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- Rebel Wilson shares the latest developments of her weight loss journey in interviews prefacing her memoir, Rebel Rising, and the book itself.
- She revealed that she works out two hours a day, “one hour with a trainer focused on strength and conditioning, and one hour doing my own cardio (which was usually walking),” she wrote.
- She also said that she tried Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes drug made popular, in part, for its weight loss side effect.
Rebel Wilson’s “Year of Health” spanned 2020 (which kicked off her weight loss transformation) and 2024 is a year that’s just as monumental. It’s the year her memoir Rebel Rising debuted (on April 2). In the book, she details her 75-pound weight loss journey (which includes working out two hours a day!) and trying Ozempic.
Wilson set out to lose weight for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with appearing smaller. She wanted to prioritize her fertility and address her relationship with food as someone who calls herself an “emotional eater,” she told People. She also adjusted her lifestyle to accommodate her polycystic ovarian syndrome, a hormonal disorder that caused her to gain a significant amount of weight, she told E! News in 2020.
In fact, she told People that she was always a “proud fat female.” She just held a lot of shame attached to her eating behaviors, she said. “I wasn’t hating myself, I was only hating those shameful behaviors,” she explained. “For example, eating a whole tub of ice cream every night and then feeling bad about myself, making myself get up early in the morning and go to the gym for an hour and a half and running on that treadmill until sometimes my back would hurt.”
At the height of her health journey, Wilson said she worked out with her trainer, Jono Castano, seven days a week. Workouts included hiking, walking, and even tire-flipping. In Rebel Rising, she says that, nowadays, a workout looks like this: “Exercise for about two hours—one hour with a trainer focused on strength and conditioning, and one hour doing my own cardio (which was usually walking),” she writes, per Women’s Health.
Before embarking on her year of health, Wilson told People that she ate upwards of 3,000 calories most days. “And because they were normally carbs, I would still be hungry,” she said. “So, I’ve really changed to eating a high-protein diet, which is challenging because I didn’t used to eat a lot of meat. I eat fish, salmon, and chicken breast.”
Although Wilson certainly changed her habits to meet her goals, she recently told The Sunday Times that she’s not against medications like Ozempic, a type 2 diabetes drug sometimes used off-label due to its main active ingredient semaglutide, which has known weight loss side effects. In fact, she told the outlet she tried it herself, but no longer uses it.
“Someone like me could have a bottomless appetite for sweets, so I think those drugs can be good,” she said. Still, she doesn’t condone the weight loss-obsessive culture. “I feel strongly that young women shouldn’t try to obsess over looking like Victoria’s Secret models—they should just look like themselves,” she said.
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If the last four years have taught Wilson anything, it’s that the answer to weight loss is no “magic pill, or some sick special diet, or exercise regime or whatever,” she told People. “It’s literally about working at a healthier way to deal with your emotions, and there is no magic solution.” That’s the message she hopes her book will get across. “Maybe me telling my story might encourage [people] to do the same and make healthy change in their lives,” she said.
Since getting engaged to Ramona Agruma last year, Wilson admitted that she’s embraced the lax end of that balance. “You know when you feel comfortable in your relationship, and you’re just like, f*ck it?” she recently told People. “I have been eating whatever. I have been eating some junk food on set, because sets are prevalent with that. I just haven’t even thought about it. So I put on 20 pounds in the last six months with that insane schedule.”
Weight fluctuations are a normal part of life, and something many people experience. And Wilson has been honest with followers about her own. Since she initially met her goal weight in 2020, there have been highs and lows. In January, for example, she shared a hot tub selfie to tell fans that the stress of work and writing her book led her to gain 30 pounds. In addition to her new relationship, she became a mom in November 2022, which has made it more difficult to focus on healthy habits.
“I think once this press tour is over for the book, I’ll just go back to a bit more of a normal schedule and working out how I can be a mum and also take an hour or two in my day to be healthy,” she told People.
