Adele reacts to comments about her weight loss: 'I was body-positive then and I’m body-positive now'
Adele has always made it clear that she cares a lot more about her music, and the life story behind it, than she does about her weight. Yet it's rare that an interview goes by without the star, whose new album, 30, has just launched, being asked about her size.
In her interview with Oprah Winfrey, who has long been open about her own weight issues, the subject was once again raised.
Adele told Winfrey that she isn't "shocked or fazed” by the reactions to her dramatic weight loss and had not set out to drop almost 100 pounds, saying that she has always been body-positive.
“My body has been objectified my entire career — I’m too big, I’m too small, I’m hot or I’m not,” she said.
"I feel bad if anyone feels horrible about themselves but that’s not my job. I’m trying to sort my own life out. I can’t have another worry.”
Adele has attributed the majority of her weight loss to exercise, explaining that she loves lifting weights in the gym and at her strongest was deadlifting 160 pounds, telling her trainers she wanted to win an Olympic medal.
“I’m actually an athlete, I’m not even boasting,” she said. “I’m also a very good boxer, I’ve got a left hook that could kill you. If only at school I hadn’t discovered boys and someone had told me to go and do a bit more PE.”
The singer added, “I never looked up to anyone because of their weight. I was body-positive then and I’m body-positive now. But it’s not my job to validate how people feel about their bodies."
Speaking to British Vogue for its November issue, the star explained why her weight loss appeared sudden, after she posted a snap to Instagram in May 2020 looking newly slim.
“I think one of the reasons people lost the plot was because actually [the weight loss] was over a two-year period,” she told the magazine.
"It was because of my anxiety. Working out, I would just feel better. It was never about losing weight, it was always about becoming strong and giving myself as much time every day without my phone," she said.
"I got quite addicted to it. I work out two or three times a day. I do my weights in the morning, then normally hike or I box in the afternoon, and then I go and do my cardio at night. I was basically unemployed when I was doing it. And I do it with trainers.
"It’s not doable for a lot of people."
Adele told the magazine that she needed to "get addicted to something to get my mind right.
“It could have been knitting, but it wasn’t. People are shocked because I didn’t share my ‘journey,'" she added. "They’re used to people documenting everything on Instagram, and most people in my position would get a big deal with a diet brand... I did it for myself and not anyone else. So why would I ever share it? I don’t find it fascinating. It’s my body.”
She went on, "People have been talking about my body for 12 years. They used to talk about it before I lost weight. But yeah, whatever, I don’t care.
"You don’t need to be overweight to be body-positive, you can be any shape or size.”
The singer also laid into the fake stories around her weight loss, explaining that she had never laid claim to the various methods being discussed.
“You know a hundred percent of the stories written about me have been absolutely fake. The people that came out being like, ‘I trained her,’ I’ve never met in my life.
"It’s disgusting. I cannot get over it. Some Pilates lady I’ve never met in my life! And I haven’t done any diet."
Some reports claimed that Adele had embraced the Sirtfood diet, which focuses on detoxing and plant-based foods.
“Ain’t done that," she said. "No intermittent fasting. Nothing. If anything I eat more than I used to because I work out so hard."
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