Inside Rebel Wilson’s Weight Loss Journey: Everything She’s Said

Rebel Wilson has been open about her health journey over the years.

The Pitch Perfect actress embarked upon a “year of health” in 2020 and focused on being healthier rather than fixating on the scale.

“You never want it to be about the number, because it really isn’t about that,” she told PEOPLE in November 2020. “It’s about: I was doing some unhealthy things to my body and I just wanted to change it and become a healthier person.”

Over the years, Wilson has tried different tactics to lose weight and eventually found foods and exercises that worked for her. She lost 80 lbs. by 2022 but has been honest about her weight changing during more stressful times in her life.

“Working really hard has meant that, coz of all the stress, I’ve gained 14kg’s (30 pounds)! It makes me feel bad about myself…it shouldn’t…but it does,” she wrote on Instagram in June 2024. “I’m really proud of the work I’ve been doing on new movies and my memoir, it’s just been a LOT and I’ve lost focus on my healthy lifestyle.”

Here’s everything Rebel Wilson has said about her health journey over the years.

She said she was an “emotional eater” who ate “3,000 calories most days”

Rebel Wilson has reflected on her health journey over the years and previously told PEOPLE that her “emotional eating” led to her weight gain.

“I think I was emotional eating, and overeating at times, because I wasn’t loving myself enough. And it does come down to that self-worth and self-love,” she told PEOPLE in November 2020.

At one point, Wilson realized that she was “probably eating 3,000 calories most days, and because they were normally carbs, I would still be hungry.”

The Bridesmaids actress later recalled going through an “emotional war” with herself and being “ashamed of my eating behaviors.”

“People are like, ‘Well, how can you be so body-positive and then be hating yourself?’ But I wasn’t hating myself, I was only hating those shameful behaviors,” she explained to PEOPLE in March 2024.

Wilson said that she “would be hard” on herself for feeling unable to change her ways. However, she also realized that the sudden death of her dad in 2013 took a major toll on her, and she used “food to numb my emotions.”

“I look back now at that girl and am so proud of what she’s become and achieved,” Wilson wrote over a photo of her from her “unhealthiest” time in a 2021 Instagram post.

The actress has used her past to shape her approach to health and focus on feeling good rather than fixating on a number on the scale.

“I would say to everyone out there don’t be obsessed about how much you actually weigh,” Wilson told PEOPLE. “It’s more about all the healthy practices, and then the changes to your whole lifestyle.”

She lost 80 lbs. during her “year of health” in 2020

After the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, Wilson decided it was time to slow down and focus on her health by proclaiming 2020 as her “year of health.”

“When it first happened, and then suddenly all the jobs got canceled, and I went back to Australia to quarantine. And I did do that thing, which I think a lot of people did, where I just ate ice cream and watched the news for a month,” Wilson told PEOPLE in November 2020. “And then I was like, well hey, this is a great opportunity.”

By the end of summer 2020, Wilson said that she lost “about 40 lbs.”

“I’m just trying to go for overall balance, overall healthy balance,” she told PEOPLE. “I have this state of being, which is not my quote, but I go ‘Nothing is forbidden.’ We’ll be like, ‘Should we get In-N-Out burger?’ And I’m like, ‘Nothing is forbidden.’ I can go there, I just might eat half of what I used to eat before. You know? And I’ll have a burger, and a few fries, and then you feel fine.”

While she’s incorporating balance, Wilson also explained that she switched to a high-protein diet with more meat and fish.

“I love my curves and stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever go too skinny, but I feel so much healthier,” Wilson said on The Drew Barrymore Show in November 2020. “I feel more in control.”

Although she initially only planned on one year of health, Wilson continued prioritizing a healthy lifestyle and lost 77 lbs. by October 2021.

“I went to the doctor’s and got my yearly check-up last week, and he’s like, ‘Oh my God, all your labs and your blood work is the best it’s ever been and you know, it’s kind of remarkable,’ ” Wilson said on Australia’s Sunrise morning show. “I’m proud of myself for doing it and also maintaining it this year … I’m proud of myself for improving my life for the better.”

