Are We Still Obsessing Over Adele’s Weight Loss?
Hey Guys!
Here we go again with everyone talking about Adele’s amazing weight loss transformation. I wrote a post a while back about why people can’t stop talking about her weight, and well…nothing has really changed a few months later.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about – This week, Adele posted a pic on Instagram celebrating her 32nd birthday and to thank frontline workers. In the pic, she’s looking gorgeous in a fitted black dress and heels.
Adele’s been kinda off the grid for the past few months, so of course it’s impossible NOT to notice how her look has transformed. She looks absolutely stunning. But it’s not like her weight transformation is anything new. Her weight loss triggers a discussion every time she makes an appearance.
Buuuuut the Internet LOST ITS MIND.
View this post on Instagram
Her post triggered:
- Over 9 MILLION LIKES (as I write this)
- An explosion of stories from the media, dissecting her post, debating her transformation, etc.
- Comments that just…blew my mind.
You guys. THE COMMENTS.
You know that I’m NOT okay with making comments/judgments about someone’s weight. For some reason, it seems like people assume it’s okay if a person is a celeb… like they’re not a real person or something? IDK.
Here are some comments I read. My thoughts in bold 🙂
- “Unrecognisable. I am not sure in a good way. But u do u gurl. I hope it’s not you bending to what the world wants u to be” Not okay.
- “I thought she looked great before… I’m happy for her, but a bit too skinny I feel.” Saying you’re “happy for her” doesn’t make it ok to criticize her weight loss.
- “Gonna be miss the old adele” Actually, she’s the same person.
- “Those knees are making me sick” Her knees? Really?
- “what happened to her????” Um, she changed her life to be healthy.
- “I loved how she looked before more tho” She doesn’t need your approval to be healthy, mmk?
Why do people think it’s okay to make these comments about her weight loss?
The girl seriously can’t win. She faced criticism before she lost weight, and she’s being criticized now. Which is often the case for ANYONE in the public eye. Especially women.
She’s a person. Will she read all of these comments? Doubt it. But she still probably feels the pressure coming at her from all sides.
So what is this obsession people have with how she looks/how and why she lost weight (especially when there are some VERY REAL problems going on in the world)??
Well, I think the media sets the tone. Most headlines about the post contain the words “weight loss.” Some even claim she’s “showing off her new look, which just makes me wonder why posting a picture of herself means her intention was to show off her body. Ugh.
People never really seem to know the right way to react when a woman loses weight. To make things worse, reading the headlines that fixate on her weight loss makes it way too easy for EVERYONE to fixate on her weight loss.
So what IS the best way to acknowledge her weight loss? What should we do?
It seems like Adele is happy and she has always been confident about how she looks. So let that serve as inspiration to fuel your own confidence. Accepting your body is HARD, whether it’s looked the same for years, or you’ve had some recent big changes. If Adele can find a way to feel comfortable in her own skin on both sides of the spectrum, so can we!
46 thoughts on “Are We Still Obsessing Over Adele’s Weight Loss?”
There are 46 comments posted by our users.
Thanks for sharing your journey, societal perceptions, and the impacts of body image discussions.
I totally agree! Some of the unhealthiest moments of my life were when I was skinny! Being skinny is like being invisible. Everyone (literally everyone, eg. doctors) assumes you’re totally healthy. Nobody considers your mental state. On the other hand, I have been treated the worst when I was slightly overweight (meaning a couple of kg above the healthy range). Not to mention the major accusations you get, such as being lazy. The issue is so pervasive and implicit that people don’t even understand the comments they make. I am glad I have felt the differential treatment myself! Fatphobia is real y’all!
While I agree with most of the post it made me really sad to see you write, “she doesn’t need your approval to be healthy”. Skinny does not equal healthy. They are not synonymous, and the idea that they are is harmful and so pervasive I’m sure you didn’t give it a second thought while writing it. Please try to be more thoughtful. Plenty of skinny girls aren’t healthy, plenty of big girls are. And far too many people justify their cruelty out of concern for “health”.
Hey there! I don’t think Cassey was promoting skinny equates health in her comments. In Adele’s case, weight loss does equate health. She has admitted this herself. That being said, “plenty of big girls are not healthy”. It’s been proven over and over again excess weight can lead to diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and increased strain on joints and internal organs. What we are seeing with COVID19 hospitalizations are a majority of them are older and overweight patients. I’m not saying being big is bad. We must however admit being ‘big’ is not healthy in the long run.
