My Big Fat Fabulous Life star Whitney Way Thore has lost 100 pounds, but she’s still unsure whether she’d try Ozempic down the line.
“I’m not saying that I wouldn’t necessarily, I don’t know,” Thore, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, July 2, while discussing season 12 of her TLC docuseries. “It’s not something that I’ve really thought about or have felt, like, the medical need for, but it’s not something that I would say, ‘I would never do.’”
Ozempic, Wegovy and other similar semaglutides are commonly prescribed to adults with conditions including high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes to help manage their weight. Many celebrities have tried the medication as a way to slim down quickly, but doctors have warned against the drug’s use for casual weight loss.
Given Thore’s own weight loss journey, she has frequently been asked by social media users if her progress is a result of Ozempic.
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“With the Ozempic craze and everything like that, I got questioned a lot. It’s funny, simultaneously, people are insisting I must have had weight loss surgery,” she told Us. “And then, other people are saying, ‘She hasn’t lost a pound.’”
Thore further pointed out that the Ozempic discussion is “nuanced within the body-positive community.”
“I personally have no hard and fast opinion about it,” the TLC star said. “I think people have the right to do whatever they want to do with their own bodies. And as a fat person who’s been fat my entire adult life, I would never shame or criticize another fat person for choosing to do something that makes their life easier.”
As of February, Thore has lost 100 pounds overall.
“Fifty pounds I lost years ago, and then I lost [another] 50 pounds after my mother died. So to me, it’s not a huge change,” Thore told Us. “What it shows is that people on the internet, they see what they want to see and they project themselves onto you. I could post something today and half the comments would say, ‘Oh, my gosh, you’re skinny. You’re literally skinny now,’ even though I’m almost 300 pounds.”
She added, “And then the other half of the comments would say, ‘Oh, my gosh, she’s as big as she’s ever been.’ That’s why I hate people commenting on my body, because it is literally just whatever people want to see that day, that time, that picture. People constantly tell me, ‘Oh, you’ve lost more weight.’ And I say, ‘No, I haven’t. I weigh myself every day. I can tell you exactly what I’ve weighed [at] every point in my entire life.’”
Ozempic has become a hot topic when it comes to weight loss — with some stars confirming they have used the drug while others denied it. Chelsea Handler admitted during a January 2023 episode of the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that she unknowingly took the Type 2 diabetes medication, which is traditionally used to improve […]
Thore said that she is not currently “actively trying to lose weight” and is only getting on the scale daily as a means to track her polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) symptoms.
“I’ve just now started getting a cycle,” she said on Tuesday. “[I] just recently went up 10 pounds, and then I got my period the next day, and it was all gone the next day. I kind of track based on that. … It’s just a habit, really, [and] it’s not for any reason. It doesn’t make me feel any kind of way.”
Thore will continue documenting her wellness journey on season 12 of TLC’s My Big Fat Fabulous Life, which premieres later this month.
“There are so many positives that come from doing the show, [but] unfortunately, it’s often clouded by the really scary, hard and negative things,” Thore said, referring to past online harassment she’s received. “I know that My Big Fat Fabulous Life has changed people’s lives all over the world, and it’s a gift to people … I can’t imagine just taking that away because people are crazy on the internet.”
She continued, “I love this show, what it’s done for people, what it’s done for body positivity and the way that I’ve seen the world change over the past 10 years is incredible. So even though it’s really difficult, I would not change it.”
My Big Fat Fabulous Life season 12 premieres on TLC and Max Tuesday, July 9, at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi