In a new post on her substack Me…In Real Life, published on Sunday, November 23, Lizzo shared deeper insight into her mental health struggles back in 2023, which inspired her weight loss journey, as well as her thoughts on the consequences of the movement as a whole. Over the past couple years, more and more public figures have come forward with confessions about using GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy for weight loss and other medical reasons.
The singer, 37, explained that her weight loss journey began in the fall of 2023 when she was “severely depressed” and “deeply suicidal” following misconduct allegations made by three of her former dancers against her and her tour manager, which courted controversy for over a year.
“I cut off all my loved ones,” she wrote. “I couldn’t trust anyone because during the scandal, former close colleagues and friends (who I’d been on pleasant or neutral terms [with]), started to come out and make things up about me.”
The “Rumors” singer said she suffered from “extreme isolation” at the time, which caused her to lose her appetite, in contrast to the “old me” who would “binge when sad and depressed. “I would order hundreds of dollars of food delivery and eat everything until my stomach felt like it would explode.”
© Instagram“But this time,” she continued: “I just didn’t feel like doing that. Not because I thought it would result in my weight loss, but honestly, I didn’t care about my body. I didn’t want to feel safe. A huge part of me blamed myself for what had happened to me.”
She eventually found Pilates, focusing initially on only training with Black female instructors, and decided after a bit of progress to make the weight loss a more intentional part of the process. So far, Lizzo has not exactly revealed how much weight she has lost, stating in her blog that the move was intentional.
Describing her weight as “a protective shield, a joyful comfort zone, and even sometimes a super hero suit to protect me through life” through conversations with therapists, Lizzo explained that while she did experience the many health benefits that came with losing weight (specifically reduced back pain and less pressure on her joints), she ultimately did it because she “wanted to change how I felt in my body.”
While she noted that she never refers to herself as “thin,” the musician then elaborated on how she had been perceived as “fatphobic” and the “butt of every fat joke” throughout her career, commenting on her weight becoming the defining aspect of her public persona for the majority of her time in the spotlight.
© InstagramShe specifically also notes certain incidents like her music being used in a 2018 Weight Watchers commercial, her “smoothie detox,” and claiming being dubbed “triggering” by Jameela Jamil after posting before-after photos of her body after lymphatic massages as moments that made her rethink the idea of the body positivity movement as “big business” and “no longer for us.”
© Getty Images“Plus sized models are no longer getting booked for modeling gigs,” Lizzo wrote. “And all of our big girls are not-so big anymore,” still calling herself a “proud big girl” and revealing she weighs over 200 pounds. “We have a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the ozempic boom,” she concluded, saying she hoped to “regain the trust of the movement that gave me wings.”
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