Gigi Hadid’s Secret Struggle With Thyroid Disease Had a Major Impact on Her Weight

Just one week after the world watched Gigi Hadid strut down the runway in Victoria’s Secret lingerie, the model has revealed she struggles with Hashimoto’s disease, a thyroid condition that has impacted her thin figure.

The 21-year-old announced her health battle at a panel alongside Reebok’s celebrity spokeswomen, Elle reports. Hadid said she was diagnosed two years ago but she still struggles to maintain her weight due to her abnormal metabolism.

“My metabolism actually changed like crazy this year. I have Hashimoto’s disease,” she revealed. “It’s a thyroid disease, and it’s now been two years since taking the medication for it, so for the VS show I didn’t want to lose any more weight, I just want to have muscles in the right place, and if my butt can get a little perkier, then that’s good.”

As the featured face of Reebok’s #PerfectNever campaign, Hadid also dished on other aspects of her health and lifestyle.

“In general I like fresh ingredients. I’m not a salad and meat type of person; to me, that’s boring. I also like making tomato soup from scratch with grilled cheese dippers on the side,” she admitted. “If I can cook it with ingredients that I know are good, then I’ll eat anything. Carbs, or whatever!”

She also shared an at-home fitness trick for one of her most dreaded exercises. “[Squats are] painful, and you have to do so many for them to work. Recently for the VS show, I put a sticky note in my kitchen, and every time I walked past the squats sticky note, I had to do 15 squats.” This trick holds her accountable to get it done without the drive from a trainer or coach.

As for Hadid’s more than 26.4 million Instagram followers, she shared that she’s participating in a healthy social media detox in the New Year.