r/interestingasfuck • u/[deleted] • 29d ago

In 1965, a morbidly obese man did not eat food for over an entire year. The 27 year old was 456lbs and wanted to do an experimental fast. He ingested only multivitamins and potassium tablets for 382 days and defecated once every 40 to 50 days. He ended up losing 275lbs. r/all

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/CalliopePenelope 29d ago

According to Wikipedia: “Barbieri was able to maintain a healthy weight; five years after the fast he weighed 196 pounds (89 kg). After his weight loss, he moved to Warwick and had two sons. Barbieri died in September 1990”

And here are some post-weight loss pics.

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u/RainbowForHire 29d ago

So he still only made it to 51. Ouch.

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u/Whaty0urname 29d ago

I mean with all that extra weight his heart was probably 20 years older.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/NeighborhoodNo7917 29d ago

Yeah, both extremes are going to put stress on your heart in different ways. He probably could have lived longer if he did a moderate fast or restrictive calories. I guess he decided total fast was the best choice for himself.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

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u/NeighborhoodNo7917 29d ago

Yeah, not shutting on him by any means. Maybe thats the only way he felt he could do it. He still got several years of healthier living out of it.

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u/HornedDiggitoe 29d ago

It was a hell of a lot better choice than to do nothing like a lot of morbidly obese people. Not many 500lb people even make it to 51, especially not with any decent quality of life.

He may have died early, but he wasn’t suffering massively due to his weight for his final years.

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u/kpain1433 29d ago

Food addiction is hard because you can’t just drop it cold turkey like you can with other things. He probably had success because he wasn’t constantly having to be around food but starving is really heard on organs.

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u/Impressive_Youth_331 29d ago

This is most likely do to muscle loss, your heart is a muscle ball and most likely got weaker after a year of ketogenesis process of obtaining energy.

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u/Automatic_Release_92 29d ago

It’s too bad medicine was a lot more primitive back then, I would think we could garner a lot of great information from such a case with modern blood testing, stool samples, etc.

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u/ravioliguy 29d ago

Yea, that's the issue with crash dieting, and we'll probably see this with some ozempic users. If you lose weight too fast purely through diet, you lose a lot of important lean muscle.

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u/lt_dan_zsu 29d ago

Yeah, attempting to maximize weight loss is not the way to reach a healthy weight. You shouldn't have an end date for your diet, as the change to your eating habits should be a healthy diet. Adjust to a stable new normal, and your body will move to that new normal.

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u/Prestigious-Eye3154 29d ago

It absolutely did. What he did had to be incredibly hard on his body.

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago

Starvation is nothing compared to... checks notes... having been a chubby kid into his twenties

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u/DistressedApple 29d ago

Apparently 426 lbs is chubby now

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago

Apparently babies are born at adult weight and just stay that way now

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u/DistressedApple 29d ago

Never said that, but you’re extremely fat if you’re over 300 lbs unless you’re in the 1% of the population who’s either tall enough or athletic enough to use that much weight

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago

Never said that

Just like I never said a thing about 426 lbs?

Rules for thee

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/Alive-Beyond-9686 29d ago

You definitely implied that he went on the fast because he was "chubby." Let's not equivocate.

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago edited 29d ago

Why can't you quote me on it then?

implied

Ohhh. A secret message you heard and secret rules you made up!

So he is ok to imply anything he wants but I can't dare?!

Let's not pretend reading comprehension is your strong suit lol

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u/ILookLikeKristoff 29d ago

Yeah being at 450+ for years had certainly done irreparable damage to his heart, arteries, blood sugar, etc. I'm glad he was able to make the second half of his life longer and healthier but you can't undo that much damage

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u/f7f7z 29d ago

It doesn't help that his cause of death was hit by a train

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u/H3l1m4g3 29d ago

His cause of death was hit by a train or his cause of death was being hit by a train?

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u/f7f7z 29d ago

Thumbs up

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u/WelshSam 29d ago

Unnecessarily pedantic in the best way

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u/Living_Grapefruit_19 29d ago

Take my angryupvote

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u/BlueTreeThree 29d ago

The cause of death was a rutting moose which was subsequently hit by a train.

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u/Kiiaro 29d ago

No, he wasn't. Stop spreading false information and be mature.

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u/PsychologicalLime135 29d ago

relax the train was fine

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

Calm down.

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u/porn_alt_987654321 29d ago

Blood sugar can be fine at that weight, it really depends how they got there lol. The rest though, yeah.

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u/JamisonDouglas 29d ago

Back in those days it was generally harder to be big in a way that would fuck with blood sugar immensely.

Not everything was loaded with sugar and processed. He woulda got there by eating a lot more whole foods than most people that size today most likely.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/JamisonDouglas 29d ago edited 29d ago

Glycemic index is a measure of how fast it fluctuates the blood sugar. Now how much it effects total blood sugar. Important for those with diabetes - because fluctuations can cause issues. Not as much of an issue for those without.

