Caleb Swanigan weight loss & Gain. The Real Cause Of Purdue Player Death

Caleb Swanigan, the former Purdue & NBA player died at the very young age of just 25. Fans are heartbroken and devasted after the star player’s sudden death. Caleb Swanigan had issues with his weight from his childhood. People are speculating that weight gain & weight loss might be the reason for the basketball player’s sudden death.

Caleb Sylvester Swanigan achieved a lot as a basketball player at a very little age. Caleb started playing college basketball for Purdue Boilermakers. At the age of 17, he was ranked among the top ten players in the national class by ESPN. He was named Indiana’s “Mr. Basketball“. He was the first to win the state championship in Homestead High School’s history in Indiana.

The NBA family is profoundly saddened by the passing of Caleb Swanigan, who played three seasons in the NBA after a decorated career at Purdue. We send our heartfelt condolences to Caleb’s family, friends, and former teammates. pic.twitter.com/8DGrg3ePW7

— NBA (@NBA) June 21, 2022

Caleb Swanigan Abusive Childhood

Caleb’s childhood was full of ups & downs. He had a very negative and unstable childhood. Caleb’s father Carl Swanigan Sr. was a drug addict. His mother Tanya had six children to take care of. Most of the time of his youth Caleb spent in homeless shelters. His father throughout his life had many legal issues and battled his drug addiction for most of his young age. Caleb’s father physically assaulted his mother.

A story posted in Bleacher Report stated that once her mother accidentally dropped infant Caleb and which caused bruises on his face. In the fear of his husband found about this and again getting assaulted by him Caleb’s mother escaped to Salt Lake City with her children. For the next decade, Caleb Swanigan’s family shifted many times from Indianapolis to Utah. During these years, they lived in 5 different homeless shelters and Caleb attended 13 different schools by the time he was 13.

Caleb Swanigan Weight Issues

Caleb got two things from his biological father’s inheritance. The first is his height and the second is obesity. His biological father was 6 feet & 8 inches tall. In 2014, his father died due to complications from diabetes. At the time of death, his father was 500 pounds heavy. And a person being 500 lbs or 230 kg heavy is plenty of excess weight that can put the person’s life at risk.

Caleb also got this tendency to obesity from his biological father. When Caleb Swanigan was about to enter the eighth grade, he was 6 feet & 2 inches tall and his weight was 360 pounds. A child who is just reaching his eighth grade and has a body weight of 160 kg or 360 lbs of weight is a risk to a child’s health.

According to his interview with ESPN, Caleb told that during his childhood when he was living in homeless shelters, he was surrounded by unhealthy food options and so he developed a complicated relationship with food. He further told in the interview that people think that it is something really small but it just builds up. One meal won’t kill anyone but 3 or 4 meals that are bad in a row, that’s when it starts to hurt someone’s body.

Caleb also expressed about the eating habits that he developed in his childhood were due to poverty. He said that it is very expensive to eat healthy foods in comparison to eating unhealthy foods. If anyone is in a position to eat right then the person should eat right because sometimes financially, it is just don’t right.

This is Caleb Swanigan (in the yellow shirt) in 8th grade, working out with his brother, Carl Jr. “Biggie” has changed his body and life. pic.twitter.com/636PYasQj4

— Myron Medcalf (@MedcalfByESPN) January 24, 2017

Later Caleb’s mother decided to move to Houston with her family. But Caleb’s older brother was not happy with the decision and was pretty concerned about his younger brother Caleb’s health and weight gain issues. He was concerned that if Caleb move with his mother then he would keep gaining weight and it would be a health risk for him. To solve this, Caleb Swanigan’s older brother called his former basketball coach Roosevelt Barnes. At that time Roosevelt was a successful sports agent.

Roosevelt agreed to adopt Caleb and raise him as his own son. After adaptation, Roosevelt started to take care of Caleb’s eating habits. Roosevelt Barnes after discussing and getting clearance from a cardiologist began to put Caleb on the workouts that Barnes used to do during his college days. After a lot of effort and eating habit control, finally, Caleb slashed some excess weight and by the time he finished college, Caleb lost around 100 pounds and was weighing around 260 lbs(120 kg).