This judgement doesnt apply to just celebrities. I was always FAT as a kid. I lost over 25kg in just 6months.i ate healthy foods and exercised for an hour a day. I never thought id be a size 30-32. People who saw me a yr before that and saw me again post weightloss had such crap to say. Old school “friends” … things like i look sick my cheeks looked better fat, i must be doing it the wrong way… and just completely snubbed me because of my achievement.
And now post 3 kids my body is so flabby… im ok with it and im working on it… after having anxiety and postnatal depression… but when they see you fat… they attack again. Comments like “you should start looking aftwr yourself” or ” you look different”… and othe sorts of crap…
But thats how people are… the fact is whether you adele or anybody… you should love yourself end of story. Constructive criticism should never be shunned… but nasty and negative brushed it off…
You know what I wish people would stop doing? When someone sees you again for the first time in months, they almost always say, “Did you lose weight? You look great!” Well, as a matter of fact, I gained 20 lbs and lost muscle. Thanks for reminding me of that. Why can’t we substitute that for something else and just avoid the weight altogether? And, yes, that conversation did actually happen to me. I had gained 20 lbs, couldn’t fit into my clothes as well as before, and had lost a lot of muscle, and the person was complimenting me on my weight loss. It was such an awkward moment and it made me feel terrible. Just avoid the weight topic! It’s safer!
I just feel that praising women who lost weight has often a bad mental impact at the people who were the same weight as her as the Media potrays that women are only beautiful when they are skinny. I wish Media and women would start to accept and love all sizes and shapes.
I agree with you regarding the fact that we should stop commenting on the looks of people we don’t know. But I strongly disagree with your assumption that Adele’s weight loss automatically means she is healthier/started living a healthier lifestyle! Truth is, we have no clue: she might be sick, be struggling with an eating disorder, lose weight because she is too depressed to take care of herself,… I am not saying any of that is the case, I’m just saying it is as probable as her having changed her diet, or started to exercise more. And the fact that we systematically congratulate people on weightloss without even knowing what is going on in their life is seriously toxic. We’ve seen public examples with youtubers (Elle Mills comes to mind) and there are many private examples… I’ve been immensely congratulated for weightloss when I had just been hospitalized for a month due to an emergency health problem and could not eat or drink for half of that time. As someone who has struggled with EDs, it was extremely hard not to starve myself instead of feeding my body right to help it recover because of all those comments. So PLEASE let’s change the narrative and just stop commenting, stop assuming.
Your thoughts are pretty much identical to mine for those comments! How nasty, and backhanded some of those are.
I don’t see anything wrong with her video titles. They indicate what the workouts are intended for. No ill will intended, but if they offended you, you should look elsewhere for workouts. Cassie mentioned she is not part of the body positive movement but their following continues claiming her. Anyone who knows anything about health realizes that being a lower weight equals better overall health the majority of the time. I shall refer anyone to Alan Robert’s YouTube channel who explains this perfectly. I just don’t think that there is any winning on this matter. Adele well always be beautiful regardless her size, just as any of you are, but she definitely lost the weight to get healthier. As she said herself, she used to cry now she sweats! Indicating she used to be unhappy and now she’s turned it around. So congrats to her because it takes a lot of work to do everything she had accomplished up until this point!
PS. I think it’s very rude how many of you speculate she may have an eating disorder. How would you feel if someone discredited all you hard work like that? It’s not like she did this over night. This took time.
This was so nicely handled! I considered writing about this too, but it’s a tricky topic. Hard to know how to praise her hard work without seeming like we condemn larger bodies. It’s nice to just acknowledge that she was confident then and still is now.
Yes – this! Thank you Cassey! It’s tough to make a bold claim and defend it respectfully, but thank you for being so thoughtful and kind. It can be hard but it is so worth it because people are important and are so worth being loved. Thanks for being a good model of respect!
Yep. I came to this article expecting her to also criticize the comments such as “wowww adele looks much better now” that reinforces that skinny is “prettier” or whatever. But I did not see that at all.
This is kind of the pot calling the kettle black. You’re criticizing people & the media who are obsessing about her weight but you felt compelled to write not one but two articles about it. Mmk.
