Phylicia Rashad and Debbie Allen Lose Weight Together

Sept. 3, 2009— -- As Clair Huxtable on "The Cosby Show," Phylicia Rashad was an '80s icon -- the working mom who had it all. Since the beloved series went off the air in 1992, Rashad has become a top Broadway actress, winning a Tony Award for her role in "A Raisin in the Sun."

She's also, by her own admission, put on a few pounds. Her latest role is as a spokeswoman for Jenny Craig. And now she has a dieting buddy, or maybe competitor: her little sister, choreographer and director Debbie Allen.

Rashad says her weight gain snuck up on her "very gradually."

"Little things, a muffin, a bag of chips ... working in the theatre, coming home hungry," she said. "Eating a full meal and putting dessert with that too."

Reality hit Rashad after seeing those old images of herself on "The Cosby Show" as the perfectly thin Clair Huxtable.

Still, Rashad said she "wasn't miserable" at a heavier weight, and it even freed her as an actress.

"Weight gain has served me well," she said, laughing. "I mean, look at my career ... because people began to look at me differently, in ways they would not have considered me before."

But she was worried about her health.

"One day, I walked up three flights of stairs and couldn't breathe," she said. "I knew that that wasn't good."

Allen said it was her idea for the two to lose weight together.

"She's pretty when she's thin and when she's overweight," Allen said. "But you know, I hugged her one time. I said, 'Come on, let's go. Come on. I'll go with you. Let's go. We got to go down 25 pounds.'

"I've always said, 'If you can stand in the mirror naked and you can look at it, then maybe someone else can too,'" Allen continued, laughing. "But if you can't stand to look at it, honey, child, run. Run, run to Jenny Craig, honey! Get on your tennis shoes and get your butt over there. Don't take any time!"

Rashad took the advice, and once she signed on as a pitch woman for the diet company, she dropped five pounds in the first week -- Thanksgiving week no less.

"That's why I did it," Rashad explained. "I said, 'No, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right now, in this week. I ate everything I wanted to eat. I ate less of it."