Search
Home

The comedian-turned show host, 58, spoke with PEOPLE recently amid filming promos for the new season of the CBS daytime talk show. According to Underwood, she remembers hearing bad news from her doctor when her weight was around 230 and 250 lbs.

“My lab work: diabetic, pre-diabetic, hypertension, all the things that you hear, especially with women,” she told the outlet. “I really wanted to get ahead of it.”

Underwood says she began taking Metamucil daily to help clean out her gut and give her digestive tract a fresh start, but had also been exploring more drastic weight loss options secretly.

“I was going to have to have a surgery,” Underwood detailed. “And when you do it, you have to go through the psychiatrist. You have to go through the dietician. But because I worked with the dietician, I lost weight. I didn’t lose a significant amount, but I lost to a point where the insurance was not going to pay for it. Then when I was going to get the colonoscopy — I go get my colon looked at every year, but I went and got the endoscopy too — that’s when my other doctor said, ‘I got something I want you to try, and if it doesn’t work, then we have to go [to gastric bypass surgery].'”

Wegovy, an injection, was the “something” that Underwood began taking weekly to help suppress her appetite and begin her weight loss journey.

“Obesity is one of the greatest risk factors for a myriad of cancers,” Cedars Sinai Colon and Rectal Surgeon, Dr. Zuri A. Murrell, who treats Underwood, told PEOPLE. “For many patients weight loss is very difficult. [Wegovy] offers another tool in our armamentarium to treat this ‘disease.’ Wegovy targets areas in the brain that regulate hunger and food intake, thus decreasing the amount of food necessary to feel satiated. It also slows your gastro-intestinal motility so that you feel fuller. There is also some data that shows it stabilizes insulin levels, which is important for weight loss.”

“Definitely getting more sleep,” Underwood added, referring to what else she did to lose weight. “Drinking more water. I’m eating fruit and vegetables that I never thought: green, leafy. I’m getting into eating blueberries and eating strawberries, and also getting more fiber in my diet with fiber supplements.”

Read the full story in Bet.com.