Tom Arnold revealed the lifestyle changes that he had made to shed 80 pounds and maintain the weight loss — without the help of Ozempic.
In January 2022, Arnold decided to make his health a priority after suffering a ministroke. The 65-year-old actor began working with fitness guru and personal development coach Charles D’Angelo after the two had previously met at a charity event hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
With D’Angelo’s guidance and training, Arnold’s weight dropped from 285 pounds to 205 pounds. Over the last two and half years since his health scare, the “Roseanne” alum has successfully kept the weight off.
During that time, Ozempic, a Type 2 diabetes medication, which is prescribed off-label for weight loss, exploded in popularity and became a craze in Hollywood.
Arnold and D’Angelo recently sat down for an interview with Fox News Digital, during which the comedian explained why he had never turned to Ozempic to lose weight, saying that he had “never heard of” the medication when he first started his health journey.
“And I will admit I tried every diet,” he said.
Arnold continued, “Like 1992, Roseanne and I, Oprah and John Goodman — there was something called Fen-Phen, and we’re like, ‘That’s got to be great, because you go to a doctor to get it.’ But we all lost 100 pounds, and then people started dying from Fen- Phen. And then they pulled it off the market. ‘We’re like, ‘Damn, that was good stuff,'”
“But, I mean, there’s many things. You know, I’m sober, so I got to be careful with what stuff [I take] — although Ozempic seems great,'” he added.
“I think a lot of people are doing that, and I’m not opposed to anything like that. Whatever gets people healthy. But the working out, the cardio aspect of this is so good for my mental health and my sobriety,” said Arnold, who has been sober for seven years.
“It might just get rid of stuff. I’m a guy that doesn’t wake up every day like, ‘All right, let’s seize the world like Arnold Schwarzenegger does—allegedly,” he continued with a laugh.
“I wake up, and I go, ‘Oh my God, there’s just too many things I cannot conquer these things.’ And I do a trick where I go, ‘OK, I’ll do one thing. I’ll do the one thing I don’t want to do the most, the one call I don’t want to make. Get on that elliptical. What do I really want to get out of?’ And then I do it.”
WATCH: TOM ARNOLD EXPLAINS HOW SON JAX WAS INSPIRED BY HIS 80-POUND WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY
D’Angelo noted that Arnold was committed to exercising every day, even while filming a project, traveling or on tour for his stand-up comedy shows. He explained that creating a schedule and having structure were key to maintaining long-term weight loss.
The health expert shared his views on the new weight-loss drugs, saying, “Pills can work for a lot of things, like aspirin can work for a headache, but losing weight and keeping it off is not one of them.”
“To Tom’s point, you have to do the deeper work on how to disconnect from using food creatively,” he continued. “It’s not that Tom can’t have a piece of birthday cake with his son or daughter on ther birthdays. It’s he’s very intentional. He’s very conscious. It doesn’t have the same emotional charge that it once did. And he makes space to talk about the things that lead any of us to use things like food or any other substance — as kind of a treatment plan of sorts.”
Arnold told Fox News Digital that part of his motivation for continuing his healthy journey was to set a good example for his children. The “True Lies” star shares son Jax, 11, and daughter Quinn, 8, with ex-wife Ashley Groussman.
“It’s also important for me as a single parent to influence my kids with good things,” he said. “And the best way, I think, is for me just to do that. For them to see, ‘OK, this is what Dad does. He’s doing this positive thing. He likes this.’ So, then you get them working out and then say, ‘Well, maybe we’ll eat those fruit bars instead of the ice cream sandwiches or whatever.”
Arnold noted that his son Jax, who he said had struggled with weight issues, was inspired by his father’s progress and began to follow in his footsteps.
“He plays football, and he does stuff,” he said of Jax. “But he’s big. You know, he’s this much taller [gesturing above his head] than everyone else, and he’s thick. So I said, ‘We can either walk the dog, you can walk the dog with your dad, we can talk about your day, or you get on the elliptical there. He’s like, ‘OK.’
“He figured it all out,” Arnold added.
Arnold explained that part of his own routine is to track his exercise and food intake daily in journals, and that Jax had begun to emulate him.
“I write every calorie, minute, every step,” he said. “I have books of it. And that’s what he does, too. And he does like me to watch him do it, which, of course, I’ve got to do that.”
“It’s pretty powerful. We go, ‘Where is Jax?’ He’s out there working out,” Arnold continued. “He gets it. He wants to be healthy.”
Arnold told Fox News Digital that he and his children stay active by working out together and having physical competitions.
“They’re influenced by negative and positive things that I do,” he said. “So I’ve got to work on the positive things.”
