Why did Elvis gain so much weight?

He was overweight because he choosed to be overweight.....

Remember when Elvis looked great in 69--he was on a yogurt diet, was riding a stationary cycle and practiced his concert routine with leg weights.

Well, he looked fantastic in 1969, but certainly a yogurt diet wasn't a healthy long-term solution. He relied on gimmicks, pills and crash-diets to keep a thin waistline for years. Obviously it caught up with him once his depression, drug addiction, and poor eating habits took over.

Remember when Elvis looked great in 69--he was on a yogurt diet, was riding a stationary cycle and practiced his concert routine with leg weights.

Well, he looked fantastic in 1969, but certainly a yogurt diet wasn't a healthy long-term solution. He relied on gimmicks, pills and crash-diets to keep a thin waistline for years. Obviously it caught up with him once his depression, drug addiction, and poor eating habits took over.

It certainly was tough dieting back then.

Still, is very strange how he gained it so rapidly in the last years of his life. Pics from Elvis in July 74 during a karate demonstration in Memphis, or some pics of his free time in the same period of time, reminds of a 70 Elvis. He's thinner than On Tour and I'd even say than Aloha itself




Strangely, in the time of a month he gained quite an amount of weight that it was noticeable during the Vegas gig, leading to the infamous October tour when he had ballooned.

Odd it's also the fact that his face could appear slim and his waist bloated, like in these candid pics of the aforementioned Vegas engagement, making a bizarre picture of himself.




I have also made an appreciation in these past years after watching Elvis' photos. In the summer of 1976 Elvis appeared to be fat, not bloated, like the average overweight guy. Although, in 1977 he looks more bloated than fat to me, I mean, something beyond his dieting or exercise habits.

As someone has mentioned before, a quite number of drugs were coursing his organism in the 3 last years of his life. Some could had a bloating effect, but others just the opposite.

Above all, it puzzles me how a guy who had always been proud and conscious about his physichal appearance let himself go in the end.

Pics courtesy of Paul

But still, the second pic you show is very strange, it looks like if someone altered it to make Elvis appear fatter or perhaps it is simply a bad shot that makes him appear fatter than he actually was. His face looks even thin but his waist is strangely bloated.

But still, the second pic you show is very strange, it looks like if someone altered it to make Elvis appear fatter or perhaps it is simply a bad shot that makes him appear fatter than he actually was. His face looks even thin but his waist is strangely bloated.

Yes, the bullet proof vest clearly shows ...

Do we have a medical expert on board who could tell us something on the long term effects of diet pills?

There were a lot of high profile people who were overweight from time to time back then. Muhammad Ali was overweight a lot between fights. He even fought several times, not in top shape, I love Ali, but it happened. Atheletes would always come into training camp 20-30 lbs. heavier, then have to work it off. Nowadays, it's unheard of because there's so much worldwide competition and exposure, you have to be fit all of the time.

I don't think Elvis was slimmer in '74 compared to the Aloha.
And the picture when Elvis looks fat in '74; well, it may be a bad picture.
I think it is.

But still, the second pic you show is very strange, it looks like if someone altered it to make Elvis appear fatter or perhaps it is simply a bad shot that makes him appear fatter than he actually was. His face looks even thin but his waist is strangely bloated.

Yes, the bullet proof vest clearly shows ...

Do we have a medical expert on board who could tell us something on the long term effects of diet pills?

Diet pills were (as they are illegal now but not back then) basically amphetamines. The "diet" was due to their anorexic effect: they affect the brain in a way that the person loses the appetit. On the other hand, they also excite the patient so he is able to spend more time performing a physical demanding activity, with the consequence of more fat burning in less time. Amphetamines usually don't create an intake habit, because they don't cause physical or psychological addiction.

