{"id":41615,"date":"2026-08-12T21:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41615"},"modified":"2026-08-12T21:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:00:09","slug":"why-weve-become-so-suspicious-of-people-who-lose-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41615","title":{"rendered":"Why we&#8217;ve become so suspicious of people who lose weight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-element=\"story-body\" data-subscriber-content=\"\">\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/celebrity-body\/news\/john-goodmans-dramatic-weight-loss-stuns-fans-in-rare-photo\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cStunning!\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cShocking!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/entertainment\/john-goodman-looks-nearly-unrecognizable-new-photo-years-dramatic-weight-loss\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cNearly unrecognizable!\u201d <\/a> <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/2026\/08\/08\/john-goodman-74-shows-off-staggering-200-pound-weight-loss-29328250\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cUnrecognisable!\u201d <\/a>(The British papers).<\/p>\n<p>When one of your favorite actors suddenly dominates your social media feed, it is easy to fear the worst.<\/p>\n<p><i>No. Not John Goodman. <\/i><\/p>\n<p>Goodman was definitely trending this weekend, but thankfully he is alive and well.<\/p>\n<p>The newfound attention was prompted by a fan bumping into him at a L.A. grocery store and sharing a selfie with the actor. <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DbtjkkyyzxX\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=AeyjfOiWDgA5jdlMU3RZCTt\" target=\"_blank\">The Instagram post <\/a>was filled with love for the comic icon, a regular guy eager to take a selfie with a fan.<\/p>\n<p>But the internet seemed to see only one thing: Goodman\u2019s weight loss.<\/p>\n<p>Soon, the fun fan shot was replaced by one of those grim before-and-after shots: An obese Goodman in his 30s and the slimmer Goodman in his 70s. One comment that captured the mood: \u201cThe not-so-big-Lebowski.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was one of those memes that lasted a news cycle before the headlines faded.<\/p>\n<p>But not with me.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve closely followed Goodman\u2019s career for reasons beyond his talent. As a morbidly obese young adult, I considered him one of my \u201cbig three,\u201d along with John Candy and Chris Farley.<\/p>\n<p>My size was the struggle of my life, and these three men were role models I had trouble finding in real life. Everyone loved them. People called them geniuses. They were strong confident guys who were too cool and funny to be derailed by a cruel comment or a size-related mishap. I saw all their movies. I tried to slip them into conversation, as if to remind whomever I was talking to perhaps I too could be beloved for my size. \u201cDid you see SNL last night? Wasn\u2019t Chris Farley great?\u201d \u201cJohn Goodman was the best part of \u2018Barton Fink,\u2019 right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then my idols started dying.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/archives\/la-xpm-1994-03-05-mn-30118-story.html\">Candy was found dead on the set of his movie<\/a> \u201cWagons East\u201d in 1994. The news hit me hard, both because I loved him and because I knew the people in my life would wonder whether I was headed for the same fate. His death, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/obituaries\/archives\/la-me-chris-farley-19971219-story.html\">at age 43,<\/a> brought cruel jokes about his size, and suddenly I did not want to talk about him. My great-aunt clipped me an outlandish (and it turns out inaccurate) National Enquirer story listing all the foods Candy allegedly ate in the days before his death.<\/p>\n<p>Two years later, <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/local\/obituaries\/archives\/la-me-chris-farley-19971219-story.html\">we lost Farley. <\/a>I told my father how heartbroken I was and he agreed. But he quickly added: People your size can die before their time. Farley was just 33. <\/p>\n<p>Goodman has<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/health\/diet-fitness\/john-goodman-weight-loss-rcna219121\" target=\"_blank\"> talked for more than a decade<\/a> about his efforts to change his lifestyle. He attributed his weight loss to eating less and taking better care of himself.<\/p>\n<p>But what\u2019s remarkable is how much more press he got about losing weight than being obese in the first place. I searched the newspaper archives and found very few stories that mentioned his size back when he was on the \u201cRoseanne\u201d TV series.<\/p>\n<p>His weight loss, that\u2019s another story. It seems like <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/entertainment\/tv\/articles\/tv-icon-john-goodmans-missouri-172328022.html?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANoid1QlrxKNUqa4LhNxU6aStE9qXbFjives_TMtykymtP0p4ebgSDX6DNWfczJiWMNDqValj_xiNLOfjStibgU2muae-7umMCgmbnwGj4Onet1EoqWpAUP9f-DaGEL_-IFnhrRgkLvsDkU-DYa0GSaaiGg_OP6g8TghGsGq_S2c\" target=\"_blank\">every new project,<\/a> <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/07\/14\/entertainment\/john-goodman-shows-off-200-pound-weight-loss-at-smurfs-premiere\/\" target=\"_blank\">every red carpet premiere<\/a> brings \u201cshocking\u201d stories <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.the-independent.com\/life-style\/john-goodman-weight-loss-pictures-b2788865.html\" target=\"_blank\">of his \u201cnew look.\u201d<\/a> In a <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/2014\/01\/john-goodman-inside-llewyn-davis\" target=\"_blank\">Vanity Fair profile a few years ago<\/a>, the reporter notes disapprovingly when Goodman eats a corned-beef sandwich and cole slaw, asking \u201cAren\u2019t we supposed to be on a diet?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Being overweight can be difficult. But losing weight these days brings its own judgments.<\/p>\n<p><i>Is she on Ozempic? Did he get the surgery? Did they lose the pounds the hard way <\/i><i>or<\/i><i> the easy way? Why can\u2019t they just come clean with us? What are they trying to hide?<\/i><\/p>\n<p>Goodman is good-natured about it when reporters ask him (and they often do!) about his journey and offered candor about his days topping out at 400 pounds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think you\u2019re trying to fill a hole that can\u2019t be filled unless it\u2019s filled with goodness, some kind of spirituality, not saying religion,\u201d<a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/abcnews.com\/Entertainment\/john-goodman-reveals-inspiration-massive-weight-loss\/story?id=37577068\" target=\"_blank\"> he explained to <\/a>ABC News in 2013. \u201cBut just a belief in something higher than yourself, a purpose\u2026 You can\u2019t fill it. And you go on and live with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is a lot more articulate than I could manage when people asked me about the pounds I lost after my own gastric sleeve surgery about a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>That surgery didn\u2019t transform my life, but I am convinced it gave me extra years.<\/p>\n<p>I never became \u201cunrecognizable,\u201d and I spent more time than I\u2019d like to admit looking at myself in the mirror and comparing what I saw to photos of the younger, fatter version of myself.<\/p>\n<p>Do I look better? Happier? Stronger?<\/p>\n<p>I finally realized I am missing the real lesson of this before-and-after exercise.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m just older now.<\/p>\n<p>And so is my favorite actor.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re both still here.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cStunning!\u201d \u201cShocking!\u201d \u201cNearly unrecognizable!\u201d \u201cUnrecognisable!\u201d (The British papers). When one of your favorite actors suddenly dominates your social media feed, it is easy to fear the worst. No. Not John Goodman. Goodman was definitely trending this weekend, but thankfully he is alive and well. The newfound attention was prompted by a fan bumping into him&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/1372fd2\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/2500x1313+0+171\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F81%2F33%2F77b61b994385907ab2b3a62766ab%2Fthe-big-lebowski-3.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}