Worlds heaviest woman died last year

It seems like the media is constantly reporting on obese people dieing who are in their 20s, 30s, or 40s.

The assumption is that obesity is a killer disease.

Despite what the media says, the truth is that there’s a huge controversy about obesity’s real impact on people’s health.

I’m not going to go into all the research here. Just understand that the evidence related to obesity’s impact on health is VERY INCONSISTENT.

However, I found an obituary back in December pretty interesting.

Do you know the name Rosalie Bradford?

I didn’t until I read this obituary.

It turns out she holds the Guinness Book of Records for being the world’s heaviest person. In 1987, she weighed 1,050 pounds. At that weight, she was 8 feet wide and took 90 minutes to bathe.

Then she discovered Richard Simmons, the television fitness character — and by 1992 she held a second Guinness world record.

Yep, she lost 736 pounds, dropping to a weight of 314 pounds at the age of 49 (about 3 pounds lost per week).

Sadly, she died when she was 63 — but she lived a whole lot longer than most people would probably have predicted.

Here’s the reality — a lot of extra weight probably isn’t good for your health, but it probably isn’t the killer it’s often made out to be.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness