Reality TV Weight-Loss Transformations That Have Us Staring

Celebrity weight journeys have long been a cultural hot topic, but the body-focused chatter has amplified exponentially in the years since Ozempic became a Hollywood craze. It feels like a new celeb debuts a seriously slimmed-down bod on a weekly basis now, and the use of weight-loss drugs seems to be especially common amongst stars frequently captured on camera. So, as people who quite literally document their everyday lives onscreen, it makes sense that reality stars are flocking to the doctor's office for weight loss help. It is not just Ozempic either — there is also Mounjaro, Wegovy and Zepbound (oh my!), all of which can be useful in helping people shed pounds.

That is not to say that every reality star who has lost weight has used medication, even if a lot have. It is also not meant to imply that GLP-1 drugs are an easy fix that does all of the work, as major lifestyle changes are still needed to see significant results. For most people — yup, even celebs — weight loss is not solely (or at all) about altering one's dress size to look better, but about feeling better in one's own skin and warding off unhealthy diseases associated with obesity. Still, it has been hard not to notice the difference in our favorite reality stars after they have shed 20, 60, and sometimes even 100 pounds. Read on to find out which reality TV weight-loss transformations have had us full-on staring.

It is almost hard to believe, but "Sister Wives" has aired 19 seasons of television since it made its debut on TLC in 2010. The basic point of the show has always been to follow Kody Brown and his four wives as they navigate complex family dynamics and a world that does not understand their way of life. But things have totally changed since 2021, as Kody's three oldest wives started walking away one after the other. Janelle Brown was in a spiritual marriage with Kody for 29 years before they split in December 2022. Although the lovable star does not consider herself divorced — since there was never a legal marriage — Janelle has definitively left Kody in her past. What else did she leave in the past? A good 100 pounds of body weight.

"I remember when my kids were little, watching the weight creep up, creep up, creep up but I felt so powerless to stop it," Janelle confessed on an October 2011 episode (via Us Weekly). "I was mortified [to share my weight with the other wives] because I never told anybody, including Kody, how much I weigh." Viewers saw Janelle in the gym in 2011, but it was not until 2021 that her true weight loss journey began. She started a weight loss company with one of her daughters, losing a reported 100 pounds over the next couple of years. Janelle is now committed to exercise, with Pilates and weightlifting among her favorite activities.

Janelle Brown was Kody Brown's second wife, with the two entering into a spiritual marriage in 1993. The marriage was not a legal one, as Kody was already wed to Meri Brown, who he met in 1989 and married in 1990. Just like Janelle, Meri is no longer in a romantic relationship with her former spouse. And just like Janelle, Meri has also lost a considerable amount of weight (although she is not on our list, it is worth noting that Kody's third ex-partner Christine has also lost weight).

Meri and Kody divorced in 2014, so that he could marry another woman and adopt her children, but it took Meri a long time after that to leave despite Kody not treating her well. The relationship finally ended in January 2023 and within a year, the "Sister Wives" star even had a new boyfriend. Not only does she appear happy, but she also appears healthy after losing a significant amount of weight. Fans took notice of her slimmer figure just before Season 19's debut, with many commenting on her noticeable cheekbones. Unlike Janelle, Meri has largely kept quiet about her weight loss methods, though she has posted occasional shots from the gym (including once from London, England, where she was vacationing). Meri also opened up during a March 2025 Facebook live, where she discussed walking two miles a day with her dog and drinking more water than in the past.

Peppermint first found fame as a contestant on "RuPaul's Drag Race," competing on Season 9. Although she placed second, Peppermint is — as RuPaul herself would say — "a winner, baby" when it comes to making her mark on culture. In addition to more reality television stints on shows like "I Am Jazz" and "The Traitors," Peppermint has developed a thriving acting career. She has appeared in multiple television shows, including "Survival of the Thickest," "Schmigadoon!" and "Harlem," along with a handful of films. Peppermint being vocal about being a transgender woman while competing on "Drag Race" has also inspired many other queens, as she was the first contestant to be open about being trans from the moment she was cast.

Because of her transition, Peppermint's physical appearance has changed drastically since she became famous. More recently, however, it is drastic weight loss that has changed her self-presentation. After fans started taking notice, Peppermint addressed her new look on Instagram, crediting Weight Watchers for helping her shed the pounds. Months later, she clarified that she was using a GLP-1 drug to help her lose weight, which she started after doctors told her she was pre-diabetic. "I was able to get together with my doctor and endocrinologist, and I'm very grateful that I'm at a point now where I have access to levels of healthcare that I didn't have before," she told Page Six in March 2025.

