19 Stars Who Are 100% Done With Dieting And We're Living For How They Are Inspiring Millions Of People Worldwide
"I’m done believing in the idea that there's a thinner, happier version of me on the other side of all the tireless effort."
It's a pretty tragic thing to think that almost all of us grew up with the notion that having a skinny body is the beauty standard that everyone should aspire to have. Because of this, a lot of us have set such harmful expectations on ourselves to try and conform to what society paints to be conventionally attractive.
Even though there are already a lot of movements all around the world that support body positivity, society still has a long way to go before people would be completely free of discrimination toward their bodies. What's sad is that other people themselves are the ones who always try to bring people struggling with their bodies down, and they don't even realize how harmful their snarky comments are—especially when they have tried almost everything to tone down their weight: working out, doing pilates, even going as far as paying for cosmetic treatments, and trying the good ol' dieting.
Some people often just throw the phrase "go on a diet" to people who have stocky bodies, even if they already have a healthy weight. Nowadays, being healthy is associated with doing daily exercise, fruit juices, meal planning, and a clean diet, and it is quite easy to feel guilty whenever you crave a pinch of junk food.
These types of expectations are even more harmful to celebrities—they are expected to be always in shape, and sometimes, being cast in a certain project requires them to lose or gain more weight just to be more fit for the role. They are always in the public eye, and naturally, they are an easy target for scrutiny, most especially towards their bodies.
There is no question that forcing yourself to go on a fad diet to reach an impossible beauty standard is toxic, and celebrities nowadays are having none of these harmful trends either. Here are some 19 stars who have stood against dieting and take a look at what they have to say:
1. Jennifer Lawrence
“I can’t work on a diet,” Lawrence said to Vanity Fair. “I’m hungry. I’m standing on my feet. I need more energy.”
Taylor Hill / FilmMagic2. Jameela Jamil
“I am so sick of the lies,” Jamil wrote on Instagram. “I was so riddled with eating disorders when I was young. I listened to irresponsible celebrities and bought all these bad products and followed their TERRIBLE and toxic diet tips for how they maintained the tiny weight they were... and I fucked up my metabolism and digestive system for life. I damaged my fertility, I was consumed and mentally ill. I was obsessed and didn’t eat a meal for over three years as a growing teen. I am not going to stop until we teach people to be better allies to women and stop selling this not at all medically sound shit and rhetoric to us. UNFOLLOW THE PEOPLE WHO TELL YOU THINGS THAT MAKE YOU FEEL BAD.”
Todd Williamson / NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images3. Chrissy Teigen
“I’ve thrown all of that out of the window,” she told People magazine. “I think now at this point in my life it’s more important for me to enjoy things as they come… I eat things when I want them. Because if I don’t my mind personally goes crazy.”“I’ve spent way too many years counting calories, scheduling way too many workouts, and trying to figure out what my term for wellness was for myself,” she said.
Axelle / FilmMagic
4. Gigi Hadid
"Nowadays, people are quick to say, 'I used to love Gigi’s body, and now she just gave in.' But I’m not skinny because I gave in to the industry. When I had a more athletic figure, I was proud of my body because I was an amazing volleyball player and horseback rider. But after discovering that I have Hashimoto’s [an autoimmune disease], I needed to eat healthy and work out. It was weird as a teenager, dealing with this when all of my friends could eat McDonald’s and it wouldn’t affect them," Gigi said to Blake Lively in an interview for Hapers Bazaar. "I loved my body then, and I love my body now. Whoever is reading this, I want you to realize that three years from now you will look back at a picture from this time period and be like: 'Wow, I was so hot. Why did I feel so bad about myself because of some stupid thing someone said?'"
Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty Images
5. Melissa McCarthy
"I truly stopped worrying about it," she told Life & Style. "I think there's something to kinda loosening up and not being so nervous and rigid about it that, bizarrely, has worked."
Frazer Harrison / Via Getty Images
6. Jacob Elordi
“[The Kissing Booth] was all about sculpting and making sure I had this figure that I thought the character needed,” he told Men’s Health. “Now, it’s more functional. I wanted to be a blank canvas and be more concerned with my health … It’s more about being functional as opposed to actual aesthetics.”
Jamie Mccarthy / Getty Images
7. Sam Claflin
“I remember doing one job when they literally made me pull my shirt up and were grabbing my fat and going, ‘You need to lose a bit of weight.’ This other time they were slapping me. I felt like a piece of meat,” Claflin said. "I'm not saying it's anywhere near as bad as what women go through but I, as an actor approaching each job, am insecure — especially when I have to take my top off in it ... I get really worked up to the point where I spend hours and hours in the gym and not eating for weeks to achieve what I think they're going for.”
Jon Kopaloff / Via Getty Images
8. Ashley Graham
“Nothing about me is perfect in the way that I eat, but I always try to manage it. I always try to say, ‘Tomorrow is a new day. If you mess up today, don’t feel guilty about it.” Graham tells Good Morning America. “I’ve done every yo-yo diet you can imagine and none work for me. I’m at a comfortable weight and I know that I look good, and more importantly, I feel good. So why am I dieting? I now know what works for me.”
