Penn Jillette, half of the magical Penn & Teller, dropped 105 pounds in 100 days recently after a blood pressure scare put him in the hospital.
Jillette, who lost weight by
following a low-calorie diet, told People magazine that his doctor recommended he lose 30 or 40 pounds to make his blood pressure “easier to control.”
Jillette, who at the time weighed 330 pounds, added, “And then he said something in passing that completely blew my mind — he said, ‘If you got down to 230, you probably wouldn’t need any of the meds.’”
It was the motivation Jillette needed, and now the 6-foot-7 illusionist weighs about 220 pounds. He’s no longer following the strict 1,000-calorie diet he was on for about four months; once he lost the bulk of the weight, he switched to
Dr. Fuhrman’s Nutritarian diet, People reported.
“I eat unbelievable amounts of food but just very, very, very healthy food,” Jillette told the entertainment magazine. “I could probably have a steak or a doughnut every couple of weeks, but I just haven’t felt like it. When you’re feeling as bad as I felt, and you go to feeling as good as I feel, the temptation to go back to doing what you were doing when you felt bad is not very great.”
Jillette told People he dropped from a size 44 pant to an almost 34 (he’s about there), and said that the change caused problems with the Penn & Teller show.
“It’s really expensive because the suits on the Penn & Teller Show cost a s*** ton, and so we had to get all new suits!” he said.
Jillette’s weight-loss story drew attention online. As the story spread, he clarified on his Twitter account:
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