- While this result may have been foreseeable, it’s still just as tragic.
Losing weight takes a lot of hard, grueling work. It can really help you commit if you have an inspiring story of weight loss, even from a stranger, to keep you motivated.
Sadly, a poorly planned attempt to provide people with such a story recently claimed the life of a fitness coach.
Dmitry Nuyanzin, a Russian fitness pro, wanted to motivate people to lose excess weight (and promote his weight-loss program while he was at it). He decided that the best way to do so was to use himself as a guinea pig.
He started an intense weight-gain regimen to gain the pounds he was later planning to shed. To get chubby, Nuyanzin consumed immense amounts of junk food, eating upward of 10,000 calories every day.
Unfortunately, his body couldn’t keep up with his plan. Nuyanzin sadly passed away from sudden heart failure.
While his aims were certainly good, doctors are now warning people not to try to imitate Nuyanzin and try to lose or gain weight dramatically in a short time. Slow and steady wins the race, while extreme diets or exercise regimens may lead to tragic results.
Insane Weight Gain
Dmitry Nuyanzin was a fitness coach from the city of Orenburg in southern Russia. In addition to providing local training services, the 30-year-old was a popular influencer in Russian social media spheres.
He had recently developed a new weight-loss program that he believed in and wanted to advertise. And what better way to promote such a regimen than to show it in practice?
Instead of helping someone else lose weight, however, Nuyanzin decided to show his program worked using his own body. There was just one issue — Nuyanzin was as buff and fit as they come. Sure, he weighed a bunch, but it was all muscle.
The man decided to tackle this problem in an unusual manner. He determined to get fat and put on at least 50 pounds of excess weight before moving to phase two and losing it all.
To drum up publicity for his upcoming weight-loss story, he began documenting his weight-gain marathon challenge. It quickly gained popularity due to the insane amount of junk food Nuyanzin was consuming.
His everyday meals ran upward of 10,000 calories. To put that in perspective, the average active, healthy man needs around 2,500 calories. Nuyanzin was essentially consuming four gym bros’ worth of food every day.
To describe just one of his days, an Instagram post showed him starting with a light breakfast of pastries and half a cake. For lunch, he had two pounds of pierogies (drenched in mayo), and dinner consisted of hamburgers and two pizzas. When he got peckish, he’d fill up with chips and other packaged snacks.
A Sudden End
Unsurprisingly, eating the horrendous amounts of garbage that he did quickly began to show. Nuyanzin’s belly seemed bigger with every post he made.
Then came November 18. Nuyanzin made an Instagram post where he declared he had surpassed the 230-pound point, having packed on nearly 30 pounds in only a month.
In a bit of ominous foreshadowing, Nuyanzin said he wasn’t feeling particularly great. But then again, who would with a diet like his?
Sadly, this would be the last post he’d ever make.
The following day, Nuyanzin canceled all his training sessions due to feeling uncomfortable and unwell. He told his friends he would go see a doctor the following morning.
Nuyanzin never got to the doctor. That night, he died in his sleep, reportedly from heart failure.
‘The Body Simple Cannot Cope’
Nuyanzin’s death put a tragic end to what he intended to be an inspiring story. Ask any medical professional, and they would’ve likely been horrified to hear about the fitness influencer’s diet.
The human body is simply not designed to handle such massive amounts of poor-quality food and the resulting weight gain. Pigging out occasionally, although unhealthy, isn’t dangerous (especially if you’re otherwise active and a healthy eater). Consuming Nuyanzin’s 10,000-plus calories every day for weeks on end, however, is a fast track to a heart attack.
“At 10,000 calories a day, particularly from those items which contain high fat, high-salt, the body simply cannot cope,” explained Vani Krishna, the lead clinical nutritionist, at the SPARSH Hospital.
Not only does the ridiculous diet cause massive fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin levels and blood pressure, but the excess fat also quickly packs around internal organs. Combine that with excessive salt intake, and your organs will quickly struggle to do their jobs.
The medical experts highlight that any dramatic, superfast weight loss (or weight-gain) regime is unlikely to be healthy and sustainable. Viral fitness challenges on social media, in particular, can be dangerous — and even fatal, as Nuyanzin’s sad story shows.
If you’re planning to lose weight, it’s best to do it at a controlled, steady pace over a longer period of time. The results will come, and you will be happier and, best of all, alive.