Thanks for the inspiration, Jeremy.

January 29, 2008 4:49 AM

There are lots of people who post weight loss videos on Youtube. But none of them faced as many challenges as Jeremy did. Morbidly obese, and bedridden, we watched while he struggled to walk again and defeat obesity. Despite those that were rude to him, nobody seemed to have as much spirit and drive as Jeremy did. Even Jeremy's last video was filled with optimism. But even though so many of us struggle against obesity, some of us lose the fight. Even though Jeremy has passed, Roberta's videos dealing with his loss remind us how fortunate we really are.
posted by smoothvirus (15 comments total)

Very sad.

I don't really understand, though, how obesity reaches this pitch. Once someone is actually unable to walk, don't their family and friends stop bringing them excessive amounts of food?
posted by Phanx at 5:12 AM on January 29, 2008

The mother of a friend of mine was bed-ridden, partly out of obesity but also out of a back injury. (It was actually a semi-catch-22--they wouldn't operate on the back of a person who was so fat and she couldn't exercise because of her back.)

I used to wonder the same thing: Can't the family just bring her less and less food until she's not so huge anymore? But looking back on it, she didn't really seem to eat that much. It's not like she had a huge banquet laid out on her mattress all the time. She had a sandwich and a pickle at lunch, maybe chicken for dinner, etc.

I don't know how my observations can be made to jibe with the laws of physics.
posted by DU at 5:33 AM on January 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Phanx, on his old web site he says he did not overeat and was very active, and at age 16 was diagnosed with Froelich's Syndrome:

Froehlich syndrome is a constellation of endocrine abnormalities believed to result from damage to the hypothalamus, a part of the brain where certain functions such as sleep cycles and body temperature are regulated. Froehlich syndrome appears to be acquired while certain other disorders that resemble it, such as Prader-Willi syndrome, are genetic.

This syndrome appears to affect males mostly. The more obvious and frequently encountered characteristics are delayed puberty, small testes, and obesity.

Perhaps there's a lesson in jumping to conclusions here for you.
posted by mediareport at 5:40 AM on January 29, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Once someone is actually unable to walk, don't their family and friends stop bringing them excessive amounts of food?

Sometimes, family is the most unhealthy thing of all.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:55 AM on January 29, 2008

Hey! How about a Richard Simmons warning!
posted by chillmost at 6:16 AM on January 29, 2008

.
posted by ZachsMind at 6:41 AM on January 29, 2008

hey girl. great vid. maybe next time you should take your top off and you'll get a lot more views. just letting you know. peace!

Sometimes I hate human beings.
posted by nzero at 7:09 AM on January 29, 2008

"I don't know how my observations can be made to jibe with the laws of physics."

Perhaps because people's resting metabolisms are different?
posted by InnocentBystander at 7:32 AM on January 29, 2008

That first Jeremy video has just floored me.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:35 AM on January 29, 2008

Could someone explain who Jeremy is and what happened to him?
posted by KokuRyu at 9:14 AM on January 29, 2008

I don't know, but I wonder if he spoke in class today.
posted by stevil at 9:22 AM on January 29, 2008 [4 favorites has favorites]

super morbid obesity has a lot of co-morbidities, many of which affect the person's ability to move around. you can watch any of those bbca or tlc or discovery channel specials on "the world's largest man" or whatever to learn more about those.

and, if you watch any of those specials, you'll find out that it's almost always the family bringing the bed-ridden obese person the fried chicken and ice cream and mountain dew. it's some kind of guilt or pity or something. at the same time they're bringing in food, they're telling the cameras how they'd love it if joe bob could lose the weight, but.....

and morbid obesity is rarely just a case of a person eating cake 24/7. you get that way through a lifetime of depression and feelings of helplessness and not moving around and perhaps medical issues. AND eating too much.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 11:11 AM on January 29, 2008

Regardless of a person's resting metabolism, you have to take in more calories you use to gain wait. That is in fact, a law of physics. You are correct DU. One of our lecturers at school is a world renowned nutrition expert, and he would stress this fact over and over again. He would go on to explain that the more weight a person gains, the higher their resting metabolism. So more food is necessary to maintain or gain weight.

Prader Willi doesn't cause a person to gain more wait, but rather have an unnatural craving for food. Often caretakers must lock cupboards and the refrigerators to keep their weight under control. It goes to show that more as it work than a person just being lazy.
posted by sicem07 at 1:52 PM on January 29, 2008

Poor kid.
posted by thirteenkiller at 5:21 PM on January 29, 2008

Sucks. non-sarcastic.
posted by Phire at 6:35 AM on January 30, 2008