Jon Brower Minnoch

Born in September 1941, Minnoch had been obese since childhood and spent his adult years running a taxi company on Bainbridge Island, Washington, typically weighing between 800 and 900 pounds. In March 1978, after three bedridden weeks on a doctor-ordered 600-calorie diet failed, firefighters transported him to the University of Washington Medical Center, where physicians diagnosed severe edema and estimated his weight at roughly 1,400 pounds. Over two years on a 1,200-calorie hospital regimen, he lost more than 900 pounds—the largest documented human weight loss at that time. He regained much…