CHS president shares his story of weight loss, health gains

CHS president shares his story of weight loss, health gains

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Media Contact: Sara Plummer | Senior Communications Coordinator | 918-561-1282 | [email protected]

This time of year, many people want to pursue a healthier lifestyle through diet and exercise, but family, work and just the stresses of life can cause many to lose that focus.

Time goes by and the pounds creep on.

For Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences President Johnny Stephens, the joys and challenges of his personal and professional life for the past 30 years have meant putting his own health and fitness on the back burner.

"With that gradual weight gain, you just go buy new clothes and you still feel good. And it wasn't that I wasn't active. I love to hunt, I love to fish and I love to do all those things, and I still did all that," Stephens said.

But as the years went by, some of his daily activities got tougher to do.

"You start to wonder when you get to that 275, 300, 325-pound mark, and you're now in some weight limit problems you never considered before. I did finally start to have some knee pain," he said. "You think 'I've got to do something about this.'"

Stephens did and in the last three years has lost 156 pounds by changing how he eats, prioritizing exercise and taking a GLP-1, a category of weight loss medications that have exploded in popularity in recent years.

Just before the holiday, he spoke about his health and weight loss journey with Dr. Drew Crawford, a gastroenterologist, on his podcast BMI: Beyond Measurements and Image. Crawford is also an OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine alumnus and program director of OSU-CHS' gastroenterology fellowship program.

"Johnny is such a great example of how our health can slip away from us a little at a time. He decided he needed to make a change for himself, for his family and for his longevity," Crawford said. "He reminds us that it's never too late to start, and with intention and consistency, all things are possible."

From athlete to pharmacist to leader

Stephens grew up playing sports first in Barnsdall, Oklahoma, then in Houston and finally back in Oklahoma, where he graduated from Oologah High School.

"I was always on the huskier side, but not overweight," he said. "I played football, baseball and I wrestled. Athletics were year-round."

But that meant big fluctuations in weight depending on what sport he was playing. During football season, Stephens said he might weigh 215 or 220 pounds, but when he would switch to wrestling, he would have to drop some weight.

"You would go from 220 pounds to 178 pounds over the course of two and half months. And it was never lost in a healthy way," he said. "And once wrestling was over, you would balloon back up."

Throughout college and graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 1999, Stephens said he continued to gradually gain weight. He completed his fellowship in clinical pharmacy sciences and infectious disease at the Ryan White Clinic in Tulsa, operated by OSU Medicine, and where he met Dr. Damon Baker.

Stephens continued to work as a grant-funded clinical pharmacist helping patients adhere to HIV medications.

"They were toxic, nasty, terrible and expensive things for people to have to take, and there were strategies to help them along. That's kind of where my expertise was," he said.

He eventually accepted a faculty position at OSU-CHS in 2006. It was around this time that Stephens' weight reached about 300 pounds.

Over the next 20 years, Stephens continued to build his career at OSU-CHS, going from a faculty member to chief operating officer to senior vice president and finally to president of OSU-CHS and interim president of OSU-Tulsa. He also continued to gain weight, reaching a little over 400 pounds by October 2022.

"It was gradual enough that I just got used to it. I never felt like I was overeating, I never felt like I was doing anything different than anyone else. It was just weight gain that continued to happen. The reality was I'm sure I was overeating and I wasn't exercising," he said. "It's those little things that you have to do every day to make those things happen. And that's what I wasn't doing."

Real changes, real results

Stephens said a few years ago he began to notice his weight had started to impact his life like knee pain when taking the stairs, not being able to run and play with his kids like he used to, and dealing with restrictive seating.

"It's always hard to walk in and be the biggest person in the room by a lot. You're in an audience and the chairs are made for a 120-pound woman, or it becomes problematic to fly because the seats don't fit. That's where I felt it the most. Those were the times I thought 'OK, I don't fit here,'" he said.

His 'a-ha' moment came about three years ago when he was having dinner with Baker, who is also Stephens' primary care doctor, and a group of physicians and the topic of bariatric surgery came up. Many in the group said they don't really recommend those surgeries much anymore but instead prescribe GLP-1 medications.

"I'm a pharmacist, I should know this stuff. Then they go into all the data showing that it's the equivalent to, or maybe better than, bariatric surgery," he said, and then at his next doctor's appointment, Baker brought up GLP-1 medications. "When I talked to Damon I said 'You know what? I'm ready. Let's do it.'"

In October 2022, Stephens began taking a GLP-1 and in the last three years he's lost more than 150 pounds.

"I think they're probably miracle drugs in a lot of ways. And I don't think it's only weight loss. But you have to hit the mindset of 'I want to do this' and the GLP-1s are the helper along the way," he said.

Stephens said it wasn't until about four to six months after he started taking the GLP-1 and he was 50 pounds down that he really began to feel the benefits.

"I was walking downstairs and I'm like 'my knee doesn't hurt anymore' and it just continued from there. You put the seatbelt on in the airplane, and you don't need the extender. Those little positive reinforcements," he said, but the most meaningful ones are from his family. "I got a hug from my wife and she noticed and said, 'I can get my hands around you.' My youngest daughter, Abby, her measurement is how far her arms can get around me."

Taking the medication wasn't the only change he needed to make. Stephens said he had to relearn what to eat and what foods best fueled his body. He started intermittent fasting and incorporating daily exercise into his morning routine.

"I think everybody has to figure out where they feel best. I'm a believer in different people, different body types, everybody has a different sweet spot. We can have our ideals, but where is it for me or you or whomever is probably a little different," he said.

Stephens said he knows there are GLP-1 naysayers who say they are a cheat to weight loss, but he doesn't agree.

"There's no cheating in weight loss. They're not the end of a journey, because it won't end. It's also the walking, the change in diet and lifestyle," he said. "You think, 'How do you maintain long term, what is that going to look like?' I think that will be an interesting journey."

And it's a journey Stephens has decided to make public talking with Crawford and his BMI podcast audience.

"I'm around enough and people have seen the weight loss, it's pretty noticeable what's been happening. There's hope for people so why not share? You very publicly put on weight. In my case, I publicly took some weight off, I want to talk about it. I want to get the message out about the healthy way to do it. It's not just the GLP-1s, it's a collective lifestyle," he said. "We all fall into the trap of we're too busy, we've got too many things going on. Life happens. You have to focus on walking, the diet, the medications that can help."

Crawford said it was a privilege to speak with Stephens about the changes and improvements he has made in the last three years, and that OSU-CHS is a better place because of his leadership.

"He's incredible in all that he does, from president of OSU-CHS and OSU-Tulsa, to being a Pharm.D. to friendships and most importantly to being a husband and dad," he said. "I'm honored to be counted amongst his friends and am so proud of his accomplishments. I'm excited he is now able to prioritize his health, and I know his story and his journey will help motivate all of us to have healthier lifestyles."