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Ricki Lake’s Weight Loss Journey: How She Lost 35 Lbs at 55 Without Ozempic
By accomplishing the goal of losing 35 pounds successfully, Ricki feels on top of the world. Here’s all the deets on Ricki Lake's weight loss transformation.
For many people, as they grow older, losing weight starts becoming a difficult process. Blame it on the lack of determination to lose weight or a drop in hormonal levels that regulate fat distribution — the weight loss process becomes tricky once you hit 50s.
However, Ricki Lake's weight loss story proves otherwise — her doctors too said the same — that she won’t be able to achieve her weight loss goal in the perimenopause stage and would have to turn to weight loss drugs to slim down.
But Ricki Lake, the renowned American TV host and actress, took it as a challenge and embarked on a fitness journey that helped her lose 35 pounds in 7 months. She, along with her husband, Ross Burningham made fitness a priority and incorporated a few changes in their diet and lifestyle to lose weight.
She didn’t hesitate while sharing her weight loss success story with others and shared a post on her Instagram handle, posing in a white dress that she wore in 2007 during the premiere of The Business of Being Born.
Proving that losing weight has nothing to do with age and that you can achieve your fitness goals at any time, her story is a testament to resilience and hard work. She now feels really happy and feels proud of the accomplishment. Let’s take a look at Ricki Lake’s profile and weight loss journey.
Who Is Ricki Lake?
Ricki Pamela Lake was born in New York, U.S. She made her acting debut in the popular 1988 movie, Hairspray. Her other notable work includes The Business of Being Born, Working Girl, The King of Queens, Cry-Baby, and so on.
Lake met Rob Sussman in 1993 on Halloween and got married after a year. The couple shares two sons: Owen Tyler Sussman and Milo Sebastian Sussman. The couple later separated in 2004.
After dating Christian Evans, a jewelry designer for around 3 years, she got married to him in 2012. 2 years later, she filed for divorce, saying there were some irreconcilable differences between the two. Their divorce was finalized in 2015. In 2022, the star got married to Ross Burningham.
Ricki has always been vocal about her personal struggles and shared health woes she faced (more on that later). Her weight loss journey too is quite inspiring — let’s dig deeper into Ricki Lake’s weight loss success story.
Ricki Lake Weight Loss Secrets Unveiled:
Ricki Lake began her weight loss journey in 2023 and lost 35 pounds in a few months without taking any medication. She wanted to motivate everyone with her story, so she shared how she lost weight.
Ricki’s Motivation to Lose Weight
Ricki got newfound happiness when she got married to her “perfect man”, Burningham, and confessed in an interview that everything was going well in their lives, but if there was one thing that was not working well was the extra weight that they were carrying. Hence, both Ross and Ricki decided to adopt a healthier lifestyle and shed pounds.
How Did Ricki Lose Weight: Her Diet Plan
( Image Source: Getty Images)
When doctors advised Ricki to take the help of weight loss drugs, she didn’t feel good about the idea — not that she felt there was anything wrong with that, but since neither she nor her husband was prediabetic, she felt they could accomplish their fitness goals on their own. She knew she would have to face challenges to lose weight but she was determined to do so.
Thus began a journey filled with fun and hardships for Ricki and Ross — they both resorted to intermittent fasting and a keto diet to have a healthy, balanced meal and burn calories.
Intermittent fasting is all the rage now, owing to the host of benefits it offers. Many people nowadays indulge in this fasting process to build a healthy lifestyle. For the unversed, intermittent fasting is all about scheduling your meals for specific hours in a day and not eating anything for the remaining time.
Some popular methods of intermittent fasting include alternate day fasting, 16/8, and 14/10 fasting periods. For instance, in the 16:8 fasting method, a person has to consume food items only for 8 hours and observe a fast for 18 hours.
Studies claim that intermittent fasting benefits a person by boosting heart health, improving cognitive abilities, losing body weight, and lowering the risk of various diseases like diabetes (1), (2).
Besides, the keto diet too has become a trend nowadays, with many people trying it to slough weight. A ketogenic diet is all about consuming a meal that is almost free of carbs and high in protein and fat.
Now you may think, how does eating fat help with weight loss? A ketogenic diet is characterized by reducing the intake of carbs and replacing it with healthy fats. This puts the body into a metabolic state known as ketosis, which further leads to the efficient burning of fat for energy.
