

Enough with the "enabling" psychobabble. If it's a kink, and they're happy, unless you're Nanny Bloomberg or she's on the dole, it's nobody's business how much she weighs or what their kink is. (Believe me, by the standards of some kinksters I and mine are waaaay more "disturbed" and "dangeous" than these two.) If you're consenting adults, are aware of the risks of your behavior and take responsibility for them, everybody else can STFU if they don't like it.

And please, enough with the fat jokes. They're juvenile and pathetic.

kent said...

Thank god for trailer trash to make fun of. Otherwise, you've got nothing around here.

The failed Boy-King President faces open rebellion from his own openly contemptuous House Speaker and her assorted hunchbacked congressional groundlings.

The 'Rats staggeringly ineffectual Senate Majority Leader thoroughly and inarguably screwed the pooch on DADT, solely due to his own patent (and hysterical) inability to negotiate and chew bubblegum at the same time; thereby pissing away several dead certain "Yea" votes in the process.

Concurrently with all of this, a clear majority of the population now regards the hopeless, hapless Man-Child-In-Chief about as highly, roughly, as they might an all-night marathon of old Cop Rock reruns.

"Nothing," she sulks. Heh.

jr565 said...

He stuck with me through thick and thicker.

Barbara Lee said...

Y'all need to learn more about metabolic disease.