I think she’s entitled to make her own opinion and your are entitled to read it or not. We are all human. Thanks.
I agree, but I don’t like how you wrote: she changed her life to be healthy. That is just another assumption behind the weight loss, which might actually also be coming from illness, depression, health eating disorders, obsession with exercising etc. Also you saying that she changed her life to be healthy implies that she wasn’t healthy before or that less weight means more healthy than more weight.
Being overweight its not healthy,periodt.Most people that are overweight do not have good eating habits.Their bodies are mostly fat and not muscle. Being overweight actually puts pressure in your bones,because the human body was not made to be overweight.
*** AND *** we don’t even know that she changed her life to be healthy. She went through a divorce and a lot of people lose weight after divorces from the stress and not necessarily in healthy ways! I once lost 10% of my bodyweight during a very stressful breakup and it’s because I literally lost my appetite. We don’t know if she’s healthy or not. We don’t know if she’s in a good place or not. It’s not our place to praise or judge it! We have no idea what’s going on behind the curtain. We don’t know why she lost weight or if it’s intentional. People assuming they know what’s going on are not helping. I would refer you to bodyposipanda’s instagram on this one. She had a good post.
Yes!!! Health at every size is important (not assuming automatically that skinny = healthy and larger bodies = unhealthy) and bodyposipanda is one of my favorite instagram accounts! <3
I know of another youtuber, her name is Remi and she cannot win no matter what. She has an amazing video about it. It’s something that everyone needs to see.
The first thing that came to my mouth when I saw the picture was ‘Wow! fitness goals!’. Because seeing her past pictures I can see that Adele spent years just to achieve a healthier body. It made me realize that everything takes time, this is very important to me since I am a very impatient person. This picture of Adele is really inspiring and motivating to me. I will just send some synergy to Adele for her to get strong and ignore those jealous commenters. 💪💪💪😘😘😘
I agree on most of your points and I dont think womens weight should ever be discussed like this. But in one of your comments, you say that she changed her life to be healthy. Skinny does not equal healthy, and that is a BIG mistake to assume! We don’t know if she suffered from anything, and it’s really unhealthy to say that. My sister lost a lot of weight and everyone was so happy for her, but no one knew she had an eating disorder, a depression and starved herself. We need to stop praising all kinda of weightloss, cause NOT all of them are healthy at all! Skinny does not equal happiness and success.
Um why are you only citing the comments criticizing the weight loss? The comments congratulating it are just as toxic, if not worse. She’s an extraordinary woman and her worth has nothing to do with her being any weight. Congratulating people for weight loss only reinforces the idea that you are only valuable when skinny. Smh
Yep. I came to this article expecting her to also criticize the comments such as “wowww adele looks much better now” that reinforces that skinny is “prettier” or whatever. But I did not see that at all.
It’s so frustrating to read all those horrid comments that people leave — I bet they would Never say those things if they met her in real life?! But the anonymity of the internet allows people to just spew their insensitivity.
Like you said, we haven’t seen Adele in a while so it was a surprise that she had changed physically since we last saw her, but that’s no excuse to criticize her!! Personally, I’m more excited about the rumour there might be a new album coming soon! Xx
We also need to re-think the idea that losing weight = “healthy” as stated in this blog piece. (You said “she changed her life to be healthy.” I’d say “she changed her life to be thinner.”). Weight loss *can* make some people healthier but not all. Some people who are over our standard medical “normal” BMI are perfectly healthy. They have normal blood pressure, heart health, glucose measurements and many people who fit into the medical BMI as “overweight” or even “obese” are actually very fit and healthy. Let’s stop calling thinner “healthy.” There are legit markers for health and weight alone isn’t one of them, truly.
I was thinking the same thing! Thin doesn’t necessarily mean healthier or fitter. Also we need to consider that just because someone got thin doesn’t mean it was done in a healthy way (of course Adele could probably afford the best trainer or chef to cook healthy meals, etc, so i’m not talking about her). Unfortunately, there’s harmful weight loss solutions, orthorexia, or severe emotional distress causing the loss of weight, etc. I wouldn’t equate being thin to healthy necessarily either.
