http://start.localnet.com/article.php?article=D917P1381.html
says right there in the article
It is all because of the junk food," he said.
(link contains his pic)
700-pound Mexican man hopes to be able to stand on his own feet to get
married
By MARK WALSH
Associated Press Writer
(AP) 04:41:44 AM (ET), Wednesday, June 11, 2008 (MONTERREY, Mexico)
Manuel Uribe, who once weighed a half ton but has slimmed down to about
700
pounds, celebrates his 43rd birthday on Wednesday with a simple wish for
the
coming year: to be able to stand on his own two feet to get married.
Interviewed at his home in northern Mexico, where he can still do little
more than sit up on a bed, Uribe said more than two years of steady
dieting
have helped him drop about 550 pounds from his Guinness record weight of
1,235 pounds.
He hopes Guinness representatives will confirm in July that he holds a
second title: The world's greatest loser of weight.
But Uribe is still unable to walk his fiancee, Claudia Solis, down the
aisle.
"It frustrates me a little, because it is not easy to get out," said
Uribe,
who has not been able to leave bed for the last six years.
His most recent attempt to escape the house _ to attend Solis' 38th
birthday
party in March _ fell through when a flatbed tow truck brought to
trans****t
his reinforced bed got caught beneath an underpass.
But Uribe vowed not to be deterred: "We are in love, and this year my
birthday wish is to be able to stand when we get married," he said.
Uribe said he met Solis, a 38-year-old hairdresser, four years ago. They
have been together for the last two.
"We are a couple," Uribe said. "We have ***, and in the eyes of God we are
already married."
Proudly showing off her sparkling engagement ring, Solis said life with a
heavyweight is not always easy.
"I bathe him every day, and we get along very well," she said. "At times,
yes, people say things ... that it's a fake relation****p, but what we have
is real."
Solis said her family initially opposed the match with Uribe, because her
first husband, who was also obese, died of respiratory failure.
"They were worried about me being involved with another fat man, because
they thought another husband would die on me," she said.
Uribe, a former auto parts dealer, said his birthday party Wednesday will
be
a low-key dinner with the family.
"We were going to go out, but the last time out scared me so much," he
said.
"When we crashed into the lighting conduits on the underpass, I thought we
were going to get an electric shock."
Uribe said his weight problem spiraled out of control after he moved to
the
United States for a few years in 1988 and indulged in a nonstop diet of
junk
food and soft drinks.
A botched liposuction that damaged his lymph nodes left him with giant
tumors on both legs weighing a total of 220 pounds. The tumors are the
main
reason he is unable to walk.
"It is all because of the junk food," he said.
About two years ago, a team of doctors stepped in to help Uribe change his
eating habits and tackle his extreme obesity.
Today he says he eats small ****tions of food five times a day, including
chicken, ham, egg-white omelets, fruit and vegetables. Sitting in bed,
Uribe
exercises his arms with pull-ups and by pedaling with his hands.
Hoping his struggle will inspire others, he plans to launch the Manuel
Uribe
Foundation this year to educate people about nutrition and to combat
obesity
_ a growing problem in Mexico.
Solis is focused more on the present.
"It is a miracle he is still alive," she said. "He's going to turn 43, and
that is something we have to celebrate."
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