The statistics don't lie -- more than two-thirds of American adults are considered overweight or obese. And that number's just going up. The availability of inexpensive, high-calorie foods has turned us into a nation of gluttons. Not everybody's happy with this, though, and the diet industry is making billions off of our lack of self-control, peddling quick fixes that usually just don't work. If you're thinking about losing a few pounds to get your body ready for the beach, read these 10 stories of people who lost weight to the extreme.
Paul Kimelman![paul kimelman, insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
Sometimes a man can only take so much before he snaps.
Paul Kimelman was a nice Jewish boy from the Bronx who moved to Pittsburgh with his mother as a teenager. Her cooking was so good that Paul had ballooned to a staggering 520 pounds by the age of 19. His new neighbors razzed him constantly about his weight, and in 1967, through an incredible act of will, Kimelman drastically changed his life. He immediately put himself on a diet that consisted of clear broth, grapefruit juice, skim milk and salad and started losing pounds like wildfire. In eight months, Kimelman lost an astounding 357 pounds, earning himself the Guinness World Record that he'd hold for more than a decade. Even cooler, he kept it off and has stayed fit his whole life.
Mayra Rosales![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
Texas woman
Mayra Rosales had pretty much given up on everything when her sister killed her two-year-old son by hitting him with a hairbrush. That's why the 1,000 pound woman agreed to take the blame for the boy's murder by telling police she'd accidentally rolled on him in her sleep. When police found the real culprit, Mayra realized that she needed to get it together to take care of her sister's remaining children. On an intense diet, Rosales -- who had earned the moniker "The Half Ton Killer" -- shed a staggering 800 pounds with 11 surgeries that also removed her excess skin. Even better, she's embarked on a healthy relationship with food to ensure that the weight doesn't come back.
Steve Vaught![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
Sometimes it takes a serious shock to the system to put your body on the right path.
Steve Vaught weighed a hefty 410 pounds in 2005 when he hatched the idea that would change his life. Suffering from depression, Vaught vowed to walk across the country from his Oceanside, California, home to New York City, one step at a time. That kind of distance on foot is a challenge for even a healthy man, but Vaught knew that he needed to get his life back by any means necessary. He shed 90 pounds over the course of his trek, but the news wasn't all good -- his wife filed for divorce and he went bankrupt after signing a book deal that didn't pan out. However, he came out the other end happier and healthier than he'd felt in years and ready to move on in a positive manner.
Michael Hebranko![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
For all the sass the media flings at flamboyant fitness guru Richard Simmons, you can't deny that the man has done some truly amazing things. One of Simmons' most incredible achievements was the utter transformation of
Michael Hebranko. The Staten Island man battled with morbid obesity his entire life, topping out at 1,180 pounds in 1988. That brought him to the attention of Simmons, who developed an exercise program that wouldn't tax his already strained body and created a diet that would reduce his caloric intake. The results were amazing -- Hebranko shed 924 pounds, one of the largest weight drops ever recorded. Unfortunately, as with many dieters, he couldn't stay away from his temptations and his weight started rising again. When he died in 2013, he weighed over 500 pounds.
Matt Briggs![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
Social media is a powerful force, but usually not for the right reasons. However, an unflattering Facebook photo was bad enough to make English man
Matt Briggs shed over half of his ample weight. The shot, which was posted in December of 2009, showed the 434-pound Briggs sitting with his father on a couch, completely dwarfing the older man. Being confronted with inarguable evidence of his obesity spurred Briggs into action, and over the next two years he ate well, exercised and dropped down to a healthy 192. His life has completely changed, so think about that next time somebody posts a picture of you from a bad angle.
Jon Minnoch![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
The thing about losing weight is that doctors tell you to try not to do too much at once. The shock to the system that liquidating excess fat causes can be incredibly difficult to handle. But for
Jon Minnoch, time was of the essence. The Bainbridge Island, Washington, man was, in his day, the heaviest fellow in the world at a top weight of 1,400 pounds. That massive weight wasn't just from eating, though -- Minnoch suffered from a rare form of edema that caused fluid to accumulate in his tissues. Doctors estimated that over 900 pounds of his body was fluid alone. After being hospitalized, he embarked on a strict 1,200 calorie a day diet that shucked the pounds off at breakneck speed. On average, Minnoch was losing a flabbergasting 57.7 pounds every month. Sadly, he couldn't keep the weight off and died in 1983.
Rosalie Bradford![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
When you tip the scales at over half a ton, your weight loss options are pretty limited. Regular exercise and a balanced, low-calorie diet simply aren't possible. So for
Rosalie Bradford, who weighed in at 1,050 pounds at her peak, getting herself down to a healthier weight was a huge struggle. Bradford, who blamed being abandoned as a child for her food addiction, turned her life around starting in 1989 after a failed suicide attempt. She contacted diet guru Richard Simmons after hearing about what he did for Michael Hebranko, and the fitness superstar spent the next year and a half keeping her on a restricted diet that led to one of the largest weight drops in history -- a flabbergasting 736 pounds. She continued to struggle with her size until she passed away in 2006.
Manuel Uribe![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
Anybody can lose weight -- even the world's heaviest man.
Manuel Uribe was, at one point, recognized by the Guinness Book for his staggering 1,230 pounds of personhood. But after he set the record in 2006, doctors warned him that being so obese was incredibly hazardous to his health, and he decided to make a change. The Mexican government appointed several doctors to help him manage his eating habits, and their influence worked -- by the time he got married in 2008, Uribe had lost the world record, which he celebrated. Unfortunately, Uribe passed on in 2014 before the end of his weight loss journey. By the end of his life, Uribe had shed a staggering 363 pounds, which considering he was incapable of exercise was quite a feat.
Carol Yager![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
One of the heaviest women ever measured, Michigander
Carol Yager tipped the scales at 1,200 pounds at her heaviest. Unlike some of the others on this list, she didn't seem to consume massive quantities, but something about her body just couldn't lose weight. In 1993, she checked into a hospital with a bacterial infection and was placed on a primarily liquid 1,200 calorie a day diet. Despite being bedridden and ill, in just three months, Yager shed 521 pounds. That stands as the single largest non-surgical weight loss of all time. Doctors theorize that much of her mass was composed of water, which can be lost fairly easily. Despite this incredible achievement, Yager passed away of kidney failure the next year.
Ross Edgeley![insane weight loss stories, crazy weight loss before and after]()
Most of the weight loss stories in this article have been marathons, but this one's a sprint. In 2013, sport scientist
Ross Edgeley set out to prove that a normal human's weight can fluctuate by over 10 percent in any given day by forcing himself to lose 24 pounds in 24 hours. This insane feat didn't involve any amputations, thankfully. He started his day with natural diuretics like dandelion to force himself to flush out as much water weight as possible. Edgeley then took a hot bath in Epsom salts to further dehydrate, followed by running on a treadmill with four layers of clothes on. All he ate was a sort of baby food slurry of greens. He ended the day with a trip to the sauna and came out a flabbergasting 24 pounds lighter, wrinkled and weak as a kitten.
