Former “Mike & Molly” star Billy Gardell lost 170 pounds. and transformed his life (exclusive)

For years, Billy Gardell made the same promise to himself: he was going to lose weight.

“Every year,” says the actor and former Mike and Molly. star. “I would say I would start Monday. Or the first of the month. Or New Year’s Eve. That’s always been my routine.”

Sometimes he would go all the way, losing dozens of pounds at a time before inevitably seeing them return to his 6 feet. frame. In 2020, when his weight began hovering around 370 to 380 pounds and he developed Type 2 diabetes, doctors warned him it was life-threatening. And then came COVID.

“When the first wave hit and they listed the high-risk conditions, I had them all,” Gardell says. “Overweight, sleep apnea, smoking, type 2 diabetes, asthma… It really was the perfect storm. Between my blood values ​​not coming back good, my blood pressure going up, type 2 diabetes and COVID, it was enough things to scare me and say, ‘Come hell or high water, I have to make a change.’ »

And he has changed. On July 17, 2021, Gardell underwent weight loss surgery, the first step in a life-changing process to transform his relationship with food and finally take control of his health.

“It really came down to a change in everything I think about food,” says Gardell. “Food is fuel. It’s not a reward, it’s not soothing, it’s not medicine. I had to move past my emotional relationship with food.”

Since the surgery, through regular workouts and careful attention to his diet, Gardell, 56, has lost more than 170 pounds. “I oscillate between 210 and 215,” specifies the actor. “And it’s comfortable for me.” Better yet, his health problems have receded. “My diabetes is gone,” he says. “I feel strong. I have energy. Losing weight saved my life.”

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A self-described “chubby” kid, Gardell was born in Pittsburgh but grew up splitting his time between Pennsylvania and Florida after his parents divorced. Although he was active in sports, by his teenage years his relationship with food had become complicated.

“At 14, I had a lot of responsibilities to provide for the family, and the second stepfather we had at home was not a nice person,” he says. “I think I put on this extra weight as a kind of safety armor.”

At age 17, Gardell left home to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian, performing in small clubs across the country and working his way through success and failure.

“I treated my emotions and my fears with food, and I also celebrated my victories with food,” he says. “You eat to distract your feelings when they are bad or to reinforce them when they are good, and both of those things are poison pills.”

Over the years, as the weight increased, Gardell tried a myriad of diets. “I tried everything, low-carb, keto, intermittent fasting – and by the way, all of these things work – but I just couldn’t stay consistent with any of them. I was on a yo-yo thing.”

And for a while, that didn’t seem to be a problem. His stand-up career grew steadily – “the big guy is always funny,” he says – and in 2010 he landed the lead role alongside Melissa McCarthy on the hit CBS sitcom. Mike and Molly. The show, about a couple who fall in love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, ran for six seasons and “changed my life,” Gardell says. “I was the romantic lead at 350 pounds,” he marvels. “Life is so strange.”

Three years later, he enjoyed more success on television with the comedy Bob Hearts Abisholaa show about a man who falls in love with his nurse while recovering from a heart attack.

Inevitably, his excess weight began to take a toll on his health. In addition to diabetes, he developed joint and muscle pain that made movement difficult. “I had become so tall and stationary that it hurt to get up,” he says. As he approached middle age, he worried about being there for his wife, Patty, and son Will, now 22, and twice consulted a doctor about weight-loss surgery.

“But I chickened out both times,” he says. Finally, after being faced with this “full bingo card” of high-risk health factors during COVID, he knew he had to act. “The only thing I didn’t have on that list was being over 65, and that’s what I was trying to achieve,” the actor said. “I was desperate enough to make a change.”

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Four years later, Gardell credits his surgeon Dr. Philippe Quilici and nutritionist Teri Hlubik with making his transformation possible. “They are the dream team,” he said. But he is also well aware that it is up to him to make the change last. And that required a major shift in his thinking about food.

“Every change you want to make in your life starts between your ears,” he says. In weekly meetings with Hlubik – “almost like therapy” – he explored his emotional relationship with food, learned to replace the comfort of junk food with fuel for his body, and realized it was worth the time and effort to get healthy. “You have to learn to love yourself,” he says. “You need to examine why you react the way you do to food and heal that, then love yourself enough to do something good for yourself.”

Maintaining weight requires consistency, and Gardell maintains a strict routine: Breakfast is a turkey sausage sandwich, followed by cottage cheese and fruit in the afternoon and a light dinner without fried or high-sugar foods. He also makes sure to drink 75 oz. of water each day, take a daily multivitamin, a fish oil supplement, and a probiotic, and exercise three or four times a week. “It’s a bit like living in Groundhog Day, but it’s worth it,” says Gardell.

He allows himself occasional follies. “I can have a bite or two of something decadent if I want,” he says. “At a birthday party, I would take a bite of cake just to taste it, and that was enough. Before, I would eat a whole pizza. Now I can take a slice and be satisfied.”

And he also recognizes that not every day is perfect – and that’s okay. “You’ll never do it perfectly, but if you do it eight times out of ten, you’ll win the battle,” he says. “My thing is I meditate and I pray for consistency. I pray for gratitude and I pray to remember the things I’ve learned.”

In addition to dramatically improving his health – “I feel like I saved my life, I really did” – losing weight also helped Gardell discover “magical” new experiences like surfing and horseback riding. “I can now fly in the middle seat on a plane,” he says. “For a grown-up, it’s the unicorn! And I know it sounds silly, but I’m able to walk into a store and buy a shirt off the shelf. This one brings me so much joy I can’t even explain it.”

Best of all, his transformation brought him closer to Patty and Will, whom he calls the “secret power” who encouraged him throughout the process. Although neither of them ever pressured him to lose weight, they gave him a reason to get healthy. “They want me to be here longer, God bless them,” Gardell says. “When a man knows what he’s fighting for, he’s capable of doing incredible things. And these two are worth fighting for.”