Its true that thinner doesn’t automatically mean healthier. There are entire villages in Afrika where bigger is considered a thing of beauty, so they try to gain weight, but studies show these people do it so healthily, they don’t suffer any of the ailments associated so often with being bigger, like diabetes, heart problems, high bloodpressure, etc. It has also been shown that losing weight and gaining again, the yoyo effect, is far worse on your blood pressure, because it stresses the body out, then just being bigger. Therefore losing weight should not be the goal, becoming healthier should be. I agree that the terminology is shaming to begin with, with ”morbidly obese” being the worst. According to BMI standards I am morbidly obese, been called that for a while now, although people in general don’t see me like that at all. I look fine. A little bigger, sure. But my weight has been steady now for about 10 years. My blood pressure is normal, always has been. I have no diabetes, and no heart problems to speak of. Maybe a vitamin D deficiency, but I got capsules for that. That’s all. Still I’m being frightened by these terms, prompting me to want to lose weight, because nobody wants to be called morbidly anything. But I am not dying. Ok, I can’t run a marathon, but I don’t get out of breath on the stairs either. I can do one flight 3 times before even getting winded. Also I’m as strong as I ever was, always helping my friends moving anywhere, or rearranging furniture by myself. So you tell me: am i healthy? Ask my doctor…
I agree and she could’ve been healthy before her weight loss. There needs to be a redirection of perspective to be more holistic and not just about body size, whether smaller or larger. People lose weight for all kinds of reasons and sometimes it’s not out of a healthy mindset or a mentally stable place. She is going through a divorce and lost half of her wealth because of this. If anything she might be trying to redirect her lifestyle by making choices to have nourishing and nutrient dense foods, but this may also be a way to cope with emotions in an unhealthy manner. Unfortunately in the public eye she was going to be criticized no matter what (ugh this world), but I think that we should continue to think about associating the word healthy with thinness and weight loss. Health comes at every size.
I agree. Overall health is a lot more important than what some scale shows. It is high time people realize that. There is no need to judge or comment on any part of anyone life. It’s 2020 and its time we move on from the archaic standards of “good looks”.
Exactly. Blogilates is an amazing channel, but Cassey’s messages on Body positivity are so mixed and it makes me lose my mind. I completely agree with what you’re saying here, chloe. Healthy is not equal to losing weight. But this kind of mixed messaging catering to bod pos activists as well as people trying to lose weight is what Blogilates does. Cassey preaches loving our bodies the way we are and working out for the fun of it, but all her workout videos are titled things like “waist-whittler” and “muffin-top melter”, endless “toning and leaning workouts” and all that. Im not hating on Cassey, but I think she needs to get her stance right.
Thank you so much for bringing this up. Like lots of other young women, I have struggled with restrictive eating and obsessive exercise. I was hoping this article would have a little more of a HAES friendly message, pointing out that we aren’t her doctors so we can’t assume she’s healthier just because she weighs less. I’ve really enjoyed Blogilates but don’t know if I can keep following along. Really hard to find HAES-friendly, positive fitness professionals. 😕 A common theme among HAES dietitians and trainers is that, because of our society’s natural assumption that thinner = healthier, people in the throes of an eating disorder are often praised for how “healthy” they are! I would love to see more of a message that separates health and thinness here.
I’ve really come to like Stephanie Buttermore, another fitness youtuber. She is trying to treat her “extreme hunger” from years of restrictive eating and she’s on the “all in” journey to find her true body weight, that means eating until she’s comfortably full and not restricting anything at all. 🙂 Her workouts are killer too!
Thank you! I’m going to check her out!
Agreed!!
Exactly! Ofcourse improvements are possible, even if you are already in that “healthy range” with blood preasure/heart/glucose, but it can also work the other way around: getting low blood pressure after weight loss for example.
Also, who knows if she lost weight in a healthy way? I mean I’ve had an eating disorder myself about fourteen years ago and was very good at letting the outside world believe I did it in a healthy way.. Back in those days I was definitely more healthy when I was close to overweight! Both physically and mentally.
I came here to say the same thing. I hope Adele is well and healthy, but weight loss can be triggered by a major medical issue, eating disorder, depression, drug use etc. (not that I suspect any of that relating to Adele). Weight loss does not always equal health. I sincerely hope Adele lost weight through whatever healthy option she wished, but correlating weight loss with health isn’t so black and white. It’s much more nuanced than that, but I notice Cassie correlating the two so often.
