Extreme Yo-Yo Dieter

Michael Hebranko has been fluctuating in weight for decades, but his unhealthy lifestyle has led him down the wrong path.

Michael was born in Brooklyn in 1954. After the birth the child weighed 3.8 kg (8.4 lb.) but he grew up to 160 kg (352.7 lb.) by the age of 16. As Hebranko recalls, his appetite grew together with his body – he could eat a dozen of eggs and a pile of pancakes with syrup merely as an appetizer.

The public heard about Michael Hebranko for the first time in 1989, when a man engaged into the advertising campaign of Richard Simmons’s diet, claiming in talk shows and TV-commercials that it helped him reduce his weight from 411 (906 lb.) to 90 kg (198.4 lb.). His waist went down from 275 (108.3 in) to 75 (29.5 in) cm.

Michael lost 23 kg (51 lb.) after the surgical removal of fat from belly, arms, legs and breast. He also considerably benefited from getting cured of numerous edemas.

Having lost so much weight Hebranko started to travel across the country, giving lectures about his miraculous loss of 321 kg (707 lb.). And here is where his power of will betrayed him.

Michael returned to his past habit of indulging in food and in 1996 the news of him once again hit the headlines – the rescue team had to carry the 507 kg (1118 lb.) man out of his house by a forklift since he was so large that he couldn’t pass the doors. After spending 18 months in hospital and trimming down to 267 kg (588.6 lb.) Michael started to overeat again.

Since then his weight fluctuated between 311 (685.6 lb.) and 159 kg (350.5 lb.). Recently the doctors have informed the man, who presently weighs 266 kg (586.4 lb.), that he definitely won’t survive unless he loses at least 63 kilos (139 lb.).