The Today Show is an NBC morning news program that most recently profiled Jane Fonda and her usage of the dreaded “C-word.” By that I mean the actress was talking about a monologue in which she was asked to perform that was titled with a word known as an offensive term referring to the vagina and apparently our world crumbled as a result. However, forget that scandal, I turned on The Today Show and found that they had a rather surprising and positive guest on a segment called “Take It Off Today: Weight Loss In America.” The guest was actor Ron Lester.
Ron Lester is probably best known by movie fans as Billy Bob from the teen football film Varsity Blues. He was also in 43 episodes of the show called Popular and some episodes of Freaks and Geeks; not to mention other film roles such as one in Not Another Teen Movie. Varsity Blues and the character Billy Bob, however, really put him in the spotlight and to be blunt: he was known as: “The big, fat guy.” Well, you cannot really call him that anymore; no longer does his talent have to be fit into roles for actors who are over 500 pounds. Actor Ron Lester appeared on The Today Show showing off the fact that he has lost around 315 pounds!
His physical transformation is quite remarkable, he looks like a fit new person. Along with being less blimp-like he has also found that he is shorter; two inches of his height were lost along with fat from the top of his head and the bottoms of his feet. His face is said to be 8 inches narrower, and overall he had 43 pounds of skin removed from his body. How did he do it?
Ron Lester had Gastric Bypass surgery. A gastric bypass first divides the stomach into a small upper pouch and a much larger, lower “remnant” pouch and then re-arranges the small intestine to allow both pouches. He told The Today Show that he was inspired to have the surgery after seeing Carnie Wilson on television having had the operation. Also, his emotions played into the decision, especially after a particular break down on the set of the television show Popular when a scene required he fit behind the steering wheel of a car. They took out the seat to accommodate his large frame and still he could not wedge in comfortably, which broke him down into tears. Ron Lester states that the benefits outweigh any and all negative side effects that might have come from the surgery, the hardest of which he says is the loss of identity. He would look in the mirror and not recognize himself.
Ron posed on the show with his new girlfriend, sharing some pictures in which they both fit comfortably in a pair of his old jeans; one person in each leg. The Ron Lester weight loss story is set to appear in People magazine as well. Ron’s weight loss began in 2001 and he has undergone many plastic surgeries since then. His gastric bypass actually occurred in December of 2000.
Weight and celebrity has also been in the news recently with Jared Fogle from the Subway television commercials celebrating a decade of partnership with Subway and his dramatic weight loss. Jared is a person who actually became a celebrity because he lost weight, and proclaimed that a large portion of the thanks went to Subway restaurants and “The Subway Diet.” By most accounts Jared lost around 245 pounds.
SOURCES:
The Today Show On NBC
