Rebel Wilson set out to lose weight at the start of 2020, claiming it to be her “Year of Health.” Documenting her progress on social media, the actress revealed she met her goal weight of 165 lbs in November. Now, she is reflecting on her public wellness journey and the reaction to her weight loss.
In an interview with The Morning Crew with Hughesy, an Australian radio show, Wilson said she started noticing that people were treating her differently once she began losing weight. “I liked to think I looked good at all sizes and stuff,” the Pitch Perfect star explained. “And I've always been quite confident, so it's not like I wasn't confident and now I'm super confident.”
“I think what's been really interesting is how other people treat you,” she said. “Sometimes being bigger, people didn't necessarily look twice at you. Now that I'm in good shape, people offer to carry my groceries to the car and hold doors open for you.”
“Is this what other people experienced all the time?” Wilson said she began to wonder when reaching her goal weight. Unfortunately, Wilson’s story isn’t unique. Many people, including celebrities like Shona Rhimes, have reported being treated differently once they reached what others considered a socially acceptable weight.
The truth is that there is an increasing prevalence of anti-fat bias in society, and this too common attitude, whether implicit or explicit, often has a negative impact on one’s self-worth. “After I lost weight, I discovered that people found me valuable,” Rhimes said back in 2017. “I discovered that NOW people saw me as a PERSON. What the hell did they see me as before? … When I was fat, I wasn’t a PERSON to these people.”
Wilson went on to explain that it's also been “interesting that people pay so much attention to a weight loss transformation when there's so much going on in the world.” People always ask about it, she added.
The actress started her healthy weight loss journey about a year ago, focusing on fitness (hiking and HIIT classes seem to be her favorite activities, a balanced diet free of sugar and gluten, and lots of self-love after years of emotional eating.
Opening up to fans on Instagram, Wilson previously said, “I wasn’t treating myself with love and respect. Anybody else out there I would treat with love and respect but myself, I probably left myself to last. I just wasn’t valuing myself, and telling myself negative things.”
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