Johnny Vegas' 5 stone weight loss transformation and the foods he ditched
Johnny Vegas reckons the secret of his impressive five stone weight loss is due to him giving up two foods he "loves".
The Benidorm star, 53, who is 5ft 7in tall, weighed in at 18 stone at his heaviest. However, he decided to transform his lifestyle after he got 'wedged in a tunnel' on his honeymoon in Vietnam in 2011, where he admitted his "midriff got jammed" for 10 minutes.
Deciding to do something about his weight after the "wake up call", Johnny paid close attention to what he was eating, but insists he never went on a diet. Previously recalling the ordeal which sparked his decision to transform his life, he said: "Ha Long Bay was spectacular ... but I had a bit of a mishap when we visited one of those underground tunnel systems the Viet Cong used to hide in during the Vietnam War.
Johnny Vegas managed to drop a whopping five stone after overhauling his lifestyle (Getty Images)
Fans couldn't get over his transformation! (Mark Bourdillon)"I was told they’d dug a larger tunnel to show Westerners, but I still got wedged in it. I got my legs through but then my midriff jammed," he added to The Sunday Times. "I was there for 10 minutes (and) people were like, ‘Shall we go and get help?’ and I was like ‘No, I can do this, please, just pull my arms'," he recalled. "It was a positive thing in the end, though. One of those wake-up call moments about my health."
Johnny changed his lifestyle and cut out two of his favourite foods, bread and cheese, but has always insisted he has never gone on a diet to lose weight. Speaking to the Loose Women panel in 2019, he said: "I have not done a diet in anyway whatsoever. I have cut out things, it’s a lifestyle change. Then you can live with it and you don’t feel like you are denying yourself anything – apart from cheese!"
Actor Johnny Vegas looks dramatically different as he appears on BBC Breakfast
Commenting on before and after shots of the Rubbish World of Dave Spud star, fans flocked to compliment Johnny on his transformation. One said: "Is that Johnny Vegas on the left? Congrats on the weight loss." Another gushed: "Wow incredible work, well done Johnny!" While a third said: "Johnny Vegas needs to release a weight loss video that man looks GREAT." To which a fourth fan replied: "Doesn’t he? He’s practically halved in size!!!"
Another, more serious reason for Johnny – real name Michael Joseph Pennington – deciding to lose weight was spurred after the star lost his father to cancer. Speaking on This Morning about his dad, who died in 2017, he said: "If you had a good parent and you miss them. Your responsibility then is to hopefully try and be a decent parent to your own children - and be around."
He added: "The big thing is my smoking that I want to stop, but the last time I stopped I piled weight on. So I need to get light enough to exercise… it's taken 15 months of walking past bread, and cheese and everything I love!" In a Twitter post, the comedian, who was diagnosed with ADHD at the end of 2022, also revealed he’d traded in bacon baps for healthier alternatives such as scrambled eggs and avocado.
Benidorm star Johnny weighed in at 18 stone at his heaviest (ITV)Johnny has two children, Michael and Tom. He had his first child, Michael, with ex-wife Kitty Donnelly, who he was married to between 2002 and 2006. The comedian then married Irish television presenter Maia Dunphy in 2011 and Tom was born four years later. The couple separated for the second time in 2020, having initially broken up in 2018 before reconciling.
The star started off on the showbiz circuit as a standup comedian, but became an household name when he starred as Geoff 'The Oracle' Maltby in Benidorm. The ITV show developed a cult viewing before it was canned five years ago. However, the show's creator, Darren Litten, said he's ready to "start writing" for the series again, leading fans to hope there may be a new sun-kissed season in the pipeline.
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