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Richard Karn says maintaining a healthy weight is a "conscious effort."
The "Home Improvement" star lost 30 pounds last year, and while he told Fox News Digital that maintaining a "perfect" weight is a "recipe for disaster," he is learning to listen to his body.
"Once you do it long enough, you realize what you need and what you don't need and what triggers you to be munching on something when you don't need to be munching on something," he said.
He told Fox News Digital he’s learned not to eat after six or seven at night very often, to not wait too long to eat because then he’ll get "very hungry" and eat too much, "and, you know, being married for 40 years is a long time to have that question, you know, ‘What do you want for dinner tonight?’ because that comes up every night. And then we have to work it out."
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Split of Richard Karn's weight loss then and now (Tommaso Boddi/WireImage; Richard Karn)
"If we go out, every once in a while, I'll have a steak, but I don't eat steak as much because it's very filling," he explained. "And I think my metabolism breaks it down slower. But chicken and fish at home. [His wife] Tudi doesn't eat beef, so I don't have to worry about that at home."
Karn said they also like to make cowboy stew at home, "which is a whole bunch of things mixed together with chicken and beans, and tomato sauce, and I like that, and then we'll have, every once in a while, we'll have nachos."
He said if they have chicken and vegetables one night, "then the leftover chicken we'll put it on nachos for Friday night or, you know, whatever we decide to do on a weekend."
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Richard Karn golfing with Tim Allen in 2013. (Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for SAG Foundation)
"You need protein, and you need, not necessarily potatoes or rice, but you know, everything in proportion is good, you know, as long as you stay proportional," he said.
Karn said it’s easier to maintain his weight loss when he and his wife, Tudi Roche, are both focused on what they’re eating.
"I love pizza, but I can fill up on two, maybe three slices, you know, medium slices. And I'm good with that. I don't have to eat the whole pie. So I do, I have an off-switch."
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"I can maintain that for a few months and then four, five, six months go by, and then I find that I'm slipping off that, and I go, ‘OK.’ And it's really great when we're both on it because there's less food in the house, so we're both making a conscious effort," he explained.
Richard Karn said he's learned to have a food "off-switch" and eat in more moderation. (Richard Karn)
Karn jokingly quoted Oscar Wilde, saying he can "resist everything but temptation," but stressed that he is focused on moderation.
"I love pizza, but I can fill up on two, maybe three slices, you know, medium slices," he explained. "And I'm good with that. I don't have to eat the whole pie. So I do, I have an off-switch. And that's something that every individual has to figure out, you know, whether you're eating or whether you are drinking or whether you are doing some other recreational thing, you need to figure it out, an off-switch and go, okay, I'm good. I know beyond this lies disaster."
He told Fox News Digital last year that after he lost the 30 pounds, he slowly put some of it back on, feeling at one point he looked "too thin," but since then he feels like he's "evened out."
Richard Karn with Tim Allen in a 1992 scene from "Home Improvement." (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
The 69-year-old also has a varied fitness routine.
"My workout is Pilates, which is kind of core and stretching," he said. "And I just added some muscle, weightlifting, toning, things like that."
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He joked, "I'm gonna be very sore tomorrow, because literally today is when I started it. And, you know, I'm doing squats, and I'm this thing [and that thing]. And because I've lived a long life, I realized that on the first day you do this, you feel fine. It's the second and third day that you really have to think about. So today I went right up to where I think I'm gonna be sore, but I'm not gonna be so sore that I can't do anything for a week. But I won't find out that until tomorrow or the next day. So stay tuned."
Heading into Thanksgiving and Christmas, Karn also joked that he handles seasonal food temptations "with gusto."
"We have the turkey, we have the mashed potatoes, we have green beans with slivered almonds. We have something from my family, my grandma Ruth used to make shrimp salad. So, I make a shrimp salad, very simple," he said. "And then the next day, I like turkey sandwiches. And that's when I will have a sandwich with bread and cranberry sauce and mayonnaise and that's kind of my, you know, what I kind of cheat on. I'll have that sandwich maybe two or three days."
