Hollywood celebrities claim that slimming down to play a ballerina and bulking up for tough guy roles mean that dramatic shape and weight changes are the norm for them.
So what’s the problem if stars lose a ton of weight or gain it?
Well, this type of yo-yo dieting has already been proven to be not good for your health.
Crash diets can impact on weakening your immune system, which may leave you vulnerable to sickness and could even cause damage to your heart. Rapid weight gain is also bad news, especially for your heart and joints. Whether it’s healthy or not, let’s look at the top celebrity weight loss transformations…
1. Oprah Winfrey
Oprah, 57 is tight up there when it comes to celebrity weight loss tabloid fodder.
Her weight fluctuations have often been drastic, and always make the ‘breaking news’. reality is that a thyroid condition is partly responsible for this yo-yoing. She has previously stated that she’s used her condition as an excuse so she could eat whatever she wanted.
She thought she had finally beaten her weight issues, after trinning down to a leaner 160lb in early 2000’s. However, after ballooning back up to 200 lb again in 2008, she vowed not to ever diet again.
2. Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson is notorious for her yo-yo dieting, with her weight issues being a constant media topic.
In December 2010, she showed off what was an amazing body transformation which was achieved on a daily intake of a small packet of tortilla chips and an apple while getting ready for her nest music video: ‘Love Will Never Do’.
Nowadays, Jackson, shuns celebrity diets and sticks with much healthier pescatarian diet combined with regular works out.
3. Ricki Lake
In 1988, the then aspiring actress’s big break came in the hit film Hairspray. Her weight was an important factor in her role, in which she portrayed the overweight Tracy Turnblad.
Following the film’s success, Ricky Lake (who is now 42), struggled to cope with weight issues for the over 20 years. In 1992 she managed to lose an extreme 100 lb by starving herself. Lake now maintains a healthy size 6 after shedding 140 pounds by limiting her calorie intake much more responsibly and also by joining a fresh-food delivery service.
4. Kirstie Alley
Kirstie Alley, now 60, once modelled for Jenny Craig, Inc., the weight loss and nutrition company.
With a history of yo-yo dieting, Alley lost 75 pounds by using the diet plan, but then gained most of it after her Jenny contract had ended.
In the mid-2000’s, when her weight increased to above 200lb, she starred in her very own TV show about her own celebrity weight loss struggles. She pledged she would lose 80lb in 2008. But, she claimed she still had 30 more pounds to go, in September 2010.
5. Renee Zellweger
In order to play the role of the still single, awkward, thirtysomething of Bridget Jones, Renee Zellweger, gained 20 lb and ballooned from size four right up to size fourteen.
What was even more shocking was in fact her post-Bridget Jones shooting slimming down.
To lose weight she had gained, she dieted and even after getting down to healthy size four still continued to lose weight. For someone with constantly fluctuating weight, just like Renee Zellweger, it can make it much harder for a dieter to lose weight and to keep it off, over the longer term.
6. Jennifer Hudson
In 2010, Jennifer Hudson’s dramatic celebrity weight loss was the talk of Tinsel Town.
In August 2009, the Grammy and Oscar winner, needed to lose her baby weight quickly, as it was just before her next movie’s shooting, in which she played ‘Winnie’, the wife of Nelson Mandela.
Regularly work outs and calorie cutting under the Weight Watchers program meant Hudson trimmed down from a size 16 to a size 6.
7. 50 Cent
It was in May 2010, that the millionaire rapper and entrepreneur, 50 Cent, revealed photos of himself looking emaciated, after dropping from 214 lb to 160 lb in as little as 9 weeks.
Curtis James Jackson III’s (50 Cent’s real name) shocking weight loss was not as a result of of any health issues, but for his cancer patient role in the film ‘Things Fall Apart’.
By September 2010, and with the film’s shooting was completed, he began looking the way he was originally.
8. Kelly Osbourne
Ozzy Osbournes’s daughter had a history of emotional eating, but a stint on the Dancing with the Stars TV show changed all that, when she lost 50 lb.
The weight training and dance workouts eventually paid off Shape magazine’s December 2010 issue, when she revealed her brand new size 2 body.
9. Kevin Federline
By his 30th birthday, the former Mr. Britney Spears and once toned dancer, had ballooned up to 240 lb.
The former backup dancer for Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson, Pink and Destiny’s Child, made an appearance on the seventh season of Celebrity Fit Club, the weight-loss reality TV show.
In November 2011, Federline appeared on Excess Baggage, an Australian weight loss show, but was hospitalized for heat stress, as filming took place at the hottest time of the year in that region.
10. John Goodman
Perhaps not the most likely of celebrity weight loss candidates, but John Goodman is a worthy mention nonetheless.
Goodman was most well known for his portrayal of the beefy Dan Conner in the US sitcom Roseanne.
In 2007, Goodman, tipped the scales at a whopping 368 lb. Since then, given up sugar, quit drinking, and now works out works out 6 days each week. The result is he’s lost well over 100 lb!
