Funny you should mention Richard Simmons. He has (or had?) a chain of exercise clubs aimed at helping people lose weight. My mom was a member in the early 80's and lost some weight.
Unfortunately, we moved and Mom pretty much quit exercising after that. She was always big and always had hypertension. Later, she also got Type II diabetes and high chloresterol. Around that time, I started trying to persuade her to start exercising, but she always had excuses. Once in a while she would diet, lose some weight-sometimes up to 60 pounds, but then gain it back. A little later, she also got congestive heart failure,
depressed respiration, and most likely sleap apnea*, the combination of which finally did her in. She did live to be 65, which is quite old for someone as obese as she was. My sister and I tried off and on for years to get her to change a few habits, which would have helped her health a lot, but by the time Mom started getting receptive to the idea, she was already too sick to really do anything about it. Stubborn old broad; I miss her.
*Her snoring was sometimes almost as loud as the neighbor's Harley, and she always slept poorly. The doctors tried forever to get her to go for a sleep study. She finally accepted and was scheduled to go, but died shortly before her appointment.