Category - Celebrities
Jim Gaffigan on How He Slimmed Down After Years of Weight Struggles
Jim Gaffigan has always used his weight and love for eating as a punchline in his comedy, even going so far to title his 2013 memoir Dad Is Fat. But the 58-year-old recently lost a significant amount of weight with the anti-diabetic medication Mounjaro, and is now opening up about his weight loss journey.
Speaking with Us Weekly this week ahead of his new Hulu special The Skinny, Gaffigan revealed how the prescription drug helped him drop the pounds. He also lamented how overweight people are negatively judged in society and how there is "empathy" for people struggling with other types of addiction but "less sympathy" for those who overeat.
"I was so paranoid that I was going to be nauseous that I kind of put it off, but then it kind of worked," Gaffigan explained. "It’s weird because we live in this society where people who eat too much are told that they just don’t have any self control. … There are people that just have no ‘off’ button to eat, right?"
“I would eat when I was hungry and I would eat when I was happy and eat when I was sad, and I would just eat. It was my reward," he recalled, also admitting that he's aware of the stigma around the decision to use weight loss drugs. "It’s obviously personal, but I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it. But then again, anonymity is a thing surrounding a lot of struggles like that."
Gaffigan said that he was "probably 270" pounds when he realized he wanted to make a major lifestyle change, but is also aware of his shortcomings. "I’m kind of like a square Midwesterner. I will never look super thin," he quipped.
Although he didn't reveal exactly how much weight he's lost, Gaffigan will elaborate on the subject in his upcoming comedy special, which will be released on Nov. 22.
"I don't know if you know, I'm normally a fat guy. But since I've lost all this weight, I'm just arrogant," he says in a preview for the special. "People—they won't even say anything to me—they'll just go up to my wife and ask, 'Is Jim OK?' Because to them, it's more likely that I'm sick than I would ever have any self-discipline."
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"We’re a country that’s struggling with the obesity epidemic. And then there are these appetite suppressants that do wonders, so The Skinny is a bit about processing society’s take on that," he added to the publication.