Mexico's 'Half-Ton Man' Sheds Nearly 400 Pounds... Just 575 to Go
SAN NICOLAS DE LOS GARZA, Mexico — Manuel Uribe, who once weighed half a ton,
left his house Wednesday for the first time in five years.
Six people pushed Uribe's wheel-equipped iron bed out to
the street, as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered to see the man who
once weighed 1,235 pounds.
"The sky is beautiful and blue and what I want is to
enjoy the sun," Uribe said after taking a sip from a champagne bottle.
Unable to leave his bed for more than five years, Uribe
has lost 397 pounds since he began a high-protein diet a year ago. He now weighs
about 840 pounds.
To celebrate the milestone, a forklift placed Uribe's
bed onto a trailer pulled by a pickup truck and the 41-year-old mechanic rode
through the streets of San Nicolas de
los Garza, a Monterrey
suburb.
Dozens of reporters and photographers followed Uribe as
he passed the town's plaza and church, waving at clusters of people eager to get
a glimpse of him.
"It fills me with joy to see he's getting better and getting a
little sun," Uribe's neighbor Guadalupe Guerra said. "I would go crazy if I had
to be inside my house for so many years."
Uribe was a chubby kid, weighing more than 250 pounds as an
adolescent. In 1992, he said his weight began ballooning further.
Since the summer of 2002, Uribe has been bedridden, relying on
his mother and friends to feed and clean him.
He drew worldwide attention when he pleaded for help on
national television in January 2006. Afterward, an Italian and a Spanish doctor
both visited and offered him gastric bypass surgery.
But Uribe chose to accept help from Mexican nutritionists
working with the Zone diet. He says he will stick to that diet until he reaches
his goal weight of 265 pounds.
"My goal is to leave the house on my own but I know that will
be a long process," he said.
Doctors say it may take between three and four years for Uribe
to reach his goal.
Uribe said he plans to start a foundation to help overweight
people get medical assistance and teach them about healthy eating habits.
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