A lot of celebrities sign up for Dancing With the Stars with the hopes of losing weight from the hours and hours of dance practice, but for some, it’s just a pleasant, unplanned side effect.
Jaleel White was one of those celebs that didn’t plan on losing weight while competing on Dancing With the Stars, but there just wasn’t any way around it. White, famous for his role as nerdy Erkel on Family Matters told Us Weekly after his Monday’s performace that he’s already lost 13 pounds since rehearsals began earlier this year. The actor, 35, proudly exclaimed, “I’m like a buck sixty-nine!”
At 5-foot-10, White was hardly overweight to begin with, but spending hours in the dance studio helped the actor kick up his fitness routine a notch. “You’re dripping in sweat. You keep doing intervals of 30 minutes or 40 minutes, and you grab a quick snack and go back at it,” he explained. “I can pop a sweat so quickly now. It’s new to me. It’s ridiculous!”
White has also noticed another positive change: his energy level is up. You would think dancing all day would leave him exhausted, but quite the contrary.
“I feel in better shape than I have been since I was in college,” he said. “It sucks because I want to go out and play basketball but I have no time. I want to see what my energy is like and what I can do on the basketball court now, because at 35, trust me, there is a difference between a 35-year-old and a 24-year-old on the basketball court.”
As is expected with the grueling hours, White has experienced some aches and pains from his training, but his pro partner Kym Johnson, also 35, has given him some tricks of the trade.
“I’m like a divorced woman lying in the Epsom salt baths with candles and incense, watching episodes of Dexter,” White said. “It’s hilarious!”
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