‘Mrs. Doubtfire’ Star Harvey Fierstein Shares How He Lost 120 Pounds
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Mrs. Doubtfire star Harvey Fierstein, 70, shared how he lost 120 pounds.
The actor and playwright is “a great believer” in weight loss medication, he said.
“I don’t feel like I’m dieting,” he explained.
Actor and playwright Harvey Fierstein is sharing how he lost 120 pounds. The 70-year-old told Page Six that his weight has always fluctuated, and weight loss medication, he added, has helped him find balance.
“I’ve been skinny before, that’s the sad part,” the Hairspray star told the outlet. “I’ve been skinny, I’ve been fat, I’ve been skinny, I’ve been fat.”
Fierstein revealed that he was around 310 pounds at his heaviest, adding that he gained a significant amount of weight during the pandemic. “I existed on the screen of my Zoom,” he said. “So I wrote my autobiography [I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir], I did all the press for the autobiography.” With the help of “Zepbound,” a weight loss injectable with the same active ingredient as Mounjaro, tirzepatide, he lost about 120 pounds and then “put 15 back on,” he said, and has “sort of stayed at that.”
Tirzepatide is a GLP-1, a class of drugs that mimic hormones that are involved in blood sugar control and appetite. It’s taken via injection weekly and has been shown to decrease how much food people eat and increase how much energy they burn, according to a press release from drug maker Eli Lilly. Tirzepatide also works on the glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors, Michael Russo, M.D., a board-certified bariatric surgeon at MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Center at Orange Coast Medical Center in Fountain Valley, CA previously told Prevention.
The GIP aspect is what makes tirzepatide different from semaglutide, the active ingredient in the popular weight loss injectables Ozempic and Wegovy. “It’s targeting two hormonal receptors instead of just one,” Dr. Russo explained. “The benefit is increased weight loss.”
For Fierstein, he noted that Zepbound was the best option—and this transformation feels unlike any other time he’s lost weight, he explained. “What’s different is what the drug actually does for you which is I don’t feel like I’m dieting,” he said. “I feel like a normal person. I can go and have dinner with friends and not have to eat every piece of bread on the table and then not go have ice cream when I’ve done with dinner.”
He continued: “I know what it is to be full like a normal person.”
Because of that, Fierstein is “a great believer” in weight loss medication, he shared. “People don’t understand that being fat is not a choice,” he concluded. “It’s something that you’re body is out of whack and this puts your body in whack.”
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