Melissa McCarthy Has a Surprisingly Simple Secret for Shedding Pounds

Like many young girls, funny lady Melissa McCarthy has admitted to struggling with her weight from an early age. “I do think I worried about weight too soon, when it was only little-kid weight,” she told Rolling Stone. This anxiety followed her throughout her life — until recently. 

Despite being a size six in high school and participating in sports like gymnastics and tennis, she fell victim to the same body-shaming mentality a lot of women struggle with. It only got worse in her 20s when she started putting less effort into her health and began to gain pounds. McCarthy was willing to try anything in order to lose weight. That included going on an all-liquid diet for about four months when she starred on Gilmore Girls. Although it was approved by her doctor (and resulted in a 70 pound loss), she told People she would never do something that drastic again because it made her feel, “starved and crazy half the time.” 

That said, you’ve probably noticed the actress looking much trimmer again lately in some of her more recent roles. While speaking with CBS This Morning, McCarthy revealed her surprisingly simple weight loss secret: “I finally said, ‘Oh for God sakes, stop worrying about it, and it may be the best thing I’ve ever done.” It might sound too easy to be true, but stress can definitely be a factor in weight gain and there’s no denying it worked for McCarthy. 

McCarthy says she feels amazing now, elaborating: “I truly stopped worrying about it. I stopped over-analyzing, over-thinking, over-doing anything… I just stopped constantly being worried about it and I think there’s something to kinda loosening up and not being so nervous and rigid about it that, bizarrely, has worked.” She also joked that it would have been nice to figure this out before she reached her mid-40s, but that only makes her even more relatable to the countless women who continue to battle those overwhelming woes about weight. 

McCarthy also admitted in an interview with Refinery29 that she fully expects her weight to continue to fluctuate — but that it shouldn’t be the “most interesting” thing about her, or any woman for that matter. “There has to be something more. There are so many more intriguing things about women than their butt or their this or their that.” We couldn’t agree more. 

If you ever find yourself overly-stressing your weight, try popping on one of McCarthy’s hilarious movies and having a good laugh instead!

This post originally appeared on our sister site, Woman’s World.

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