Watch: Lizzo Claps Back at “Fat Joke” With Bikini Photo & Empowering Reminder
Lizzo simply figured it was about damn time to start feeling better.
So, though part of her platinum-selling, Grammy-and-Emmy-winning Big Grrrl brand was being proud AF of how she looked, sounded and moved through the world exactly as she was, the artist born Melissa Jefferson, who’s turning 38 on April 27, knew she had to make some adjustments to improve her health, from head to toe.
“Body positivity has nothing to do with staying the same,” she explained to Women’s Health last summer. “Body positivity is the radical act of daring to exist loudly and proudly in a society that told you you shouldn’t exist.”
And even when it’s hard, Lizzo noted, “I’ve never regretted a workout. After, I always feel better. I work out for mental health first. Exercise is the best mood enhancer.”
As she explained in a May 2023 TikTok, “Once I started working out for mental health, to have balanced mental health or endorphins, so that I don’t look at myself in the mirror and feel ashamed of myself, and feel disgusted with myself, exercise has helped me shift my mind, not my body.”
Still, Lizzo’s shape inevitably shifted as she got into Pilates and strength-training, along with taking regular walks.
“Any stress, any anxiety, any tension, any anger that I’ve had in my body,” she shared in a February 2024 TikTok, “I kind of forget about it by the time I’m done walking.”
Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for BET
Nowadays her get-moving mantra comprises a wide array of activities, including thrice-weekly training sessions, daily cardio, playing pickleball, hiking and walking on the beach.
And knowing that what goes into her body is even more consequential than how much she exercises, Lizzo noted that she had cut out potato chips, sugary Starbucks beverages and soda while cutting down on alcohol (“I earned it!” she explained of why she didn’t abstain entirely) and—after being vegan for years—eating more protein, including eggs, tuna and poultry.
More recently, she cut out alcohol altogether, sharing on her Instagram Stories April 2 that she was two months sober.
But if she’s truly craving something decadent to eat, she’ll go for it, telling Women’s Health, “It’s a beautiful balance where it’s like, if you allow yourself to have something, you can enjoy it without overindulging and hurting yourself.”
Self-care in the form of daily sauna sessions, holistic body work, wood therapy and lymphatic massage have also been key to her transformation.
Yet as Lizzo pointed out years ago, it’s not as if she wasn’t working out before her fame reached a new level when her 2019 album Cuz I Love You blew up.
Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for American Express
“So I’ve been working out consistently for the last five years, and it may come as a surprise for some of y’all that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type,” she said in a June 2020 TikTok. “I’m working out to have my ideal body type. And you know what type that is? None of your f–king business.”
However, as her star rose ever higher, Lizzo became painfully aware that scrutiny—of her body and her business—was unavoidable.
And just as strangers picked apart her appearance before, she also faced headwinds from critics who thought that embracing weight loss was at odds with her body-positive persona. (Adele went through the same thing, with fans crying foul after she lost 100 pounds over two years. “I understand why some women especially were hurt,” the “Hello” singer told British Vogue in 2021. “Visually I represented a lot of women. But I’m still the same person.”)
Francis Specker/CBS via Getty Images
But Lizzo eventually got a little tired of having to carry that weight. “I’m not going to lie and say I love my body every day,” she told the New York Timesin March 2024. “The bottom line is, the way you feel about your body changes every single day. There are some days I adore my body, and others when I don’t feel completely positive.”
Which is why, she explained, she felt that “body neutrality” was a more modern approach to being happy in one’s skin.
“I’m taking the time every day to put some love into my body,” she added.
Lizzo’s ongoing fitness odyssey has indeed been something to root for, the rapper-singer-flautist showing in real time that prioritizing mental and physical health is the ultimate form of self-love.
“I’ve gained a sense of self,” she said on an April 2025 episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast. “I’ve gained a lifestyle that I actually really love and I’m like, ‘I can maintain this.’ I’ve gained new perspective on nutrition and the science behind cardio and weight-lifting.”
And Lizzo acknowledged that she had been on “an intentional weight release journey” for about a year and a half, initially because she’d been suffering from weight-related back pain.
“I wanted to be ‘big-girl skinny,'” she explained to Women’s Health. “Every big girl knows what I’m talking about. Big-girl skinny is 250 pounds.”
In fact, she shared in a January 2025 TikTok that she had lost 16 percent of her body fat and felt good as hell about it. But, she noted in the video, “Even at the end of my weight loss journey, I’m not going to be considered thin by any means. I will still be considered morbidly obese on the BMI and little bros on the internet are still going to call me ‘big backed.’ But I will be happy.”
The 5-foot-10 artist has certainly looked happy, modeling pieces from her Yitty swim and shapewear line and sporting all manner of body-con looks as she gears up for the release of her fifth studio album, Love in Real Life.
Though she may be done using that other L-word.
Lloyd Bishop/NBC via Getty Images
“The weight that is no longer on me is not just fat or physical,” she told Shetty. “I released so much to get to this point and I think people can see that and I don’t want to describe anything as loss. People aren’t going to understand this right now, but it’s the most body-positive way to experience what I’m going through. I don’t want to use any negative terms.”
Since then, however, she has “far surpassed” her goal weight and her back no longer hurts when she does her hair toss.
“I couldn’t wear heels for an extended amount of time anymore,” she told Women’s Health. “Now, baby, I wear heels to the grocery store!”
See Lizzo’s transformation in photos:
Steve Jennings/WireImage
Lester Cohen/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize
“I’m not going to lie and say I love my body every day,” she told The New York Times in April 2024. “The bottom line is, the way you feel about your body changes every single day. There are some days I adore my body, and others when I don’t feel completely positive.”
Instagram / Lizzo
Instagram / Lizzo
Bre Johnson/BFA.com/Shutterstock
Lizzo / TikTok
Instagram/Lizzo
Instagram / Lizzo
Leon Bennett/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
Will Heath/NBC via Getty Images
Lizzo/Instagram
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Coachella
(Originally published April 27, 2025, at 12 a.m. PT)
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