Caleb Swanigan Weight Loss Diet

When Caleb Swanigan was adopted by Roosevelt, he was so overweight and was suffering from very unhealthy eating habits. Roosevelt Barnes stated an incident when Caleb first came to his house. In stating the incident Roosevelt said that the first day Caleb was at his house, Roosevelt told Caleb to get up in the morning and eat breakfast. After this when Barnes came downstairs, there was a big giant box of Wheaties on the table. Roosevelt told that the whole box was gone, and the whole gallon of milk was gone. Then Roosevelt asked what happened to Caleb. And Caleb Swanigan said that Roosevelt asked him to eat and in the response to the answer of Caleb Roosevelt told him that he didn’t mean the whole box.

But Swanigan was determined to lose weight only thing that he needed was proper guidance. Caleb accepted the help that Roosevelt offered to him. Caleb just needed time to adjust to a new home and a new healthy lifestyle. After getting him checked by a cardiologist, Roosevelt made some changes to Caleb’s life. Caleb Swanigan was put on workouts and his diet routine was changed.

Here is the detailed diet plan that Caleb himself revealed in an interview with ESPN.

• Breakfast: For breakfast, Caleb generally tried to eat oatmeal or something similar to that and start the day.
• Lunch: For lunch, he always tried to have something small since he always practiced with his team at 2 PM. So in general, he tried to avoid having heavy meals at lunch and always had fruits in his lunch.
• Dinner: Caleb Swanigan’s dinner always included protein and lots of vegetables.

Caleb Swanigan’s Cause Of Death

As the news spread on the internet about Caleb Swanigan’s sudden death at a very young age, fans & other people started searching for the cause of the death of the former NBA player. People are speculating that Caleb Swanigan’s weight loss & weight gain issues can be the reason behind the Basketball player’s demise. According to the report published in The Guardian, Caleb Swanigan died due to a natural cause. But the exact cause of death is not known yet. None of his family or friends has revealed anything yet.

According to some people on Reddit, at the time of his death, Caleb was 600 pounds heavy and his excess weight might be the reason behind his death. The other user replied to the comment that the age of 25 is not the age people die due to obesity.

But the real reason for his death is still unknown and we are waiting for a response from his family about his sudden death. And in this hard time, we should not expect things from his family and friends and instead show our condolence.

This is the post that was shared on Instagram to pull a leg of Caleb after his retirement from Basketball. The post stated that after his retirement Caleb gained a lot of weight in just one year. In response to that Caleb’s friend defended him and commented in his favor.

Fan Reaction To The Death

Caleb had a huge fan following and his sudden demise had made shocked people. His fans are sad and sharing their thoughts on social media. Caleb was an inspiration for people. He went through a bad childhood and still managed to play in NBA it is such a huge journey for a man who has spent almost half of his life in homeless shelters.  People are giving their reactions on various social media. A user on Reddit wrote

“I went to middle school (junior high) with Caleb in Salt Lake City. I didn’t know him amazingly well, but he was known as the biggest kid in the school. And despite his weight, he could still ball like an absolute champ.

He always came to school in the same clothes and did not smell great. About a year into middle school it was known by all of us that he was homeless and his family was in no condition to raise him. Even in his horrible situation, he was ALWAYS positive and outgoing and had a solid group of friends to support him. Watching his journey to the NBA was truly inspiring. RIP Big Swan, we’re all thinking of you.”

Caleb Swanigan’s passing reminds me of what Damian Lillard said about him and people judging Caleb when pictures of him circulated last year pic.twitter.com/1EQBBLXrFo

— Rob Lopez (@r0bato) June 21, 2022

There are a lot of people who are sad about Caleb’s death and want to know the exact reason behind their beloved star’s death. Things are not certain yet whether it was due to Caleb Swanigan’s weight loss or due to other reasons. And the only thing that matter right now is we have lost a great human being, an awesome basketball player, and an inspirational public figure at a very young age.

May his soul rest in peace!