In May 2022, Wilson told PEOPLE that she had lost over 80 lbs. and was inspired to lose the weight in hopes of becoming a mom after visiting a fertility doctor in 2019.

“He (the doctor) looked me up and down and said, ‘You’d do much better [with egg retrieval and IVF] if you were healthier,’ ” she told PEOPLE at the time. “I was taken aback. I thought, ‘Oh God, this guy’s so rude.’ He was right. I was carrying around a lot of excess weight. It’s almost like I didn’t think of my own needs. I thought of a future child’s needs that really inspired me to get healthier.”

Wilson and her wife, Ramona Agruma, welcomed daughter Royce Lillian, who was born via surrogate, in November 2022.

She tried Ozempic

During her health journey, Wilson confirmed that she briefly tried Ozempic — the FDA-approved type 2 diabetes drug that many celebrities have taken to lose weight.

“Someone like me could have a bottomless appetite for sweets, so I think those drugs can be good,” she told The Sunday Times in a March 2024 interview, while noting that she was no longer taking Ozempic.

She’s been open about her weight fluctuations over the years

After embarking on her “year of health,” Wilson has been open about her weight fluctuating as she was dealing with both personal and professional challenges.

In January 2023, Wilson spoke to the Daily Mail about her new life as a mom and explained how it changed her healthy lifestyle.

“I did gain weight once I had my baby, because although I didn’t give birth to her and I didn’t need to lose any baby weight, I had just gained weight from the lack of sleep and from the change in my lifestyle,” Wilson explained at the time. “For instance, now I can’t go to the gym as often as I used to. I’m just not working out as much, so that has slowed me down.”

In addition to being a new mom, the pandemic also ended and Wilson was able to return to work. However, all her projects took a toll on her, and in January 2024, Wilson revealed that she had gained 30 lbs.

Two months later, she told PEOPLE that part of her stress was from promoting her book, Rebel Rising: A Memoir, while also trying to be a present mother to her daughter.

By April 2025, Wilson told her Instagram followers that she was ready to focus on her health again and was giving up a few unhealthy snacks to make herself feel better.

“Who’s up for a 6-week health challenge? … I really want to be a healthier version of me,” she said. “So I’m gonna give up chocolate and ice cream for the next six weeks. And instead, each week I’m gonna do something positive for my health. So this week, I’m gonna be grateful for five things and I’m gonna write it down.”

She said her weight loss redefined her acting career

After Wilson started her health journey, she shared that the whole experience affected her career and how she was approached as an actor.

“Basically, no one apart from my mom wanted me to lose weight,” she told The Sunday Times. “People thought I’d lose my pigeonhole in my career, playing the fat funny character, and they wanted me to continue in that.”

Wilson looked back on the experience in a March 2024 interview with PEOPLE and recalled how her health journey garnered more attention than any of her past projects.

“I was getting quite a lot of attention for the weight loss,” she said. “I thought, ‘Gosh, people are so intrigued by this.’ Literally, I got more attention for weight loss than any movie I’d ever done.”

She said that the attention ended up being “positive reinforcement” for her because it motivated her to continue getting healthy.

In May 2025, Wilson told SiriusXM radio host Ben Harlum that her career shifted from comedic to dramatic roles after her weight loss.

“From that point, I started getting offered more serious roles,” she explained, citing her role as Lady Capulet in Juliet & Romeo and her role in the British indie, The Almond and the Seahorse.

“So I think I kind of untypecast myself by losing weight,” she said. “I mean, I loved being the bigger, funny girl. Loved playing Fat Amy in the Pitch Perfect movies. It was so cool, and that still is me in so many respects. I guess people … once I did lose weight, they started to see me a bit differently.”

Wilson explained that she always saw herself in more dramatic roles, so “it’s kind of like almost going back to my roots as an actress and doing some serious stuff as well.”