Hollywood Weight-Loss Transformations People Are Still Talking About

For as long as there have been celebrities, there has been a fascination with their lives. This fascination can border on obsessive, as we've seen with Jennifer Aniston or even Prince Harry and Kate Middleton — who have all brought legal action against paparazzi for some pretty brazen invasions of privacy. What they do, where they go, where they shop, and, of course, how they get into shape have always been points of conversation in the tabs. 

Some of us idolize stars, and want to look like them so much that countless Hollywood fad diets and weight-loss trends have appeared over the years. From the culinary sin that was Greta Garbo's celery loaf (an abomination of pureed celery, walnuts, parsley, onions, mushrooms, butter, eggs, and breadcrumbs baked under a generous layer of milk) to the skinny teas of modern Hollywood, it seems like people will try anything to look like their favorite celebs. 

Unfortunately, we can't all be pasta aficionados like Sophia Loren and still look that good. Although the actress has been misquoted countless times as saying, "Everything you see I owe to spaghetti" (via The New York Times), she still spent her prime years as a silver screen legend endorsing her very indulgent cookbooks. While gorging on spaghetti may not be the first pick for these following celebs, let's take a look at the weight-loss transformations in Hollywood people are still talking about.

Adele has slowly been changing her body and mindset throughout the years — and everyone is noticing. Fans first took note of the singer's weight-loss in October of 2019 — which probably wasn't a coincidence given that she filed for divorce from her husband Simon Konecki the month prior. This first peek at Adele's new look came at Drake's birthday party, where she was photographed looking slim in a little black dress.

In the January following Adele's divorce, Lexi Larson, a lucky fan, bumped into the starlet while dining on vacation in the Caribbean. Per People, Larson revealed she chatted with the singer, adding, "She said she lost something like 100 pounds, and that it's such a crazy positive experience." Gushing, she went on, "She seemed so happy, and she looked amazing. She seemed really confident."

For the most part, the "Chasing Pavements" singer has kept her transformation a bit more low-key. But then, Adele revealed her new figure in an Instagram post on her birthday in May 2020, leaving most of us having to pick up our jaws from the floor. "It was never about losing weight," dished an insider to People. "Her weight loss happened because she has cut down drinking and is eating more real food. But she now loves her physical transformation too. She is more confident, dresses differently and she just seems happier overall."

While Ethan Suplee may not be a household name, the roles he has played are immediately recognizable. From the dull but endearing Randy in the sitcom My Name Is Earl, to Seth Ryan, a jackbooted, ignorant neo-nazi in American History X, Suplee was all over the map in film and TV from the mid-'90s to early aughts. However, the headlines he made in 2020 had nothing to do with new roles, as the formerly rotund actor has lost the fat and packed on muscle in a big way. He shares his new fitness-forward lifestyle on his Instagram account, and there's no doubt that Suplee is one buff dude. That being said, the star has had some significant fluctuations with his weight.

Suplee revealed in his new podcast American Glutton that at the beginning of My Name is Earl, he weighed about 290 pounds, but by the end, his weight was "closer to 400." After the show had wrapped, Suplee took up cycling, and his weight dropped down to 220 pounds. He addressed the negative side of this on Entertainment Weekly's What to Watch podcast, explaining, "Initially, the casting directors didn't want me to come in because I'd lost a bunch of weight ... [they] were like, 'No, he's too thin now.'"

Regardless of what Tinseltown wants, Suplee is not losing steam. His goal for 2020? "All the abs." We're cheering him on.

Jonah Hill made his face immediately recognizable with 2007's Superbad — and we won't blame you if that's how you still remember him. Hill has had a wide range of roles since then, as well as a wide range of suit sizes. While speaking to Kidd Kraddick in the Morning, the actor shed some information on the lifestyle he led around the time Superbad came out. "All my friends were in college, so I was living like a frat guy, like everyone [was] drinking beer and eating pizza." So, not exactly a fitness-focused lifestyle by any means, right?

Hill's decision to lose weight wasn't so much about looks, yet more so about facing some of the issues from his past. In an interview on The Ellen Show in 2018, Hill explained, "I spent most of my young adult life listening to people say I was fat, and gross, and unattractive, and it's only in the last four years ... that I've started to understand how much that hurt and got into my head." 

Sure enough, it seems Hill has been wrestling with "stuff that made [him] feel weak and insecure as a teenager." The War Dogs star showed off a picture of himself after a January 2019 Jiu-Jitsu session, writing, "In high school the dudes who did Jiu Jitzu used to beat the sh*t out of us at parties ... But quietly I always thought it was a beautiful art form." 

