During her “year of health” in 2020, Rebel Wilson worked out for two and a half hours a day.
“I did work out like a maniac,” Wilson told TODAY’s Hoda Kotb. “The pandemic helped because when everything shut down I didn’t have to work.”
Wilson was promoting her book, “Rebel Rising: A Memoir” and said she confronts challenges she’s encountered in life including workplace conflicts, her sexuality, feeling unworthy of love and her “complicated relationship with food.” During her transformative year four years ago, Wilson noted she also addressed some difficult feelings.
“I did a lot of emotional work,” the “Pitch Perfect” actor told Kotb. “The book goes through a lot of struggles in my life, but it shows you that you can overcome so many things.”
She added that her health transformation has led to so many positives in her life now.
“I came from being somebody who really didn’t think I was lovable and didn’t think I could be capable of having really intimate relationships, and then to now have a gorgeous fiancé and then the baby, it’s just a whole other world of love that’s opened up in my heart,” she said. “It’s a happy ending.”
Wilson has continued to be open about her health and recently told The Sunday Times that she used Ozempic for a short time to help her maintain her weight loss.
“Someone like me could have a bottomless appetite for sweets, so I think those drugs can be good,” she said, according to People.
She admitted that she no longer takes the medication. In January 2024, Wilson candidly shared that she had re-gained some of the weight she lost and wrote about the conflicting emotions she’s experiencing as a result.
“Working really hard has meant that, coz of all the stress, I’ve gained 14kg’s (30 pounds),” she captioned an Instagram posted Jan. 15. “It makes me feel bad about myself … it shouldn’t … but it does.”
Wilson revealed that a hectic work schedule contributed to her weight gain. “It’s just been a LOT and I’ve lost focus on my healthy lifestyle,” she wrote.
But she ended her message on positive note, adding, “I’m really proud of the work I’ve been doing on my new movies and my memoir.”
The “Bridesmaids” actor shed 77 pounds in what she called her “year of health” in 2020, TODAY.com previously reported. She documented her progress and shared the ups and downs of maintaining weight loss. Walking helped her stay active and she appreciated that she could do it anywhere, which was important because of her filming schedule.
“It’s just about keeping your body moving and keeping the blood pumping,” she told TODAY in 2021. “I feel like sometimes people think you need to work your body really hard to get results, and yeah, if you were training to be the next Thor or something you could be doing hardcore things, but as a regular person, walking is just so healthy for you. The body is designed to move that way.”
In the past, Wilson said that she focused on developing healthy habits instead a specific goal weight and practiced being kind to herself.
“Don’t beat yourself up if in the past you were unhealthy because I definitely was engaging in unhealthy habits,” the “Pitch Perfect” actor said. “But it doesn’t do any benefit to beat yourself up. It’s more about going, ‘OK, I’m going to do this for me.’ … Try things throughout the year, different lifestyle habits that are positive and healthy, and see what results you get. Any steps that you take towards having better health is a plus.”
Wilson confronted regaining weight previously on social media.
“I’m at am amazing all-inclusive resort. … I’ve lost all self control,” she wrote on Instagram in July 2022. “But you know what? I can get up tomorrow and go to the gym, and hydrate and eat healthy and love myself.”
She added she is not a number on the scale.
“If you’re like me,” she said, “just know YOU are more than just your weight.”
Wilson has learned to go easy on herself. “It’s good to value yourself and be healthy, [but] you don’t have to be obsessive,” she told US Weekly in June 2024.
“There’s no magic fix. I’d been on diets [and] I’ve been really good [about] exercising pretty much my entire life,” Wilson told the magazine. “For me, it was the emotional element that I’d never looked at. I’d kind of been, like, ‘Emotions … Ugh, I don’t want to talk about things.’”