Actor Details How She Lost 100 Pounds

Kathy Bates knows that people think her slim new physique came courtesy of Ozempic, but the “Matlock” star says her new look actually took years of “hard work,” she told People.

Bates, 76, said she has lost 100 pounds over the past seven years. She shed most of the weight, 80 pounds, after making changes to her diet and lifestyle following a Type 2 diabetes diagnosis in 2017.

Ozempic, said Bates, helped her to drop the last 20 pounds.

“There’s been a lot of talk that I just was able to do this because of Ozempic,” said Bates. “But I have to impress upon people out there that this was hard work for me, especially during the pandemic. It’s very hard to say you’ve had enough.”

The Oscar winner decided to rethink her relationship with food after receiving the Type 2 diabetes diagnosis seven years ago. “I ate because I was afraid, and I ate because it was a FU to my self-esteem,” she said.

Several of Bates’ family members have also been diagnosed with the disease, which allowed her to see firsthand how detrimental it can be.

“I’d seen what my father had gone through. He had had a leg amputation. One of my sisters is dealing with it very seriously, and it terrified me. It scared me straight,” she said.

Bates began her weight loss journey by tuning into her body and training herself to stop eating once she felt full.

Next, she paid better attention to what she ate. “I used to eat terribly: burgers and Cokes and pizza,” she told People, noting that she now stops eating after 8 p.m.

Though she’s much stricter about her eating habits these days, Bates allows herself the occasional treat. When food trucks recently arrived at the Paramount lot during shooting of “Matlock,” Bates ate a Pink’s Hot Dog.

“Oh, my God, I hadn’t had a hot dog in such a long time,” she said, adding, “Today I’m getting back on my track.”

Bates has also made exercise a priority.

“That’s going to be my next thing that I’m worried about because I won’t be on set running back and forth,” she said. “I have a treadmill here at the house, and I might try Pilates. People always ask, ‘Don’t you want a trainer?’ No, I really don’t. I don’t want anybody over my shoulder. 

“It’s just very important to me to keep this going. I don’t want to slip,” she said.

Shedding the weight has helped Bates control the swelling she experiences from lymphedema.

She was diagnosed with the condition after undergoing a double mastectomy following a breast cancer diagnosis in 2012, which came nearly a decade after Bates had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2003.

“It’s been a tremendous benefit for me,” she said of her weight loss. “I’m lucky that I don’t have to wear my compression sleeves every day. It’s such a thrill to be able to put my arm into a jacket and it fits.”

It’s also allowed her to do an even better job as an actor, including being able to navigate the often rigorous demands of filming a weekly TV series.

“Physically, I’m capable of doing this show,” said Bates, “I don’t have to sit down. I can stand up all day long and walk and move and breathe and do so many things that I couldn’t before.”

In January 2019, Bates opened up to Us Weekly about her weight loss journey, nothing at the time that she had lost 60 pounds.

She attributes her success to developing a “mindfulness” about her eating, which helped her with “knowing when to push my plate away.”

“My niece told me this little secret, I guess it’s no secret, it’s a biological thing, that at some point when you’re eating, you have this involuntary sigh and that’s really your brain and your stomach communicating that you’ve had enough,” Bates told Us Weekly. “The trick is to pay attention to that and push your plate away.”

“It took a few years,” she added. “I would say you have to be really patient. … I don’t like the word willpower, but I like the word determination.”