Margaret Cho’s weight loss of 40 pounds is admirable. How did Cho lose 40 pounds? Has she discovered a new diet that we have not heard about? Yes, she has, well, sort of.

Margaret Cho’s diet Cho had tried the raw diet, the macrobiotic diet, the fruits-only diet – and a diet so extreme that in the mid-’90s she ended up in the hospital with kidney failure. Still, “I was always fat,” says Cho. Then in 2003 she embarked on a diet of “whatever” (yes, it includes pizza and french fries) and lost 40 lbs. over the course of the next few years to finally get down to a healthy weight.

Margaret Cho’s weight loss lesson “When I was on those crazy diets, I’d gain weight because I would binge on the diet food!” she admits. “I learned that any restriction on the kind of food I eat was going to be a problem.”

These days nothing is off-limits. “I eat ice cream, chips, everything,” she says. Cho, tries to eat only “when I’m hungry” and early in the day, when she is the most active, opting for “a big breakfast and a big lunch,” before a small dinner at around 4 p.m.

Margaret Cho’s workout When it comes to burning calories, Cho has also given up her daily spinning classes in favor of belly dancing. “It’s not drudgery, like going to the gym,” she says.

But perhaps her biggest change is in the way she sees herself. “You get to the understanding that not everybody’s a size 2,” she says. “Sometimes you’re a size 12 – and you’re still beautiful.” [via]