TLC star Whitney Way Thore jumped back into her Mardi Gras Instagram post to address rampant speculation in the comments that she’d undergone some kind of medical weight loss procedure.
Whitney Way Thore is just trying to live her best life, celebrating holidays like Mardi Gras (and her dad’s birthday). But after getting blasted with comments speculating about her weight loss, the My Big Fat Fabulous Life felt she had to jump back in to address it.
The charming video that garnered all the attention saw Thore dressed in green and purple, showing off her sparkly shoes and matching sash, in celebration of the holiday. But all fans could focus on was her physique.
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Jumping back in with an edit to the post’s original caption, Thore made it clear how she feels about the speculation. “I hate addressing this,” she wrote, “but no, I have not had medical intervention to lose weight.”
The reality star then broke down her weight loss journey by sharing that she weighed 385 pounds back in Season 1, which aired in 2015. “In 2018, I lost 50 pounds,” she detailed. “When my mom got sick and eventually died, I lost 50 more.”
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Thore’s mother passed away on December 7, 2022, so it is likely this more recent weight loss that seems to be catching her fans off guard — even though the most recent season of her show aired almost a full year after that, from September to November, 2023 — and dealt with the aftermath of her mother’s death.
Reiterating just this point, Thore’s caption continued, “I weigh 285 pounds and I have been this weight for almost a year now.”
“This is the second time in my life I’ve lost 100 pounds. I’m still very fat,” she continued. “Thank you for the compliments, but I really don’t like obsessing over my body and I don’t like it when others do it either. ?”
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Fan reaction to her edit was mostly supportive, though there was some reaction to her not wanting to focus on her body considering the name and previous content of her show.
“Regarding your caption; with all due respect….you are on a show called My Big Fat Fabulous Life and on that show you’ve talked about your weight and struggles with it,” wrote one fan. “People are just happy for you, THAT’S why they ask or comment on your weight. With all that being said I’m surprised it bothers you ?”
Of course, a lot has changed since that show went on the air in 2015, with a social movement in recent years to stop talking about people’s bodies at all, as evidenced by another commenter who wrote, “Here come all the tedious “you’ve lost weight. You look great” comments. STOP commenting on people’s bodies. Just stop, please.”
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Prior to just editing her original caption to address the issue, Thore had been replying to various commenters, expressing her frustrations one at a time. In one case, a commenter said she “definitely” looked slimmer than in June 2023, to which Thore shot back that she wasn’t.
“That’s why these comments are frustrating,” she wrote. “I weigh the exact same as I did in Switzerland and no one was freaking out then. I have not lost any weight since then.”
Most of the people commenting that she looked slimmer were doing it in a complimentary way, but the social movement suggests that even this attempt at positive support can be perceived negatively as it creates a focus on weight as a barometer of beauty, happiness, acceptance, and the like.