We all remember Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke from the 2005 Dukes of Hazzard remake — and who could forget her cover of "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'"? That being said, she probably had to avoid the boots for a while after showing off her very swollen foot in January 2019. The reason behind this eggplant-shaped transformation was due to Simpson's third pregnancy, which caused some evident weight gain. By Simpson's own claims, she "tipped the scales at 240."

The singer joked about her pregnancy weight gain on HSN while promoting her new line of shoes that same year. "I didn't expect to gain as much with my third," the mom of three said. "I thought I'd learned my lesson, but apparently, that's just the way God made me: very hungry and pregnant." To her credit and our surprise, Simpson did not keep the baby weight on long, considering how much she gained. In just six months after giving birth, the reality TV alum flaunted her 100-pound weight-loss on her Instagram.

Simpson's first step to losing weight was just that — steps. More accurately, 6,000 of them per day. Her long-time personal trainer, Harley Pasternak, spoke to E!, revealing, "We are not a big fan of doing any extreme diet or radical forms of exercise." So, they took a straightforward approach that was more maintainable, and it looks like Simpson is ready for her walkin' boots.

Toddlers and Tiaras aired on TLC from 2009 to 2016 and featured the lives of contestants and the families who participated in child beauty pageants. Arguably the true star of the series was Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson, who stole the spotlight and won her own spinoff show, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Well, if the apple doesn't fall from the tree, neither does honey, as Thompson's mother, Mama June, got a reality TV gig for herself boldly named: Mama June: From Not to Hot.

The WeTV docu-drama follows the course of Mama June's weight-loss journey and her search for a new love — as it came after her split from her allegedly philandering partner, "Sugar Bear." To kick off her weight-loss, Mama June underwent surgery for a gastric sleeve, which reduces the size of your stomach, making you feel full after eating less. The gastric sleeve worked as advertised. In fact, it worked so well that she made the decision to undergo surgery yet again to remove some excess skin. "Her stomach started looking gross," her eldest daughter, Pumpkin, told ET, adding, "It was hanging from where she lost so much weight, and her arms and her chin, so she got [the skin on] her stomach removed." 

The entire weight loss journey, which began at 450 pounds, culminated at her ex's wedding, from which her invitation was rescinded by the bride. Regardless, Mama June still made an appearance, showing off her new size 4 figure.

There is quite possibly no other actor who has appeared in more headlines for body transformations than Christian Bale. Bale has undertaken some of the most radical body changes of all time, starting with his transition for his role in American Psycho as the narcissistic Patrick Bateman (above left), to the disturbingly frail Trevor Reznik in The Machinist (above right).

To prepare for The Machinist, Bale lost over 60 pounds, or "one-third of his body weight," per his 2005 interview with Liese Spencer. In the same chat, Bale also revealed that his shocking daily diet to achieve this consisted of: water, "one non-fat latte (sipped throughout the day)," gum, "salad leaves and vitamin pills" for lunch, and an apple for dinner. His snacks? Whiskey and cigarettes. Alternately, Bale needed a different tactic to portray the historically portlier Dick Cheney in the 2018 biopic Vice. His solution? "I've just been eating a lot of pies," Bale bluntly told Variety.  

On the heels heels of Vice came 2019's Ford v Ferrari, for which Bale lost all of the weight from his previous flick — clocking in at a 70 pound weight-loss total. Matt Damon, Bale's co-star in the movie, shed a bit more insight to Men's Health, revealing that when he asked the actor how he lost the weight, Bale simply told Damon: "I didn't eat." It's safe to say that Bale has as much range on his bathroom scale as he does as an actor.

It isn't always easy to stick to a New Year's resolution — unless you're Rebel Wilson. In an Instagram post from Jan. 2nd, 2020, Wilson wrote, "Okay so for me 2020 is going to be called 'The Year of Health' – so I put on the athleisure and went out for a walk."

By August, the Pitch Perfect star reportedly lost about 42 pounds. But how was she doing it? As it turns out, Wilson has been utilizing exercise as well as something called the Mayr Method. Per Women's Health, the Mayr Method is based on the "Mayr Cure," developed by Austrian doctor Franz Xaver Mayr who suggested that we are essentially "poisoning" ourselves with what we eat. The principles of the Mayr Method focus on things such as reducing snacking, reducing consumption of dairy and gluten, eating foods that are high alkaline, and even chewing your food 30 times (via The Guardian). 

When Wilson isn't spending time obsessively chewing her food, she's hitting the gym — and she's not slacking. The celeb has made several posts on her Instagram showing off her workout routine of a variety of exercises. In a July 13th post, Wilson took a cheeky jab at some fellow Australian actors known for their physique and captioned a video of herself flipping tires: "Starting the week off right! Look out @chrishemsworth & @liamhemsworth ... Australia's latest action hero is turning it up!" 

