Guillermo Rodriguez said on Jimmy Kimmel Live that his Dancing with the Stars training has done something he did not expect: he has gained 10 pounds. The comment came during the Tuesday premiere of Jimmy Kimmel Live, just days before Season 35 begins.
Rodriguez said the routine is intense enough to leave his body hurting. He said he is dancing three hours a day, five days a week, yet when Jimmy Kimmel pressed him on whether that kind of schedule had led to weight loss, Rodriguez answered, “Unfortunately not.”
That is the part that makes his setup unusual. Training on Dancing with the Stars is built to be relentless, and Rodriguez said he is in that grind with Witney Carson ahead of Season 35. The number he gave was plain: 10 pounds up, not down. It is the kind of result that cuts against the usual expectation for a contestant spending hours on the floor each day.
He explained why. After practice, Rodriguez said he goes to eat right away because he is so hungry. That one detail does the work of a long explanation: three hours of dancing can burn a lot of energy, but if the next stop is food and the appetite is strong enough, the scale does not always move the way people assume it will. In his case, it has moved the other way.
That twist also fits the broader reality of the show’s training. Dancing with the Stars bootcamp is known for sore muscles, blisters, and bruises, and Rodriguez said his body hurts now too. Usually, contestants lose weight during that stretch of work. He said that has not happened for him, at least not yet, and that is what makes his update stand out a few days before the new season begins.
Season 35 of Dancing with the Stars premieres Tuesday, September 15, and Wednesday, September 16, at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with the next day streaming on Hulu. Rodriguez will be one of the names under the spotlight when the run begins, and his first headline out of rehearsal is not about a score or a costume. It is about a body that is working hard, eating fast, and heading into the season heavier than it started.