To counteract these effects, Elvis took big quantities of "downers" (opiates and barbiturates). These drugs , they cause a heavy addiction (both psychological and in the case of opiates also physical, meaning severe pain, nauseae and vomits if a longtime has passed since the last shot) and also slow down the peristaltic movements, this is, the bowel movements, hence severe episodes of constipation can happen--> the abdominal area bloats.

Diet pills were (as they are illegal now but not back then) basically amphetamines. The "diet" was due to their anorexic effect: they affect the brain in a way that the person loses the appetit. On the other hand, they also excite the patient so he is able to spend more time performing a physical demanding activity, with the consequence of more fat burning in less time. Amphetamines usually don't create an intake habit, because they don't cause physical or psychological addiction.

To counteract these effects, Elvis took big quantities of "downers" (opiates and barbiturates). These drugs , they cause a heavy addiction (both psychological and in the case of opiates also physical, meaning severe pain, nauseae and vomits if a longtime has passed since the last shot) and also slow down the peristaltic movements, this is, the bowel movements, hence severe episodes of constipation can happen--> the abdominal area bloats.

Thanks. It fits into the picture. "You give me hope and constipation".

Last edited by Guest on Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Diet pills were (as they are illegal now but not back then) basically amphetamines. The "diet" was due to their anorexic effect: they affect the brain in a way that the person loses the appetit. On the other hand, they also excite the patient so he is able to spend more time performing a physical demanding activity, with the consequence of more fat burning in less time. Amphetamines usually don't create an intake habit, because they don't cause physical or psychological addiction.

This is not the truth!

http://health.discovery.com/encyclopedi ... ticle=2794

Genetic

Look at Gladys

Kiwi! You said it! I tend to agree!

actually, elvis appeared to be having trouble with his weight as early as king creole--compare between that and jailhouse rock from the year before. in kid galahad/follow that dream he looked more out of shape than in parts of the '70s. in blue hawaii he has lovehandles--and those swim trunks did him no favors. paradise hawaiian style/frankie and johnny are often targeted to show his weight problems. his weight was like a yo-yo half of his life.

it simply was an old problem. but in the early cases, it was food consumption and let's face it--if you look at elvis' arms, legs or pectorals, he doesn't look like he worked out a day in his life. the reason his hands probably look disproportionately large is because of his scrawny little arms (legs as well). a bizarre thing about his arms and legs was that they were still skinny as sticks in '77--look at those may hawaii pictures--he had a gut and his face was bloated, yet his arms and legs belonged to a skinny man.

now, in the '70s there was a different problem. he wasn't gaining weight, but fluid. this is especially apparent because of his arms and legs. within days, he bloated and debloated. the weight wasn't from his eating habits (though poor), but from the medications, twisted colon, water-retention and constipation.

another thing that blows out of proportion his stomach is the fact that he had EXTREMELY narrow shoulders. the jumpsuits, shirts that weren't thinning on the shoulders, and any kind of jacket usually gave him a more proportionate look on the upper half of his body. wouldn't be half-surprised if the puff-sleeves look was done for a similar reason as the high collars hiding his skinny neck.

usually when a person gains weight from bad food and lack of exercise, the weight goes everywhere--upper arms and thighs aren't excluded. not on him, which is why i believe it was at least partly medical.

genetically--gladys, vernon, elvis, lisa marie & lisa's son ben have all had weight problems at some point. in fact, ben looks like a mini-gladys--especially in the face. lisa looks like a female elvis. and danielle/riley looks like a split between elvis/cilla/danny keough (and she's bordering on the other spectrum of weight disorders--though during the one milan show she was a spitting image of '50s elvis). lisa's weight tends to go up and down a lot as well. and bizarrely, her face morphs between how elvis' did when he was at certain weights early to mid-'70s.

Last edited by Elvis' Babe on Wed Jan 24, 2007 5:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

That's gas man He was trying to faart while the photo taking, look at his eyes.

I know that not a good joke but I really think that was gas in his stomach
he was human like everyone.

depressions, drugs, cheated ex-wife, colonel, RCA took his reason for living...

