Bob Amaral is no lightweight when it comes to acting. His roles include everything from a stint on “NYPD Blue” to Pumbaa in the national tour of “The Lion King.” He’s currently playing Max in the Mel Brooks musical “The Producers,” which has returned to Chicago. But he has lightened up considerably in his personal life, after losing 120 pounds through gastric bypass surgery.
“I had been fighting with my weight since I was a kid,” said Amaral, 56, who now weighs 185. “In L.A., I wasn’t getting work. I would lose 40 pounds, then gain 50, and I was tired of it. And I was fed up with having three different sizes of clothes in my closet.”
In October 2002, he underwent the procedure, the most common form of weight-loss surgery in the U.S. A large section of the stomach is stapled off, leaving a tiny pouch, so patients can’t eat as much. “I’ve had tremendous energy since then,” he said. “I never would be able to do this show otherwise. It really is a two-hour-and-45-minute marathon.”
Amaral drank fluids for a few weeks after his surgery, then soft foods for a bit longer. He regularly takes supplements, as do other patients, because the surgery, which causes food to bypass most of the stomach and some of the small intestine, decreases the intestinal absorption of food. He has heard of patients who have lost the benefits of surgery by continuing to eat large amounts of food, but he can’t see that happening to him.
“I don’t know how people eat to excess,” he said. “To this day, if I eat too much, it’s painful. I tell people, `If you want pizza, go ahead and eat it; if you want lasagna, go ahead. Just don’t eat so much.'”
His final advice: “As you lose weight, don’t go buy really good clothes, because you’ll go through so many different sizes. The most exciting thing for guys might be when you buy new underwear, then later have to go buy it again in a smaller size.”
“The Producers” is playing through Feb. 20 at The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University in Chicago. For info, go to www.broadwayinchicago.com.