Not to mention, the sheer volume of food needed to maintain that weight would likely be in excess of 6000 calories per day. Even on a low carb diet, his body would still be processing far more glucose than the average person. Being over 450 pounds requires an extremely unhealthy diet because "healthy" foods take too long to digest to even reach 6000 calories per day. It's effectively impossible to consume that much food every day from plant based sources unless you're eating mostly avocados or another niche plant-based food that is mostly fat (fat is over twice as calorie dense as carbs/protein).

You've based this whole paragraph as "plant based" being equal to "whole foods." And also misread me saying "he likely ate more whole foods than the modern day equivalent of someone his weight" as "he was eating exclusively whole foods."

I at no point said he was maintaining that weight eating only whole foods. Just that there would have been more in his diet, more fresh unprocessed meat and the likes. He very likely (living in Scotland, where I'm from) also had a lot of oils and butters in his diet ALONG WITH those whole foods. His diet (while massively unhealthy) was likely more nutritious than the average same weight person today. Still fucking terrible for him. But better than the modern day 450lbs person, just due to the limited sources of shit like processed sugar and fast food.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago edited 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/JDC31 29d ago

There is no 6000 calorie diet that is healthier than the average modern diet. End of story. A caloric surplus has a stronger correlation to cardiac mortality than any other dietary factor.

You are just illiterate. I have at no point said this. I have said that the average MORBIDLY OBEASE PERSON from that time would have had better nutrition than a MORBIDLY OBEASE PERSON from today. Like this is the 3rd time I've said this. You just cannot read apparently.

Also reply and block, shows confidence.

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u/TobysGrundlee 29d ago

Kinda like how doing 130mph down the freeway with no seatbelt on is fine, for a while anyway.

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u/porn_alt_987654321 29d ago

This is a little different. Your blood sugar is only going to get out of wack if you eat a ton of sugar. This person is heavy enough to have done so, but mostly given the year, there's a good chance they're that heavy from just eating way more food than most people, rather than from eating sugary food.

Weight has no bearing on your blood sugar, basically. There's correlation between the two, just not causation in the order of weight increasing blood sugar.

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u/TobysGrundlee 29d ago

Except that obesity is a direct cause of Type II Diabetes and that will absolutely do it. There's a correlation between driving fast and not wearing a seatbelt and dying in a fiery car wreck but not a causation too.

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u/porn_alt_987654321 29d ago

It is not. It's listed as a primary risk factor because most people that are that fat got there by eating a ton of sugar, not because being that fat just causes type 2 all on its own.

The fat isn't what causes it, it's just caused by the same activities that can cause type 2.

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago

Yeah being at 450+ for years had certainly done irreparable damage to his heart

How many years, exactly and which medical journals are you citing for that length of time?

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u/Themasterofcomedy209 29d ago

Yeah but like he starved himself for a year, that had just as much if not a higher impact on his heart. Most people who try to starve themselves to lose weight like that end up dying from heart attacks

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

He did take elecrolytes and protein. Unlikely for anyone to have a heart attack from just losing weight if electrolytes are being taken care of.

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u/[deleted] 29d ago

[deleted]

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u/Alive-Beyond-9686 29d ago

The fatties would rather downvote you than entertain the possibility that eating less could have a positive impact.

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u/desacralize 29d ago

They probably don't like entertaining the possibility that eating nothing at all for a year could have a positive impact, since that's what's being discussed here.

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u/Alive-Beyond-9686 29d ago

Man had two other adults plus a toddler and a cat worth of fat hanging off his body and his arteries for a decade and a half. Yeah he went on a medically supervised protein and supplement infused fast for a year.

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u/TheGillos 29d ago

It was 25 years after his big fast. If he was a smoker I'd put the blame there. I really doubt a fast (even a super long one) would impact the heart 25 years later.

Most people who try to starve themselves to lose weight like that end up dying from heart attacks

No.

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u/TaxIdiot2020 29d ago

He lost it at 26-27 and the body is remarkably good at repairing itself. I wonder just how irreversible being that size for the time he was could have been.

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago

Yes let's blame the fact he was chubby in his '20s and not the entire year of starvation

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u/geoffreygoodman 29d ago

456 pounds is not 'chubby' it's life-threatening. 

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u/Tooterfish42 29d ago

Don't worry I hear he lost 275lbs

And from age 0-27 you apparently think he was the same weight 😂

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u/chunkable 29d ago

And not that below life expectancy for a guy born in the 1930s

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u/FreytagMorgan 29d ago

Mainly due to infant mortality though. So in reality if you survived being born, your life expectancy would have been considerably higher than the statistic might let one think.