How Did Dolly Parton Lose Weight? Low-Carb Diet and Staying Active

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She is significantly thinner now than she was in her 30s and 40s, despite being in her 70s.

Dolly Parton is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and philanthropist. Dolly Parton succeeded as a songwriter for others and made her album debut in 1967 with “Hello, I’m Dolly.”

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Her work in country music is her most well-known. Her albums and songs have together sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. After achieving commercial success in the country music genre, she began diversifying her repertoire in film and theater.

Dolly has a long candid history of weight fluctuations like any other celebrity. She has never been afraid to share personal information about her weight reduction struggles with the public.

She has enchanted audiences for years with her singing abilities and stunning attractiveness. Dolly’s famed curves have gone in the last ten years, and her sensual form has been replaced with a considerably slimmer one.

She overcame her early challenges and discovered how to reduce weight in the healthiest way possible. Dolly, who was recognized for her hard work and devotion, utilized her platform as one of the country’s most well-known musicians to raise awareness about the need to be active and healthy.

The musician has excellent body proportions. Despite her age, she maintains an hourglass physique and has maintained her health well into her 50s.

Dolly Parton's Weight Loss Tricks

The main keys to Dolly’s successful weight loss:

  • She popularized cabbage soup diet, which was called “Dolly Parton diet”
  • It is recommended to drink a lot of water and take multivitamins when following this diet
  • She tried low-carb diet
  • She watches her portions
  • She tried fasting in the past, as well
  • She went on the spiritual side when it comes to her weight loss journey

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Workouts are not Dolly Parton's thing.

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Dolly Parton does not have a specific workout routine since she dislikes regular exercise and prefers to spend her time writing and thinking. Her way of life isn’t fixed in stone. 

Her way of life is everything from sedentary. Every day, she does something that engages both her body and intellect. If nothing else, she has kept herself svelte for the past fifty years by walking a lot during rehearsals and performances on stage.

Considering her distaste for regular exercise, Dolly has visited gyms in the past. She surprised several members of a senior facility in 2018 to commemorate the renaming of the structure.

She even assisted in the co-teaching of a fitness class while visiting the institution. She was still wearing her stiletto heels and stepped on a platform with the other teacher, weights in hand.

On top of that, Dolly does not mind telling Insider about her morning routine, stating, “I don’t need a whole lot of sleep.”

“I go to bed pretty early, but even if I’ve been up late — it’s just kind of like a little clock inside of me that says ‘it’s 3 o’clock!'”

“I do some of my best work there, but I get enough sleep,” the author detailed. “I don’t require as much sleep as a lot of other people do. That’s kind of a Parton family trait.”

“I do more work between 3 and 7 than most people do all day because it’s quiet, and the energy’s all low, except mine.” Furthermore, she checks what she eats in addition to remaining active to maintain her weight.

Diets that Dolly Parton has tried.

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.

As for her diet, she popularized the cabbage soup diet in the 1980s, earning the name “Dolly Parton diet.”

The cabbage soup diet claims to help you lose 10-15 pounds in just one week. The diet entails eating an infinite amount of soup made up of various vegetables for seven days, with some meals restricted to specific days.

However, it is recommended that you drink plenty of water and take a multivitamin. This diet isn’t recommended as a healthy approach to shedding pounds.

“I tried every diet in the book,” she once said, according to Vanity Fair. “I tried some that weren’t in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets.”

Dolly also claims that low-carb is the best diet for her because of her large appetite and tiny size since she can eat a variety of allowed dishes and only cook herself a pan of cornbread on cheat days.

“I’m a short little thing with a big, country girl appetite, so I have to really watch it,” she said to Fox News. “I’ve been every size in the world, [but] I’d be big as a house if I ate everything I wanted, so I’m a big eater. My best bet is to stay on low carb because on a low carb; you can actually eat quite a bit of food of the things you’re allowed.”

Despite following a low-carb diet, she isn’t hesitant to eat her favorite Southern meals on the weekends; as she disclosed in a statement to PEOPLE, “I’ll make gravy and biscuits and fried sausage or fried spam. My husband loves my cooking, so I cook for him. I really cook just old Southern food.”

At the time of the interview, her songs were chosen to create the tone for a musical comedy film about body image concerns. The titular character in the Netflix film “Dumplin” is an overweight adolescent inspired by Parton’s prior successes.

“I’m a hog at heart,” she continued. “I’ve been up and down with my weight through the years, so I can definitely relate to that.”

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.

“(This movie) shows that you don’t have to be physically beautiful. You don’t have to look like a supermodel.”

“I really worry a lot about young girls today because they think they have to look like the models or the people on television. We need to be accepting of ourselves in how we are,” she added.

The actress has also stated that she watches her portions since she must stay in shape to wear the ensembles she is renowned for donning on stage, “You have to say, ‘I can’t eat that because I’ve got to get in that dress tomorrow!'”

Dolly subsequently shared her weight-loss journey in her book entitled “Songteller: My Life in Lyrics.”

“I had gained a lot of weight. I have a tendency to do that. At the time, I had tried everything to get the weight off, and there was this new diet out,” she wrote.

“It was like a liquid protein, and it was just the awfulest tasting stuff. You had to drink it three times a day, and you just gag when you are doing it.”

She embarked on yet another grueling diet in 1998, but this time it was more about her spiritual side than her weight reduction. She’d been pushing extra hard and neglecting her health, so she went to an old cabin in the highlands where she’d set up shop to pray and fast.

“Fasting is something that comes out of the church. If you fast, it cleanses your body as well as your mind,” she clarified. “Fasting is awful. You’ve got to pray hard, and you’ve gotta have a lot of faith. It takes me about two or three days to get into it.”

“You do a water fast for a day or so, and you get these god-awful headaches. Then you do a juice fast to get your mind open, and you get light-headed.”

Morning Routine of Dolly Parton

Photo of the Remarkables mountain range in Queenstown, New Zealand.

In connection to the spiritual side of her weight-loss journey, Dolly, as she told the Wall Street Journal, manages to fit her early prayers within the frenzy of morning activity.

“I create my own rejoicing exercises! I grew up in the Pentecostal church where we used to do a lot of shouting and jumping around,” she shared.

“I keep my motor running in the mornings when I just shout through the house praising the Lord. It gave me an idea to create some easy exercises, and I’m making music to go along with it. Something that even people in wheelchairs or people that are older or sick can do.”