Over the last few years actress and former talk show host Ricki Lake has dropped a ton of weight – 140 pounds in fact. Instead of getting surgery, she did it with the traditional sensible diet, exercise, and patience. Lake says she can’t believe she was fat for most of her life – and she also says she can’t promise that she’ll never be fat again.
Ricki Lake has trimmed 140 lbs. from her all-time top weight of 270 pounds – and says she is holding steady. “I can’t believe I was a fat person for most of my life,” the former talk show host, rocking a sexy black Herve Leger dress (size small), told PEOPLE at a recent benefit for the New Space for Women’s Health, a New York City birthing center slated to open in 2010. “I didn’t have surgery and I worked hard. There’s no secret. I’m active. I watch what I eat,” Lake, 40, adds.
But she’s certainly not immune to the pressure to stay thin. “According to Hollywood standards, I’m not a thin girl. I’m a normal girl,” says the mom of two boys, Milo, 11, and Owen, 6. “I don’t want to perpetuate that obsession but yet I am also guilty of wanting … to lose weight.” Lake sticks to meals delivered by a service called Fresh Dining (“It’s organic, it’s fresh, and I still love it,” she says) but admits unpredictable factors in life could one day interfere.
“With the weight stuff I don’t have any answers,” she says. “Something tragic in my life could happen and I could balloon and gain weight. I can’t promise I will be like this forever.”
[From People]
Ricki says that while she doesn’t need to lose any more weight, she doesn’t plan to be lenient with herself over Christmas. She has a pregnancy book coming out that she has to promote, and wants to look good.
Ricki made a great documentary called “The Business of Being Born” in 2007 that examined the birth process in America. It got really good reviews, and she’s currently working on a sequel. Ricki strikes me as really smart and empathic, and also very realistic. Hopefully she’ll be able to keep the weight off, but I like that she isn’t making any promises about it.
Here’s Ricki at the CNN Heroes event in Hollywood on November 22. Unfortunately she’s not wearing the most flattering dress. Photographer: Jody Cortes. Images thanks to WENN.
Shame about the dress. It’s not just unflattering, it’s fugly.
That dress makes her stomach look really big.
sooo…if my math is right she’s 130 lbs? I mean it’s great that she lost weight without surgery. But she isn’t skinny or thin by anyone’s definition. She’s average. Maybe she’s just short and it makes her look heavier then she really is.
I like her a lot more now that we’re both getting older. She seems very smart and capable, and I applaud anyone who decides to change their life in a healthy, responsible way. I’m really interested to check out her documentary, but I’m afraid of the ol’ ovaries gettin’ ideas . . .
That being said, I’m a little discouraged to hear you knock her weight, jenn. You make it sound like her accomplishment is all for naught because at the end of the day she isn’t “skinny”, she’s just “average”.
Not everyone is built to be skinny-minis. And even individuals with “average” builds still have an unhealthy percentage of fat. 130lbs isn’t average in the States – all told it’s on the thinner side. And if she’s lost all that fat through diet and exercise – a good percentage of that weight is most likely muscle, which weighs a lot more than fat. She doesn’t look insanely thin – looks really healthy and appropriate for her age and body type.
She looks great and losing 140lbs without surgery or cocaine is really amazing. I think that the everyone posting negative crap here should worry about their own muffin top.
I like the fact that she didn’t have surgery and lie about it (hello, Star Jones?) and that she is an “average” weight woman. Good for her for working so hard and admitting, like all of us, that she may not be “ideal” forever. Also, I haven’t seen her documentary but am very interested. I have been reading a lot about pregnancy/child birth and it truly seems to have been medicalized beyond belief, so I am not watching the doc yet as my ovaries already have too many ideas…
I doubt she even weighs 130 lbs…that is one ill-fitting dress. What’s with her calves anyway? They look weird!
I still like her Hairspray performance best and her talk show back in the day was popular. She should get another daytime show. Why do they keep looking for projects for Rosie?
That dress is very unflattering. It probably didn’t even look good on the model. The pockets add unnecessary bulk, the top gives the illusion of sag, and the waist…I don’t even know what is going on there.
I’ve seen other pictures of her in clothes that don’t look like crap and her shape is very lovely.
I love me some Ricki Lake! Pretty much anything she does I’ll watch/read/listen to. She looks great, but I was puzzled when I read the Us magazine last year with her big weight loss story. She’s clearly bigger than me, yet wears a smaller size than me. I think it may have even had something in it about her measurements and I was like, whaaat? I’m not knocking on her weight I’m just sincerely curious as to why that is.
Good for her… She doesn’t get enough credit for being smart, funny and interesting – and she’s clearly got all three attributes in spades.