Everything She Has Said About Her Health

Chrissy Metz is opening up about her health journey.

Metz — who rose to fame on the NBC show This Is Us — told the Daily Mail in April 2025 that she had lost 100 lbs. and was consistently weight training.

“I have always enjoyed strength training. I’ve always enjoyed lifting weights — like, I don’t want to run unless I’m being chased,” the actress said with a laugh. “I want to age the best way that I can, and I want to be strong. And that’s really the impetus behind any of it.”

Metz has struggled with her weight since she was a child, as she told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017.

“I’ve been chubby all my life,” she said. “I was born chubby and 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.”

The Emmy nominee started prioritizing her health after she turned 30 and had a panic attack over her weight. Ultimately, she debuted her 100 lb. weight loss at an event in May 2025.

“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,” she told PEOPLE in 2017.

Here’s everything Chrissy Metz has said about her health journey and weight loss.

Metz has struggled with her weight her entire life

Metz has struggled with her weight for as long as she can remember.

As a child, she “would totally gain weight” if she ate the same things as her classmates, the American Horror Story actress told The Hollywood Reporter.

“I had to be really cognizant of what I ate,” she told the outlet. “I don’t necessarily remember being told what not to eat, but I know that it was an issue and it was something that was kind of whispered about because not everybody wanted to really hurt my feelings.”

When she was 11 years old, Metz went to a Weight Watchers program and was “the youngest person” in the room.

In addition to having her own insecurities, Metz has claimed that she dealt with physical and emotional abuse from her stepfather, who allegedly criticized her weight.

“My body seemed to offend him, but he couldn’t help but stare, especially when I was eating,” she wrote in her 2018 memoir, This Is Me. “He joked about putting a lock on the refrigerator. We had lived with a lack of food for so long that when it was there, I felt like I had to eat it before it disappeared. Food was my only happiness.”

Metz’s stepfather’s alleged actions led her to “hide my eating” and eat in the “middle of the night.”

“I’d sneak food to eat in the bathroom,” she wrote. “Cookies, chips. Things I could eat as fast as possible to avoid detection. Things that would give me the brief bliss of numbness.”

Metz claimed that her stepfather’s alleged abuse escalated to the point where he would “hit” parts of her body that “offended him.”

Years later, Metz said that she and her stepfather are now in a good place.

“We have a relationship now,” she said. “I do love him and I do care about him.”

The actress also believes “everything that happened to me, happened for me” adding, “[I’ve learned] some beautiful lessons.”

She was motivated to lose 100 lbs. after she was hospitalized on her 30th birthday

Metz started her acting career when she was a size 12 and would “always see the same small group of girls,” in audition rooms, as she told PEOPLE in February 2017. Metz then dropped 50 lbs. at the recommendation of her then-manager.

After struggling to secure acting roles, she started working as a junior casting agent, but according to the actress, that worsened her depression. Metz began “eating my feelings” and gained 100 lbs. during that time period.

On her 30th birthday, Metz was about to attend her party when she began feeling heart palpitations and checked herself into the hospital.

“I’m like, ‘What is this? Am I dying? What’s happening?’ ” she said. “It was really scary — really, really, really scary.”

Doctors informed her that she had a panic attack, warning her, “You can’t continue on this path.” The incident caused Metz to prioritize her health.

“I was so gung ho, I lost 100 lbs. in less than five months,” she said. “All I did was eat a 2,000-calorie diet and walk 20 minutes a day.”

Metz has been open about the ups and downs of her weight loss journey

In the midst of her health journey, Metz’s career began to take off.

In 2014, she landed a role on American Horror Story: Freak Show where she played a “fat lady” and wore a fat suit. She said the part was “sobering,” because she did “not want” to end up like her character.

Five years later, Metz starred in the hit NBC drama, This Is Us. In the show, Metz played Kate, a woman who struggled with issues of body image and weight loss.

“You have to use what you have, and I wouldn’t have this role if I had already lost weight,” she told PEOPLE in 2017. “Now it’s about telling a story of a woman struggling with her weight, just as I have and still am.”

In the series, Kate underwent gastric bypass surgery with the goal of losing weight. Metz clarified to PEOPLE at the time that she was never mandated to lose weight for the role, but expressed that she felt motivated to do so.

“Why not have a motivation beyond me to get to a healthy weight?” she said in December 2016. “Every actor does that. We’re chameleons. We change, we grow as an actor … you lose weight, you gain weight, you change your hair or whatever.”

She doesn’t “worry about numbers” on the scale

Metz has tried to focus more on getting healthy than reaching a certain weight.

“I don’t worry about numbers,” she told Marie Claire in 2017. “It just messes with my mind.”

Metz reiterated her approach at the WrapWomen’s Power Women Summit in October 2019, saying, “Whether I lose weight or I don’t, I don’t really hold onto like a number. I don’t think that’s important.”

In 2020, Metz told Good Housekeeping that she was prioritizing “progress, not perfection.”

“I’ve battled weight issues, but I realize that I don’t have to beat myself up if I have XYZ food,” she told the publication. “Instead, I change my perspective and think, ‘What is it that I’m angry about?’ since we tend to want crunchy foods when we’re angry or ice cream when we soothe ourselves. All these things I’m just trying to be cognizant of.”

She found an exercise routine that worked for her

In April 2025, Metz told the Daily Mail that she’s been enjoying weight lifting.

“I have always enjoyed strength training. I’ve always enjoyed lifting weights, like I don’t want to run unless I’m being chased,” she told the outlet.

Her workout sessions vary, but Metz has been “consistent” with lifting weights and tries to “chip away just a little bit every day.” In addition to hitting the gym, Metz also enlisted the help of a personal trainer in Nashville, Tenn.

“We have things in common where it’s not just like, ‘Why are you doing this?’ Like I don’t want to be yelled at,” she said. “I want to be lovingly supported in whatever it is that I’m doing.”

Metz explained that she’s exercising because she “want[s] to age the best way that I can.”

“I’m literally doing it because I am nervous about aging, about osteoporosis or arthritis, you know, and because they are now discovering so much about health overall [and] it’s really about being and staying strong and flexible,” she said.

When asked about the possibility of taking Ozempic, Metz said that she doesn’t judge people who use the weight loss medication.

“It is so personal and I think it’s important to destigmatize anything,” she said. “But I also think it’s people’s personal decision to decide what it is that they want to do for their body. I think ultimately, at the end of the day, we all just want to feel good and feel good about ourselves.”

She showed off her 100-lb. weight loss in May 2025

On May 1, Metz debuted her 100-lb. weight loss in a colorful pastel dress at Variety’s Power of Women event in Nashville, Tenn.

She accessorized her look with white cowboy boots, wearing her brunette locks in loose waves.