10 News Anchor Weight Loss Transformations That Had Heads Turning

Celebrity weight loss transformations sometimes feel like they come out of nowhere, since actors, singers, reality stars, and other famous folks often lay low before reemerging with a totally new body. For news anchors, however, it is pretty much impossible to dip out of the public eye for months to hit the gym. These individuals are on our screens on a daily basis, or at the very least a weekly one, which means that audiences are able to observe fluctuations in their weight in real time. Unsurprisingly, this has encouraged a lot of news personalities to share their journeys with viewers, offering inspiration and hope to many.

As public figures, broadcast journalists receive ample amounts of scrutiny and that includes having to deal with comments about their weight. For instance, morning anchor Alix Kendall — who works at FOX 9 in Minneapolis-St. Paul — once received a letter from a viewer reading "YOU NEED TO LOSE 10 POUNDS" (yes, in all caps!). Kendall received support from her social media followers when she made the letter public, but it is not like these sorts of comments are rare. Even without rude notes from viewers, being on camera nonstop places an extra layer of pressure on news anchors who find themselves in an overweight body and want to make a change. But if you can gain weight in front of the world, you can lose it in front of the world too. Here are 10 news anchor weight loss transformations that had heads turning.

After more than two decades, it feels safe to say that Al Roker's weight loss story is one of success. The iconic weatherman underwent gastric bypass surgery in 2002, after years of struggling with obesity. At the time he went under the knife, Roker was 340 pounds and a size 54 waist. The medical intervention helped the star shed over 100 pounds, and he has continued to live healthfully in the years since. "It's still a struggle but I'm never going back," Roker wrote on Instagram in 2022 to celebrate the 20-year anniversary of his surgery. "I have setbacks and struggle every day, but I never forget how far I've come."

Roker has been in broadcasting since 1974, when he was hired by WTVH-TV in Syracuse, New York. His fame then hit great heights after he joined "The Today Show" in 1996, but Roker's larger stage also came with increased scrutiny and his weight became a part of his persona. "I had a person say to me in the gym, 'Hey, you don't want to lose too much weight, 'cause that's who you are — you're the funny, fat weather guy!' " he told People, not long after his weight loss surgery. "No, that's not who I am. I think I'm funny. I know I'm fat. But I don't think I'm funny because I'm fat. The two are mutually exclusive." Roker was right, as his charm and wit remained intact. He continues to be an integral part of "Today," 30 years on.

Chris Wragge is a well-known figure to many who live in New York City, as he has been a central part of the news landscape there for over two decades. Wragge works as a CBS News anchor, appearing on both "CBS News New York This Morning" and "CBS News New York at Noon" alongside co-anchor Mary Calvi. He first joined the network as a sports anchor, way back in 2004, and before that he worked at NBC Sports. He even did a correspondent stint on "Entertainment Weekly," so suffice it to say that Wragge is quite comfortable with being on camera.

That said, the news anchor has not always felt confident about his appearance on screen. In November 2023, Wragge told Page Six that the camera really did add 10 pounds and that he practiced moderation so that he could still eat the food he likes but maintain a healthy weight. Beyond thinking about his on-camera appearance, Wragge also decided to start eating healthier and drop some weight so that he could be the father he wanted to be to his young kids. It turns out that healthy eating is a whole lot easier when your spouse is a literal expert, too. "My wife's a nutritionist and I just stuck to a meal plan last year," he said. "I lost 30 pounds. I feel so much better and I eat so much better because a lot of bad foods are what's going to kill us. That causes a lot of cancers."

Journalist Rachel Bogle started her career as in-house host and emcee for the Indiana Pacers and Indiana Fever basketball teams, right after graduating from Indiana University. She then transitioned into radio and, in 2017, to television. Bogle spent five years at WTTV CBS4, working as the morning traffic anchor and a features reporter. It was during her years at the Indianapolis station that Bogle first decided to publicly document her weight loss journey. "Last month, we decided to focus all of my @cbs4indy #InYourNeighborhood segments around #Indy area fitness facilities, highlighting unique places each week because the key to sticking to a New Year's Resolution is finding something that works for you," Bogle wrote on Facebook in 2019. "In the process, I actually found something that worked for me and signed up!" Bogle was down 12 pounds by that point.

