Extreme Weight Loss: Stories of Remarkable Transformations

People may gain dangerous amounts of weight because of poor eating or exercising habits, or because of diseases or other conditions which may be difficult to control. An American woman is notable for losing more than 900 lbs.

Guinness World Record for Women's Weight Loss

• Rosalie Bradford weighed more than 1,200 lbs., making her the heaviest known woman in Guinness World Records history in the early 1990s. However, Bradford earned a second world record honor when she went on to lose 917 lbs., making her weight loss the greatest known at the time.

  Bradford recognized Richard Simmons, the media personality known for creating aerobics videos, for giving her instructions and encouragement in losing weight.

Guinness World Record for Men's Weight Loss

• Jon Brower Minnoch weighed about 1,400 lbs. in the late 1970s, though an accurate weight measurement was impossible because of his size. He had a condition called edema that caused his body to store excess fluid, and which proved to be difficult to treat.

  Minnoch was put on a strict 1,200 calorie-a-day diet and lost about 924 lbs. after more than a year. However, Minnoch eventually died because of edema, which caused him to gain more than 200 lbs. again in the last three years of his life.

World's Heaviest Man

• The current heaviest known man is Manuel Uribe, a Mexican man who once weighed in at more than 1,250 lbs. When last documented, Uribe had lost more than 550 lbs.