Karen was slim and trim and looking good. But inside, the obsession about her weight was getting bad. Those around her were beginning to worry.
Her ex-boyfriend’s sister and record executive Carole Curb said, “She weighed 110 pounds or so, and looked amazing.” Adding, “If she’d been able to stop there, then life would have been beautiful.”
Karen Doubles Down on Dieting
Before Karen tried the Stillman diet and hit the perfect weight, she had always been a little chubby. She did not want to go back to her childhood chubbiness again. She saw a picture of herself performing at one of their shows, she thought she looked heavy and decided to put a stop to it right away. She hired a trainer, but it didn’t work out.
The trainer helped her lose weight, but the high-carb, low-calorie diet and exercise regiment resulted in her gaining muscle. She wanted to look thin, so she took things into her own hands. She lost 20 pounds in no time and was heading toward the days when her weight would become the concern of everyone around her.
Food Gradually Became an Obsession
For Karen, eating less food was becoming an obsession.
She cut back whenever she could and then overly rationalized her behavior with comments like this one from 1973: “When you’re on the road it’s hard to eat. Period. On top of that, it’s rough to eat well. We don’t like to eat before a show because I can’t stand singing with a full stomach. . ."
Richard Gets Concerned
At first, Richard thought nothing of it. Assuming her weight loss was the result of successful work with her personal trainer, he congratulated her saying, “You look great.”
Karen replied, “Well, I’m just going to get down to around 105.” Worried about her response, Richard said, “A hundred and five? You look great now.” Karen was not convinced.
Karen Hides Her Obsession
She dropped to 90 pounds. At 5-foot-4, she had looked great at 120 pounds. With thirty pounds less, she started to look unhealthy. Family and friends became concerned and hounded her to eat more. Karen responded by bundling up to hide her extra weight loss.
In 1975, her agent, Sherwin Bash, noticed and said, “She would start with a long-sleeved shirt and then put a blouse over that and a sweater over that and a jacket over that.” Bash continued, ‘With all of it, you had no idea of what she had become.”