Last edited by Erhan on Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:51 am, edited 2 times in total.

Very well explained Elvis`Babe, I think you got it quite right.

another thing that blows out of proportion his stomach is the fact that he had EXTREMELY narrow shoulders. the jumpsuits, shirts that weren't thinning on the shoulders, and any kind of jacket usually gave him a more proportionate look on the upper half of his body. wouldn't be half-surprised if the puff-sleeves look was done for a similar reason as the high collars hiding his skinny neck.

The guy you are describing must have been really strange looking, even without his stomach.

Elvis' Babe is more or less correct. Elvis' shoulders left a very small visual print next to his stomach. He was always skinny, or slender, in some aspects of his shape. Whenever an impersonator dons a jumpsuit, even a slim impersonator with a good suit, they always look burly. And just ask anyone that's seen Elvis' clothing up close -- he was a small guy.

depressions, drugs, cheated ex-wife, colonel, RCA took his reason for living...

You are right, his ex-wife was cheated on a great deal by her husband. Are you suggesting Elvis' guilt for cheating so much contributed to his condition?

I think that Elvis' Babe is exaggerating a lot. Elvis wasn't a bodybuilder and hadn't a muscled body, specially in his more youthful years. He was a thin and slender boy. When he started to exercise karate, he clearly developed a more athletic body, not muscled, but athletic and nobody can deny that Elvis had a great build (his personal taylor, Bill Belew, said it literally) and very proportionate. Belew remarked it mentioning Elvis' actual body measurements. Elvis' complex with his neck, if true, was ridiculous, he had an incredibly well built and elegant one. His arms were very well formed even in his more youthful years, there is no need to have great muscles for it, and his legs were simply perfect, long, shapely, even strong, one of the best parts of his body, including the part just over them as many girls have said. And another thing, when a man gains weight it goes almost 100% around the waist and almost nothing to arms and legs. If you are a man you can be fat and your arms and especially legs will be the same or almost the same as if you were thin.

depressions, drugs, cheated ex-wife, colonel, RCA took his reason for living...

You are right, his ex-wife was cheated on a great deal by her husband. Are you suggesting Elvis' guilt for cheating so much contributed to his condition?

I was refering Mike Stone and Cilla...

i read he started gaining weight in 1965-1967 while doing the silly films.
he should have did something to take it off in 75-77.
don't know why he would take just any kind of drugs.
digging in foot to get drugs crazy.

Elvis' Babe is more or less correct. Elvis' shoulders left a very small visual print next to his stomach. He was always skinny, or slender, in some aspects of his shape. Whenever an impersonator dons a jumpsuit, even a slim impersonator with a good suit, they always look burly. And just ask anyone that's seen Elvis' clothing up close -- he was a small guy.

pretty much my point...and about seeing his clothes up close--first thing i thought when i saw his clothes is, 'my god, i don't think i'm skinny enough to fit into his clothes'. it was a bit like looking at old civil war general uniforms--i feel gargantuan next to these itty bitty clothes and i'm hardly a large girl. and the funny thing is that elvis was quite tall (about 6'). even his 'fat' clothes a.k.a. the jumpsuits--even they don't really look big up-close. 99% (or a good majority) of the people who walk through graceland probably couldn't fit into the sundial suit --elvis had a paunch that was disproportionate to his size, but he was never "big" or "fat" in the true senses of those words. forget imagining yourself in his clothes from '68 or ttwii... and if you think elvis' wedding tux looked like it was fitted for jack skeleton, take a look at anything worn by cilla--her clothes look midget-sized!

yes--he did get a bit more buff circa '68-ttwii. still--his insecurities about his body must have been on schizo during the army inductions--at a time when he really was physically young (he frankly looks the youngest of the bunch--and definitely the only one who could be considered "boyish")--and emotionally it is probably true that he never really grew up past his first million.

for the record--when i was mentioning his hands, i know i'm not off my rocker, because my mom made the same observation while watching king creole--and i hadn't mentioned that i had observed it as well.