Bogle moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in January 2022 to begin working as WMBF News' evening anchor. The next year, she once again found herself facing a battle of the bulge, to a much greater degree than previously. By the end of 2023, Bogle had dropped a whopping 50 pounds from her frame, which she proudly showed off in a body-hugging dress on her social media accounts that December. "It's been a slow and steady process over the last year and I'm still eyeing some more health and professional goals in the New Year so STAY TUNED!" she wrote on Instagram.

Jessica Larché is another local news anchor whose massive weight loss has been nothing short of inspiring for those who have followed the process. In fact, Larché's weight journey was such a success that she even turned it into a brand, Jessica on a Journey. She has a blog, podcast, and YouTube show (called "Decide to Live with Jessica Larché"), all centered on overcoming obstacles and finding wellness. For Larché, weight has long been an obstacle — though it never stopped her from achieving her dreams in broadcasting. Larché is an Emmy-winning news anchor and investigative reporter for WTKR News 3 in Northeast North Carolina.

Larché has been at WTKR since 2010, and she took viewers along for the ride when she decided to commit to her health a couple of years after that. At the time, Larché had long been using food as a coping mechanism to deal with her emotions, but she was rattled by the 2011 death of her father, who himself struggled with food addiction and morbid obesity. "I had reached 260 pounds," Larché said in an interview with Health Journal. "That's when I realized that I had a bad relationship with food. I wasn't exercising at all either and these choices were going to lead to a premature death." Still, it was not until a scary high blood pressure diagnosis the following year that Larché started to take real action to lose weight, at age 27. She lost a stunning 100 pounds, mostly through walking.

Reporter Jeff Ehling has been on television screens since 1986, when he began his career at WVGA, an ABC affiliate station in Valdosta, Georgia. He moved around quite a bit after that, both geographically and in terms of company, eventually landing himself at KTRK-TV in Houston, Texas. Ehling has been at ABC-13 Eyewitness News — where he anchors the weekend morning newscast, in addition to doing weekly reporting — since 1999.

Like so many on our list, Ehling is used to bringing the story to the airwaves, not being the story himself. However, he decided to get real with fans after losing a significant amount of weight in 2020. "You are seeing less of me on TV. No, I'm not going anywhere, there is just less of me to see. I lost 39 pounds!" he wrote in an op-ed for ABC13. "Many people have said I didn't have 39 pounds to lose, but my waistline said otherwise. Last year, I watched in shock and disbelief as the number on the scale just kept getting higher and higher."

The affable reporter when on to explain that he began noticing a shift around age 50, up until which point he had been able to maintain a steady weight of 167 without thinking much about what he was eating. When the scale climbed to 200 pounds in 2019, Ehling began to completely overhaul his diet and exercise routine. By June 2020, he weighed in at 161 and felt much healthier.

Most humans have had that awful dream where they stand up in front of a room full of people and embarrass themselves. Maybe they get booed, say something dumb, or pass gas. Or maybe, they split their pants — which is exactly what happened to Elex Michaelson, just not in a nightmare. Michaelson is the co-anchor of Los Angeles' FOX 11 News on weeknights, and yes, his pants bust open on live television. "I turned in the wrong direction, and my pants split in the back. Thankfully, I was sitting down and all of Los Angeles didn't get a view of my underwear. But, right then and there, I knew it was time for a change," he told Men's Health in 2021. Michaelson vulnerably shared his wardrobe malfunction with fans via Instagram, in the hopes that it would keep him accountable with his weight loss goals. (For the record, plenty of other news anchors have had on-camera wardrobe malfunctions.)

Michaelson's weight struggles started during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he found himself stress eating while at the same time unable to go to the gym or partake in group sports. "I'm 6'5", and I started the pandemic at about 215 pounds. Around a year later, I was 230 pounds. My 'slim fit' suits didn't fit any more because I was no longer 'slim.' It became harder to button my suit jackets on the air," he said in the same interview. With hard work in the gym, the journalist was able to drop 28 pounds.

Josh Mankiewicz is technically not an anchor, but the longtime journalist's weight loss story is so inspiring that we had to include him here anyway. Plus, he's been a correspondent for NBC's "Dateline" since 1995 — so he's arguably more famous than most local anchors on our list. In 1998, Mankiewicz lost 47 pounds thanks to the Atkins diet, which was all the craze at the time. He eventually found himself unable to abide by the strict rules of the low-carb diet, which led to him regaining the weight. "It's tough to say goodbye to carbs forever, particularly when your ancestors invented the pierogi," he said to People. "So, over time, I put weight back on and every year I'd go in for my physical, and my doctor, she'd be like, 'You have got to work on that.'"

