Manny Yarbrough, 700LB Athlete Hopes To Shed Weight For Retirement (PHOTO)

Manny Yarbrough, World’s Heaviest Athlete Hopes To Shed Weight

Manny Yarbrough Wants to Lose Weight

Manny Yarbrough has long been recognized as the world’s heaviest athlete. The sumo wrestler, nicknamed “Tiny,” stands at 6’7″ and weighs in at a huge 719 pounds.

In a new interview with ABC News,  Yarbrough  said he wants to lose some of that massive weight.

Manny has been always been a big guy. He used his size to be successful at wrestling as an adult, but remembers when he was young and he had to be careful playing with other youngsters. He played lots of sports, but was always afraid of hurting his friends.

He will be retiring from wrestling in 2014 and has concerns that once he does his weight may keep going up if he does not take care of himself. He also has concerns about his health as he gets older and is worried about the serious health problems associated with his weight. He plans to get back into shape like he was in college before he retires.

“I’m desperate to get back to my best college shape in time for the nationals next year. It’s the sportsman in me that never-give-up attitude. It’s a challenge. I had to give it a shot because of that inner athlete in me pushing me to do it,” Manny says of why the time has come for a change.

“Once I retire, it’s about a quality of life I want to have. I had a ticket cancelled on me on a flight to Italy a few years ago and haven’t flown since through fear it would happen again,” he explains.

“It’s partly down to genetics, as it isn’t just weight. I have always been tall too. People never used to pay attention to the nutritional value of food, and I was growing pretty fast so needed to eat. My aunt would make big breakfasts because my cousins went out to work – but I wasn’t accustomed to that. I just hung out and ate with them,” he says.

He said: ‘When I was a child I played every sport I could but I was always the ‘big kid’ – it was just my luck in life.

‘I’d do what everybody else did growing up but from the age of about six I knew I was bigger than the others and probably always would be.

Manny Yarbrough, 700LB Athlete Hopes To Shed Weight (PHOTO)

‘When we were playing with friends I had to remember to hold back so I didn’t hurt anyone.

Tiny has also experienced a number of issues on commercial flights because of his size and he looks forward to the change in his lifestyle. He wants to be able to fly again and is viewing his weight loss goal as a great challenge.

Meet ‘Tiny’ the 51 stone sportsman: Sumo wrestler who is ‘world’s heaviest athlete’ wants to slim down his 76 inch waist for retirement
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2464312/Meet-Tiny-51-stone-Sumo-wrestler-worlds-heaviest-athlete.html