Feb 12, 2024 at 7:52 pm

Billy Gardell Talks Weight Loss: How Much He Lost, How He Did It, & More

Bob Hearts Abishola star Billy Gardell has impressed fans with his major weight loss over the years and he has opened up about how he achieved his goals.

The 54-year-old actor is best known for playing Bob on the CBS series, as well as playing Mike on the beloved sitcom Mike & Molly.

Billy lost the majority of his weight during a three-year period between 2020 and 2023 and he has shared details on how he dropped the weight.

Keep reading to find out more…

In a previous interview, Billy revealed that he weighed 370 pounds about a decade ago and he was down to about 205 to 210 pounds in April 2023. That means he lost between 160 and 165 pounds!

“I float between 205 [pounds] and 210 [pounds],” he told ET. “Self-care is important, and I think I finally got there.”

“Walking around pretty healthy these days,” he added. “Of course, there’s always people online that, you know, when I was heavy, they were like ‘You’re too heavy!’ And now it’s like, ‘Are you sick?’ Can I just walk the earth, please?!”

Billy revealed that he no longer suffers from Type 2 diabetes and he was able to lower his resting heart rate from 113 to 68.

Billy says the motivation behind losing the weight was his son. He said, “When you hit 50, you start doing that dad math, like, ‘If I can live 25 more years, and he’ll be 40,’ … You know what I mean? So I want to be here for him. I’ve been an example in a lot of good ways for my child, but I feel like I wasn’t a good example of health for him. And so I want him to see that. It doesn’t matter what age you are, if you are willing to do something a day at a time, you can change anything.”

Back in 2022, Billy talked about how he lost the weight, revealing that he did have gastric bypass surgery as a preventive measure for high-risk COVID-19.

“I had to make a change,” Billy said during his appearance on The Rich Eisen Show. “I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes and I was on medicine for that. I’ve struggled with my weight for my whole life.”

He continued, saying that when COVID hit, “I thought that could’ve been the end of me. They pulled up that list of conditions [of who are afflicted the most], like overweight, asthma, smoker, diabetes…I had everything except over 65.”

While Billy had been losing more weight before, he did say that after restrictions lifted, he went and did have weight loss surgery.

“I’m not saying everyone should do that, but it’s what I needed to do because I had gotten so big that it hurt to exercise,” he explained. “I do everything they tell me to do and I follow it daily and it’s a new way of life.”

Billy concluded, “It’s been a gift. I feel like I’m finally free.”