I totally agree with this thread! You see loads of comments everywhere congratulating people for losing weight or looking thinner, but should that really be our first response? If someone was struggling with an eating disorder or losing weight in any other unhealthy way, and posted that they lost 5kg, a comment like ‘good job!’ is just reinforcing that idea that thinner=better or thinner=healthier and it isn’t necessarily the case.
Most people that fall into the obese category ARE NOT healthy. Only if they are muscular or sumo wrestlers they might fall into that category.
Nobody here is promoting obesity! The points being made are just that thinness does not mean health, and that exclusive praising of thinness often reinforces unhealthy ways of achieving it.
100% agree… in people’s heads skinny= pretty, thus successful, happy, and so on… but this is just so sad.. everyone is thinking abt weight loss only, making it target of their lives. I currently live in China. And here, if the WOMAN (note! not the teenage gal we r talking abt) stands on the scales and her weight is more than 45 kilos, she is considered to be out of shape, fat if not to say so.. so guys this is insane… so once I got sick (not the eating disorder) and lost weight drastically, was fighting really hard to get back to normal (hospitals, shots, drips).. everyone around was admiring me being so skinny but my family and i, we were all struggling with my health problem. So, I knw our society makes idols and celebrities that everyone wants to look like, but each of us should remember, our health comes first!
Hi
I’ve been working out for 6 weeks now, noticed no weight change, in fact maybe gained a 1kg? I’m really sad and unmotivated. Casey, when will I noticed results, how should I eat and what should I do! I really want to loose fat in my inner thighs, so self conscious
You may not seen weight change but there must be inches loss,!! Never depend on a weighing scale to measure your progress. Take before and after pictures, measure with tape those are real indicators of your fitness journey. I started working out this January and lost of 4-5 inches on my stomach and waist area but other the other had just a kg off on the scale. You must be gaining muscles which is good, so cheer up girl!! Give everything you have see it as a lifestyle change rather than some weight loss measure. Good luck😘
Im getting back into exercising after an injury and those first few weeks can be rough. I dont know your exact situation, but I am a college senior in Nutrition Dietetics so I have some info that may help you! Since you’ve been working out for 6 weeks now, it’s possible that your weight gain is muscle. On the other hand, now that you’re doing this exercise, you’re going to start burning more calories and are likely to be hungrier as a result. In order to lose weight, you’ ll want to balance your exercise and caloric intake so that you create a deficit. I, for example, aim to cut around 200 calories a day for a steady and safe level of weight loss. If I’m not counting calories to do this, I facilitate caloric reduction by using smaller bowls and plates for my food so I cant as easily serve myself more food than I really need. As for what to eat, try making small changes in your diet that will be healthier than whatever your previous diet may have been. Its more sustainable than a really drastic diet change and it will help in developing sustainable habits. For example: its way easier to pick whole grain bread over white bread in a sandwich then to suddenly go vegan. Everyone has a different journey to health! Don’t get discouraged: consistency will be your friend and it takes time.
If you want any tips for dietary changes, I know Healthline has a helpful article written called “25 Simple Tips to Make Your Diet Healthier” you could check out.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
Hey,
losing weight is about how you eat mostly. Excerise supports the process, but is not the main factor. What you can do is calculate the calories you eat. I used an app called Yazio to keep track of my calories, but to gain weight. The app asks you a few questions like your height, your age, and your goals, and then calculates how many calories you need. The app works only for people who are 18+ though, so if you’re not that age, maybe you can calculate your calories elsewhere. Don’t try to lose too much weight at once, I’d say 2kg per month max, maybe just 1 to 1.5. Eat healthy foods with lots of fiber and vitamins, drink plenty of water, and remember: “While losing weight you can eat everything, just less”. Although it’s better to eat clean, of course.
It’s really useful to know how much food your body needs, so you stay healthy, and reach your goals. Tracking your calories for a few weeks will give you a feeling of how much you need, so you won’t have to track them forever. 🙂
Some people use intermittent fasting too, meaning you get all the calories you need in 8 hours, but don’t eat for the other 16 hours. Maybe this is something for you. Some people might not be able to do this because they’re low in sugar quickly or something like that. Listen to your body!
I hope that helps you! 🙂
Yeah the whole “let’s internalize being judged and use that pain to perpetuate the policing of each other’s bodies” vibe is so last century. Higher goals and bigger dreams than appearances ladies! We gotta was take the power back, not squish ourselves and others with it!