Staying on track with your health and weight-loss goals is a challenge — and it’s even harder when you’re fighting through painful injuries. Despite various medical setbacks, Kyle Brown-Latham (@the.vanity.bear) achieved a dramatic transformation through diet and exercise, and changed his life. This is his story.

The Basics:

• Heaviest weight: I was over 400 lbs., but I’m not exactly sure how heavy; my scale topped out at 400. I estimate I was around 408. The last time that scale read my weight, I was at 395.
• Weight now: 215 lbs.
• Total weight loss: My total weight loss was 212 lbs.; I was 196 lbs. at my lightest. Since the initial weight loss, I have put on more muscle.
• Height: 6’0″
• Age: 34
• Lives in: Austin, Texas

Brown-Latham had always been a serial yo-yo dieter, losing weight and then gaining it back again — plus more.

“When I met my husband, I was happy and in love. We both have a passion for food and would love to eat fast food and desserts during the honeymoon phase of our relationship. The term ‘fat and happy’ became our lifestyle. When we had any kind of veggies, it was a salad that only my husband would end up eating. Most of what I ate had little nutritional value and was packed with empty calories.”

He reached his heaviest point after a bad fall in 2014 left him bedridden.

“I got to my heaviest point when I broke my knee and twisted my back in an accident, and became bedridden for four months. It was at that point I put on an additional 95 pounds to my already overweight body from poor dieting, inactivity, stress, depression, and medications messing with my metabolism.”

Even after he got back on his feet, certain everyday activities were still a challenge.

“I remember mowing the lawn in our backyard and how exhausting it was. We have a pretty small backyard, but it might as well have been the size of a football field. After every pass with the mower, I would have to stop and catch my breath. This was partly due to my knee and back still not [being] fully healed, but they were in the shape they were in due to my poor life choices with my body. It was labor to do anything normal.”

That’s when he knew he needed a change.

“I was such a control freak with everything else in my life, and it finally just hit me like a ton of bricks while mowing that day. I try to control every single thing in the world except the one thing that I have ultimate control over: what I put inside of my mouth and how active I can keep myself.”

Brown-Latham started by cleaning out the unhealthy food in his kitchen, including anything with added or processed sugar.

“I did some research on sugar addiction … and learned that it would be a rough first two weeks, which it was. After that, my sugar cravings and cravings for processed foods changed substantially.

“During the initial weight loss, I focused solely on my diet. The current state my body was in, what with the added weight and injuries still causing me problems, hindered me from going to the gym.”

After dropping the first 60 pounds, Brown-Latham could finally start exercising.

“After losing that weight, I was able to support myself enough on my newly repaired knee and move myself more. I started out slow on the elliptical with low resistance at a steady pace. It was easier on my joints and provided a full-body movement workout that I needed. I slowly began to add more resistance, speed, and time on the elliptical, and began to lift weights.”

Throughout his weight loss journey, Brown-Latham fought through the pain stemming from that 2014 accident.

“My accident was so long ago, and I still can’t believe something that happens so quickly, like falling over a baby gate (yes, that is what caused my injuries!) can cause such extended and extensive problems.

“I am still battling an ongoing spine and Muscle issue that has my spine twisted from my tailbone to the base of my skull from my accident. They couldn’t figure out why it was twisted and why my muscles were having such issues with involuntary seizing. During my entire weight loss journey, I fought through the pain.”

The last year has been the hardest, in terms of his body’s medical issues.

“In March, I had some sort of a muscle seizure event that made all the muscles on the right side of my body seize up at once, resulting in a huge hematoma across my entire side that was very painful … We have only recently found out that during my accident, I unknowingly ripped my Levator Scapulae Muscle off the right side of my neck … Apparently, the hematoma came from the small portion of the levator scapulae muscle still attached being completely ripped off when my body started involuntarily seizing.

“I am currently going through physical therapy trying to re-train my body and rework muscles, since the levator scapulae muscle is no longer functional. It consumes most of my days right now. I’m still in pain all the time and have to constantly fight different muscles that are seizing up trying to stabilize my twisted spine. It is definitely a challenge, but I have faith that I will overcome it.

“Dry needling therapy has been a tremendous help as well as my hyperbaric treatment at ATXHyperbarics.”

When Brown-Latham saw that he’d lost 200 pounds, “it was almost euphoric,” he says.

“I now look at myself differently. I feel more confident in my own skin. Speaking of skin, I know readers will be wondering about this: I did have a tummy tuck and removed 2 1/2 pounds of skin from my abdomen. I have pictures and videos on my Instagram. The extra skin was a reminder of my past mistakes, and my new body was my reward for all the hard work I had done. The skin had to go. I am so happy with my journey, and can’t wait to see what I can achieve next.”

He has two pieces of advice for guys embarking on a weight-loss journey:

“The first part is believing in yourself. If you honestly believe in yourself and build yourself up mentally, there’s not many things you can’t achieve. The second part of advice is to take it one day at a time and don’t get overwhelmed with the big picture. Have a main goal and break it down into small achievements. I didn’t lose 200 pounds one time, I lost 1 pound 200 times.”

The post How This Man Overcame Injuries and Achieved a 200-Pound Weight Loss Transformation appeared first on NewsWorld.