Ethan Suplee details mental aspects of staggering weight loss

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 5/5/21

Ethan Suplee's weight has been as fluctuant as his acting roles have been diverse since he broke onto the scene as Frankie Stechino in Boy Meets World (1994).

The 44-year-old joined The Joe Rogan Experience podcast to talk through his staggering weight loss journey that began in 2002, taking him as high as 550 pounds and as low as 200 pounds before settling at his current 270-pound stature. Their three-hour-plus conversation began with Rogan complimenting Suplee, then showing side-by-side pictures from over the years.

"It's incredibly satisfying, but look, the reality is—I have mental illness, and I don't look at myself and think, 'God, I look great,'" Suplee said, noting that his traps are the one part of his body he feels good about. "I see nothing but negative stuff every day, and I try to convince myself—I try to find something that I'm happy with."

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Rogen then asked what Suplee meant by mental illness, clarifying that he is "aware you have a distorted perception of yourself," and Suplee replied, "very much so."

The My Name Is Earl star continued:

"When I go back to, like, my childhood, I was put on a diet when I was five. And prior to that, I had no sense of self. I existed and clearly I had fun and I played, but I was not aware of my body as a thing—if it is external to me, as a separate component to me or just as a thing itself. It just was. And at five, I was put on a diet, and all these parts of me were pointed out as being super negative."

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Suplee has enjoyed a consistent Hollywood career, including earlier roles in films such as Remember the Titans (2000), John Q (2002) and The Butterfly Effect (2004), but he admitted to Rogan that his weight loss has affected his work. His most recent television roles include Santa Clarita Diet (2019), The Ranch (2016-20) and Good Girls (2020).

You can listen to Suplee's full Joe Rogan Experience episode here, though the podcast has come under some fire for Rogan's COVID-19 vaccine comments last week.

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