Lizzo Says She Was Healthy Before Weight Loss: 'All They Saw Was Fat'

Lizzo wants to set the record straight: losing weight didn't suddenly make her healthy, and being plus-sized was never supposed to define her entire identity.

During an appearance on The Jason Lee Show on Wednesday, October 7, the Grammy winner pushed back against the idea that her slimmer appearance reflects a health transformation, saying she was already healthy at her highest weight.

“I think that I was extremely healthy at my highest weight,” Lizzo told Lee. “My blood was extremely healthy. I think what happened was it was physically uncomfortable in some areas.”

The 38-year-old explained that while her medical indicators were good, her weight eventually began interfering with her ability to perform. Joint pain and back problems made her career’s physical demands increasingly difficult.

“Being able to do my job, that changed ‘cause I was getting heavier and my back was hurting,” she explained.

But addressing those physical challenges apparently brought another problem: people questioned whether Lizzo was abandoning the very image that made her famous.

“I was really surprised when people said that me looking smaller, releasing weight, was f*cking up my brand,” she said.

The criticism left Lizzo questioning whether audiences had reduced her entire career to her dress size.

“Is my brand being fat?” she recalled wondering. “I had to sit back, and maybe a lot of people thought that my brand was being fat, but one thing I had to realize is my brand is joy.”

She pointed out that the same personality, confidence, and music that attracted fans when she was heavier hadn't disappeared with the pounds.

“When I was bigger and joyful, all they saw was fat,” she said. “But that joy was the thing that arrested you. Joy was the thing that got your attention.”

Lizzo's latest remarks build on a conversation she's been having since beginning her intentional weight-loss journey in 2023. In a November 2025 essay, she revealed that she started exercising during a period of severe depression, turning to Pilates and therapy while dealing with allegations brought by former employees.

She also took aim at the changing landscape of body positivity, arguing that the popularity of GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic was contributing to the disappearance of plus-sized women from fashion and entertainment.

“We have a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the Ozempic boom,” she wrote at the time.

That debate followed her into 2026. During a March appearance on Monica Lewinsky's Reclaiming podcast, Lizzo criticized the way women were body-shamed throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s.

She also defended her decision to change her body, saying self-love shouldn't require someone to stay the same size forever.

By July, she was appearing on the digital cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, modeling pieces from her Yitty Swim collection and celebrating the publication's embrace of different body types.

Now, Lizzo says her appearance was never the point.

“So, I can be joyful no matter what size my body is,” she told Lee. “I'm still joyful and, like, healthy. I just got smaller.”

And when it comes to the people still criticizing her body, Lizzo says she'd rather hear from fans who credit her music with helping them through difficult moments.

“That, to me, beats a thousand hate comments of people who don't know me and clearly don't know what they're talking about or know the truth,” she said. “I'd rather focus on that. And that has brought me so much joy.”