When Randy was at the height of his popularity during the second season of American Idol, he was also diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. At the time, Randy said that he weighed more than 350 pounds and had formed a series of poor eating habits. Since that diagnosis, Randy has transformed his health, and spoken frequently about how he’s created a healthier lifestyle for himself. 

Shortly after his diagnosis, Randy went through gastric bypass surgery to reduce the size of his stomach. The American Idol judge was able to showcase substantial weight loss following his procedure, but it was just one of the steps he took to live a healthier life. As he explained on the Today show recently, he had to do a lot of work to figure out how to keep the weight off. 

“I started on this health regimen many years ago while I was on American Idol… Lost a ton of weight, started gaining it back,” he said, explaining that he had lost more than 100 pounds in the years after his surgery. “Then, [I] went on my own journey to try and discover, ‘How do I keep it off? What do I do?'” 

Eventually, Randy said that he realized that fad diets and other short-term regimens weren’t working for him.