“I Had To Make A Change” (Exclusive)

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

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

Sometimes he followed, dropping dozens of pounds at a time before inevitably seeing them creep back to 6 feet. framework. By 2020, when his weight started hovering around 370-380 lbs. and developed type 2 diabetes, doctors warned him that he was putting his life in danger. And then came COVID.

“When the first wave hit and they filled out the list of high-risk conditions, we had them all,” says Gardell. “Overweight, sleep apnea, smoker, type 2 diabetes, asthma… It was really the perfect storm. Between my blood count not coming back well, blood pressure going up, type 2 diabetes, and COVID — it was enough to scare me to say, ‘Shit, I’ve got to make a change.'”

And the change did. On July 17, 2021, Gardell underwent bariatric 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 how I think about food,” says Gardell. “Food is fuel. It’s not reward, it’s not comforting, it’s not medicine. I had to move beyond my emotional relationship with food.”

Since the surgery, with regular workouts and careful attention to his diet, Gardell, 56, has lost more than 170 pounds. “I fluctuate between 210 and 215,” says the actor. “And that’s comfortable for me.” Even better, his health problems 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, in his teenage years his relationship with food had become complicated.

“At 14, I had a big responsibility to help the family, and the second stepfather I had in the house was not a good person,” he says. “I think I put this extra weight on as a kind of safety armor.”

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

“I was medicating my emotions and fears with food, and I was also celebrating my victories with food,” he says. “You eat to deflect your feelings when they’re bad or to enhance them when they’re good, and both of those things are poison pills.”

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

And for a while it didn’t seem to be a problem. His stand-up career steadily developed – “the big guy is always funny,” he says – and in 2010 he landed the lead role opposite Melissa McCarthy in 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,” says Gardell. “I was the romantic lead at 350 pounds,” he marvels. “Life is so strange.”

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

Inevitably, however, his extra weight began to affect his health. In addition to diabetes, he developed joint and muscle pain that made movement difficult. “I had gotten so big and so stationary that it hurt to stand up,” he says. When he reached 50, he worried about being there for his wife, Patty, and son Will, now 22, and twice saw a doctor about weight loss surgery.

“But I was wrong both times,” he says. Finally, after coming face-to-face with that “full bingo card” of high-risk health factors during COVID, she knew she had to take action. “The only thing I didn’t have on that list was being over 65, and that’s what I was trying to achieve,” says the actor. “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 says. But he’s also aware that it’s up to him to make the change last. And that required a major shift in his thinking about food.

“Any 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 came to understand that it’s worth the time and effort to get healthy. “You have to learn to love yourself,” he says. “You have to look at why you react the way you do to food and heal that and then love yourself enough to do something good for yourself.”

Maintaining weight requires consistency, and Gardell maintains a strict routine: a turkey sausage sandwich for breakfast, followed by cottage cheese and fruit in the afternoon and a light dinner, free of fried and sugar-laden foods. He also makes sure to drink 75 oz. of water every day, take a daily multivitamin, a fish oil supplement, and a probiotic, and exercise three or four times a week. “It’s like living in Groundhog Day, but it’s worth every bit,” says Gardell.

It also allows occasional splashes. “I can eat something decadent if I want to,” he says. “At a birthday party I took a forkful of cake just to taste and that was enough. I used to eat a whole pizza. Now I can eat a slice and be satisfied.”

And also recognize that not every day is perfect—and that’s okay. “You’re never going to do it perfectly, but if you do it eight times out of 10, you’re going to 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 the dramatic improvement in his health — “I feel like I saved my life; I really do” — the weight loss also helped Gardell discover new “magical” experiences like surfing and horseback riding. “Now I can fly in a middle seat on an airplane,” he says. “For a big person, that’s the unicorn! And I know it sounds crazy, but I can walk into a store and buy a shirt off the rack. It brings me so much joy, I can’t even explain it.”

Even better, his transformation has brought him closer to Patty and Will, who he calls his “secret power” who encouraged him throughout the process. Although neither ever pressured him to lose weight, they gave him reason to regain his health. “They want me to extend, God bless them,” Gardell says. “When a man knows what he’s fighting for, he’s capable of some amazing things. And those two are worth fighting for.”

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