Barry Austin (17 September 1968 – 1 January 2021) was a man from

Castle Bromwich Castle Bromwich () is a large suburban village situated within the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in the English county of the West Midlands. It is bordered by the rest of the borough to the south east; also Sutton Coldfield to the east and ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, who was widely reputed to be the fattest man in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Life

Multiple press reports claim that at his peak weight, he weighed 50 stone (around 700 lbs or 320 kg).Why 50-stone Barry seized a chance of life
,

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

, September 18, 2005 Austin's appearances in the press and on television were usually related to current concerns about an alarming increase in obesity among the population. He had thus been asked to comment on news and current affairs strands such as the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Breakfast News ''Breakfast News'' was a breakfast news programme which first aired on BBC1 on 2 October 1989. The programme was previously known as '' Breakfast Time''. It was planned to launch on 18 September 1989 but was held back by two weeks due to tech ...

. Austin was also the star of a

Sky One Sky One was a British pay television channel operated and owned by Sky Group (a division of Comcast). Originally launched on 26 April 1982 as Satellite Television, it was Europe's first satellite and non-terrestrial channel. From 31 July 1989, ...

documentary, ''Inside Britain's Fattest Man'', presented by fellow Silhillian

Richard Hammond Richard Mark Hammond (born 19 December 1969) is an English journalist, television presenter, mechanic, and writer. He is best known for co-hosting the BBC Two motoring programme ''Top Gear'' from 2002 until 2015 with Jeremy Clarkson and Jame ...

in the manner of the

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

film ''

Fantastic Voyage ''Fantastic Voyage'' is a 1966 American science fiction adventure film directed by Richard Fleischer and written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby. The film is about a submarine crew who are shrunk to microscop ...

''. According to the programme, Austin typically consumed in excess of 29,000

calories The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of on ...

a day – over ten times the average daily intake for a UK male, and had major health problems as a result of his

morbid obesity Obesity is a medical condition, sometimes considered a disease, in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it may negatively affect health. People are classified as obese when their body mass index (BMI)—a person's we ...

. He also claimed to drink up to 40 pints on a night out. A previous documentary on Britain's heaviest men – ''The Fattest Men in Britain'' – which saw Austin take the crown, though he was notably lighter and more mobile at the time, reported that he led an actively social life and was something of a celebrity on the

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

club circuit, and a very visible supporter of

Birmingham City F.C. Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first tea ...

at their home games. However, he was unable to attend their victorious

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

appearance on 27 February 2011, when they lifted the

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

with a 2–1 win over

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

as he was too big to get a seat. By this stage he weighed 40 stone. According to both documentaries, Austin's greatest problem was his legs (which had notably reduced his mobility in the latter programme). Starved of blood because of their enormous size and distance from his heart, they caused him to suffer regular terrible bacterial infections that left him swollen, in agony and immobile at home. In September 2005, Austin committed himself to losing weight, restricting his daily intake to a mere 1,500 calories in a bid to save his life. In November 2009 it was reported that Austin currently weighed 40 stone and was starting a new diet plan to try to lose at least 10 stone. The report also gave his peak weight as 65 stone. In December 2009 Austin played 'Big Brian' in

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's comedy-drama ''

The Fattest Man in Britain ''The Fattest Man in Britain'' is a comedy-drama written by Caroline Aherne and Jeff Pope, and directed by David Blair, which aired on ITV, STV & UTV on 20 December 2009. It starred Timothy Spall, wearing a fat suit for the title role, Bobb ...

'' starring

Timothy Spall Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' S ...

and

Bobby Ball Robert Harper (28 January 1944 – 28 October 2020), known professionally as Bobby Ball, was a British comic, actor, singer and television host. He was best known as a member of the comic double act Cannon and Ball, with Tommy Cannon (Thomas ...

. Austin died on 1 January 2021 at the age of 52 due to a heart attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Barry People from Birmingham, West Midlands 1968 births 2021 deaths Obesity in the United Kingdom

Life

See also

References