Origins
Richard Simmons was born on July 12th, 1948, in
New Orleans, Louisiana. He reports that growing up
in an area with so much good food was exciting, but
that it had a very negative impact on his weight. Sim-
mons says that by the time he was 8 years old he
already weighed 200 pounds. He was picked on by
the children at school for being so overweight. As he
continued to get older he gained more weight, at one
point weighing as much as 268 pounds. He reports
trying many different unhealthy ways to lose weight
such as purging (throwing up) and using laxatives. At
one point he even tried starving himself and drinking
onlywater. He says he nearly died when he starved
himself for two and a half months.
When Simmons was 16, and weighed more than
ever, he decided to try a different approach to weight
loss. This time he educated himself about nutrition,
healthy eating, and exercise by borrowing books from
the library. Through this self-education he learned to
stop doing things that were bad for his body and start
to do things that were positive. Over time he slowly
lost his extra weight and became healthier.
Simmons says that it was his early struggle with
his weight, and how bad he felt about himself during
that time, that inspired him to try to help others lose
weight. And knowing all of the things he had tried
made him want to help others lose weight the right
way. In 1973, Simmons moved to Los Angeles, Cal-
ifornia, and was inspired to open his own weight loss
and fitness club because he could not find any clubs
that were welcoming to people who were not already
in great shape. He called his club ‘‘Slimmons’’ and
opened it in Beverly Hills. His own experience with
weight loss is his only qualification. Simmons has no
formal training in nutrition.
Over the more than 30 years since he opened ‘‘Slim-
mons’’ people have lost more than 3,000,000 total
pounds following Richard Simmons’ diet and exercise
plans. He invented the Deal-a-Meal, the FoodMover to
help people easily keep track of how much they have
eaten each day, and a steamer to help people make
healthy meals. He has also written an autobiography
and cookbooks, made more than 50 exercise videos,
which have sold more than 20 million copies, and had
his own Emmy Award winning television show.
Description
The Richard Simmons diet consists of three main
parts: diet, exercise, and motivation. These three parts
are combined to make a weight loss and exercise pro-
gram that follows healthy guidelines for most adults,
and is intended to provide weight loss at a moderate
pace.Diet
The Richard Simmons diet follows guidelines for a
balanced, healthy diet and moderately paced weight
loss. It emphasizes fruits and vegetables, with a mini-
mum of seven servings of fruits and vegetables each day.
The minimum daily number of calories on the diet is
1,200. This is generally thought to be a healthy number
of calories per day for adults trying to achieve weight
loss. The diet includes about 60%carbohydrates,20%
fats, and 20% proteins. Also included each day are 2
servings of low or non-fat dairy products.
Richard Simmons provides a number of different
tools to help people follow his diet more easily. One of
these is known as the Deal-A-Meal, which provides
cards in a wallet. Each card represents one serving of a
food group, and during the day as the dieter eats the
cards are moved from one side of the wallet to the
other. Once there are no cards left the dieter knows
that he or she has eaten all of the allotted food for that
day. A more recent version of this tool is the Food-
Mover, which is a tool designed to fit easily into pock-
ets or purses. As the day goes by the dieter closes a tab
for each serving of proteins, carbohydrates, and other
food groups as they are eaten. It also includes windows
for water and exercise, as well as motivational messages.KEY TERMS
Dietary supplement—A product, such as a vitamin,
mineral, herb, amino acid, or enzyme, that is
intended to be consumed in addition to an individ-
ual’s diet with the expectation that it will improve
health.
Mineral—An inorganic substance found in the earth
that is necessary in small quantities for the body to
maintain a health. Examples: zinc, copper, iron.
Obese—More than 20% over the individual’s ideal
weight for their height and age or having a body
mass index (BMI) of 30 or greater.
Toxin—A general term for something that harms or
poisons the body.
Vitamin—A nutrient that the body needs in small
amounts to remain healthy but that the body cannot
manufacture for itself and must acquire through
diet.Richard Simmons diet