The Beloved Early Aughts Sitcom Star Who Lost Nearly 300 Pounds

Over the years, many sitcom stars have wowed the web with their dramatic celebrity weight-loss transformations, like John Goodman of "Roseanne" fame (who lost 200 pounds) and "Mike & Molly" star Bill Gardell (who dropped 170 pounds). Another beloved sitcom actor who's shed an incredible 300 pounds since delighting TV audiences: Ethan Suplee.

If you're an aughts comedy enthusiast, you'll know Suplee's name right away. He portrayed the dopey but sweet brother of Earl on "My Name Is Earl." However, you might not recognize him these days. The performer-turned-fitness-advocate is nearly 300 pounds leaner than he was 20 years ago. That's pretty incredible, because at least 80% of people who lose weight regain it within five years, according to a 2019 article in Medical Clinics of North America.

What does it take to go from more than 550 pounds to the low 200s? A lot of patience, persistence, and personal transformation. It was perhaps the transformation that was hardest, yet most important: As he shared with MailOnline, he spent many years denying the reality of his situation. "There was for a long time, this feeling of 'leave me alone and I want the world to change to suit me,' and then I had this conversation and I was like, 'that's never gonna happen,'" he explained (via Hello!).

Suplee has worked hard to reimagine his relationship with food, which started in childhood. As he shared on the Lewis Howes Podcast, his unhealthy eating habits began at age five.

During the interview with podcast host Lewis Howes, Suplee discussed how his grandparents tried to restrict food or force him to run around outside when they saw he was becoming overweight. But their intentions backfired.

He recalled the exact moment when he began seeing food in a different light. "They basically were like, ... 'You can't have a second helping.' That day was the first time that I snuck food," he said, according to the podcast transcript. From that point, Suplee became heavier, and Men's Health reports that by age 10, he was considerably overweight.

After Suplee was cast in his breakout sitcom, he spent more than a decade dieting and bingeing, as documented in images compiled with a Hello! retrospective on his weight loss fluctuations. For instance, he lost more than 200 pounds on a keto diet plan in 2005, only to regain and then lose about the same amount until around 2018. (If you're curious, here's our beginner's guide to the keto diet.)

At that point, he began to realize that he needed to look at his food-related weight concerns differently by weighing his food and being thoughtful about his eating, including weighing his portions: "I really figured out how to live the rest of my life" (via Men's Health).

Suplee isn't keeping his epiphanies about weight, working out, and personal growth pursuits to himself. He runs a YouTube channel called LifeLONG that features videos on topics like emotional eating, skin removal surgery (Suplee's been through it twice, and the first time required six months of painful recovery), and the importance of sleep. Says Suplee in the channel's intro video, "I've learned that no matter how far you go, it's always a work in progress."

There's little argument that Suplee wants to inspire others. In a candid Instagram post from 2025 that accompanied before and after photos, Suplee admitted, "I considered weight loss to be the whole game." He added that he realized that "weight loss was just the very first tiny step in the marathon of life. It turns out, keeping it off is a much tougher task."

In case you're wondering, Suplee hasn't gone the route of other celeb men who've admitted to Ozempic or GLP-1 use to lose weight. In fact, he's adamant on YouTube on the topic: "I want to stay off medicines. I don't want to have surgery."

Of course, Suplee hasn't lost his sense of humor, only lost his excess weight. Proof positive that his wit remains: he described his workout hype song as Chappell Roan's "Pink Pony Club" in a 2026 Instagram video.