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John Goodman Shares Surprise Downside of 200-Lb. Weight Loss

The “Roseanne” actor’s transformation came with an unexpected nuisance.

John Goodman has discovered that shedding 200 pounds comes with an unexpected drawback.

The 74-year-old actor revealed that he is cold all the time following his dramatic weight-loss transformation, which also involved a botched stomach operation.

“I had an operation on my stomach. But I also turned anemic and lost a layer of fat under my skin, and I’m cold all the time,” Goodman told The New Yorker⁠ in an interview published Sunday.

The Roseanne star did not specify what kind of stomach surgery he underwent or when it happened.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, both anemia and reduced body fat can make someone more sensitive to cold. Anemia can interfere with oxygen delivery throughout the body, while fat beneath the skin helps insulate it.

Goodman’s revelation is the latest chapter in a years-long health overhaul that saw him lose roughly half his former body weight.

At his heaviest, the actor approached 400 pounds. But keeping the weight off proved just as challenging as losing it.

“I’d lose sixty pounds in a summer, gain it all back. Seventy pounds, eighty pounds,” he recalled, explaining that the repeated cycle eventually wore him down.

Goodman also revealed that his relationship with food remained complicated even after he quit drinking in 2007.

“I was eating alcoholically after I stopped drinking,” he admitted.

The Righteous Gemstones actor previously connected his overeating to the same habits that fueled his alcohol use.

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In a 2016 interview with ABC News, he described regularly dropping several pounds, then celebrating with beer and falling back into his old routines.

This time, Goodman said, he wanted to take a slower approach that focused on movement and exercise.

Goodman worked with celebrity fitness trainer Mackie Shilstone, adopted a Mediterranean-inspired diet, cut back on sugar, and made regular exercise part of his routine.

By 2023, he had lost 200 pounds, looking noticeably slimmer at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

That year, he told Rolling Stone that walking his dogs and boxing had helped him stay active, although his busy filming schedule sometimes interfered with workouts.

These days, Goodman has another reason to prioritize fitness: Staying steady on his feet.

The actor now lives in Charleston, South Carolina, where he said having a trainer nearby and good weather for walks makes it easier to maintain a routine.

“Basically, building up the core, balance, strength training, stuff like that, so I don’t fall down,” Goodman said of his workouts.

But the actor knows the dangers of falling firsthand. He fractured his hip after slipping on the set of his latest film, Digger, starring Tom Cruise.

“I was walking on set in my stocking feet, which was very stupid,” he recalled. Goodman said his feet slid out from under him while moving around Cruise, sending him crashing onto his hip.

He underwent surgery the following day and said he was functional again within a month.

The film, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, features Goodman as an ailing U.S. president opposite Cruise’s destructive oilman.

Despite his physical transformation, Goodman said the biggest changes have been about more than the number on the scale.

Reflecting on his decision to get sober at 55, he told The New Yorker he realized he had been neglecting his life while chasing instant gratification.

“And it was great to see there was a life where I didn’t have to use anything to enjoy it,” he said.

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Tamilore OshikanluContributor

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