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Richard Karn with the cast of "Home Improvement" in 1995. (ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images)
Karn, who played Al Borland on "Home Improvement" from 1991 until 1999, recently had a mini-reunion with Tim Allen, Patricia Richardson and Debbe Dunning on Allen’s new show "Shifting Gears."
"That was a big thing for them to promote, that he brought all those people back," Karn said of the reunion on Oct. 1. "And I see Tim on occasion when we make the effort to play golf or have lunch or something like that. And I see Debbe a lot. I don't see the kids that often. I don't see Pat that often."
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Karn, Dunning and Richardson have started doing conventions, however.
"That’s kind of fun," he said. "Well, we're going to do one up in Connecticut, a ‘90s con, because I guess basically we were the ‘90s."
Karn reflected on the show’s continued popularity more than 25 years after it went off the air.
Richard Karn in 2021. (Bobby Bank/Getty Images)
"The producers did a very cool thing," he explained. "They didn't anchor it to any time with current events. I think the only way you can tell maybe the time frame is maybe hairdos and clothes and things like that."
He continued, "But for the most part, we're just kind of out there anytime, USA. And it resonates because it all comes from a real truth of families connecting, coworkers connecting, the one guy that wants to do everything and fails miserably but learns, and the other guy that does know how to do things but is kind of socially inept, and then you’ve got the kids growing up, and you've got the wife, Pat, finding a way for her through school or a job. I think it resonates on lots of different levels."
Karn and his wife had just moved to California from New York and were pregnant when he auditioned for "Home Improvement," not for Borland’s part, but for possible guest roles in the future.
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"He goes, ‘Well, we might need you to come in and do the pilot.’ I go, ‘Great.’ And he goes ‘Well, just the pilot,’ I go ‘And the problem would be?’ He goes, ‘Well, you know, you won't, if the show gets picked up, we won't continue with you.’ And I go, ‘OK, I don't have a pilot on my resume. I don't have pilot experience. So this is all wonderful,’ you know, and I'm a new actor to Los Angeles, not knowing that I should be offended by them giving me work that wouldn't continue, but that, you know, they were [my] friends, and they were giving me an opportunity and so, no, I wasn't supposed to be there," he explained. "I was just supposed to do the pilot, and then they would bring in ['Groundhog Day' actor] Stephen Tobolowsky for the show, and he would be Tim's assistant, Glenn."
Karn has also been married to his wife for 40 years, and has a unique proposal story.
Karn golfing in 2023. (Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA)
"I kind of asked her, you know ‘What time were you born?’ and she goes, ‘I don't know.’ I said, ‘Well, ask your mom.’"
He found out she was born at 12:03 p.m. on July 19, which he socked away in his memory.
"Her birthday's coming up, and we're going to have a party. And so we go to Zabar’s, which is kind of a food — up on the Upper West Side — emporium that also upstairs has kitchen stuff and things for the house," he said. "And we were upstairs looking at a platter that she was thinking of buying to serve food, and it's getting close to the time that she was born. And I wanted to propose. And I go, ‘Well, you know, we should get going, and she's going, ‘No, no.’ I think it's like all of a sudden we're in Zabar’s and the time has come. And I go, ‘Will you marry me?’"
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Richard Karn and wife Tudi Roche in 1999. (Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
Karn said the look on her face showed it was "the last thing she thought I was going to say in Zabar’s. And she just kind of burst out crying."
The first thing she said was, "’You know I don't like to cook.’ And I go, ‘Yes, I know that. And we will deal with it and all of that.’"
She told him yes but then added, "You know, it wasn't the time of my birthday.’"
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He told her it was, but she said she was born at 12:03, and he had proposed at 2:03.
"I go, ‘Well it's 12:03 in Texas," he smiled. "She goes, ‘Oh my God, Oh my God.’"
