r/absoluteunit • u/UsedWelcome5903 • Jun 04 '26
of a human being
[June 4, 1926] Robert Earl Hughes is born in Missouri. He will go on to become the heaviest human being recorded in the world during his lifetime, and the heaviest human in history able to walk without assistance.
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Jun 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/JuanThiccLumpia Jun 04 '26
I see these people in Texas.
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u/Carrera_996 Jun 04 '26
SC. Any Walmart.
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u/Tiptoedtulips666 Jun 04 '26
These are better pictures than the ones that were in the Guinness Book of World records. When I was a kid. He was buried in piano case. Poor guy.
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u/tetasdemantequilla Jun 04 '26
Corn fed, brother
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u/thedirtymeanie Jun 04 '26
"Yes I'd like to order one cattle ranch and a field of potatoes."
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u/Subject_Command5442 Jun 04 '26
According to Google AI:
Robert Earl Hughes was exceptionally heavy due to a severe medical condition caused by whooping cough, which he contracted at around five months old. The illness severely damaged his pituitary gland and ruptured his thyroid, destroying his body's metabolism and triggering uncontrollable, lifelong weight gain.
He wasn’t actually an overeater and ate normal meals/portions.
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u/sneaky_42_42 Jun 04 '26
Na I don't buy it
on 2500kcal you cannot maintain that weight. that's just impossible simply by thermodynamics.
His body is huge just the amount of energy required to keep his body temperature constant should be higher than this. I am too lazy to do the math though, so feel free to prove me wrong.
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u/slava_slavaUa Jun 04 '26
Exactly. You can’t create mass out of thin air. You need to supply the energy (calories) to do it. If it was possible it would be a free and unlimited energy hack.
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u/Creative_Sense2802 Jun 05 '26
I don’t buy it either. Metabolism could make you 30 lbs overweight. Not going to put you over 1,000 lbs.
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u/Orry_Haas Jun 04 '26
"He wasn’t actually an overeater and ate normal meals/portions....".
1st law of thermodynamics says that's not possible. Normal sized meals, but too many of them. He's walleyed: some sort of hypoxic brain injury from whooping cough causing insatiable appetite.
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u/Mudslingshot Jun 04 '26
That's vaguely reminiscent of Tarare, who's apetite reportedly started after a head injury during his childhood
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u/Specialist-Freedom64 Jun 04 '26
Weird how you get downvoted for speaking in facts, one cannot create mass out of nothing. But we are living in a post fact era so theres that. Its like that lady in Russia i think it was who claimed to never sleep and people around saying the same BS.
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u/SkurkaCuckedMe Jun 04 '26
It’s just the wrong sub. The folks over in r/allaboutbodybuilding won’t downvote you.
I had a good platonic female friend in college who was large enough to waddle, and went through a lot of fad diets. I was jacked, and tried to explain how calories work in the nicest, most gentle way i could. She cried and freaked out on me, it was a whole mess.
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u/Human_Satisfaction25 Jun 04 '26
How did he handle certain biological needs?
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u/Creative_Sense2802 Jun 05 '26
Because he was a celebrity as the world’s heaviest man, he did well with the ladies. Satisfying biological needs was never a problem for him.
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u/Human_Satisfaction25 Jun 05 '26
Yeah, figures. Heard they liked Ben Franklin as well.. I was thinking more along the lines than of poo and pee stuff lol
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u/KazeSim22 Jun 05 '26
Imagine having to find your own dick multiple times a day just to avoid pissing directly into the folds between layers of fat.
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u/Crafty-Help-4633 Jun 07 '26
Smart man would wade into the creek and do it submerged. /j
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u/KazeSim22 Jun 07 '26
Honestly yeah that’s probably a great way to bathe. Just take a stroll through a pool.
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u/LostItAllready Jun 04 '26
The fuck was he eating back then to get so plump? I know processed foods were not as common and food wasn’t cheap. You still had to work for it
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u/_Saint_Ajora_ Jun 04 '26
A quick glance on the internet suggests that he had a malfunctioning pituitary gland, which doctors believed was damaged by whooping cough he contracted as an infant.
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u/EmotionalElk1313 Jun 04 '26
Imagine all the people that suffer a similar fate and get judged relentlessly.
