Former ‘Mike & Molly’ Star Billy Gardell Lost 170 Lbs. and Transformed His Life (Exclusive)

For years Billy Gardell made himself the same promise: He was going to lose weight. 

“Every year,” says the comedian and former Mike & Molly. star. “I’d say I’d start on Monday. Or the first of the month. Or New Year’s Eve. That was always my routine.” 

Sometimes he followed through, dropping dozens of pounds at a time before watching them inevitably creep back onto his 6-ft. frame. By 2020, when his weight started hovering around 370-380 lbs., and he developed type 2 diabetes, doctors warned him he was putting his life at risk. And then came COVID. 

“When the first wave hit, and they punched up that list of high-risk conditions, I had all of them,” says Gardell. “Overweight, sleep apnea, smoker, type 2 diabetes, asthma . . . It was really the perfect storm. Between my blood numbers not coming back good, my blood pressure going up, type 2 diabetes and COVID — it was enough stuff to scare me to say, ‘Come hell or high water, I’ve got to make a change.’ ”

And change he did. On July 17, 2021, Gardell underwent bariatric surgery, the first step in a life-changing process to transform his relationship with food and finally take control of his health. 

“It really came down to a shift in everything I think about food,” says Gardell. “Food is fuel. It’s not reward, it’s not soothing, it’s not medication. I had to get beyond my emotional relationship with food.”

Since the surgery, with regular workouts and careful attention to his diet, Gardell, 56, has lost more than 170 lbs. “I fluctuate between 210 and 215,” says the actor. “And that’s comfortable for me.” Even better, his health issues have receded. “My diabetes is gone,” he says. “I feel strong. I have energy. Losing weight saved my life.”

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A self-described “chubby” kid, Gardell was born in Pittsburgh but grew up splitting his time between Pennsylvania and Florida after his parents divorced. Although he was active in sports, by his teen years his relationship with food had become complicated. 

“I had a lot of responsibility heaped on me at 14 to help provide for the family, and the second stepfather that we had in the house was not a kind person,” he says. “I think I put on this extra weight as some kind of safety armor.”

At 17, Gardell left home to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian, playing small clubs around the country and eating his way through both success and failure. 

“I was medicating my emotions and my fears with food, and I was also celebrating my victories with food,” he says. “You’re eating to deflect your feelings when they’re bad or enhance them when they’re good, and both of those things are poison pills.”

Over the years, as the weight piled on, Gardell tried a myriad of diets. “I tried everything, low-carb, keto, intermittent fasting — and by the way, all those things work — but I just couldn’t stay consistent with any of them. I was on a yo-yo thing.”

And for a while it didn’t seem to be a problem. His stand-up career built steadily — “the big guy is always funny,” he says — and in 2010 he landed the starring role opposite Melissa McCarthy on the hit CBS sitcom Mike & Molly. The show, about a couple who fall in love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, ran for six seasons and “changed my life,” says Gardell. “I was the romantic lead at 350 lbs.,” he marvels. “Life is so strange.” 

Three years later he found more television success with the comedy Bob Hearts Abishola, a show about a man who falls for his nurse while recovering from a heart attack. 

Inevitably, though, his extra weight started taking a toll on his health. In addition to the diabetes, he developed joint and muscle pain that made moving difficult. “I had gotten so big and so stationary that it hurt to stand up,” he says. As he moved into his 50s, he worried about being there for his wife, Patty, and son Will, now 22, and twice consulted with a doctor about weight-loss surgery.

“But I chickened out both times,” he says. Finally, after coming face-to-face with that “full bingo card” of high-risk health factors during COVID, he knew he had to take action. “The only thing I didn’t have on that list was being over 65, and that’s what I was trying to get to,” says the actor. “I was in enough desperation to make a change.”

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Four years later Gardell credits his surgeon Dr. Philippe Quilici and nutritionist Teri Hlubik with making his transformation possible. “They’re the dream team,” he says. But he’s also well aware that it is on him to make the change last. And that required a major shift in his thinking about food.

“Every change you want to make in your life starts between your ears,” he says. In weekly meetings with Hlubik — “almost like therapy” — he explored his emotional relationship with food, learned to replace junk-food comfort with fuel for his body and came to understand that he was worth the time and effort it took to get healthy. “You have to learn to love yourself,” he says. “You have to look at why you react the way you do to food and heal that, and then love yourself enough to do something good for yourself.”

Keeping the weight off requires consistency, and Gardell maintains a strict routine: Breakfast is a turkey sausage breakfast sandwich, followed by cottage cheese and fruit in the afternoon and a light dinner that’s free from fried and sugar-laden foods. He also makes sure to drink 75 oz. of water each day, take daily multivitamins, a fish oil supplement and a probiotic, and get exercise three or four times a week. “It’s kinda like living in Groundhog Day, but it’s worth every bit of it,” says Gardell.

He does allow himself the occasional splurge. “I’m able to have a bite or two of something decadent if I want,” he says. “At a birthday party I took one forkful of cake just to taste it, and that was enough. I used to eat a whole pizza. Now I can have a slice and be satisfied.”

And he also acknowledges that not every day is perfect — and that’s okay. “You’re never going to do it perfectly, but if you’re doing it eight out of 10 times, you’re going to win the battle,” he says. “My thing is I meditate, and I pray for consistency. I pray for gratitude, and I pray to remember the things that I’ve learned.”

In addition to dramatically improving his health — “I feel like I saved my life; I really do” — dropping the weight has also helped Gardell discover “magical” new experiences like surfing and horseback riding. “I can fly in a middle seat on an airplane now,” he says. “For a big person, that’s the unicorn! And I know it sounds silly, but I’m able to walk into a store and buy a shirt off the rack. That one brings me so much joy, I can’t even explain.”

Even better, his transformation has brought him closer to Patty and Will, whom he calls the “secret power” who cheered him on through the process. Though neither ever pressured him to lose weight, they gave him the reason for reclaiming his health. “They want me around longer, God bless them,” says Gardell. “When a man knows what he’s fighting for, he’s capable of doing some amazing things. And those two are worth fighting for.”