Kyle Brown-Latham, who was about 408 pounds, lost more than 200 pounds in an effort to get healthy.
Kyle Brown-Latham, who was about 408 pounds, lost more than 200 pounds in an effort to get healthy.
Kyle Brown-Latham, who was about 408 pounds, lost more than 200 pounds in an effort to get healthy.
Kyle Brown-Latham, who was about 408 pounds, lost more than 200 pounds in an effort to get healthy.
Before and after photos: Austin man drops more than 200 pounds in vow to get healthy
Kyle Brown Latham, 35, was 330 pounds when he tripped over a baby gate in his Austin home, broke his knee and twisted his back. Bedridden, Brown-Latham's weight in 2014 skyrocketed 80 pounds to about 408, an estimation because his at-home scale doesn't register weight over 400 pounds.
His highest weight was also his lowest point in life.
Like many Americans, Brown-Latham has spent his entire life yo-yo dieting, trying every single fad diet and weight loss pill on the market. Just as quickly as he'd see any results, he'd see the weight shoot right back up due to going back to his previous way of life. In some cases, he'd get heavier.
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The weight left Brown-Latham frustrated, sad and in daily excruciating pain.
"I kept being told by doctors over and over that my weight was causing my pain," Brown-Latham. "That I was dealing with lots of inflammation."
And then it clicked for him, he said.
"I could control what I was putting into my body, and how I move and exercise my body," the Austin man said.
He began to look into how certain foods, like sugar and gluten, cause inflammation inside the body and decided he wanted to avoid that as much as possible.
"Those first two weeks that I was off sugar, it sucked," he said, laughing. "But it is amazing how everything changes afterward. I began to crave actual foods like vegetables. That was a whole new thing for me."
Sticking to a ketogenic diet combined with intermittent fasting lifestyle was the key to Brown-Latham's success, he said.
People on keto eat low-carbohydrate and high-fat diets, which causes the body to go into ketosis, a metabolic state that pushes the body to burn fat instead of carbs.
The intermittent fasting, which is brief periods of little to no caloric intake, helped him speed up the weight loss. Studies have shown that intermittent fasting can improve health and reduce the risk of obesity-related diseases.
Brown-Lathan fasts for 18 hours each day and opens his "eating window" around 5 p.m. and while he mostly eats clean, he will allow himself to have fun sometimes.
"I make sure that when I do put something in my body, that it is high-nutritional value and that it is not going to throw me off course," he said.
Brown-Latham, a social media influencer who also struggles with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), said losing the weight was a battle, one that he's proud he was able to do. EDS is an inherited disorder that affects connective tissues in the skin, joints and blood vessel walls, according to the Ehlers-Danlos Society.
To date, Brown-Latham has lost more than 200 pounds since 2014. His advice for others? To take the challenge step by step.
"I didnt lose 200 pounds one time," he said. "I lost one pound two hundred times."
Michelle Iracheta is a digital reporter in Houston. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | michelle.iracheta@chron.com
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Before and after photos: Austin man drops more than 200 pounds in vow to get healthy - mySA
