Billy Gardell Talks 150 Lb. Weight Loss, How Bob Hearts Abishola Wardrobe Team Had to Keep Playing Catch-Up

Billy Gardell‘s weight loss journey — he is now 150 lbs. lighter than during Mike & Molly‘s heyday — has kept the Bob Hearts Abishola wardrobe department on their toes.

“The true people that were tortured here was my wardrobe guy and my makeup people, because I kept getting smaller and they kept having to go buy shirts, tape them up…,” the sitcom vet shares in a new ET Online video. “At one point we were taping my neck because my skin hadn’t adjusted yet… so God bless them.”

Plus, as Abishola‘s Bob trimmed down as well, “it was a nice progression to have the audience watch in real time,” he says. “One of the gifts of the show was to be able to talk to our producers and say, ‘This is what I want to do’ and they were incredibly supportive and they gave little nods to it as it was happening.”

Gardell, who underwent gastric bypass surgery in July 2022 (and has had a healthier relationship with food since), says, “I float between 205 [lbs.] and 210,” whereas on Mike & Molly he weighed as much as 370. His heart rate has in turn dropped from 113 to 68, and he says he longer suffers from Type 2 diabetes.

One of the catalysts for pulling the trigger on gastric bypass surgery (after bailing on the idea twice before) was his son William.

Gardell, 53, explains, “When you hit 50, you start doing that dad math, like, ‘If I can live 25 more years, and he’ll be 40’…. So I want to be here for him. I’ve been an example in a lot of good ways for my child, but I feel like I wasn’t a good example of health for him.”

The other he nudge he got was the COVID pandemic, which put overweight at greater risk.

“You’ve got to find peace with yourself and at some point look in the mirror and go, ‘You know, it’s probably time to take care of you.’ And I didn’t get that note early on,” Gardell told ET. “But I’m a big believer that when you get it, you get it.”