In May 2023, Mankiewicz once again decided to take charge of his eating, after years of unhappiness with his body. "I didn't like the way I looked. I didn't like the way I felt. So I just decided to go ahead and do it," he told People. "This wasn't any particular diet, it was essentially just cutting out all of the things that we all sort of intuitively know that we're not supposed to eat." The longtime "Dateline" reporter lost 70 pounds over the next year and a half, which is a great reminder that one should not give up no matter how many times the weight returns after a lapse.

Michael Strahan first became famous after joining the New York Giants in 1993, where he remained for the entirety of his 15-year NFL career. Like many former athletes, Strahan transitioned into broadcasting after retiring from athletics — only the level of success he has achieved in journalism has been atypical for anyone, let alone someone on their second career. Strahan co-anchored "Live! With Kelly and Michael" — which, many will recall, led to one of Kelly Ripa's most controversial moments — before becoming a co-anchor on "Good Morning America," where he has remained since 2016. Strahan signed a new contract with ABC News in 2021, but he also serves as a "FOX NFL Sunday" analyst and hosts ABC's the "$100,000 Pyramid."

At his biggest, Strahan weighed in at 285 pounds, thanks to heavy weights and a diet of fast food and pizza. "It just wasn't me," Strahan recalled to Men's Health. "And as I got older, I lost weight because I felt I didn't need the girth to help me when I was out of position on a play, I knew technique at that point. But once I figured out technique, I didn't need the weight." Strahan got his weight down to about 250 pounds and stayed there for the rest of his time in the league.

In fact, Strahan has maintained roughly the same weight even since leaving the NFL in 2008. Now, however, he focuses his exercise — which includes high-intensity interval training — on function and flexibility. "I'm leaner," Strahan told Men's Journal in 2014. "The weight is distributed differently, but it's still there."

Roxanne Vargas started at NBC 6 in 2003 and in their news division in 2006. She is currently an anchor for the channel's 12 pm and 4 pm newscasts, alongside co-anchor Sheli Muñiz. For people in the South Florida area, Vargas has thus become a familiar face after her decades on screen. The journalist has obviously changed since 2003, and although she has always been beautiful, some of those changes were unpleasant for the gorgeous anchor. So, when she found herself wanting to lose weight in 2019, Vargas turned to intermittent fasting to help her shed the pounds.

"Intermittent fasting, or IF, you're hearing a lot about it," Vargas said in a pre-taped segment that aired on NBC 6 News in January 2020. "But it's been around for centuries, and you've seen the transformation for yourself right here. Yeah, that's me about a year ago and 30 pounds heavier. So many of you have been asking how I did it and this is part of it, IF." The reporter did not share any of her other tricks, though the segment had her doing pushups and squats with a trainer in the gym. Per her Instagram, Vargas is also a runner and a self-identified foodie, who still noshes on burgers and baked goods.

Deborah Norville's career evolution began in 1995 when she first joined "Inside Edition," making her the longest serving news anchor on American television. She is also known for her anchoring duties on programs such as "NBC News at Sunrise," "The Today Show," and "CBS Evening News," as well as her short-lived MSNBC show "Deborah Norville Tonight." For an icon who has graced screens for many decades, Norville actually spent a fair amount of that time feeling uncomfortable in her own body. In 2018, after losing 30 pounds, the Emmy winner spoke about the issue for the first time. "I felt terrible," she told People. "I didn't like walking into a room; I didn't like walking out of a room, because the view both ways was horrible."

Norville confessed to feeling negatively about her weight for a decade prior to losing weight. The turning point was, for her, finding out she had high blood pressure and was at risk of cardiac issues, which run in her family. "It took me about a solid three weeks of me being incredibly purposeful about avoiding sugar," she said in the interview. "You will be slack jawed about how much added sugar there is, when you start reading your labels. I looked at my half and half, and the second ingredient was corn syrup. That turned me into a dilettante about reading the labels." It took Norville eight months to lose 30 pounds, which she did by making simple diet changes — and no exercising.