My Big Fat Fabulous Life star Whitney Way Thore has lost 100 pounds, but he is still unsure whether he will try Ozempic down the line.
“I’m not saying it’s not certain, I don’t know,” Thore, 40, said exclusively. Us Weekly on July 2, when discussing season 12 of her TLC docuseries. “It’s not something I think about or feel, like a medical need, but it’s not something I say, ‘I’ll never do that.’
Ozempic, Wegovy and similar semaglutides are usually prescribed to adults with conditions including high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes to help manage their weight. Many celebrities have tried medication as a way to slim down quickly, but doctors have warned against using the drug to lose weight recklessly.
Given Thore’s own weight loss journey, he has often been asked by social media users if his progress is a result of Ozempic.
“With the Ozempic craze and everything like that, I get asked a lot. It’s funny, at the same time, people insist that I need weight loss surgery,” he said. us. “And, other people say, ‘He hasn’t lost a pound.'”
Thore further emphasized that the Ozempic discussion is “nuanced within the body positive community.”
“I don’t have a hard and fast opinion on this,” the TLC star said. “I think people have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies. And as a fat person who has been fat all my life, I’m not going to shame or criticize other fat people for choosing to do things that make life easier.
By February, Thore had lost 100 pounds overall.
“Fifty kilograms I lost last year, then I lost (another) 50 kilograms after my mother died. So for me, it’s not a big change,” said Thore us. “What it shows is people on the internet, they see what they want to see and they portray you. I can post something today and half the comments will say, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re skinny. You’re really skinny now,’ when I’m almost 300 kilos.”
He added, “And the other half of the comments will say, ‘Oh my god, he’s grown so much.’ That’s why I hate people commenting on my body, because it’s really just whatever people want that day, that time, that picture. People keep saying, ‘Oh, you’ve lost weight.’ And I said, ‘No, I haven’t. I weigh myself every day. I can tell you exactly what I weigh (at) every point in my life.'”
Thore says she is now not “actively trying to lose weight” and just gets on the scale every day as a means of tracking polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) symptoms.
“I have now started the cycle,” he said on Tuesday. “(I) recently gained 10 pounds, and then I got my period the next day, and it’s all gone. I kind of track based on that. … It’s just a habit, really, (and) it’s not for any reason. It doesn’t feel like anything. “
Thore will continue to document his health journey on season 12 of TLC My Big Fat Fabulous Lifewhich premieres later this month.
“There’s a lot of positivity that comes from the show, (but) unfortunately, it’s often overshadowed by scary, difficult and negative things,” Thore said, referring to the online harassment he received. “I know that I’m Big Fat Good Life has changed people’s lives all over the world, and this is a gift to people … I can’t imagine just taking this 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 I’ve seen the world change in the last 10 years is incredible. So, even though it’s been hard, I wouldn’t change it.”
My Big Fat Fabulous Life Season 12 premieres on TLC and Max Tuesday, July 9, at 9 pm ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi