Lizzo is shaking the table about the “Ozempic boom,” warning that the weight-loss craze is quietly erasing plus-size people from fashion and culture. 

In a frank new Substack essay, the “Good As Hell” singer focused on recent cultural changes being more than a cosmetic desire. Lizzo argued that there are material consequences for employment, visibility, and how Black plus-size bodies are perceived. “So here we are halfway through the decade, where extended sizes are being magically erased from websites. Plus-sized models are no longer getting booked for modeling gigs. And all of our big girls are not-so-big anymore,” she wrote.

Lizzo, 37, grounded her essay in personal context. She recounted a painful period in 2023 when, after public controversy and intense personal struggle, she said she was “deeply suicidal” and later decided to get help. This is when Lizzo adopted movement as a part of her therapy.

“I decided to turn my extreme inaction to action. I needed a way to process my pain through my body, so I started with Pilates. I only worked with black women instructors and learned that Pilates was actually cofounded by a black woman. I used it as physical therapy. Sometimes I cried after sessions. I found that I had lost some weight in that process, but it wasn’t as significant as it is now. Because it wasn’t intentional,” she shared.

Lizzo called her extra weight a protective shield that she realized she needed to “release.” She also examined how weight shaped the way others saw her and the coping strategies she adopted. Lizzo said accusations that she made “being fat” her whole personality pushed her to fight stereotypes, writing that she had to “actively work against ‘mammy’ tropes by being hypersexual and vulgar because being a mammy by definition is being desexualized.” 

“I’m not gonna sit up as one of these ‘big girl celebrities’ that have had dramatic changes to their body and give you that ‘I did it for medical reasons’ story. Because we all know yes, that exists—Yes, there’s less pressure on my joints the less that I weigh. Yes there’s less risk of certain health issues the less I weigh. But let’s be real. I wanted to change how I felt in my body.”

And even though Lizzo wanted to feel different in her body, she never wanted to turn her back on being “big.” She said, “I am still a proud big girl. Objectively Big. Over 200 pounds. And I love myself as much as I’ve loved myself no matter what the scale says.” 

It was never about being thin for Lizzo. “I don’t even think it’s possible for me to be considered actually ‘thin’. I will always have the stretch, and the skin of a woman who carries great weight. And I’m proud of that. Even when the world doesn’t want me to be.” 

Crucially, Lizzo makes two arguments at once: first, that slimming trends are altering market demand (fewer bookings, smaller size runs), and second, that the body-positivity movement must respond with real structural work. “We have a lot of work to do, to undo the effects of the Ozempic boom,” she wrote, issuing a direct challenge to brands, agencies and cultural gatekeepers.

Lizzo’s candid essay interrogated how she was received as a public figure, how body politics and stereotypes shaped her career choices, and how commercialized body-positivity can flatten nuance. Lizzo is asking fans and the industry to see the human cost behind a trend and to act so plus-size people aren’t quietly erased.

Knowing her responsibility, she wrote, “I have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of the movement that gave me wings. It is work I am willing and ready to do. What do we do? We continue to have conversations. We continue to hold each other accountable. We release ourselves from the illusion that there is only good and bad. We re-introduce nuance into our discussions. I want us to allow the body positive movement to expand and grow far away from the commercial slop it’s become. Because movements move.”