Dancing With the Stars' Cheryl Burke Unveils 35-Lb. Weight Loss Transformation (2025)

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Cheryl Burke Slams Speculation She Got a “Face Transplant”

Cheryl Burke is waltzing into a healthier chapter.

The Dancing With the Stars alum revealed that she recently lost around 35 pounds by making changes to her diet and exercise routine, as well as working on her mental health.

“For me, it's all about starting from within first instead of the aesthetic of what I look like from the outside,” Cheryl told People in an interview published May 20. “My goal wasn't to lose a certain amount of weight.”

In fact, the 41-year-old largely credits her transformation to adopting a new mindset about her body after spending years being "obsessive" over the number on the scale.

“As a dancer, we were stuck in front of mirrors constantly, it was important to stay at a certain weight, and my dance coaches were really strict,” Cheryl explained. “It has always been something that kind of weighed on me.”

Noting that the pressure would "affect my mood on a daily basis if I didn't feel like I was skinny enough," she continued,“Just being consistently chastised about my weight, it wasn't fun. I even used to travel with a scale.”

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But since leaving Dancing With the Stars in 2022 after 26 seasons, Cheryl has learned to be easier on herself and adapt to normal changes that come with aging, such as her metabolism slowing down and her skin "changing into mature skin."

Additionally, she's opted for an intermittent fasting diet that includes only clean foods and has gotten into the habit of taking two-mile walks with her dog. As she put it, “I just like to continue to move my body and be active."

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Days prior to her weight loss update, Cheryl—who finalized her divorce from ex Matthew Lawrence in 2022—shut down speculation that she had undergone a "face transplant" or gotten other cosmetic procedures to alter her appearance.

“I’m not on Ozempic, I’m not sick, I didn’t get a face transplant and no I did not get a brow lift,” she said in a May 18 TikTok video. “The level of projection that is happening and that I am witnessing is wild. The way some of you guys talk about me, it’s like you think I’m a headline or a filter. Not a person.”

Emphasizing that she's been in the public eye since she was 21 so her face and body have "changed over the past 20 years," Cheryl added, "Because I’ve changed. I’ve experienced so much trauma, divorce—and this isn’t a pity party—sobriety, burn out, reinvention. I’ve healed, I’ve lost, I’ve grieved like anybody else. And yeah, maybe it shows but I’m not sorry for it one bit.”

For more stars who have gotten candid about their weight loss journeys, read on...

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