World's heaviest man gets a lift in custom van

The world's heaviest man still can't walk, but he will soon be able to roll. Manuel Uribe said Thursday he is having a 1989 Chevrolet Astrovan outfitted to support his record-breaking weight, giving him mobility after more than six years of being confined to his bed.

Uribe earned the Guinness World Record as the world's heaviest man in 2006, when he tipped the scales at 1,230 pounds. He claims to have since shed more than 500 pounds after making a public call for help.

Uribe, known as Meme to his friends, even has a name for his new ride.

"My friends call it the Meme-Mobile, just like the Batmobile," he said.

The minivan is being converted into an open-air, flatbed pickup of sorts. Manuel says he will put a bed on the back of the van to drive around town, with his new wife at the wheel. When at home, he will hang out in a remodeled garage that will include a forklift to help raise his regular bed up to the level of his car bed, allowing him to switch locations from time to time.

Uribe said that, with the new car, he plans to start up an auto parts business. And Uribe's wife, Claudia Solis, said the two are even thinking about making a trip to the beach in May.

Uribe married Solis in October, and the wedding was one of the few times he has left his home in recent years.

Worlds Heaviest Man Wedding in Mexico

The world's heaviest man has tied the knot.

Manuel Uribe, who hasn't left his bed in six years, married his longtime girlfriend Claudia Solis Sunday in northern Mexico.

Wearing a white silk shirt with a sheet wrapped around his legs, Uribe smiled as Solis, 38, walked down a flight of stairs wearing a strapless ivory dress, a tiara and hot-pink lipstick.

He later broke into tears as a notary declared the couple husband and wife in a civil ceremony attended by more than 400 guests. For the traditional first dance as newlyweds, Uribe and Solis held hands and swayed to a romantic ballad.

The reception featured a banquet with meat, buttered vegetables and a five-tier wedding cake for dessert. A popular local norteno band played in the background.

The wedding, which was closed to most media, will be featured in an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary on Uribe, the 43-year-old former mechanic said.

"I have a wife and will form a new family and live a happy life," Uribe told hordes of reporters earlier as they followed him through the streets of Monterrey.

A flatbed truck was brought in to tow his custom-made bed decorated with a canopy, flowers and gold-trimmed bows to the wedding at a local event hall. Two police patrol cars escorted him ahead of a long line of traffic.

Uribe tipped the scales in 2006 at 1,230 pounds (560 kilograms), earning him the Guinness Book of World Records' title for the world's heaviest man.

He has since shed about 550 pounds (250 kilograms) with the help of Solis, whom he met four years ago.

Uribe said he's gunning for a new title: world's largest weight loser.

More : Worlds Heaviest World Records

World's Fattest Man Manuel Uribe Goes on outing

Manuel Uribe, who once tipped the scales at 560kg, was hauled from his home on a forklift and loaded onto a platform truck for the weekend day trip, the Associated Press reported.

Mr Uribe, who now weighs around 310kg, stayed on his specially designed bed throughout the trip to the lake, where he dined on fish and vegetables.

It is the first time Mr Uribe has left his home in five months. Unable to walk, his last planned outing in March was abandoned after the platform carrying his bed got stuck under an overpass.

His last successful trip outside his home was in March 2007, when six people pushed his bed out to the street as a mariachi band played and a crowd gathered to greet him.

Before that, he hadn't left his home in five years.

More Amazing News

World's Most Obese Man Celebrated his 43rd Birthday

Mexico's Manuel Uribe, once the world's most obese man, celebrated his 43rd birthday on Wednesday with a very short trip outside his house.

In only his third outing in six years, Uribe, sitting on his huge reinforced bed, was dragged outside his garage bedroom and onto the pavement outside his house in Monterrey in northern Mexico. Presents of suckling pig and lamb arrived.

Still weighing the size of three hefty men, Uribe sat on his bed wearing only a bedsheet, drank a beer and chatted to his mother, girlfriend and neighbors in the cool evening air, waiting for a cake.

"I'm happy that it is my birthday," he told reporters interviewing the man who weighed 717 pounds (324 kg) in May after losing 518 pounds (235 kg) since March 2006 on a diet of grapefruits, egg-white omelets, fish, chicken and vegetables.

Uribe is still unable to move his swollen legs and his dream is to walk again and visit the mountainous countryside around Monterrey.

Uribe spent the 1990s eating pizzas and burgers in the United States where he worked as a computer repairman. Addicted to junk food, he eventually tipped the scales at 1,235 pounds (560 kg) back in Mexico, bingeing on greasy tacos.

His bulk made him the world's heaviest man and won him a place in the 2008 edition of the Guinness World Records.

Source : Reuters