From Amy Schumer to Mindy Kaling, how 'body positivity' poster girls shed weight for better 'health'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Mindy Kaling recently wowed people after posing in a blue swim suit, which clearly showed that the actress has shed a good amount of weight. The 43-year-old actress took to Instagram to share her toned figure after beginning her weight loss journey in 2020 following the birth of her second child, Spencer.
Kaling posted two pictures of herself. One showed her standing on a patio, the other image was of her sitting by the side of a swimming pool. The ‘Nothing Like I Imagined’ author also wore large hoop earrings, a pair of sunglasses and light makeup to complete her look.
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She captioned the social media post as “The lowkey romantic gift my friends @traceywigfield and @loulielang gave me was this sexy blue one piece bathing suit which I was so excited to model. You know you have good friends when they’re excited to buy you intimate apparel!” Her images have garnered over 95K likes with a lot of positive comments. Director Ava Duvernay said, “Cutie Patootie,” and Angela Kinsey added, “You look beautiful! ❤️”
This comes after May, when Kaling shared the secret behind her transformation. Speaking with Today, she said, “I'm never going stop being a foodie. I’m never going be someone who can just have spinach and salmon every day. I just am really for the first time in my life, trying moderation, and I love it.”
The ‘Late Night’ actress then went on to explain, “In my 20s, I thought a workout had to be something that was punishing, like 45 minutes of running and you had to hate it the whole time. I don’t have that relationship with exercise anymore,” before adding, “Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Well, I have four different times today where I have 10 minutes so let’s just walk instead of sitting down and checking Instagram.’ So instead of it being like one chunk of exercise in the beginning of the day or none at all, I’m now just deciding that I’m going to be a more active person all the time.”
She went on to say, “I don’t weigh myself. To me, the most amazing thing is that all my clothes kind of fit. It’s so easy to get ready and that's great. I feel happy about that.” But earlier, Kaling had talked about embracing your body the way it is. In July 2019, she boldly shared two photos of her in a two-piece on Instagram and wrote, “IDK who needs to hear this but…WEAR A BIKINI IF YOU WANT TO WEAR A BIKINI. You don’t have to be a size 0.” The post also included a video of her, saying, “My very best friend in the world, Joceyln, is from Hawaii. And I would go and visit her when I was in college. And what I was struck about Hawaii is that everybody wears bikinis. It does not matter what your body type is. You rock a bikini. Because you're in Hawaii. And there's so much body positivity there that I, who was always really shy about my body, would wear bikinis.”
Then, in May 2021, she had reportedly said, “I would love to be the size I was when I was 32 or something, but I just refuse to beat myself up about it. I love to eat at restaurants, I love to eat home cooking, and I don't like restricting my diet. And [now] I'm like, as long as I'm getting enough nutrients and feeling like my heart and my lungs are really getting exercise, I don't really beat myself up about that. I have learned to embrace [my body] in the past six months [since having a baby].”
However, Kaling is not the only star who has lost a significant amount of weight after promoting body positivity. Earlier, singer Adele did the same. In 2020, she left everyone surprised after sharing a photo of her in a short black dress for her 32nd birthday. Though there were many who showed their support to her but some called her out for “no longer representing curvy women”. Addressing the criticisms in 2021, she said: “My body’s been objectified my entire career. It’s not just now. I understand why it’s a shock. I understand why some women especially were hurt. Visually I represented a lot of women. But I’m still the same person.”
Adele also took note of “fatphobic” allegations against her and added, “I realised that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight. I thought, If I can make my body physically strong, and I can feel that and see that, then maybe one day I can make my emotions and my mind physically strong.”
Rebel Wilson is another one on the list. The Australian actress was one of the few who represented the big body types but then in 2020, she went on a journey, called the “Year of Health” and reportedly lost around 60 pounds. Her wish to be a mother apparently is the reason behind her transformation. She told People in May 2022 about a visit to her doctor. “He looked me up and down and said, 'You'd do much better if you were healthier,’” the actress said.
‘The Hustle’ star added, “I was taken aback. I thought, 'Oh God, this's guy's so rude.' He was right. I was carrying around a lot of excess weight. It's almost like I didn't think of my own needs. I thought of a future child's needs that really inspired me to get healthier.”
Talking about weight loss and not mentioning Melissa McCarthy will be a crime. The 51-year-old actress had once admitted, “I’ve been every size in the world. Parts of my twenties, I was in great shape, but I didn’t appreciate it. If I was a six or an eight, I thought, ‘Why aren’t I a two or a four?’”
But in 2016, she disclosed how she lost weight. “No trick, nothing to tell, just super boring life. You bring it real down, you don’t do anything fun, and you go to bed at 7:30 — that's the trick,” she said.
Unlike the stars mentioned above, Amy Schumer took weight loss to another level by getting liposuction. However, she was not quiet about it. Rather, she embraced it and told Hoda Kotb on her podcast 'Making Space with Hoda Kotb', "I wanted to share it with people, just because I can't lie about myself. I just can't do it. I can't be like, 'Yeah, crunches. And I've just been eating smoked salmon,' you know? So I had to be real."
"I was feeling bad because it's, like, such a privilege thing. And I'm like, 'Well, you know, people with money, they also drive nice cars' … So, my 'nice car' is that I had, you know … a liter of fat sucked out of my belly," she revealed. Schumer had also told The Hollywood Reporter, "It's not about needing to be slamming, because I've never been famous for being hot, but I'd reached a place where I was tired of looking at myself in the mirror."
However, it's not just women. David Harbour also admitted he worked hard to shed some weight. There was a time when the actor was proud of his body and even declared that “he likes that he's a little 'chubby,’” according to reports. He said, “I have a funny relationship with this dad bod thing. I sort of love it and the reason why I love it is actually very serious.”
“I do think that in a certain way, I’ve become a bit of a sex symbol for our time — there are articles about people digging Hopper. But I’m also like a little big and a little chubby. I love the idea of real bodies on television. And I love the idea of making real people beautiful and loved,” he added.
But then in 2022, Harbour completely changed and stated that happened because of his role in ‘Stranger Things’. In a social media post, he shared, “My trainer @davidhigginslondon worked with me for 8months to make the transformation, and then another year to keep it through the pandemic. All told it was a difficult and exciting ride, changing diet and exercise plans (or lack thereof).”
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“All told I lost over 75lbs. 265-270 in season 3 and all the way down to 190 when we shot. Recently ballooned up again to play jolly ole st. Nick in a flick I can’t wait for you to see this holiday season, so I am struggling to fight back down towards a good weight for wherever hopper ends up in season 5. All this up and down is not good for the body, and I’ll have to give it up soon, but it is such a fun part of the job to live in a different version of your skin for a while,” he said.