Fans of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" know that weight has been a recurrent topic on the show, and Emily Simpson is one reason for that. Simpson's stunning transformation has been especially well documented, as it took her five full years to shed weight after gaining 40 pounds. "Around age 42 I gained 40 pounds, and it wasn't until now (age 47) that I was able to finally get it off and feel like my old self again," she wrote on Instagram in September 2023. "Just to be clear though ... I rocked a bathing suit on TV for 5 years and never felt ugly or not confident in myself or my body. Not once."

That last part is debatable, since a big Season 18 storyline revolved around Simpson feeling insecure about a fashion show outfit chosen for her, which she felt isolated her as the "big girl" in the group. However, there is no debating that Simpson has had a total body transformation, which began after she saw unflattering footage of herself in November 2022.

"I really neglected myself those four months that we were filming. I ate too much, drank too much, didn't go to the gym, didn't work out and I felt really down, really depressed, really dark when we finished filming," she told Us Weekly. Simpson started taking Ozempic shortly thereafter, which kickstarted her weight loss. But since she went off the drug quickly, the star credits working out daily for her overall transformation.

In case you thought it was only female reality stars making big body moves, we had to throw "Teen Mom OG" star Tyler Baltierra into the mix. Baltierra has had an incredible body transformation, and he has no problem telling the world about it. In fact, he has been showing the world — not just on Instagram, but also on OnlyFans. Armed with his jacked new bod, Baltierra launched himself on the adult site, with his profile under his wife's control. The stars pulled back from OnlyFans after the parents of their biological daughter Carly, who they gave up for adoption on the original "Teen Mom," cut off contact with them. While older content is still out there, Baltierra quit making new content to reestablish that connection.

The journey began in 2018, when Baltierra went from 208 pounds to 165. "I've been eating healthy for about 7 months (no processed foods/low carbs/no sugar) but I've only been working out for 3 of those months and I'm finally starting to see results from it!" he wrote on Instagram. Baltierra has continued to document his bulking and cutting on social media, as well as his changing goals. "I did decide to shift my goals a little and focus more on aesthetics/muscle building for this next bulk cycle rather than strength building (like I was doing before)," he wrote on an August 2022 post.

The whole gist of Netflix's "Love Is Blind" is that looks should not matter when choosing a life partner. Contestants spend time getting to know one another and even get engaged before ever seeing each other face to face, which is an interesting hook but rarely effective in practice. Even though some couples do follow through with a wedding, very few "Love Is Blind" couples are still together today. Looks did not play a role in Hannah Jiles' failed engagement to Nick Dorka on Season 7 of the show — that relationship was messy as heck from the start — but her body was a big topic throughout the season. "I've always struggled with my weight, my entire life," Jiles said to Us Weekly. "I like to eat. I like to binge eat. I don't like working out."

Jiles had already lost the 45 pounds she gained during the COVID-19 pandemic before joining "Love Is Blind," but she has since lost even more weight — motivated both by wanting to feel better about herself. Body shaming haters may have also played a role, according to an interview she did after showing off her transformation on social media in October 2024. "I'm really glad that I did lose the weight and it's a really sad reason, but seeing all the really mean comments like 'She's so fat' ... I can't even imagine how it would feel if I didn't lose 30 more pounds," she told the New York Post.

We could write a dissertation about June "Mama June" Shannon's weight loss journey, with all of its ups and downs ... and lefts and rights and zigs and zags. Although she is not at her all-time slimmest, Shannon is still much lighter than when she first became famous and that is worth recognition. The world was introduced to Shannon in 2012, when she started appearing alongside her daughter Alana Thompson on "Toddlers & Tiaras." TLC gave Shannon, Thompson, and the rest of their family a spinoff that same year, which was quite popular but went down in flames when Shannon became embroiled in scandal. "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" was cancelled in 2014, but that was far from the end of Shannon's time in the spotlight.

Shannon underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2015, which launched her body transformation and helped her drop from 550 pounds to 311 pounds on the day of her surgery. Shannon was down to 195 within six weeks, after which she started working with a professional — something that was documented on the series "Mama June: From Not to Hot" — to lose even more weight and get down to a size 4 (the show also documented her multiple plastic surgeries). In April 2024, Shannon shared with her Instagram followers that she started taking GLP-1 medication after regaining 130 pounds. This helped her lose 90 pounds between April 2024 and January 2025. While she has not shared numbers since then, Shannon is still eating more healthfully as of March 2025.