Much like her rock legend father, Ozzy Osbourne, Kelly Osbourne is an open book. In a December 2019 Instagram post, she claimed, "2020 is going to be the year of me!!! It's time to put myself first ... and be the bada** sober women [sic] I was born to be." Well, it looks like Kelly did just that, and in August following her post, she shared another photo on Instagram with her violet hair done up, claiming she was "feeling #Gucci." And why shouldn't she? After all, in reply to a comment on the photo, Kelly revealed she had lost 85 pounds.

It's by no means been an easy journey for the "Shut Up" singer, as she's been dealing with fluctuations with her weight since Dancing With the Stars in 2009. Earlier that year, she had spent some time in a rehab facility. As Kelly told Shape, "I replaced the drugs with food and just got fatter and fatter. I'm an emotional eater. When I get upset, my diet goes out the window." 

The reality TV star gradually managed to start losing weight from this point onward, but she needed some help, which came from gastric sleeve surgery. As she told the Hollywood Raw podcast, "I had surgery; I don't give a f**k what anyone has to say. I did it, I'm proud of it. They can suck sh*t." Indeed. 

Josh Ostrovsky — a.k.a. The Fat Jewish — has made headlines for his weight-loss in 2020. No, that's not a joke, or as Men's Health so succinctly put it, "You wouldn't think that someone who calls himself 'The Fat Jewish,' would be motivated to lose weight." After all, by Ostrovsky's own claims, "I like being thick. It's a part of my brand." However, the celeb had a revelation after being "held back at times," such as one incident where he was denied the opportunity to go zip lining after "he was [deemed] too heavy."

At 300 pounds, the meme star decided to make a change and signed up for Weight Watchers — even becoming an ambassador in the process. In an interview with Us Weekly, Ostrovsky talked about his motivation. "At some point I'm gonna have a child (SCARY, I KNOW) and I'd like to have a normal dad bod. I had a friend growing up whose dad was extremely overweight and he would sweat all the time and it scared me and I still talk about it to my therapist sometimes, 20 years later. Trying to avoid being that guy." 

With being "that guy" spurring him forward, Ostrovsky managed to lose 55 pounds in 10 months with ease. He claimed that Weight Watchers made his weight loss so easy that he "work[s] out Jewish grandmother style." The only problem now? As he told Men's Health, "I have to figure out what to do with my brand."

Oscar winner and multiple-time nominee Kathy Bates has a face we're all familiar with, yet in 2019, the Titanic actress made waves for her dramatic, head-turning weight loss. In January of 2019, Bates appeared at WebMD's Health Heroes event in New York City, revealing that she had lost close to 60 pounds. As for how she did it? The simple answer would be mindfulness.

Bates spoke to Us Weekly at the event and gave a bit more insight about her weight-loss methodology. "Mindfulness, just knowing when to push my plate away. My niece told me this little secret, I guess it's no secret, it's a biological thing, that at some point when you're eating, you have this involuntary sigh and that's really your brain and your stomach communicating that you've had enough," she explained. "The trick is to pay attention to that and push your plate away." This technique seems straightforward enough, but it's important to note that it's nothing like a crash diet and results will take time.

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day, and as Bates said in her own words, "It took a few years." Musing, she went on, "I would say you have to be really patient ... I don't like the word willpower, but I like the word determination.

Weight loss for Khloe Kardashian hasn't always been an easy ride. In fact, even when Keeping Up with the Kardashians first graced our small screens back in 2007, the reality TV vet made everyone aware that she was "tough skinned" — although viewers of the show immediately labeled her as the "fat sister" (via Us Weekly). As Kardashian herself once mused: "It's like being brain-washed: You think, 'Do I have a distorted body image and think I'm not as big as I am?'"

Whether or not she has her critics to thank for her body transformation, the Good American founder suddenly "kick[ed] her habit of yo-yo dieting," and turned to a healthy combination of exercise and eating well. In 2017, she launched her TV series, Revenge Body with Khloe Kardashian, where she motivates others to achieve their weight loss goals. As Gunnar Peterson, her personal trainer who also appears on the show, told Women's Health, "Khloe's work ethic is second to none." Khloe Kardashian's weight-loss diet is clearly working for her!

Sure enough, Kardashian has surprised fans countless times with her transformations. As she told her mom, Kris Jenner on Revenge Body, the starlet gained another 40 pounds while pregnant with her daughter, True, in 2019, coming in at "203 pounds when [she] delivered." By May 2020, Kardashian miraculously managed to lose 60 pounds again — all during a global pandemic. Umm... can she be everybody's personal trainer?