Celebrities are just like you and me. Except when one of us decides to lose weight, we don’t get paid to endorse a company. Celebrities, on the other hand, get paid to do everything from tweeting to making a series of commercials. These famous folks have been making money by losing weight.
1. Mariah Carey
Photo courtesy of @mariahcarey on Instagram
Carey took over as a Jenny Craig spokesperson when the company decided to relaunch their brand as “Jenny.” She lost 30 pounds in 2011 with Jenny, after the birth of her twins, Moroccan and Monroe.
2. Charles Barkley
Photo courtesy of @sir_charles_barkley on Instagram
Because a lot of diet programs are viewed as being for women, Weight Watchers launched their “Lose Like a Man” campaign and made Barkley the face of it. In 2012, he lost 42 pounds on the program.
3. Queen Latifah
Photo courtesy of @queenlatifah on Instagram
Latifah went on Jenny Craig in 2008 because of health concerns. Her goal was to lose five to ten percent of her body weight to get healthier and she claimed that she managed to do that in just a few months with Jenny Craig.
4. Melissa Joan Hart
Photo courtesy of @melissajoanhart on Instagram
The Melissa and Joey star lost 40 pounds in 2012 on Nutrisystem. She joined the ranks of Dan Marino and Marie Osmond as a spokesperson for the company.
5. Whoopi Goldberg
Photo courtesy of pl.wikipedia.org
Goldberg was a spokesperson for Slim-Fast in the early 2000s. She reportedly did lose weight while on the product, but, when she made inappropriate comments about President Bush in 2004, Slim-Fast dropped her and pulled all of her commercials.
6. Kim Kardashian
Photo courtesy of @kimkardashian on Instagram
You’re probably not going to see her doing any Atkins commercials anytime soon, but Kim has been doing Atkins to lose weight after the birth of her son. She tweeted about the nutritionist she has with the program and cites Atkins as the reason she’s going back to her pre-baby weight.
7. Sharon Osbourne
Photo courtesy of @sharonosbourne on Instagram
Like Kim K, Osbourne used Atkins to lose 28 pounds when she decided that she did not want to be overweight when she turned 60. She’s been making commercials for the program since 2012.
8. Kirstie Alley
Photo courtesy of @kirstiealley on Instagram
After being a spokesperson for Jenny Craig for ten years, Alley rejoined the program in 2014. She was able to lose 50 pounds. She also launched a series of vitamin and mineral powders and beverages called Organic Liaison with Jenny.
9. Oprah Winfrey
Photo courtesy of @oprah on Instagram
Oprah lost 26 pounds on Weight Watchers and became their current spokesperson in 2015. In October, she also bought 10 percent of the company. CNBC’s Eric Clemi reported that the stock “jumped a ton” when her weight loss was announced, causing Oprah to make over $2.5 million for every pound she lost.
10. Jennifer Hudson
Photo courtesy of @iamjhud on Instagram
Hudson lost 80 pounds with Weight Watchers. In 2009, Hudson was a size 16. She announced in 2010 that she would be working with Weight Watchers, saying that she just wanted to get her body back. By 2014, she was down to a size six and stepped away from her role as the program’s ambassador.
11. Jessica Simpson
Photo courtesy of @jessicasimpson on Instagram
Simpson used Weight Watchers after her first and second pregnancies. In 2012, she announced that she’d lost 50 pounds, before she became pregnant with a second child. After her son, Maxwell, was born in 2013, she spent a year on Weight Watchers again to get back to her goal weight.