as for the shoulders--i think elvis' reaction to ursula andress having wider than shoulders than him, sums it up (if he didn't have the insecurity, he wouldn't have had a reaction to it). elvis seemed to have a lot of insecurities about his body--shoulders, neck, limbs, etc... any sane person would think he looked fantastic and drop dead gorgeous--but a person always sees the faults more than the pluses--that's fact. elvis wasn't any different. in fact, elvis was severely insecure.

believe me, i'm not putting down on him (lol--if you only knew what i really think about his appearance--and *that* voice--you'd have me kicked off this board sooner than i could post it). i'd think he was a beautiful man, even if he had been balding, amputated, scarred, etc... much less a dying, sad man whose body was failing him left and right. a lot of his beauty was from the soul--and even the most ga-ga lustful of his fans probably saw the same quality. it was a bonus that he had the face of a greek god and the voice of a soulful angel until the end.

most men would kill to have his looks or voice separately, much less in one package. yet, he felt like rest of the average folk...though i think because of the attention given to his appearance, his insecurities about it were heightened. witness his reaction to the "fat and 40" headline...he took it really badly.

casting elvis or impersonating elvis is nearly impossible, not only because of how unique he was and how easy it is to pulverize a portrayal with cheesy impersonations--whereas his way was VERY natural. for films, they usually cast somebody who is about 5'6" and too skinny/little, and if a guy of the right height is cast, their frame is usually too broad (and this is without them weighing 300 pounds). you either get a wimp or a blimp.

pretty much my point...and about seeing his clothes up close--first thing i thought when i saw his clothes is, 'my god, i don't think i'm skinny enough to fit into his clothes'. it was a bit like looking at old civil war general uniforms--i feel gargantuan next to these itty bitty clothes and i'm hardly a large girl. and the funny thing is that elvis was quite tall (about 6'). even his 'fat' clothes a.k.a. the jumpsuits--even they don't really look big up-close. 99% (or a good majority) of the people who walk through graceland probably couldn't fit into the sundial suit --elvis had a paunch that was disproportionate to his size, but he was never "big" or "fat" in the true senses of those words. forget imagining yourself in his clothes from '68 or ttwii... and if you think elvis' wedding tux looked like it was fitted for jack skeleton, take a look at anything worn by cilla--her clothes look midget-sized!

yes--he did get a bit more buff circa '68-ttwii. still--his insecurities about his body must have been on schizo during the army inductions--at a time when he really was physically young (he frankly looks the youngest of the bunch--and definitely the only one who could be considered "boyish")--and emotionally it is probably true that he never really grew up past his first million.

for the record--when i was mentioning his hands, i know i'm not off my rocker, because my mom made the same observation while watching king creole--and i hadn't mentioned that i had observed it as well.

as for the shoulders--i think elvis' reaction to ursula andress having wider than shoulders than him, sums it up (if he didn't have the insecurity, he wouldn't have had a reaction to it). elvis seemed to have a lot of insecurities about his body--shoulders, neck, limbs, etc... any sane person would think he looked fantastic and drop dead gorgeous--but a person always sees the faults more than the pluses--that's fact. elvis wasn't any different. in fact, elvis was severely insecure.

personally--i like his slender frame, slender neck, etc... i'm not putting down on him (lol--if you only knew what i really think about his appearance--and *that* voice--you'd have me kicked off this board sooner than i could post it).

most men would kill to have his looks or voice separately, much less in one package. yet, he felt like rest of the average folk...though i think because of the attention given to his appearance, his insecurities about it were heightened. witness his reaction to the "fat and 40" headline...he took it really badly.

casting elvis or impersonating elvis is nearly impossible, not only because of how unique he was and how easy it is to pulverize a portrayal with cheesy impersonations--whereas his way was VERY natural. for films, they usually cast somebody who is about 5'6" and too skinny/little, and if a guy of the right height is cast, their frame is usually too broad (and this is without them weighing 300 pounds). you either get a wimp or a blimp.

