Bring the pain: Celebs get training for Men's Health Singapore Urbanathlon

FOX SPORTS ASIA HOST KELLY LATIMER

It is no secret that Fox Sports Asia presenter Kelly Latimer is a fitness buff.

The UK-born Singapore permanent resident of English-Chinese parentage trains three to five times weekly, alternating between runs and HIIT (high-intensity interval training) and strength training in the gym.

On other days, she does yoga or pilates, and other sports and activities.

She even showed off her kicks and punches in the music video for local band The Sam Willows’ song For Love last year.

For the fourth time running, karate-trained Latimer will be taking part in the Men’s Health Singapore Urbanathlon.

She will be in this year’s race, which will be next month, with her husband Justin Loi, who works in the finance industry.

The challenge, which began here in 2010, was first opened to women in 2013. Fox Sports Asia is a media partner of this year’s race.

At 29, Latimer believes she is the strongest she has ever been.

This came after unhealthy, desperate attempts to lose weight after piling on the kilos in 2007 and then struggling to be healthy and body-positive.

Latimer had put on more than 10kg when she was doing media and communication studies at RMIT University in Melbourne.

“The food was good, with huge portions, and I ended up having brunches all the time.

UNHEALTHY: TV sport presenter Kelly Latimer piled on the pounds when she was an undergraduate in Melbourne. PHOTO COURTESY OF KELLY LATIMER

“When I first moved there, I ate a third of what was on the plate. By the time I left (nearly two years later), I ate a plate and a half worth of food.

“I didn’t exercise, although in hindsight, I should have because Melbourne is beautiful,” said the bubbly presenter, who now weighs 60kg.

Her reality check came when she entered a G2000 store to buy work clothes upon her return to Singapore.

“I had to buy size 42 pants. When I stretched it out, I was just miserable looking at it. In other shops, I couldn’t fit into my usual size 8 clothes and had to wear a large size.

“I wasn’t super obese, but I was unhappy and had no stamina. That affected my work as well,” she said.

She was even told to lose weight multiple times, “which is never a nice thing”.

“People were like, ‘You’re a sports presenter?’… Initially, I bawled my eyes out, but I soon realised it was up to me to turn my life around,” she said.

Latimer admitted she got off to a shaky start, saying: “The initial stages were desperate.

“I went to slimming centres and shelled out hundreds, if not thousands, on pills that ended up wreaking havoc on my hormones.

“I then experienced rapid weight loss from intensive HIIT sessions. My hormones went crazy again due to lack of body fat and I looked haggard. I didn’t like how I looked,” she said.

Latimer decided to change her fitness routine to a more balanced one.

Bring the pain: Celebs get training for Men"s Health Singapore Urbanathlon