On the September 2024 Season 5 premiere episode of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City," OG Housewife Heather Gay joked that one of her fellow OGs only liked her because she shed a lot of weight. "I finally cracked the code. I lost 25 pounds, and now Mary Cosby loves me," she said in a confessional. She also stated that it was "a long overdue glow-up" and credited Ozempic for her successful body transformation. Real fans already knew what was up, since Gay had been discussing her GLP-1 use for the better part of a year in media interviews.

The previous November, for example, Gay told People that she had only seen minor results, despite having been on Ozempic for a long while, but that she was already noticing changes in her social interactions. "You lose five pounds, people are nicer to you," she said. "I don't know why. It's just the way the world works and that makes me sad for women. But happy that I'm down five." Despite the slow start, Gay was able to lose an additional 20 pounds in between filming Season 4 and 5 of "RHOSLC," but she continued to experience complex feelings about it.

Known for her relatability, Gay felt like she betrayed fans by using Ozempic. This, combined with the differing treatment she received in a thinner body, made Gay feel less confident than she was before the weight loss. In December 2024, the star disclosed she was no longer on Ozempic.

While haters in comments sections love to throw out phrases like "Ozempic face" and reference the far-too-catchy "Oh Oh Oh Ozempic" jingle whenever they see a photo of a slimmed down celebrity, Ozempic is but one of multiple GLP-1drugs on the market. Unless a star confirms it, there really is no way to know if they are on any of these medications, let alone which one. Luckily for us curious types, there are plenty of celebrities who have been open about their weight loss methods, despite the continued judgment about medical intervention for such purposes.

Take Scott Disick, who was already getting tons of scrutiny for his noticeably thinner frame by the time he fessed up to using the drug Monjauro, which he did on a February 2025 episode of Hulu's "The Kardashians." The disclosure came after Khloé Kardashian called Disick to let him know that fans had spotted the medication in his fridge on a previous episode. "It shows the Mounjaro? You're lying!" he exclaimed. "Oh, f**k me running! By the way, I'm not embarrassed that I took it."

Disick received support (and a few jeers) from his adoptive family, as his weight transformation had already been a hot topic on the show. "I mean, honestly, I had no idea how horrible it was, what I was doing at night," he said on a June 2024 episode, where he admitted to eating a whole box of Hawaiian rolls each evening — and drinking 20 ginger ales every day — pre-weight loss.

"Vanderpump Rules" has been on television since 2013, and Katie Maloney is one of only four of the Bravo show's cast members to have appeared in 224 episodes. The show documented many pivotal transitions in Maloney's life, including her departure from SUR, her wedding, her divorce, and the founding of her sandwich shop. It also traced her attitudinal growth (remember Tequila Katie, anyone?), as well as her aesthetic evolution, which involved many hair changes, the development of a unique fashion sense, and a complex weight journey.

While Maloney was quite slim when "Vanderpump Rules" aired, she became a victim of body shaming — from fans and fellow cast members — after gaining a fair amount of weight in her late 20s and early 30s. "Imagine finally finding the courage and strength to finally love yourself enough to stand up for yourself to then be ridiculed and torn down again," Maloney wrote in a March 2019 Instagram Story, where she also discussed how three years of body shaming affected her mood and relationships (via Us Weekly). In the years since, Maloney has become a vocal advocate for body acceptance and self-love, which is why it was totally unsurprising that she refused to follow a strict diet when she started to tackle her health in 2020. She focused on nutrition and balance instead of restriction and deprivation, dropping 25 pounds in the process.

It is well-established that Kelly Clarkson started taking GLP-1 medication to help jumpstart her weight loss transformation and the whole world has noticed the results. After all, Clarkson is on television every weekday (and her talk show segments are in heavy rotation on social media). But the star has been looking totally fabulous for a while now, so we opted to round out our list with another "Idol" star instead — Adam Lambert. Lambert's body transformation has been a bit more recent, and the before-and-after is equally as noticeable as Clarkson's. He has also been refreshingly candid about his weight journey, much like Clarkson.

Although Lambert was overweight in high school, the star was slim when he first made it big. He gradually started to gain weight toward the end of the 2010s, but it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that Lambert really packed on the pounds — something he attributes to emotional eating, stress, and constant jet lag. "The only thing that made me feel better was food for some reason," Lambert told fans in a March 2024 Instagram Live (via Life & Style). The star proudly discussed losing 60 pounds since starting Mounjaro eight months prior. He also said he tried Ozempic first, but he switched due to intense side effects. "I feel better, I feel more confident. I feel like my actual body feels better, like my digestive system feels more regulated," he said.