The singer explained she prefers to call her weight loss journey a process of ‘weight release’, admitting she tried GLP-1 after shutting down GLP-1 rumours
Years of speculating about Lizzo’s body have culminated in the star admitting she “tried everything” to achieve the dramatic weight loss that has dumfounded her fans.
The 37-year-old singer told Trisha Paytas’ Just Trish podcast that she began to take GLP-1 medication at the outset of her weight loss journey in 2023, after shutting down rumours of her taking the medication. But despite taking it she soon came to the conclusion that it was not a long-term solution.
She said: “I tried everything. Ozempic works because you eat less food, yeah? So if you eat right, it makes you feel full. But if you can just do that on your own and get mind over matter, it’s the same thing.”
The Grammy winner explained a long and complicated journey with food – frustrated by a period of veganism that meant she was consuming a lot of “fake” food.
She also clapped back at anyone saying taking GLP-1 medication was “cheating” saying this was a “fat phobic” take. “It’s not easy. It’s a drug to help somebody with something they’re struggling with.I think people…it’s their way of being fat phobic when you’re telling someone they’re cheating.”
Instead, to achieve her goal, she changed her habits around diet. Lizzo had been following a plant-based diet for many years and she was vegan for three years from 2020 through to 2023.
“What did it for me is, it was not being vegan,” she told Trisha. “Because when I was vegan, I was consuming a lot of fake meats. I was eating a lot of bread, I was eating a lot of rice and I had to eat a lot of it to stay full.” Instead of a healthy diet, Lizzo found that she ended up filling up on thing with little nutritional value whilst “consuming 3,000-5,000 calories a day.’
She noted that some products branded as healthy can be packed with “fake sugar” that can leave you still feeling hungry. Lizzo continued: “So for me, when I started actually eating whole foods and eating like beef, and chicken, and fish. Like, I was actually full and not expanding my stomach by putting a lot of fake things in there that wasn’t actually filling me up.”
It was revealed in January that Lizzo lost 16 per cent of her body fat and reduced her body mass by 10.5. Despite criticism from nay-sayers who said described her weight loss journey as shunning body-positivity – she says she feels great.
Lizzo explained, “I feel like I worked really really hard and it was intentional with what I did with my body. So when I get compliments, I go, ‘Thanks b***h.’ Like I really receive it because I need to receive that. I don’t take it any weird way because I tried to do this.”
Last year, the singer had shut down allegations that she was taking GLP-1 medications. She shared a short Instagram wearing a colorful, satin robe while her hair was pulled back captioned, “When you finally get Ozempic allegations after 5 months of weight training and calorie deficit.”
Lizzo then shared a screenshot of a comment from a social media user where they accused her of taking “Ozempic” or “coke.”’ The troll commented “did she use Ozempic or did she snort coke.” In response, the Grammy winner wrote, “whyyyy do u follow me?” followed by four crying face emojis. Lizzo then shared a screenshot of the Instagram user’s account which had been set to private.
In January, she announced she had completed her weight loss journey saying “I did it. Today when I stepped on my scale, I reached my weight release goal! I haven’t seen this number since 2014! Let this be a reminder: you can do anything you put your mind to. Time for new goals!”
Then in April during an episode of the On Purpose With Jay Shetty podcast, Lizzo said she prefers to use the term “weight release” in place of weight loss. She credited her boyfriend Myke Wright saying, “My man, he’s so funny. He was the one that brought it to my attention at first. Because at first I was like, ‘Oh my gosh I lost five pounds’ and he was like, ‘Where did it go?’
“I was mad at him, I was like, “Why would he say that?” but he was like, “Where did it go?’I want to be very intentional about the words that come out of my mouth because there’s young people who are watching me and they’re experiencing what I’m putting into the world. They’re applying it to their own experience and their own life just like I did when I was a kid.”
She added: “Be careful with your words because it can affect somebody in ways you don’t even know.Even me releasing the weight has affected people and I take that seriously. I take that responsibility. And because of that I want to transmute it into something that makes people feel comfortable and less afraid of it.”
During an appearance on The Jason Lee Show, Lizzo explained why she hasn’t revealed her exact weight loss number. “If I say the number, I don’t think people could do the math. I’ve just seen a lot of TikToks where it’s like, ‘Lizzo talks about her 500lbs weight loss!’ Why are y’all putting numbers on me? It kind of annoys me.”
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