John Goodman was ‘eating alcoholically’ before starting weight loss journey at nearly 400 pounds

John Goodman is getting candid about what led him to lose weight.

During a recent interview with The New Yorker, the 74-year-old actor discussed his struggles with his weight and alcoholism, saying that he got sober in his 50s, but was trying to manage his weight before quitting.

“I’d lose sixty pounds in a summer, gain it all back. Seventy pounds, eighty pounds. And that got tiring,” he said. “I took steps so I wouldn’t have to do that anymore. I was almost four hundred pounds. I was eating alcoholically after I stopped drinking.”

He shared that to improve his health, he “had an operation on my stomach,” but said he also became “anemic and lost a layer of fat under my skin.”

Goodman shared he underwent stomach surgery to get a handle on his weight after previously losing and gaining the same 70 pounds. (David Jon/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures)

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When discussing his experience with alcoholism, the “Roseanne” star shared his struggles began in 1978 when his girlfriend at the time “put me on waivers, so my nights were free for the first time in five years.”

He recalled going out to multiple bars until drinking became a “habit,” noting, “I started gaining weight at an alarming rate.” He pinpointed one bar in particular, Café Central, noting he “turned it into home—and got very used to drinking” in his pursuit to find “friends” and “people to hang around and laugh with.”

“There’s a saying in the rooms: I got sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said about his decision to get sober. “The thing about instant gratification is you don’t really care what’s going to happen right after it—which always led to bigger hangovers or me getting the shakes, and having to drink to get rid of the shakes, and that vicious cycle. I was in a position, when I quit, where I had to be hospitalized one way or the other.”

Goodman went on to say that he grew “tired of it” and wanted it to stop. He recalled “realizing how selfish it made me,” noting he “had a lot of catching up to do” in terms of maturity, as he “was delaying my maturation by drinking.”

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Goodman explained he rapidly gained weight when he began drinking. (Getty Images)

“I was overlooking real life,” he said. “And it was great to see there was a life where I didn’t have to use anything to enjoy it.”

The “The Big Lebowski” actor has spoken about his weight loss journey in the past, telling The Rolling Stone in 2023 that he began incorporating boxing and daily walks into his routine.

He shared at the time that his routine included “just an hour, hour and a half of hitting the mitts, hitting the bags, learning footwork.”

“I dug it. Yeah. Nobody’s going to get hurt, but it’s just hitting the mitts and trying to learn,” he told the outlet. “I never got good enough where I would trust myself to spar because once I get whacked in the face, I don’t know if I wouldn’t lose it.”

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Goodman rose to fame playing the Conner family patriarch in “Roseanne,” and later reprised the role in “The Conners.” (Photo by Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty Images)

Goodman rose to fame playing the Conner family patriarch, Dan Conner, for nine seasons during the original run of “Roseanne.” He later reprised the role in the 2018 reboot, and again in the spin-off show, “The Conners.”

Lori A. Bashian is an entertainment news writer at Fox News Digital.