Many people suffer from obesity nowadays. It’s a very common occurrence and can stem from several reasons. This can range from junk food consumption to trauma and depression as well. But no matter the reason for suffering from obesity, the consequences on the body is often very stressful and negative.

While many people do try to lose weight through various methods, but it’s a hard road to the top and many fail to reach there. Yet one man by the name of Juan Pedro Franco dubbed the fattest man in the world was able to lose weight and become a beacon of inspiration.

The Mexican, 35-year-old Juan Pedro Franco cemented his place in the Guinness World Records in 2017 as the fattest man in the world. The Mexican man, an experienced guitarist was bedridden for a long time at the risk of death from his excessive weight.

Juan Pedro is now back on his feet and can move around after he shed an incredible 728lbs in just three years. He is now able to walk after the surgery even though he has to use a stick. With this incredible feat, he has now bid goodbye to his title of the world’s fattest man.

He was able to drop the weight with the help of therapy, dieting, and surgery. He now weighs just under 574lbs and can move around a little and sits down all by himself. But how did he even get unfathomably obese?

Juan Pedro’s Weight Increase

Juan Pedro’s weight increased as a result of a crippling traffic accident he was in as a teenager. But that wasn’t all. The accident along with a bout of pneumonia made him spend around ten years in a bed.

He appealed for help when he announced that he weighed more than 60 stone. That’s not all, he also admitted that he hadn’t left his box room for six years. Juan Pedro also feared that he would die since he had to quit a special kind of diet that his OAP parents just couldn’t afford. He said at the time that:
“When I was six years old I already weighed nearly 10 stone and it’s gone up and up since.”

He also said:

“At 17 I weighed just over 36 stone. That was when I had an accident and broke half my body and spent a year and a half in bed.”

His condition became world news in November of 2016 when pictures came out of him being transported from his home which is in the central Mexican city of Aguascalientes to a doctor’s clinic in Guadalajara that is a hundred miles away. Pedro was so heavy that he couldn’t walk at all and he had to be taken to a hospital by using a metal zimmer frame.

Back in 2016, doctors thought that he weighed 79 stones but they later found out that he weighed 15 stones heavier than their initial estimation.

Juan Pedro’s Recovery

Juan Pedro told the Telemundo show Al Rojo Vivo that:
“Just being able to lift your arms and get up every day, get up for a glass of water or to go to the toilet, makes you feel great. It feels fantastic to be able to move more and be more self-sufficient.”

If there’s one person who has been repeatedly credited with playing a key part in saving Juan Pedro then it’s specialist Jose, Antonio Castaneda. He was the one who performed his gastric bypass surgery.

It took Juan Pedro’s three stomach reduction operations to transform his life. These operations changed his life but he is waiting for another surgery that will help him get rid of loose skin which is thought to weigh nearly 15 stone.
Currently, he is fully free of hypertension and diabetes which puts him in danger of losing his life.

The Story Of Manuel Uribe

Juan Pedro’s predecessor, compatriot Manuel Uribe had the title of the world’s heaviest man before him at 94 stone. Uribe’s story had a happy ending as well. He too was able to lose half of his body weight with the help of nutritionists and doctors.

Uribe drew attention to his condition in January 2006 when he made an emotional plea on a Mexican TV network about his condition. His plea worked and he was able to find both public and private help for his condition.

He also spoke to Telemundo about his lifesaving weight-loss surgeries. He was also featured on a 2007 television documentary called “The World’s Heaviest Man”. The show dealt with his bedridden life and attempts to overcome his obesity.

Uribe died on May 26, 2014, in Monterey, his native city, located in northern Mexico at the age of 48. He was 62 stone at the time. This was a far improvement over the 94 stone that he weighed at his peak obese condition.

The Story Of Jon Brower Minnoch

But Juan Pedro doesn’t come close to the weight of Jon Brower Minnoch who was named as the world’s heaviest man. He is said to have weighed more than a hundred stones when he was finally admitted in 1978 to a US hospital.

The surgeries performed on him reduced his weight to 57 stone but he couldn’t survive for many more years to enjoy his newfound freedom. He died five years later.

Nearly 75 percent of adults in Mexico are considered to be obese or overnight. The prevalence of diabetes also ranks amongst the very highest in the whole world in this country. The entire condition was so bad that Mexico had to declare a nationwide epidemiological emergency on diabetes.

While the condition and outlook for Juan Pedro are good because of the help he was able to get but the same is not true for others. While their condition might not be as bad as that of Juan Pedro but this also means that they are not able to get the kind of medical attention that they require. Yet efforts are being made to help these obese people get the help they need.