'Real Housewives' Star Shares Personal Details About 40-Pound Weight Gain
Shannon Beador is opening up about her struggles with weight gain.The 53-year-old Real Housewives [...]
Shannon Beador is opening up about her struggles with weight gain.
The 53-year-old Real Housewives of Orange County star visited holistic specialist, Tim Ramirez, a doctor of chiropractic medicine, on an episode of this season of RHOC.
Beador told Ramirez that she gained the weight for one reason: "I was stressed." Referencing drama from the show, she tells Ramirez how false allegations about her husband, David, caused her to over-eat and over-drink. (Beador's co-star Vicki Gunvalson accused David of beating Shannon, per PEOPLE, a claim Shannon adamantly denies.)
"That stress caused me to eat more, caused me to drink more, and that's a huge part of why I gained my weight," she said in the first episode of season 12 of the Bravo show.
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Before stepping on the scale at her consultation with Ramirez, Beador said that she's ready to make a change and get healthy.
"I'm ready to lose the weight. I mean, Tim it's not normal. I've gained so much weight in a year... " she admits. "I haven't been on the scale because it's not my friend."
When she stepped on the scale, it read 172.2 pounds, a 38-pound difference from the last time Ramirez weighed her in 2015. But what really scared Beador was the fact that her body fat measured at 40 percent.
"Almost half of your body has converted to fat," Ramirez tells Beador. "Half. It's the stuff that kills people. Forty percent, we're sprinting to diabetes, we're sprinting to cardiovascular disease. At 50-plus [years old] with these numbers? It is a huge red flag."
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In a confessional, Beador broke down into tears about her weight gain, saying that she doesn't recognize herself anymore.
"When I look at myself in the mirror, I don't know who I am. I don't like to do it. I don't look because I don't know who it is," she says. "People say, 'Oh you have too many fillers.' No it's called f---ing weight gain."
Beador has since committed to losing weight, posting workout photos to Instagram."Yes [Dr. Ramirez], this will become muscle soon!" she wrote beneath a photo of her and Ramirez at the gym, adding the hashtags #workingonit and #wewillgetthere.
In another Instagram post, she recognized the situation and warned body shamers that they don't stand a chance against her.
"So let's just get to it. Yes, I have gained weight. A lot of weight. About 40 pounds to be exact. I have not had plastic surgery or fillers, it's just plain and simple weight gain," she wrote.
"There are multiple factors that have contributed to my size and it will be addressed this season on the show. To those people who intend to write cruel or derogatory comments to me, I want to let you know you will be blocked and the comment deleted," she continued before thanking her fans and viewers of the show for their support.
By the way, stress absolutely can cause weight gain. If you don't properly deal with your stress (like with exercise or meditation — even sex helps!), that pesky cortisol hormone can cause weight-gain symptoms like inflammation and belly fat. Belly fat is particularly dangerous because it crowds your organs and contributes to a larger weight gain cycle.