Lizzo Says Her Weight Once Overshadowed Her Art As She Reflects On Her Transformation

Lizzo has opened up about the emotional storm behind her recent weight loss, saying she grew exhausted with her body becoming louder than her music.

In her first Substack essay “Why Is Everybody Losing Weight And What Do We Do? Sincerely, A Person Who’s Lost Weight” the 37-year-old singer said she felt trapped in a public image where her size became a spectacle, overshadowing her talent.

“I was sick and tired of my identity being overshadowed by my fatness,” she wrote, adding that people were so fixated on her body that they dismissed her abilities as a musician.

For Lizzo, the backlash she endured as a body-positive figure often crossed into emotional abuse. She said she leaned into the jokes, became self-aware about being the internet’s favorite target, and kept being herself even when people insisted it was all an act.

Though she never set out to lose weight, her mental-health struggles pushed her into a breaking point. After being hit with lawsuits from former dancers and a stylist allegations she has firmly denied she spiraled into depression, isolation, and suicidal thoughts.

“I started losing weight in the fall of 2023,” she wrote. “I felt like the whole world had turned its back on me.”

In that darkness, she turned to movement. Pilates became both therapy and release, guided exclusively by Black women instructors. She cried through sessions, slowly realizing the weight coming off wasn’t deliberate at least not at first.

Therapy helped her uncover something deeper: her weight had acted as armor. A comfort zone. A shield through grief, toxic relationships, and years of carrying family responsibilities. She described her transformation as an emotional release, not a vanity project.

“So any weight that left my body wasn’t ‘lost’ it was ‘released.’ It was energetic, not vain.”

Still, she admitted she wanted to feel differently in her body, to let go of years of pain she’d been carrying since her father’s death in 2009.

Lizzo credits her transformation to discipline, emotional work, and lifestyle changes though she acknowledged trying Ozempic and other GLP-1 medications along the way.

Her journey, she said, is less about shrinking her body and more about reclaiming her peace after years of being defined by everything except her music.