Josh Gad Lost 40 Lbs. Using Weight Loss Medication: 'I've Always Been the Funny Fat Guy. Can I Be the Funny Skinny Guy?'

Josh Gad shared that he’s taking a GLP-1 medication for weight loss, praising it as a “miracle drug” that will help him “be there for my kids.”

“I'm on a GLP-1…this is the first time I've opened up about this,” the Frozen star, 43, told Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on the Jan. 27 episode of Armchair Expert.

“It has suppressed, in a great way, that noise ... when I wake up, I feel hunger pains — and so much of that is psychological, right? — and what this does is it takes away that signal,” Gad said of the medication. GLP-1 is short for glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, which work in the brain to impact satiety. Popular brands are Ozempic and Mounjaro.

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“It is a miracle drug,” he said, sharing that he’d lost 40 lbs. on a different drug, but had to switch after his former medication caused him to develop diverticulitis, an inflammation of irregular building pouches in the colon, according to the Mayo Clinic.

“I was really bummed out because it was working incredibly for me and I had to switch,” said Gad, who just released his memoir In Gad We Trust. “So, like, I'm you know figuring out this new one, and it is life-changing, but it also doesn't negate the fact that it can't be in the place of having a healthy relationship with food.”

Gad added, “It can't be in the place of having a healthy relationship with exercise.”

When Shepard asked if the conversation topic was putting Gad on the spot, the Broadway alum explained that he was “really happy” to share that he was taking the medicine, saying, “I'm having my own journey with it. Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating myself by doing this.”

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Gad, who shares daughters Ava, 14, and Isabella, 10 with wife, Ida Darvish, said his wife is “not thrilled” that he takes it. When Shepard asked if “she's worried you're not going to confront the core thing that's driving” weight gain, Gad said yes.

Gad explained he did have one concern with weight loss, saying, “I've always been the funny fat guy. Can I be the funny skinny guy? Can I be the hot leading man?”

“I don't know that people would accept me as those things,” he said, adding that future roles are less of a concern “as I go on this journey of weight loss.”

“I'm not as worried about that because my primary goal is, I want to be there for my kids,” Gad said. “Everything else is bulls—t.”

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