Randy discovered he had type 2 diabetes when he was a judge on American Idol. This is a disease that affects about 8.2% of Americans. He had gastric bypass surgery the following year. In an interview with TODAY in January 2021, Randy talked more about what it’s been like for him to live with the illness.
About the disease
Long-term, it was hard to keep the weight off, as Randy said. The most recent time he was on American Idol, Season 2, showed that he has found what works for him. It was about how he managed his health. He once told TODAY, “It’s a curse to have a life-threatening illness that you can’t completely get rid of, even if you can manage it.” But that huge wake-up call was a gift from God. It looks like Randy hasn’t said anything in public about any other health problems. The way he took care of himself probably helped him lose weight quickly.
Trendy diets don’t work on their own:
Randy wrote in his book Body With Soul about how he was finally able to change years of bad eating habits, and he said that getting a wake-up call was a big part of that. In the long run, it didn’t matter what people did to try to lose weight; nothing was successful. But when I ended up in the hospital, I had to admit that none of those plans had worked, “He said.
Randy later told WebMD that he tried things like liquid fasts and may have even thought about apitherapy, a controversial treatment that uses bee stings before he figured out why short-term fixes didn’t work for him. During an interview in 2008, he said, “The issue is that these diets do not work for those ill with obesity.
Randy was shaken to his core by the problems with his type 2 diabetes and the possible side effects. This made him realize that he had to change his level of determination. “It wasn’t meant to sound too dramatic, but it was a matter of life or death. I had to decide what would work for me, which is what I did.”
Randy told the media that since he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 19 years ago, he has lost and kept off 114 pounds thanks to his new routine. But Randy says that it was hard for him to change how he ate after he had gastric bypass surgery and that he gained weight as a result.
Randy told WebMD in 2008 that it wasn’t always easy for him to eat well because of his work in TV and music, so he had to work hard to change his diet. He said that after the show, everyone stays there and eats and drinks. There are also chips, cheeses, biscuits, cakes, candies, beer, wine, and every kind of sandwich. Randy gained weight at first, so he tried to change what he ate every day drastically.
