Losing weight and keeping it off is hard enough. But the pressure can be even more intense when you’re in the public eye, and everyone is counting the pounds and keeping track of your routine.
Oprah Winfrey, Al Roker and Shonda Rhimes are just a few celebrities who have had their weight loss journeys play out in public. Whether by diet, exercise, surgery or all of the above, these Black stars have stunned us by losing lots of weight.
Oprah Winfrey’s weight loss journey has played out in public for over 25 years. These days, The Color Purple producer says she maintains her newly-snatched shape with regular exercise and a healthy diet. She also uses weight loss medication as a “maintenance tool.”
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for. I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself,” she told PEOPLE.
Lizzo is stepping into 2024 with a new slimmed-down figure. Fans noticed her new, slimmed-down figure in a Jan. 2 Instagram video showing off pieces from her YITTY shapewear line. “We see u shedding pounds love. Even tho u were beautiful before,” wrote one fan in the comments.
Fans everywhere couldn’t help but cheer on TODAY weatherman Al Roker after he shed over 100 pounds after a 2002 gastric bypass surgery. Roker, who once weighed in at 340 pounds, says a healthy diet and regular exercise have helped him keep the pounds off.
“It’s still a struggle but I’m never going back,” he said. “I have setbacks and struggle every day, but I never forget how far I’ve come.”
Actress, singer and talk show host Jennifer Hudson shed a stunning 80 pounds, dropping from size 16 to size 6. But the Oscar winner credit changes in her diet and not hours in the gym for maintaining her weight loss over the years.
“I don’t really have time to do much [working out], so I really just watch what I eat,” she said in a 2017 interview with British talk show Lorraine. “I’m very careful and cautious of what I’m eating, so I just try to pace those meals throughout the day.
Oscar-winning actress Mo’Nique lost over 80 pounds in 2013. She credits diet, exercise and the support of her family with helping her along the way. These days, she tries to pay it forward, inspiring her fans along their weight loss journeys with videos and inspirational messages on social media.
Anthony Anderson says he’s always been husky. But the actor, who was diagnosed as a Type 2 diabetic over 20 years ago, says the news made him realize he needed to lose weight for the sake of his health. Anderson says exercise and a diet, which he describes as “vegan-ish,” have helped him on his journey.
Lawyer and television personality Star Jones says her 2003 gastric bypass surgery likely saved her life. Jones, who at one time weighed over 300 pounds, described herself as morbidly obese.
“I couldn’t walk the stairs,” she told TODAY in 2012. “I couldn’t walk the airport length without having to stop and catch my breath. My greatest fear was that I would die in my apartment alone from a stroke or a heart attack – too big to get to the phone. And I made up my mind that whatever it took, I was gonna lose that weight.”
EJ Johnson lost an astonishing 180 pounds after undergoing gastric sleeve surgery in 2014. These days, the reality star credits diet and exercise with helping maintain a healthy weight.
“Find a workout that’s something you love to do,” Johnson told E!. “For me it’s not even working out it’s just having fun.”
Talk show queen Sherri Shepherd credits a high-fat, low-carb diet and intermittent fasting with helping her shed 20 pounds in 2021. She also says she cut sugar, dairy, beef, pork and alcohol from her diet, choosing to drink water and tea only.
Al Sharpton left us stunned after losing 176-pounds. The MSNBC host says his youngest daughter inspired his journey back in 2006, and he hasn’t looked back. Sharpton says he’s relied on a healthy diet and consistent exercise rather than surgery.
“I actually lost more weight than I am!” he told PEOPLE in 2022.
Singer and actress Janet Jackson lost 70 pounds in 2017 after giving birth to her son Eissa. According to her trainer, Paulette Sybliss, Miss Jackson underwent a “vigorous training schedule,” which you may be surprised to learn didn’t include hours of cardio.
“We were doing three or four exercises with weights back to back. When you’re working with weights and you’re working the muscle that way, it elevates the heart rate, but also it’s creating that fat burning affect both during the session and also when she left me, and that was key,” Sybliss told E!.
Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes says losing 150 pounds was no fun, but she did it because her health depended on it. But Rhimes says even worse than the weight loss process was the weird way everyone treated the thinner version of herself. She wrote about her weight loss journey in her Shondaland newsletter in 2017.
“When I was fat, I wasn’t a PERSON to these people,” she said. “Like I had been an Invisible Woman who suddenly materialized in front of them. Poof! There I am. Thin and ready for a chat.”
Legendary R&B singer Chaka Khan has battled with her weight off and on for years. But she says it was a liquid and vegan diet that helped kickstart her 60-pound weight loss back in 2012.
“Get Ur Freak On” rapper Missy Elliot was diagnosed with the autoimmune disorder Graves’ disease in 2008. Weight loss is one of the symptoms of the disease, which causes an overproduction of thyroid hormones. Since her diagnosis, Missy has tried to make healthy lifestyle choices, like eating better and exercising more.
The Talk host Sheryl Underwood said her doctor gave her the wake-up call she needed to get her weight under control.
“My lab work: diabetic, pre-diabetic, hypertension, all the things that you hear, especially with women,” she told PEOPLE in 2022. “I really wanted to get ahead of it.”
With the help of popular weight loss medication Wegovy, Underwood was able to drop 90 pounds. She says getting more sleep, drinking more water and adding more fruits and veggies to her diet also helped.
