Jillian Michaels Under Fire for Shaming Lizzo’s Weight

Lizzo fans are calling out celebrity trainer Jillian Michaels for body shaming the “Truth Hurts” singer after Michaels stirred up controversy during an appearance on BuzzFeed News’ live morning show AM to DM on Wednesday. On the topic of Lizzo‘s body-positivity movement, Michaels interjected, “Why are we celebrating her body? Why does it matter? Why aren’t we celebrating her music? ‘Cause it isn’t gonna be awesome if she gets diabetes.”

The 45-year-old former trainer on The Biggest Loser continued, “I love her music. My kid loves her music. But there’s never a moment where I’m like, ‘And I’m so glad that she’s overweight.’”

Her remarks were immediately met with backlash, with tons of social media users accusing her of perpetuating stereotypes and fat-shaming Lizzo, who recently took a hiatus from Twitter over internet trolls and bullying.

The Good Place star Jameela Jamil, who frequently speaks out as a body neutral activist, tweeted, “Just saying… MY WHOLE DAMN THIN FAMILY HAS DIABETES AND HIGH CHOLESTEROL AND PROBLEMS WITH OUR JOINTS. Why’s This woman acting like she’s an MRI? Stop concern-trolling fat people and get in the bin.”

“We celebrate Lizzo because Lizzo unapologetically celebrates Lizzo and encourages everyone to celebrate themselves, so Jillian can f— all the way off to whatever washboard ab mountain of misery she sits atop,” one social media user wrote.

“Lizzo spends hours every night singing and playing the flute during intensive dance cardio. Just admit that the only self worth you’ve found for yourself is in your thinness, Jillian, then go to therapy & do the work to love yourself,” another tweeted.

“Why do people always jump to ‘they gonna get diabetes’?!? Thin people have diabetes too. Just saying…” someone said.

Michaels doubled down on her statement, urging her followers to “prioritize our health.”

“As I’ve stated repeatedly, we are all beautiful, worthy, and equally deserving,” she wrote in a statement she shared to Instagram on Wednesday evening. “I also feel strongly that we love ourselves enough to acknowledge there are serious health consequences that come with obesity — heart disease, diabetes, cancer to name only a few.”

“I would never wish these for ANYONE and I would hope we prioritize our health because we LOVE ourselves and our bodies,” she concluded.

Some agreed with Michaels’ point of view, with one Twitter user calling her “exactly right.”

“Staying in shape is important if you, like I, have kids and want to see grandkids one day staying in shape is the only way…..” one of Michaels’ Instagram followers wrote in the comments section of her statement.

Still others couldn’t understand Michaels’ point of view.

“But why shame her? You don’t know if she’s trying to lose weight or not. I’ve gotten on and fallen off that horse so many times,” one Instagram user wrote. “Being shamed by people like you doesn’t provide motivation, it just hurts. We all aren’t going to look like you, Jillian.”

Michaels’ comments about Lizzo come a few days after she announced she was quitting Twitter. “Yeah I can’t do this Twitter s— no more.. too many trolls,” she tweeted on Sunday. “I’ll be back when I feel like it.”

Over on Instagram, Lizzo explained her decision in a livestream video. “I would love to be on Twitter ’cause I could connect with you people who positively support me,” she said, “not to mention spreading my own positive messages. But now I’ve gotten to a point where I’m not just dealing with Internet bullies, I’m dealing with seeing a lot of negativity on the Internet dealing with everyone.”

Photo credit: Monica Schipper / Contributor / Getty