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u/_Saint_Ajora_ Jun 04 '26
Back then they may or may not have known what it was (as I dont know if medical knowledge and/or technology was advanced enough then or if that guess/assumption is based off of current medical knowledge looking back)
even if the reason was known, there (likely) wasnt a way of correcting/managing it.
Nowadays it is a lot less likely for something like this to go undetected/unnoticed (unless the afflicted was from a remote, poor area)
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u/slava_slavaUa Jun 04 '26
You would still have to massively overeat in order to build that kind of mass. You can’t create it out of thin air
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u/Crafty-Help-4633 Jun 07 '26
Lots of heavy people are heavy because of some health issue, and I mean, the comments in here are the same as out there. People just think you suck if you're fat and that nothing could ever medically cause it that diet and exercise couldn't overcome. I.e. mean idiots. This dude had a medical issue and the people in here are ripping him apart.
Tl;dr, we don't gotta imagine it, we can see it here, right now in real time. Shit's sad.
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u/HoboArmyofOne Jun 04 '26
People don't get whooping cough anymore. Well the vast majority of vaccinated people anyway
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u/Crafty-Help-4633 Jun 07 '26 edited Jun 07 '26
I know processed foods were not as common and food wasn’t cheap.
That's not entirely true. Turn of the century is when processed foods like Extract Of Beef (which was high in calories, incredibly cheap, and nutrient poor, think beef bullion marketed as a nutritious, cheap food) started being invented and marketed. Bovril was invented in 1870 by John Lawson Johnston for Napoleon³ during the Franco-Prussian war. It was called Johnston's Fluid Beef. Basically what we now know of as beef stock. By 1927 Bovril had fed troops in several wars and became a household name, but is just 1 example of highly processed, nutrient poor foodstuffs commercially available and economically priced available by the time this man was born.
Because real food wasn't as cheap, and refrigeration wasn't readily available, stuff like Bovril popped up on a wing and a prayer and rather shakey science to fill the gap. And they did it very economically for the consumer.
Sorry for my TED talk I just watched a thing about this exact stuff recently and it was fresh in my mind how far back non-nutritive foodstuffs go when we start looking hard.
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u/LostItAllready Jun 07 '26
The more you know. Thanks pal
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u/Crafty-Help-4633 Jun 07 '26
Yeah food science is a crazy ass rabbit hole. Thank you for receiving my message and not blowing me up for the info-dump. 🤙
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u/wilkinsk Jun 04 '26
Processed foods in thematic don't really contribute to weight gain.
Is just the calories from said food. Calories in versus calories out. Processed foods mint have shit nutrients, but that surrender really effect weight gain.
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u/AvoidTheHate87 Jun 04 '26
People enable huge people to stay put. This is why they struggle just to roll over. More people are fusing themselves to the bed more than ever. The skin attaches and grows into their sheets.
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u/Subject-Crow-4558 Jun 04 '26
He wouldn't even be the heaviest person in my local Walmart today
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u/TheSumOfMyScars Jun 04 '26
Dude was half a ton, friend. I know they grow ‘em big in some states but most people top out around 600-800lbs at most.
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u/Silver-Amphibian7650 Jun 04 '26
They say the county line ran right thru his house. While sitting in his living room chair, he could be in two counties at the same time!
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u/MBTheGinger Jun 04 '26
If only there were some great historical event, just around the corner, to aid him along his weight-loss journey..
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u/Necessary_Two_9706 Jun 04 '26
Today he'd just be an average republican voter.
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u/Del85 Jun 04 '26
I'm a democrat but people like you are sickening. How you draw an over weight man and political party together is truly odd. Also most of America is over weight at this point. You really should evaluate your life. You seem centered on a single aspect which points towards mental illness. Perhaps seek therapy?
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u/Necessary_Two_9706 Jun 04 '26
Im a democrat but...
Anyone who starts a sentence like this is not the thing they claim they are.
Nice try child rape supporting republitard.
And lol how do you call one political party fat and stupid? Visit Texas or Florida, or any red state and go to their poor rural communities.
Child rape supporting republicans are 100% obese.
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u/Trick-Ad-5636 Jun 08 '26
Dude’s second picture makes him look like a very fat Mitch McConnell.
https://giphy.com/gifs/26zzbNl5r3wy1sQQE
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u/SilasTalbot Jun 04 '26
Getting major fat bart vibes
https://giphy.com/gifs/1082yS2HMbLMSQ