I understand and agree with you more now. Regarding Elvis' clothes, I've heard that they look small, even someone said that Elvis' jumpsuits displayed at Graceland could have been altered to look smaller, but this is only gossip. Also, the visual impression of clothes without anybody inside makes them appear small, especially jumpsuits, because they are made of elastic fabric and without a body inside, washed and displayed, they tend to shrink. George Harrison, from The Beatles, met Elvis during his MSG concerts and was shocked about his appearance with the white jumpsuit he wore, he said that he looked 8' tall and a kind of Lord Shiva, a perfect man. Furthermore, Elvis pants, including the ones of the jumpsuits, were short and left a big part of the boots visible.
Yes, Elvis' supposed insecurities regarding his body make almost anybody else's ones look ridiculous. He had an enviable body in all aspects. But it's true, almost everybody, even the more enviable have their insecurities and complexes.
Regarding Elvis' hands, they were mentioned many times as one of the more beautiful parts of his body. I've heard some women say that after looking at him and without being Elvis' fans. For a man isn't a defect to have large hands, in fact this is something good, a lot better than to have small hands with short fingers, they would be very ugly. I think that his hands aren't out of proportion with his body/arms. And think about Michele Angelo's David, he has large hands too because they add masculineness (sorry if the word is not correct) and strenght to him, althouhg in this case they are a little out of proportion.
I've heard too about Elvis saying that Ursula Andress had wider shoulders than him but we can not take it literally, he was joking as usually did, because Ursula clearly has wide shoulders, I was aware of that too and it attracted my attention strongly, but it doesn't make her shoulders wider than mine. Me, and many others, use this kind of exaggerations to make jokes about a thing that we want to remark.

Good post, Elvis' Babe.

in fact, elvis was severely insecure.

We could make a whole other topic out of this sentence.

Back to the size issue: Now, although I'm 6'3", I weigh less than 12 stone (or 168lbs), and so am a very skinny guy. But when I bought a replica Comeback Special jacket from ebay (couldn't resist -- that thing is so cool!), it didn't fit me. Now, true, the dimensions of this jacket were probably a little different to the real thing, but it was such a titchy little thing. I couldn't believe it. (On the other hand, it's meant to be small, given that the Comeback Special jacket is modelled on denim jackets which fit tightly and only drop to the waist, but I was still surprised).

I think you get a good indication of how small Elvis was in the Comeback Special -- if you look at him in the actual blue denim suit. In wide shots, he looks like a little boy (though still very manly)!

casting elvis or impersonating elvis is nearly impossible [...] you either get a wimp or a blimp.

LOL! So true!

I understand and agree with you more now. Regarding Elvis' clothes, I've heard that they look small, even someone said that Elvis' jumpsuits displayed at Graceland could have been altered to look smaller, but this is only gossip. Also, the visual impression of clothes without anybody inside makes them appear small, especially jumpsuits, because they are made of elastic fabric and without a body inside, washed and displayed, they tend to shrink.

That's a very good point.

George Harrison, from The Beatles, met Elvis during his MSG concerts and was shocked about his appearance with the white jumpsuit he wore, he said that he looked 8' tall and a kind of Lord Shiva, a perfect man.

I think George Harrison actually likened him to Vishnu. Though Shiva would also have fit (at least psychologically -- given Elvis' alternate strands of creativity and destructivity).

depressions, drugs, cheated ex-wife, colonel, RCA took his reason for living...

You are right, his ex-wife was cheated on a great deal by her husband. Are you suggesting Elvis' guilt for cheating so much contributed to his condition?

I was refering Mike Stone and Cilla...

Yes, I thought you were. I was merely pointing out that Elvis cheated on Priscilla a great many times that no one can slam Priscilla for having an affair with Mike Stone - Elvis brought it on himself and there is no denying that fact.