Octavia Spencer's Extremely Relatable Weight Loss Journey

About 18 years ago, actress Octavia Spencer decided to undergo a gastric bypass surgery to lose weight — but she kept it a secret.

However, the result was not as she expected. Those close to her reported that she couldn't follow the nutritional advice after the operation, and she gained weight again. So, what did she do next? Let's dive into the Oscar-winning actress’s inspiring weight loss journey!

When she won her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for The Help, Octavia Spencer made a joke about her Spanx and how it didn't let her party like she should. She also acknowledged that she needed to reduce her weight for her health.

However, the Daily Mail reported that the actress lost 50 pounds when she underwent a gastric band in 2005.

Surgery works and can be a marvelous help, but it requires the complete cooperation of the patient, who has to eat moderately and as instructed by the doctors.

And there lay Octavia's problem. She loved junk and high-calorie foods, like mashed potatoes, fried chicken, and nearly anything with lots of butter.

She eventually gained the weight back, but that did not stop her.

"My weight is not healthy," Octavia Spencer told People magazine minutes before she received her award as a supporting actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in 2012.

The actress said one is bound to lose value when we reach a certain weight. Then, she advocated for Hollywood to be more tolerant of actresses of varying weights, including very skinny ones.

But she didn't give up on her dream body shape. In 2018, Octavia went back into her weight loss journey, this time with a little help from her famous friend, Mark Wahlberg, and Sensa, a health and wellness app for monitoring and staying in control. The goal was to get fit with two workouts a day.

She started posting videos of her weight loss exercises and her progress each week.

Her weight loss routine included protein shakes, healthy cookies, and lots of exercise. She went on to lose 30 pounds, telling Shape magazine, “ I don’t have a number on the scale. My thing is my middle. I want my waistline to be proportionate. Right now I still have a little Santa Claus belly. People think that I have this wonderful hourglass figure, but I owe that to designer Tadashi Shoji because he cuts for me really well.”

Today, Octavia’s weight still fluctuates but she continues to be an inspiration to her 2 million Instagram followers.