When a ketogenic diet is sustained, the primary ketone bodies accumulate in the body and are used as an alternative source of energy for the body. Research claims that the keto diet can help accelerate the weight loss process, boost energy levels, and provide mental clarity (3).
Since Ricki didn’t want to take Ozempic, the famous weight loss drug, she planned to focus all her energy on diet and workout so that she could get in shape, which she eventually did. This is proof that when trying to lose weight if one adapts to a well-balanced diet plan, the goal is reached swiftly.
But diet alone can’t help one sustain weight loss, and Ricki was smart enough to recognize this — hence, she also made it a point to make fitness a priority and indulged in workouts to bring down her weight.
Below is the fitness routine that helped the Hairspray star achieve her weight loss goal.
Read More: James Corden's Weight Loss: How the Comedy King Melted off 84 lbs
Ricki Lake Fitness Routine
In an interview, Lake candidly expressed that she loves going on a hike with her dog and husband. She stated that it’s a kind of meditation for her and this activity has been a game changer for her as it gets her heart racing and her metabolism going.
Hiking, while being a fun adventure, can be a game changer for those trying to get to a slimmer waistline. It is a low-intensity aerobic exercise that not only uplifts your mood but also keeps cardiovascular problems at bay — when done consistently, it can also help you burn calories effectively and lose weight (4).
Another daily exercise that the 55-year-old star is in love with is Pilates. This is another popular exercise that focuses on core strength. Doing Pilates regularly can help improve flexibility, tone muscle, build muscle strength, improve posture, and lose weight (5).
With a consistent diet and workout routine, Both Ricki and Ross managed to lose weight successfully. Here are more deets about the actress's weight loss transformation!
Ricki Lake’s Journey of Dealing with Health Struggles
Ricki Lake talked about the difficulties when she struggled with hair loss issues. In 2019, she shaved her head, stating that she suffered from hair loss and now she has accepted herself and is on a journey of self-love and self-acceptance.
In the year 2023, she celebrated the four-year anniversary of shaving her head and said that the transformation was much more than physical.
How Does Ricki Feel After Losing 35 Lbs?
Ricki Lake has always been known as a brave woman — she always radiates positive energy and is an inspiration to many. With her dramatic weight loss and health journey, too, she motivated a lot of people not to take the short route and focus on making consistent efforts to lose weight.
When she decided to lose weight, it was because she wanted to be healthier, and even though doctors pushed her toward weight loss medications as she was in premenopause, she chose a different path, and that yielded great results.
In an interview, she revealed that people think that because you are in your 50s, you are supposed to be going down and that everything is downhill from here — however, after losing weight, she feels quite the opposite.
She further stated that she has never felt healthiest or fittest. She revealed that she has made this lifestyle change her job and it has become her joy and that she is in the best shape of her life. Furthermore, she expressed her love for Ross, saying she has a beautiful partner with whom she shares her life and she pinches herself every day.
What Is Ricki’s Advice to Those Trying to Lose Weight?
Ricki is an advocate of mental health and body positivity — she believes in loving oneself above anything else. She once said in an interview that she believes that good things come when we practice self-love and self-acceptance.
Moreover, she stated that she is not focused on a “number on a scale” — for her, health and fitness are all about feeling good.
Lake advises people who want to make any kind of change to start from a place of positivity and then work hard to accomplish the goal.
Ricki Lake Before And After Photos
Ricki Lake’s before and after weight loss transformation photos show that she has worked really hard to achieve her fitness goal. Here is a glimpse of Ricki Lake’s weight loss transformation:
Before:
After:
Contrary to popular belief that the weight loss process becomes strenuous after reaching 50s, Ricki Lake weight loss story substantiates that it’s a process that can’t be defined by age. Changing the way you eat and modifying your lifestyle in terms of workouts can accelerate the weight loss process, no matter your age.
Ricki and her husband Ross, achieved their dream of losing weight in a few months by dedicating their efforts to healthy dietary patterns and workout routines. As Ricki rightly said, the fitness process becomes meditative and enjoyable — once you start, you feel happier and healthier. For those trying to skinny down, she is definitely a role model and her weight loss success story can serve as a reminder that with persistent efforts, anything is possible!
Sources:
1. Beneficial effects of intermittent fasting: a narrative review
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9946909/
2. The Effects of Intermittent Fasting on Brain and Cognitive Function
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470960/
3. Ketogenic Diet
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
4. Hiking
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6993091/
5. Pilates: how does it work and who needs it?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3666467/
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