Kelly Clarkson Says Being Told She's 'Pre-Diabetic' Prompted Recent Weight Loss
Kelly Clarkson is opening up about what prompted her recent weight loss.
On Monday’s episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show,” after graciously accepting a compliment from “King of Queens” actor Kevin James, Clarkson revealed she’d had a health scare.
“I was told I was pre-diabetic,” Clarkson recalled. “That was literally what happened ... and, well, I wasn’t shocked. I was a tiny bit overweight.”
She added: “Then I waited two years,” after which she “had to do something about it.”
Watch a clip of Clarkson’s chat with James below.
Speaking to People last month, Clarkson credited the lifestyle changes she’d embraced after relocating to New York from Los Angeles with helping her to lose weight.
“Walking in the city is quite the workout,” she said. “And I’m really into infrared saunas right now. And I just got a cold plunge because everybody wore me down.”
As for her diet, she said, “I eat a healthy mix. I dropped weight because I’ve been listening to my doctor — a couple years I didn’t. And 90 percent of the time I’m really good at it because a protein diet is good for me anyway. I’m a Texas girl, so I like meat — sorry, vegetarians in the world!”
Like many women in Hollywood, Clarkson has had to endure a fair amount of media scrutiny with regard to her weight over the years.
"The Kelly Clarkson Show" relocated to New York from Los Angeles last year.
In 2018, she told “Today” host Hoda Kotb that she’d dropped about 37 pounds as the “side effect” of changing her diet, which she credited with easing a thyroid condition.
“I know the industry loves the weight gone, but for me it wasn’t [about] the weight,” she said at the time. “For me, it was ‘I’m not on my medicine any more.’”
Speaking to Glamour UK in 2020, Clarkson recalled being hired as a coach on “The Voice” while at her “heaviest point,” That experience, she said, was encouraging.
“Paul [Mirkovich, music director of ‘The Voice’] hired me from NBC because he loved my personality, he loved that I connect with people and I’m really raw and real,” she said. “It had nothing to do with my sex appeal or my look aesthetically. It had to do with me as a person. I think it’s really up to artists to force people to have that mentality.”