Rebel Wilson Reveals Her Diet Secrets, Battle With Emotional Eating and More After Shedding 61 Pounds

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Rebel Wilson Reveals Her Diet Secrets, Battle With Emotional Eating and More After Shedding 61 Pounds

After reaching her goal weight in 2020, Rebel Wilson is revealing how — and why — she decided to get serious about her health. “It’s been, like, a little bit over a year from when I first started and I want you to, first of all, know that I’m not frickin' perfect about it,” the 40-year-old actress began on Tuesday, December 1, via Instagram Live. “It’s not like I’ve had some incredible discipline and I'm just, like, every day restricted or worked out like a beast. I mean there’s been days where I’ve done that, but it certainly hasn’t been all the time. What I’m more focused on is balance.” During her lengthy Live, Wilson detailed her “triangle of health,” which included tracking her physical, nutritional and emotional health. “Nutrition was, like, a big deal because you can’t out-train a bad diet, which is something that I should’ve known, but really didn’t know this year,” the Isn’t It Romantic star explained. "What I’ve had to do is really look at what I’m eating. I’m someone who grew up eating fast food several times a week. … Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, which is so tasty, it’s nothing against those companies. Oh, my God, In-n-Out Burger in L.A., love it. But the problem is, I was eating it way too often and I have a real sweet tooth as I was just saying and basically, I only used to eat, like, carbs and sugar.” Earlier this year, Wilson announced her ideal weight was 165 pounds. After she stepped on the scale on Saturday, November 29, she revealed she accomplished her goal and dropped more than 60 pounds. [jwplayer ifpc1zSI-l3ahXupL] “The goal was never to be skinny, it was never to fit into a certain dress size. I put a goal weight on there because I needed some tangible thing,” she explained on Tuesday. “But I’ve also done some body measurements and stuff like that as well, so the weight’s not the only thing. But I am really glad that I did it because I think it was time. I’ve been overweight for about 20 years and I love playing some of the comedic characters like Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect and everything. I love all that stuff but at a certain point, I knew in my heart that I was engaging in some unhealthy behaviors and that I needed to change those for the better and so what I’m proud of myself for is for doing that and having a lot more balance now in my life.” While Wilson admitted that there were people in her life “who didn’t want [her] to change,” boyfriend Jacob Busch wasn’t one of them. “At the end of the day, it’s about balance and being a better version of me. This year, in a global pandemic, one of the most important things is health,” she noted. “Because if you’re healthy and you have a strong immune system, you’re less likely to be susceptible to the virus or serious complications and your health is so important." Scroll through for the biggest revelations from Wilson:

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Rebel Wilson Reveals Her Diet Secrets, Battle With Emotional Eating and More After Shedding 61 Pounds

After reaching her goal weight in 2020, Rebel Wilson is revealing how — and why — she decided to get serious about her health. “It’s been, like, a little bit over a year from when I first started and I want you to, first of all, know that I’m not frickin' perfect about it,” the 40-year-old actress began on Tuesday, December 1, via Instagram Live. “It’s not like I’ve had some incredible discipline and I'm just, like, every day restricted or worked out like a beast. I mean there’s been days where I’ve done that, but it certainly hasn’t been all the time. What I’m more focused on is balance.” During her lengthy Live, Wilson detailed her “triangle of health,” which included tracking her physical, nutritional and emotional health. “Nutrition was, like, a big deal because you can’t out-train a bad diet, which is something that I should’ve known, but really didn’t know this year,” the Isn’t It Romantic star explained. "What I’ve had to do is really look at what I’m eating. I’m someone who grew up eating fast food several times a week. … Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, which is so tasty, it’s nothing against those companies. Oh, my God, In-n-Out Burger in L.A., love it. But the problem is, I was eating it way too often and I have a real sweet tooth as I was just saying and basically, I only used to eat, like, carbs and sugar.” Earlier this year, Wilson announced her ideal weight was 165 pounds. After she stepped on the scale on Saturday, November 29, she revealed she accomplished her goal and dropped more than 60 pounds. [jwplayer ifpc1zSI-l3ahXupL] “The goal was never to be skinny, it was never to fit into a certain dress size. I put a goal weight on there because I needed some tangible thing,” she explained on Tuesday. “But I’ve also done some body measurements and stuff like that as well, so the weight’s not the only thing. But I am really glad that I did it because I think it was time. I’ve been overweight for about 20 years and I love playing some of the comedic characters like Fat Amy from Pitch Perfect and everything. I love all that stuff but at a certain point, I knew in my heart that I was engaging in some unhealthy behaviors and that I needed to change those for the better and so what I’m proud of myself for is for doing that and having a lot more balance now in my life.” While Wilson admitted that there were people in her life “who didn’t want [her] to change,” boyfriend Jacob Busch wasn’t one of them. “At the end of the day, it’s about balance and being a better version of me. This year, in a global pandemic, one of the most important things is health,” she noted. “Because if you’re healthy and you have a strong immune system, you’re less likely to be susceptible to the virus or serious complications and your health is so important." Scroll through for the biggest revelations from Wilson:

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

The Initial Detox

“I did go to a professional place to do a detox because the amount of sugar I was eating is, like, full-on. I have the biggest sweet tooth,” Wilson explained. “I did a detox at a place called VIVAMAYR Altaussee, which is in Austria. … I went there and did a detox. I had a lot of what’s called candida in my gut, which loves the sugar, makes me crave the sugar and I had a lot of that, so I had to try to get rid of that, ‘cause there’s nothing worse than trying to be healthy and feeling, like, starving all the time. That’s what that pesky candida does. So, I went to Austria with my friend Carly and started to do a detox and started to feel a whole lot better but hadn’t totally put both feet into the health journey at that point, and then when 2020 rolled around, I wrote a little letter to myself about … I’m really gonna give it my all this year and then I did.”

