Dmitry Nuyanzin wanted to inspire people and show them that weight loss is possible in virtually any situation. Unfortunately, he ended up becoming a cautionary tale. The 30-year-old fitness guru set out to gain at least 55 pounds of excess weight by consuming massive amounts of junk food, as a way of subsequently showing off his weight-loss program. To achieve his goal, he consumed up to 10,000 calories in junk food every day for several weeks. His diet included pastries and cake for breakfast, almost two pounds of dumplings drenched in mayonnaise for lunch, burgers and pizza for dinner, with potato chips and other high-calories snacks in between. A month into his extreme challenge, he had reached a body weight of 231 pounds. On November 18, in his final Instagram post, the young fitness coach announced his newest milestone while casually eating a bag of chips. Although he declared his discomfort in front of his fans, no one thought he was in mortal danger. Nuyanzin ended up cancelling several coaching sessions and told his friends he didn’t feel well and planned to see a doctor. He never got to the chance to do that, as he died in his sleep as a result of heart failure. Experts say that although Nuyanzin was still in better shape than most overweight people, the extreme eating program he had been engaging in for weeks had taken a toll on his internal organs, especially his heart. Forcing the body to handle four to six times the required calories is unlikely to be fatal if it only happens rarely, but doing so on a daily basis, for long periods of time, is a recipe for disaster. Considering elite athletes rarely go over 5,000 calories per day, doubling that can only end in tragedy. Eating 10,000 calories of junk food won’t automatically kill a healthy person, but it can be dangerous and has caused deaths in rare cases. The danger isn’t the calorie number itself — it’s the extreme overload of salt, fat, and volume, especially when eaten quickly. This can trigger acute sodium toxicity, dangerously high blood pressure, heart rhythm problems, choking or aspiration, or even sudden pancreatitis. Nuyanzin’s tragic end should be a lesson to those abusing their bodies and their health by taking part in various extreme challenges — sometimes you can push your body too far.
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| Before and after weight gain challenge |
