Half-Ton Man

I realise it was on earlier this week, but last night I finally got round to watching Channel 4’s Bodyshock programme “Half Ton Man” about Patrick Deuel, who was admitted to hospital weighing 76stone (over 1,000lbs).

Thankfully the programme didn’t focus just on Deuel, but on other people who had similar weight issues, including one man who had managed to lose nearly 30 stone in weight, only to put it back on again, and then lose it. It made for fascinating viewing, but at the same time I found it remarkably sad. All the people involved talked about their need for food being similar to an addiction, but it was the guy who had lost, then regained the weight that summed it up for me.

“I got down to 150lbs, and went out to have a celebratory frankfurter. And one turned into two. And two turns into three, and into four. And of course you’ve got to have the frankfurter with fries. And the fries have to have cheese on”

“Other people who binge on food might put on 5lbs, maybe even ten. When I have I binge, I put on 20, 25, even 30lbs”

That’s exactly the same reaction as an alcoholic – one drink is never enough. It turns into two, three, four, the bottle.

I found the programme sad, but it also made me wander wonder (sorry) about the partners and family of the people involved. In Deuel’s case, when he got married when he was 40-odd stone, but at that point he could still walk, stand up, and so on. Over the next ten years though, he ended up laying on a bed, unable to move, unable even to turn himself over. A huge mass of fat, still eating – the doctor in the programme said that just to maintain his weight, he must’ve been eating 12,000 calories per day – and doing nothing else. In that situation, you’d think that at some point the wife would turn around and say “Hang on, don’t you think this has gone just a bit too far? Can’t you see this isn’t doing you any good?” – to at least say something to them, not keep on feeding them…