How Morbidly Obese People Are Cremated
Published July 31, 2022.
As obesity levels are rising, crematoriums—especially those in smaller countries—are still behind this curve, and not all crematoriums have the facilities to cremate an obese person. Morbid obesity is a growing problem in first-world countries, and a recent survey has shown that 73% of Americans are either overweight or obese. Body weight and the level of body fat have considerable effects on the types of cremation.
The short answer to whether an obese person can be cremated is yes. However, there are some concerns and requirements regarding cremating someone who is morbidly overweight. A larger cremation chamber is required, and your chosen funeral home may not have a suitable one. There is also the issue of an extra large coffin in the case of a visitation service before the cremation, so a direct cremation may be the only option.
How Are Morbidly Obese People Cremated?
Standard Cremation Process
When a body is cremated, it starts in a coffin made of cardboard and plywood. The box is placed in the cremation chamber, which is made out of fire-resistant bricks. The chamber door is closed, and the retort is put into its warm-up cycle. The deceased person’s body is incinerated, with temperatures rising to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
The cremated body sits inside for up to two hours until the body and cremation container is reduced to ashes and bone fragments. Once the cremation machine is cool enough to touch, the remains are moved to an area where operators use a magnet to remove any metal debris, like metal implants, surgical pins, or crowns that may have been in the body. The bones that are left over are placed into a processor that pulverizes them into a fine powder, which is what is known as the “ashes.”
Why Weight Makes This Difficult
Now that you understand how a standard cremation is carried out, you may be wondering why being overweight makes this more difficult. When the body is made of mostly muscle, it means there is a lot of lean tissue. This lean tissue gives out about 1,000 BTU worth of heat per pound. Fatty tissue, on the other hand, can give out close to 20,000 BTU. Fat burns much hotter than muscle, so cremating someone who is morbidly obese can be extremely dangerous.
There are many stories of obese people causing dangerous fires while being cremated. Cremating an obese person could cause a runaway fire as the fat melts, although a seasoned operator will know how to avoid this. Bodies that weigh more than 300 pounds should be treated with caution.
Obese-Friendly Crematorium Equipment
The first thing that some crematories do is install a wider retort or cremation chamber, which allows them to cremate overweight people.
The door of a standard cremation chamber measures around 33 inches, but extra large cremation machines have openings as wide as 52 inches. These supersize machines are able to perform a cremation at 150 pounds per hour and are suited for obese bodies up to 1,000 pounds. However, not all funeral homes have these facilities, so finding one that caters for obese people could be a challenge.
Once you find a crematorium with an extra-large chamber, the cremation process follows the same steps as a normal one, except with an added expense.
Cost of Overweight Cremations
Crematoriums and funeral homes are adapting their pricing structure when it comes to handling the cremation of an obese person. A larger cremation chamber and coffin are required, more people to move the body, and possibly alternative transportation if the deceased must be transported to the nearest oversized crematory facility.
The “standard” cremation price caters for a deceased person up to 300 pounds, while an oversize cremation could cost anywhere from $100 to $500 more. These costs may be reduced in the future when more facilities become available.
Amount of Ashes Produced From an Obese Cremation
As a general rule, the ashes after cremation will weigh between 4 and 6 pounds, or around 3.5 percent of the person’s total body weight. Organ tissue, fat, and fluids burn away during the cremation, leaving only bone behind. Cremation ashes consist mainly of bone, so height—rather than weight—is the determining factor for how much ashes a cremated body produces. The taller the person, the more cremains there will be, and the larger urn size you'll need.
When it comes to choosing the right cremation urn, you will need one cubic inch of space for every pound of the person’s total body weight. So, if a person weighed 130 pounds, you would need an urn that is at least 130 cubic inches or larger. The size of a standard adult cremation urn is 200 cubic inches, but smaller and larger urns are also available.
