Jon Brower Minnoch: How the heaviest man on earth weighing 1400lbs lived a normal life
Shows like 'My 600-lb Life' have paved the way for people to see how obesity and eating addiction slowly takes their life. However, the show also gave hope to those who have struggled with weight for a long time and have wanted to change their life. While the viewers have managed to see the lives of some of the heaviest people on the show, there was one person who is known for being heavy but never made it to the show.
Jon Brower Minnoch holds the record for being the heaviest man on the planet. Weighing 1400lbs, Minnoch holds the Guinness World Record for his weight. He suffered obesity since childhood but it wasn't until it started affecting his health that people started paying close attention to him. Due to his weight, Minnoch started experiencing problems related to heart and edema, as reported by All That's Interesting.
In 1978, he suffered a heart attack and was admitted to University Hospital in Seattle. His weight created hurdles for people to take him to the hospital. With the help of many firemen and a special stretcher, Monnoch was finally taken to the hospital. However, this was not the end of problems for them.
Once he reached the hospital, two beds had to be joined together to make sure he could sit while 13 nurses had to help so that he was moved in easily. Once admitted, Minnoch was kept under a strict diet. His calorie intake was limited to 1200 and within a year he lost 924lbs and now weighed 476lbs.
While everyone was convinced this would be a turning point in his life, things changed once he was discharged from the hospital. Minnoch went back to his old habits and gained half of the weight he had lost. Weighing 796lbs, Minnoch was still overweight. Despite this, he went on to live a normal life.
In 1978, he got married to Jeannette and the pair went on to have two children. Unfortunately, his health complications did not allow him to have a long life. Due to his weight, his edema was untreatable and that became the cause of his death in 1983.
To date, no one has come close to breaking his record for the heaviest person. One person who came close to it was Juan Pedro Franco Salas who weighed 1,105 lb. Salas had suffered from obesity since childhood and an accident that took place when he was 17 made his condition worse. "My body just followed its own path without any control whatsoever," he said. "I tried to diet day after day, but nothing worked and I became desperate."
Despite his weight, Salas was an accomplished guitar player but his dreams of becoming a bigger musician were put on hold once his weight started taking over his life. Due to his weight, he became a prisoner in his body, and that ultimately resulted in him giving up on his dreams.
He finally decided to turn his life around in 2016 when he left his house for the first time in seven years to undergo weight loss surgery. However, "he was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes, thyroid dysfunction, hypertension, and liquid in his lungs". The doctors advised him to lose weight naturally and in a bid to get approved for the surgery, and he managed to lose 374lbs. Following the surgery, he was able to shed more weight and controlled his eating habits. He was back on his feet and aimed to shed more weight to get back to his normal life.