Chrissy Metz's Weight Loss Journey: What The 'This Is Us' Star Has Shared Over The Years

Chrissy said that she was “born chubby” in a 2017 interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "I’ve been chubby all my life," she told the publication. "...As I got older at different times in my life I was thinner or more active or playing sports but I was definitely always a chubbier kid."

And this impacted her relationship with food at an early age. “My friends could eat whatever they wanted to, but I knew that as a kid if I ate certain things I would totally gain weight," she added. "I had to be really cognizant of what I ate."

Chrissy also told The Hollywood Reporter that she could relate to Kate because they’ve had similar struggles with weight—as well as parents who didn’t really know how to cope.

"I remember going to Weight Watchers when I was like 11,” she said. “I was the youngest person in the damned room, and it was awkward. My mom was trying to figure it out, but it's a process.”

In an interview with Verywell Mind, Chrissy shared that Kate's journey with food in This Is Us helped her continue to work on her own relationship with food. "Because whether it's readily available or for me, it was always self-soothing when I was growing up. It was a way to sort of not feel something," she explained.

In her memoir, Chrissy wrote about her difficult relationship with her stepfather. "My body seemed to offend him, but he couldn't help but stare, especially when I was eating. He joked about putting a lock on the refrigerator," she said.

She said he would conduct forced weigh-ins with her when she was 14. "He’d get the scale from the bathroom and clang it hard on the kitchen floor. 'Well, get on the damn thing!'"

Chrissy told PEOPLE in 2017 that she was a size 12 when she first began acting, but she dropped 50 pounds at the recommendation of her manager before moving to L.A. She became depressed when the acting jobs weren’t coming and said she was “eating my feelings”—so she gained more than 100 pounds before having a panic attack on her birthday that changed her attitude about her weight.

Chrissy lost 100 pounds in less than five months following that incident. “All I did was eat a 2,000-calorie diet and walk 20 minutes a day,” she said.

Chrissy has been open about her weight loss journey, but she's also a big proponent of body positivity. "I just have to be very clear," she told TVLine in 2016. "Whether or not I lose weight or stay the same, it's purely a choice of mine for health. Not because I think that plus size, curvy, voluptuous, big bodies aren't attractive—because I think they're awesome and sexy."

Chrissy also told TVLine that, because of Kate’s storyline, her This Is Us contract included a clause that required her to lose weight along with her character—and she was all about it. “That was a win-win for me,” she said. "Because it’s one thing to try to do it on your own. But as human beings, it’s an ego thing: We’re more likely to do something for someone else.”

Since becoming a notable public figure advocating for body positivity, the Breakthrough star has gotten very candid about her weight loss in tandem with Kate's, especially with comments about her weight—good and bad—from viewers, as well as how viewers have connected with her storytelling. "You have to use what you have, and I wouldn’t have this role if I had already lost weight,” she told People. “Now it’s about telling a story of a woman struggling with her weight, just as I have and still am.”

A year after opening up about her This Is Us contract, Chrissy told Marie Claire that she didn’t even know how much she weighed. "I don't worry about numbers," she said. "It just messes with my mind."

In 2018, Chrissy told PEOPLE that she was working to lose weight, but on her own schedule. Her weight loss efforts were “not for anybody but myself," she explained. "…I want to have a fit, healthy body and not have to be put in a box. I don’t want to be limited by anything.”

Yes, in season one of This Is Us, Chrissy's character, Kate, considered gastric bypass surgery—but that's just not for Chrissy in real life.

"The question I wish people would stop asking me is, 'Are you having weight-loss surgery? Are you gonna be doing a gastric bypass?'" she told Today in September 2017. To which, she says, "I'm good, boo."

In 2017, Chrissy wore a red latex dress to the MTV Movie & TV Awards—and body-shaming trolls attacked her in full force. (FYI: Chrissy worked with her stylist, Jordan Grossman, for over a year on that dress, according to PEOPLE.)

But fans also came out in droves to support Chrissy and her fashion choices—and Chrissy took to Instagram to thank them. "I hope that in some small way, an unconventional body wearing an unconventional material opened up discussion, hearts, and minds," she wrote. "I truly had no idea it would make anyone feel uncomfortable, I just wanted to try something different."

But still, Chrissy remained true to herself: "For the record, I wear what I want, when I want. News flash it's MY body. #thankstho," she said on X (formerly Twitter).

"The way I stand up to bullies is with kindness and love because I think that's what they really need," she told PEOPLE Now. "They're misunderstood and probably really upset themselves."

As for body-shaming comments, Chrissy aims to ignore them: "I just either don't respond or respond with kindness."

"I always say our bodies don’t define us–they just happen to be our vessels," Chrissy told Woman's World. "If all you are thinking about is that you want to lose weight, but you feel like you are not going to be able to because you’re not worthy…then you won’t ever. It is so important that you realize that just as we are, we are enough.”

She continued, "I always say, 'If you don't love yourself for who you are right now, you're never going to get to the place you want to be.’ So it’s about being gentle and kind and we get so fixated on what our outward bodies look like."

In a 2022 US Weekly interview Chrissy shared, "What I will miss most about Kate is that I think so many people, not even just women, relate to her and her walking imperfectly through her trials and tribulations and all the shame and guilt that she’s carried for so long." The actress added that, over the years, "so many women have shared their experiences" with her.

She recalled an unforgettable moment when a woman approached her in New York while she was at dinner with co-star Justin Hartley. "I look at her and she looks, like, just so in shape and, well, just beautiful, glowing, and she’s like, ‘You don’t understand. I have a massive eating disorder, and I didn’t even understand what it is that I was going through," Chrissy said, adding that this was when she realized how special the show was.

"Two women that I would never think that we’d have anything in common were more alike than we were different, and it was so special. I was like, ‘Oh, this is not just a TV show,'" she said.

"I love my calves," Chrissy told Today, adding that people always tell her to stop doing so many calf raises (she doesn't, though). "I have come to love [my calves] and realize that, like, they carry my body around. And I could probably kick some ass."