Monterrey: When critically obese, bedridden Jose Luis Garza pleaded for help in shedding a few hundred pounds, he landed the world's biggest weight watcher.

Garza is getting diet advice from Manuel Uribe, a fellow Mexican who has been fighting to lose his title as the world's heaviest man.

Both men live around the Monterrey area in Mexico. Neither can get out of bed.

Although Garza has not been on a scale in years, doctors estimate he could weigh about 450 kilograms.

He got a call from Uribe after going on national television to plead for help.

"Manuel inspires me with courage and the will to live," Garza told The Associated Press. "I understand that this is matter of life and death and that I have to follow the instructions that are given to me."

This year, the Guinness Book of World Records declared Uribe, who weighs 560 kilograms in 2006, the world's heaviest man.

"I have no interest in reaching that record," Garza said.