Credit: Courtesy of Rebel Wilson/Instagram

Her Workout Routine

“I’m in a lucky position, like, I do have access to really amazing personal trainers, but I want you guys to know that the majority of the exercise that I’ve done this year has just been me going out for a walk,” Wilson revealed. “Whether I’m walking in Sydney, I’m walking in New York, I walked down to the Statue of Liberty this morning. In Sydney, I walk around the Sydney harbor. In Los Angeles, I normally walk at Griffith Park. That is free, you can do it, it’s safe and walking is the best way for me, for my body type to metabolize fat.”

Wilson added that she also has “amazing trainers,” including Gunnar Peterson and Jono Castano.

“Ladies, don’t be afraid of weights. I frickin' love lifting weights. It just makes you feel really strong,” she quipped. “I love lifting weights; I love that feeling of feeling strong and powerful and the weights are so good for not only your muscles but for your bones as well. ... I normally [train] six out of seven days a week. I normally have Sunday as a rest day and I’m normally doing at least an hour of physical activity the other days but that can simply be walking like today."

Credit: Courtesy of Rebel Wilson/Instagram

Her Diet

Wilson noted that she’s had the best results following a high-protein diet and drinking two to three liters of water a day.

“Does this mean that I eat clean every day? No. Far from it. But I am prioritizing where I can. If I go out to a restaurant, I’ll try the salmon, a chicken breast. I don’t eat much meat, that’s why it was hard,” she explained. “I was mainly vegetarian, but now I really have to concentrate on it because my body just responds well to protein. So, I might get a protein smoothie ‘cause that’s easy for me to eat with some vegan protein in it. But nutritionally, I do try to stay under 1500 calories because my body type, if I want to lose weight in that week, I have to stay under 1500 each day. Now I’m going into more of a maintenance phase and it will probably be more like 2000 or 2500 because I do work out like a beast. So I can eat a bit more. Now that I’ve hit my goal weight, I’m maintaining.”

She added: “I still want to be curvy and I feel like I’m confident at any size because your size isn’t the one thing that defines you, it’s your whole personality, it’s your skills and abilities and everything so I'm a very confident person in that respect.”

Credit: Courtesy of Rebel Wilson/Instagram

Her Emotional Eating

Wilson revealed that “emotional eating” is her “vice.”

She explained: “I done a lot of work on myself to realize the unhealthy patterns and unhealthy behaviors and why I was doing them. It doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. It does not.”

Wilson noted that she wasn’t “properly processing [her] emotions” in the past.

“What I found is that why I was doing those unhealthy behaviors was I wasn’t treating myself with love and respect. And anybody else out there I try to treat with love and respect, but myself, I probably wasn’t. I’d leave myself last and I just wasn’t valuing myself. Telling myself negative things and going, 'Yeah we’ll suffer, yeah just eat that whole thing of ice cream or that whole packet of brownies because who cares? Whatever. You deserve that,’” she said. “Whether it was, like, fame or being a movie star or whatever. So, all I was doing was eating to numb those emotions, but that wasn’t the best thing to do. The best thing is to process those emotions and get rid of them that way, so I don’t have to numb myself from anything. But with all addictions that’s what they normally all are is vices is numbing you from the emotion. But emotions aren’t bad. it’s life. Life is ups and downs all the time.”

Credit: Courtesy of Rebel Wilson/Instagram

Her Battle With PCOS

“When I was like in college, I was diagnosed with something called PCOS, which stands for Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and it’s quite common. Some statistics say, like, 10 percent of women have it,” Wilson explained. “I can kind of tell when people have it usually by their body type. They normally have a similar body type to me, how they carry their weight, and it can create a hormone imbalance. I don’t have many symptoms apart from when I turned 20 to about 21, 22 rapidly gained [66 pounds] and I was still doing the same thing and I just rapidly gained weight and I thought, 'Hang on, something might be wrong.' And I went to an endocrinologist and they were like, ‘Yeah you’ve got this thing, but you know, just take this pill and see you later, bye!’ So, it wasn’t really explained to me what it was or how to deal with it. I just took a pill for like 20 years; I’ve stopped taking it now though.”

Credit: Evan Agostini/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

Losing Weight in the Industry

“There were a lot of people that wanted me to stay how I was. They wanted me to stay Fat Amy,” the actress admitted, referring to her popular Pitch Perfect character. “And at the end of the day it’s my life, it’s my body and Hollywood can have a way of typecasting you, but I didn’t want to stay like that. I wanted to change and it came from me.”

Wilson added that her friends were “very supportive” of her.

“No real dramas there [but] some people, when you’re changing for the better, they won’t be so happy for you, they might try to sabotage you even but you gotta stay true to yourself and stay focused,” she added.

Credit: POOL MONACO/SIPA/Shutterstock

She Met Her Boyfriend Pre-Weight Loss

Wilson went public with boyfriend Busch in September but revealed on Tuesday that they’ve been dating since before she started her weight loss journey.

“He’s a very private person so don’t like to give away too much in that department. But I will say, we dated before I started any of this health journey as well as now so goes to show you, ladies, you don’t have to be a certain size to get a boyfriend,” she declared.

Credit: Courtesy of Rebel Wilson/Instagram

Freezing Her Eggs

“I was also freezing my eggs because — as all good, career women out there should note — that if that’s something that interests you, it’s a pretty good time to do it,” she said of 2020. “I was thinking about fertility and having good quality eggs in the bank, so I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to do this. I’m going to get healthy.’”