D’Angelo began his career in health and fitness after he developed methods that helped him lose 160 pounds. The “Think and Grow Thin” author, whose weight loss practices have been endorsed by former President Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Tony Robbins and the late Richard Simmons, told Fox News Digital that he had come to understand that mindset was a key element to weight-loss.
“I realized in trying to lose weight unsuccessfully, that there was something missing,” D’Angelo said. “And that missing link was, ‘How do you change your mindset? So, yes, you have to have healthy eating. Yes, you have to have routine exercise. But I look at success in this whole dynamic.”
He continued, “It’s kind of a three-legged stool. Food is one leg. Exercise is the second leg. And what’s missing in everything else out there, whether it be weight-loss drugs, whether it be going to a gym, whatever, is ‘How do you really change your mindset?’ Because the question all of us have to ask . . . ’What happens if you put a finish line on this?’ Well, when you put a finish line on it, you are finished.”
D’Angelo noted that he has frequently been asked how many of his clients have kept the weight off after he helped them lose hundreds of pounds.
“And I always say to them the following, ‘I won’t be able to give an honest answer until every single one of my clients has died.’ And the reason is, there’s no end point to this. This is the rest of your life,” he said.
WATCH: TOM ARNOLD EXPLAINS HOW HE LOST 80 POUNDS WITHOUT TAKING OZEMPIC
D’Angelo recalled that when he first started working with Arnold, they determined that their approach was for the comedian to gradually lose pounds until he reached his ideal weight.
“The focus was with him, when I said it to him, was ‘Let’s make our goal to be consistent every single day,'” D’Angelo said. “Tom’s a big, open advocate of the 12-step program. He often talks about how it’s been a very important part of his own journey to sobriety. Much like that, you have to address this one day at a time. And we want to try to link together as many days of consistency as possible.”
D’Angelo told Fox News Digital that Arnold’s routine consists of waking up around the same time, starting every morning with exercise, drinking a fruit smoothie with whey protein after his workout and eating small meals every two hours.
“And he’s never hungry,” D’Angelo said. “And the consistency of that, not using food impulsively, not thinking so much short term, but beginning to shift your philosophy and attitude to think more medium to long-term. And when you do that in any sense, whether it’s from your health perspective or financial perspective or parenting perspective, when you can take more medium to long-term, you’re going to make decisions that are going to be investments in your future rather than a withdrawal.”
Arnold explained that D’Angelo’s methods work for him because he has made them a permanent part of his daily life.
“Charles’ program has been the key — is really key to my physiological health and my mental health. And, you know, it’s the one thing that doesn’t change,” he said. “I could very easily go off the rails in any way. So, yeah, it’s been helpful.”
While the comedian reiterated that he isn’t opposed to Ozempic or other weight-loss drugs, he sees more potential for longevity in his approach.
WATCH: TOM ARNOLD’S FITNESS COACH CHARLES D’ANGELO DETAILS THE REGIMEN THAT HELPED THE COMEDIAN SHED 80 POUNDS
“Once I heard Oprah talk about it, I’m like, ‘OK, they’ll be sold out.’ So whatever works, whatever science does,” he said. “But, you know, I’m 65, too, so this cardio is very good for me because I can’t get old because my kids are so young.”
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“If you don’t want to get too old, you got to stay active,” he added. “Everything gets more dangerous as you get older. You know, I have heart failure. I have heart disease.”
“I tell you, if you find out you have heart failure, your heart fails, your organs fail, that’s how it was for me during Covid. So that’s a big deal.”
WATCH: TOM ARNOLD SHARES HOW WANTING TO ‘BE PRESENT’ FOR HIS KIDS MOTIVATES HIM ON HIS WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY
Arnold explained how his children are his greatest joy, and he wants to stay healthy for them.
“Every day when I wake up, and I see them, I’m like, ‘My gosh, this is a gift, you know?’ And it is a gift. I’ve done a lot of fun and exciting things in my life,” he said.
The actor recalled how he grew up in a small town in Iowa and worked at a bee-packing plant for three years after high school so that he would be able to save enough money to attend college at the University of Iowa.
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“I thought, that’s where my dreams will come true. You know, on stage. I’ll be famous, whatever. And when my kids were born, I realized, ‘Oh, this is my dream,’” Arnold recalled.
“I love being present for my children and whether it’s drugs or alcohol or whatever, but also just being having a food thing, you aren’t present, because that’s your main thing. ‘I’ve got to eat all this stuff.’ It takes you out of it,” he added.
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Arnold told Fox News Digital that he knows he will have to maintain his healthy lifestyle for the rest of his life.
“I have to do this forever,” he said. “I’m excited, and I want to live a long time,” he said. “I like being alive. I’m very grateful to God and to Charles and to my kids because being alive is good.”
“We do have a lot of fun, and I’m very grateful to Charles D’Angelo and grateful to Arnold [Schwarzenegger] for us meeting each other there.”
