Ethan Suplee: A Look Into His 1,000 Pound Weight Loss Story

Sep 28, 2021

Ethan Suplee is an American actor that is best known for playing the role of Louie Lastik in the film "Remember the Titans" and for portraying Randy Hickie in the comedy television series "My Name is Earl." Suplee has been acting professionally since he was a teen, and he excels at both comedic and dramatic acting. His range has earned him a successful career, but he has not been seen in as many film projects since he went through a major weight loss transformation.  

Suplee was born in Manhattan, New York to actors Debbie and Bill Suplee. He shared that he had been overweight since he was a child, and was put on his first diet at the age of 5. This kind of treatment had an effect on Suplee's relationship with food and he continued to struggle with his weight well into adulthood. 

When Suplee was 14, he decided to drop out of school to pursue a career in acting full-time. In 1995 he got his first major film role in "Mallrats." A few years later, the actor rose to fame with his appearance in "American History X" and then gained further popularity in 2000 with "Remember the Titans." 

In all of his roles, Suplee was typecast as the larger character, and this became problematic when he began to lose weight. Suplee said he saw fewer opportunities after his look changed. His career wasn't the only thing on his mind, however. The actor knew he needed to lose weight for his health and became dedicated to changing his lifestyle. Keep reading to learn more about Suplee's incredible weight loss journey. 

Suplee has said that he was first put on a diet when he was only 5. The star told E! Online: "Now back then—this was like the late '70s, early' 80s—the fat version of me at 5-years-old was probably close to what the average is today, but back then it was startling. You know, there weren't a lot of fat kids back then."

As he got older, Suplee began to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. "I had this idea now, that food was something that people didn't want me to have … So if I wanted to have more, I needed to do it privately, and it became something that I was withholding from people," Suplee explained on American Glutton his podcast series about health and his own history with diet culture in America.

When his career began to flourish, Suplee noticed he was getting cast into the same type of roles. "I never wanted to do something where I was the fat guy who was the butt of a fat guy joke … I told my agents to look for roles outside the box that could work for me. There were instances where somebody would want to add a line about me being fat and I would just say, 'Hey, no, we're not doing that,'" Suplee said to People.

His career was going well, but there was still something causing Suplee a great deal of pain. He said in an interview with Men's Health: "By the time I was 24, I weighed more than 500 pounds and knew the location of every 24-hour fast-food drive-through in Los Angeles. I had a decent career as the lovable fat guy in movies and on television, but I was—and this may be an understatement—generally unhappy."

Suplee began a number of different methods to lose weight and saw some success with a low-carb diet. By 2018 he had lost 70 pounds and weighed around 330. However, he still felt weak.

"I was one-fifth less the man I was, but I wasn't seeing the benefits I thought I would. I struggled at the gym. I had trouble building muscle and endurance. I looked smaller but felt no stronger. I discovered that for every ten pounds I lost doing low-carb, four of those pounds were lean muscle tissue. I wasn't eating the mounds of carbs I used to, but I was starving my body of protein," Suplee told Men's Health.

Through all of the ups and downs, the star never gave up on himself. On his podcast series American Glutton, Suplee explained that throughout his life he had "gained and lost probably close to 1,000 lbs. at this point." 

Eventually, Suplee found the right balance that works for him. "As I became more calorie-conscious, I started to binge less and fill up on healthier foods. After a few months of this, calories stopped being calories. They started being food. I also started drinking way more water and protein shakes, both of which helped me stay full," he shared.

In 2021, Suplee is 45 and weighs around 260-pounds. He told Men's Health: "I look back and can't reconcile my professional success with my inner turmoil. If faced with the choice of never acting again or remaining healthy, I'd find another way to make a living."

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