'Bob Hearts Abishola' Star Billy Gardell Details His 150-Lb. Weight Loss

Billy Gardell is feeling the effects of his 150-pound weight loss. The Bob Hearts Abishola star, 53, opened up to Entertainment Tonight about his weight loss efforts that began at the start of the pandemic after being encouraged to undergo bariatric weight loss to minimize his COVID risk. Gardell told ET he fluctuates between 205 and 210 pounds now after developing a more healthy relationship with food and "self-care."

"I think you got to find peace with yourself and at some point, look in the mirror and go, 'You know, it's probably time to take care of you.' And I didn't get that note early on," Gardell said. "But I'm a big believer that when you get it, you get it. It doesn't matter what it is, as long as you get it." The actor revealed that since reaching his current weight, his resting heart rate has dropped from 113 to 68 and he no longer suffers from Type 2 diabetes. "Walking around pretty healthy these days," he said. "Of course, there's always people online that, you know, when I was heavy, they were like 'You're too heavy!' And now it's like, 'Are you sick?' Can I just walk the earth, please?" 

Gardell still is "working on" ditching another vice – smoking cigarettes. "A buddy of mine told me, 'Knock them down in the order they're killing you,'" he said. The biggest motivating factor for the comedian is his son. "When you hit 50, you start doing that dad math, like, 'If I can live 25 more years, and he'll be 40,' ... So I want to be here for him," he said. "I've been an example in a lot of good ways for my child, but I feel like I wasn't a good example of health for him. And so I want him to see that. It doesn't matter what age you are, if you are willing to do something a day at a time, you can change anything."

Gardell's weight loss journey has been written into his hit CBS series, which premiered in 2019 and also stars Folake Olowofoyeku. "That was one of the gifts of the show was to be able to, you know, talk to our producers and say, 'This is what I want to do' and they were incredibly supportive and they just gave little nods to it as it was happening," he said.