Drew From ‘Family By the Ton’ Weighs Almost 700 Pounds — but He Was Once a High School Athlete

On TLC's six-episode series Family By the Ton, viewers get a glimpse into the lives of cousins Naomi Anderson, Drew Stewart, and Chitoka Light, who have a combined weight of almost 2,000 pounds. The clan has turned to Dr. Charles Procter Jr. for help, and have considered undergoing weight loss surgery, but they won't be able to unless they make some lifestyle changes first — and for Drew, who's the largest of the trio, that's easier said than done. "I need to knock off this overeating before it kills me," he acknowledged. "If you’re on drugs, you can hide it. If you're an alcoholic, you can hide it. But if you're fat, everyone sees your problem." Keep scrolling to learn more about Drew and his journey.

How much does he weigh?

Though Drew, 43, hadn't weighed himself in a decade out of fear, he finally stepped on the scale in the third episode — and clocked in at 670 pounds. He wears a size 18X. "I'm not happy with my weight. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a fat suit, like I have a fat suit on," he confessed. "I just want to take it off and get back down to my size. This is a health problem."

Was Drew always overweight?

No. In fact, he was very active as a kid and even made the high school football team. "I was just a normal kid, I rode bikes and liked to swim and play basketball," he shared. "In my later years of high school, I was an athlete, I worked out, I played football, and after practice I would go home and run a full-court basketball game, so I didn't realize what I was eating and things like that, because I would just burn that off from physical activity."

How did he gain the weight?

"When I moved to Atlanta and my mom got sick, I think that's how the weight plied on," Drew explained. "I was already wearing a 6X, and then the next thing I know it was an 8X, then a 10X. It just gradually went up and I didn't realize it."

What inspired him to try and make a change?

Like his cousin Chitoka, Drew's aware that he could soon become immobile — and though he admits walking around is painful, he says that he has to be on his feet in order to look after his ill mother. "People depend on me. I live with my mother, she's bedridden. I'm her caretaker," Drew said. "I want to take care of her [myself]. I'm not going to put her in a nursing home — but I'm afraid that I haven't done a good job of taking care of myself."

Tune in to see the family try and overcome their challenges on Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST on TLC.