Former World's Fattest Man Fights for Skin Removal Surgery

Paul Mason, left, is pictured at his heaviest. On the right, Mason after he lost 630 lbs

Paul Mason, once called the world's fattest man, has lost more than two thirds of his weight and now wants surgery to remove his excess skin.

The 51-year-old former postman from Ipswich, England weighed 980 pounds. After having gastric bypass surgery three years ago, he has slimmed down to a comparatively svelte 350 pounds. The dramatic weight loss has left Mason with huge folds of excess skin around his stomach, arms and legs.

According to the British newspaper The Sun, Mason must use a wheelchair because the excess skin hampers his ability to walk.

"It doesn't matter how much toning up you do, it's only going to get worse," The Sun quotes Mason as saying.

Dr. Jeff Kenkel, a professor of plastic surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said loose skin is a common side effect of weight loss surgery, not only because of the massive fat loss but also because the skin is so damaged from being overstretched that it loses its elasticity.

"It's like letting all of the air out of balloon -- it collapses and wrinkles," he said.

Kenkel estimated that Mason's weight loss has left him with as much as 50 pounds of baggy skin around the abdomen -- and up to 75 pounds of excess skin overall.

SOURCE.