Lifestyle

‘Pathological eater’ had to wear XXXXXXXXL clothes after his weight rocketed to a third of a tonne


‘Pathological eater’ Victor Gutierrez’s love of burgers and burritos saw his weight balloon to almost a third of a tonne (661lbs) and forced him to wear size XXXXXXXXL clothing (Pictures: Jeff Rayner/Metro US)

A ‘pathological eater’ had to wear XXXXXXXXL clothes after his weight ballooned to almost a third of a tonne.

Victor Gutierrez, 34, was forced to shop in specialist stores for 8XL garments and get his aunt to make his pants after tipping the scales at 661 pounds.

Victor, who works as a gas station clerk in San Clemente, California, was so big he struggled to fit his stomach under the steering wheel of his car.

He also required a seat belt extender to buckle himself in safely.

Victor’s shoe size swelled, and his weight also caused him crippling pain to the point where it hurt just to stand up – or even stay sitting down.

Victor Gutierrez grew so heavy it even hurt him to sit down. He would have to psyche himself up for the walk between his truck and front door after finishing a shift at work (Picture: Metro US)
Victor, from Los Angeles, would eat McDonald’s several times a day washed down with fruit juice and said ‘water was my enemy’ (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)

Victor told Metro US: ‘I had to buy shirts at big and tall stores.

‘And my pants were made by an auntie because the ones from the big and tall stores no longer fit.

‘The biggest size they had in pants was a 70 waist, and I was bigger than that….I felt like a monster.’

Victor says his weight ballooned thanks to an unhealthy diet, and worries about a brother who was regularly in and out of prison.

He explained: ‘My fiancee called me a pathological eater.

But Victor has dramatically slimmed-down undergoing a gastric sleeve operation, and now weighs just 280 pounds (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)
Victor was told he was too heavy for a gastric bypass operation, but eventually found a surgeon in Mexico who agreed to perform gastric sleeve surgery (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)

‘I would have a hamburger combo meal by myself, and then half an hour later my mother would call me, ask me out to eat, so I could go out and eat again and have another burger or meal

‘I drank fruit juice, sugary fruit drinks. I would never drink water, ever. Water was my enemy.

‘For breakfast I would have McDonald’s – two sausage McMuffins with egg, a breakfast burrito, two hash browns and an orange juice.

‘For lunch I’d have a breakfast burrito with fries and soda, sometimes two burritos.

‘My weakness was was bread, pastries, muffins, cheesecake.’

Victor says he loves being able to buy cheaper, normal-sized clothes in regular stores – and says he no longer ‘feels like a monster’ (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)
Victor is now down to a size ‘XL’ – and says his shoe size has also shrunk as his weight has decreased (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)

Victor said working night shifts in a convenience store gave him easy access to food and soda, and that he didn’t notice his weight creep up.

But his size had a terrible impact on his general health, as he explained: ‘It would physically hurt to even be on my feet.

‘After work I would stay in my truck parked because I had to build up the courage to walk 15 feet to my front door, it was so painful.’ Victor also neglected his social life, and would stay in his room and refuse to see friends because he was so self-conscious about his size.

Victor finally decided to do something about his weight after developing pockets of fat on his legs, and being warned by doctors his weight would kill him.

He attempted to organize a gastric band – a procedure which sees the stomach pinched to reduce its size – but was told he was too big to undergo the surgery safely.

Victor has swapped his old diet of burgers and burritos for lean meat, eggs, fish, rice – and lots of vegetables (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)
Victor’s stomach has dramatically shrunk in size, meaning each meal he eats now weighs just four ounces (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)

So Victor instead found a surgeon in Ensenada, Mexico who agreed to perform a gastric sleeve operation – where part of the stomach is cut out.

He went under the knife for the $4,500 surgery in March 2017, and began losing weight almost immediately afterwards.

Victor said: ‘I first started to notice the weight drop off after a month.

‘I started following a very active plan – eating high protein.

‘I started weighing out my food – four or five ounces per meal, and walking 20,000 steps a day.’

Victor’s weight loss surgery also helped him meet fiancee Taryn Lee Thompson, who has undergone a similar procedure. The couple plan to get married in 2021 (Picture: Jeff Rayner for Metro US)

The dieter swapped his old junk food-laden diet for spinach chicken salads, hard boiled eggs, lean beef with rice and snacks of yogurt and cucumber.

Victor was thrilled to see the weight drop off and his overall health improve, with compliments flooding in from family members and customers at the store where he works.

The slimmer now weights 284 pounds, and says he may celebrate reaching his goal weight of 270 pounds with a tattoo.

He even met his fiancee Taryn Lee Thompson, 37, in a support group for other slimmers, and is now saving to have excess skin left over after his weight loss removed by a surgeon.

Victor, who plans to marry Taryn in 2021, said: ‘I feel fantastic.

‘I still can’t believe it.

‘My fiance says “I can’t believe you used to be 661 pounds.”

‘We watch these TV shows about obese people all the time, and I can’t believe I used to be like that.

‘It’s unbelievable how well the surgery has worked. I don’t recognize who that person is. It’s not me anymore.’



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