Actress Kirstie Alley's Weight-Loss Journey Over The Decades

Nov 09, 2020 by apost team

Kirstie Alley turns 70 in January. The actress has always been very outspoken about her journey with weight gain and weight loss and is passionate about helping people to lose weight and get healthy.

The mother-of-two has produced a reality TV show and even published a book about her struggles with her weight. She eventually lost a lot of weight from competing on Dancing with the Stars for two seasons, clinching first runner-up on season 12. Keep reading to see how Alley looks like now and what she has to say about her weight.

Kirstie Louise Alley was born on January 12th, 1951, in Wichita, Kansas. Before she became the actress and comedienne that she is today, she was an interior designer in California, according to Biography. Her move to California brought on a number of lifestyle changes, not all of which were healthy. She suffered from drug addiction that she finally overcame later, before her big break.

Alley’s acting break came when she landed a role as a Vulcan student in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). But it was the 1980s sitcom Cheers that catapulted Alley into stardom when she was chosen to replace Shelly Long. She won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1990 for her role as Rebecca Howe.

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Alley’s first revelation to lose weight came when she was watching her sitcom, Kirstie. “I was like, you look OK on the street, but you don't look [OK] on TV, not so much,” Alley told Matt Lauer during an interview with TODAY in 2014. Her goal was to lose 30 pounds, which according to her is “a lot.”

Alley used to drink not one, not two, but twelve grape sodas a day, which she says was what really made her start gaining weight. “It is 50 grams of sugar in each grape soda,” she said in a 2012 interview with Dr. Oz. She goes on to add that her time on Dancing with the Stars helped her to lose weight. According to Insider, Alley lost a whopping 100 pounds from all the dancing she did on the show. The celebrity placed 2nd in season 12 of the show and 7th in season 15.

But the comedic actress’ struggle with her weight started way back. In 2018, according to Women’s Health Magazine, she had shed 75 pounds from signing on as a spokesperson with nutrition company Jenny Craig in 2004 but gained it all back after the contract was over in 2007. She attributed the regaining of the weight to “man problems” and being overindulgent during the festive seasons of Christmas, Halloween, and Valentine’s. She joked: “Listen, men, stop upsetting your women. You make them fat.”

In 2005, the then-54-year-old actress starred in Showtime's Fat Actress. The unscripted movie centered around Hollywood’s obsession with celebrity weight. That same year, she penned her personal weight journey in her book, How to Lose Your Ass and Regain Your Life.

The day before her interview with Dr. Oz, Alley took to her Facebook to share that she is “passionate about helping people lose weight, get healthy and full of REAL energy.” One tip she gives is to not buy junk foods so that you will not be tempted to eat them at home. Besides her body image, she has also struggled with other addictions, as revealed during her interview with Dr. Oz.

More recently, in 2010, the Emmy-award winning actress starred in an A&E real-life television series, Kirstie Alley's Big Life, a show that documented her journey to losing weight, developing a positive body image, and raising her two children, who were teenagers back then, in Hollywood.

"It's so important for women to look the way they want to look and feel the way they want to feel for their own reasons, not because someone's telling them to or because it's fashionable or trendy," Alley said. "Losing weight is losing weight, but just because you're skinny doesn't mean you're happy."

Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in February this year show that the United States of America has the world’s 12th-highest obesity rate with more than 42% of American adults and 19.3% of Americans aged 19 and under that are obese.

"It's so important for women to look the way they want to look and feel the way they want to feel for their own reasons, not because someone's telling them to or because it's fashionable or trendy," Alley said. "Losing weight is losing weight, but just because you're skinny doesn't mean you're happy."

Data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in February this year show that the United States of America has the world’s 12th-highest obesity rate with more than 42% of American adults and 19.3% of Americans aged 19 and under that are obese.

Can you believe she's lost 100 pounds? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! Pass this along to somebody who you think will be inspired by Kirstie.