Gotham / GC Images
9. Lena Dunham
"I’ve been thinking a lot about my pot belly in quarantine- especially as I notice an unusual amount of articles with titles like 'how I lost the weight' and 'diet is everything.' Are there more of them or do I just have more time to notice? ...For most people, pandemic life has not proven to be a break from the world or themselves... and the suggestion of a revamped clean eating plan in my newsfeed somehow feels like a personal assault," Lena Dr. Terri Orbuch, relationship researcher and author, has noted that societal pressures can exacerbate feelings of inadequacy during challenging times. "It's essential to focus on self-acceptance and personal growth rather than external validation," she emphasizes.She added, "Why, after all these years spent fostering self-love, do I still feel like weight loss is an item for my to-do? When I could be adding 'learn Spanish?' or 'fall in love with a firefighter?” she wrote. Dr. Kelly McGonigal, health psychologist, suggests that "shifting the focus from weight loss to overall well-being can lead to a more fulfilling life experience," which resonates with many during these unprecedented times.
Jon Kopaloff / Via Getty Images
10. Adele
“I’m not shocked or even fazed by it because my body has been objectified my entire career,” Adele told Winfrey. “I was body-positive then and I am body-positive now.”“It became my time. I realized that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety,” she said. “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.'”
Samir Hussein / WireImage
11. Amelia Gray
“I woke up one morning at my best friend’s house. My parents, my sister, they’re all outside, like waiting to pick me up. And I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?’ Like it’s Saturday morning. And they’re like, ‘Get in the car. We’re going to UCLA [to get treatment],’” she recalled. “…We show up, it’s like this really scary old man’s office. … He looked at me and he was like, so yeah, basically at this rate in about four months, you’re going to be 45 pounds and you’re going to be dead.”
Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty Images
12. Kirsten Dunst
Dunst took a stand against dieting when Sofia Coppola suggested her to lose weight for The Beguiled.
“I’m eating fried chicken and McDonald’s before work. So I’m like, ‘We have no options! I’m sorry I can’t lose weight for this role,'" she told Variety, adding that Coppola totally respected her decision.
David Livingston / Getty Images
13. Bridget Malcolm
"My body was malnourished, my mind was malnourished, it was relentless. What that company represented for me and for so many other women was extremely exploitative,” Malcolm told 60 Minutes. “There was this culture that was created that was like, if you just stay, if you get a bit skinnier, if you keep doing what we want you to do, you're going to be an Angel and you're going to be world famous and it's going to be amazing.”“I realized through obsessing over my body I was selecting the easy path…I was choosing the ego path. From that point on, I said no to anything negative and body related. If body talk came up with friends, I shut it down and refused to engage. If I felt the need to look in a mirror, I read a book instead. When I was ordering food for dinner, I ordered what I wanted. But most importantly, when I saw my body reflected back at me, I said nice things to myself. I chose to empower myself."
Hanna Lassen / Via WireImage
14. Iskra Lawrence
“I’m disgusted that people/companies profit off of toxic diet culture, a perfected unrealistic beauty ideal, (including photoshop), and promoting that health looks like one thing,” she wrote. “Millions of us have been and still are fighting our eating disorders, seeing weight watchers targeting children - showing before and afters, congratulating restrictive guilt ridden eating behaviors is awful and heart breaking.”
Amy Sussman / Getty Images / Via Getty Images
15. Lizzo
"I detoxed my body and I’m still fat. I love my body and I’m still fat. I’m beautiful and I’m still fat. These things are not mutually exclusive,” she said. “Your body is perfectly yours, even if it ain’t perfect to anybody else. If you only knew the complexities your body possesses you would be so proud of it. I’m so proud of you. For making it this far in a society that gives us a head start into self-loathing, that hands us a dysmorphic mirror and leaves us desperate to catch up with who we think we should be.”
Erik Pendzich / Via Alamy Stock Photo
16. Demi Lovato
"I'm protective of the little girl inside of me that didn't get that representation at a young age of someone saying, 'All of this diet stuff at a young age is not OK. You're worth more than that,'" Lovato said in an Instagram live video in 2021 to address the frozen yogurt drama. "I walked into a situation that didn't sit right for me. My intuition said, 'Speak up,' so I did."
Rich Fury / Getty Images for Global Citizen
17. Camila Mendes
"I’m done believing in the idea that there's a thinner, happier version of me on the other side of all the tireless effort. your body type is subject to genetics, and while eating nutrient-dense foods and exercising regularly will make you healthier, it will not necessarily make you thinner, and the current system fails to make that distinction. i’m sick of the toxic narrative that the media consistently feeds us: that being thin is the ideal body type. a healthy body is the ideal body type, and that will look different for every person. i’m #donewithdieting."
Arturo Holmes / Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
18. Lili Reinhart
“To openly admit to starving yourself for the sake of the Met Gala. When you know very well that millions of young men and women are looking up to you and listening to your every word… The ignorance is other-worldly and disgusting. Please stop supporting these stupid, harmful celebrities whose entire image revolves around their bodies."
Jon Kopaloff / Getty Images
19. Mia Kang
“The industry has a standard of beauty that is unattainable and isn’t focused on health and that needs to change. It creates this dysmorphia. It creates us versus ourselves,” she told Megyn Kelly TODAY. At her lowest, the model weighed 99 pounds. “I remember being thrilled that I’d made it to double digits. Your body gets used to it. You learn to function off nothing. It was normal for me to go four days without eating.”
Taylor Hill / FilmMagic / Getty Images
Many of us are still struggling a lot with our body image to the point that it has already disturbed the way we function in our daily lives—and it is truly exhausting to think that you have to look like this and that just to be considered "fit" in this society. It's a good thing that more and more people who have platforms have ditched these norms and are using their fame and voices to be stewards of a better community that accepts us all, no matter what our shapes and sizes are.
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