Jennifer Hudson Weight Loss Story

These days, everyone wants to know some variation of the following questions:

How did Jennifer Hudson lose her weight?
How did Jennifer Hudson lose weight?
How did Jennifer Hudson really lose weight?
How Jennifer Hudson lose weight
How Jennifer Hudson lost her weight
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How Jennifer Hudson lost weight


So you probably are here to know about Jennifer Hudson’s weight loss. Well, at the age of 29, Jennifer Hudson has a long list of accomplishments to her name. She is a loving mother, Academy Award winning actress, and popular singer. She’s also the victim of a terrible string of murders that left many of her close family members dead. And yet, the most notable thing about her is her recent weight loss. If you’ve found this website, you probably already know that and have seen tons of before and after pictures. The goal of this site is to document how she lost weight (nearly 80 pounds and many, many dress sizes). It will also share other programs and strategies that many other regular people have used to lose weight and get their life back in control as well as common health and fitness tips you can use to lose weight.

Jennifer Hudon’s Weight Loss: The Backstory

According to recent interviews, even she can’t believe how much weight she’s lost recently. She’s even quoted as saying:

“I go into the store and they try to put me in 4s and 6s and I’m like, ‘Who are you trying to talk to?’”  “My mind hasn’t caught up yet.”

According to an interview with PeopleStyleWatch she went on to say:

“I didn’t expect to go as far as I did,”

Before joining Weight Watchers in 2010, the Academy Award winning actress was a size 16. Shortly after her weight loss, Jennifer Hudson became their spokesperson. Despite her recent weight loss success, the 29 year old actress says she still sees herself as the “old” Jennifer, albeit with plenty of healthy lifestyle changes.

Jennifer Hudson’s Weight Loss: The Controversy

As if losing weight and being the international spokesperson for Weight Watchers isn’t accomplishment enough, the singer/actress recently closed a deal with Penguin publishing to write a book about her 80 pound weight loss journey. But not everyone is celebrating the book deal. Some see this move as alienating her fans who, in large part, supported her so staunchly because she didn’t fit the typical Hollywood body type. In fact, her size was a constant topic of discussion; almost as much as her undeniable talent in the movie “Dreamgirls”. Everytime someone discussed her weight in the media her response was how much she accepted it and celebrated it. She projected a self-confidence and acceptance that many women gravitated to. She clearly built a large and loyal fanbase by embracing the fact that she was a successful minority woman who happened to not fit the Hollywood ideal for a filmstar.

But, especially with the publishing deal, her recent weight loss has become a sticking point for some of her core fans, likely driving away some. At issue is the people feel left high and dry, where she once embraced her weight, she is now endorsing a leading weight loss company. Either way, the change is noteworthy, and just as many people will find her to be a source of weight loss inspiration. Speaking of her own weight loss, she says she’s happy with where she is now and doesn’t plan to drop any more pounds according to a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Her Unique Weight Loss Perspective

Notably, it’s Jennifer Hudson’s perspective on her own weight loss that’s unique. Whenever she was asked about her previous weight, she declined to disclose the actual number. Instead of counting pounds, she told Oprah:

“I don’t really like to count pounds… I look at it by age. I feel like I gained 10 years of my life back.”

According to Hudson’s Weight Watchers leader, people get wrapped up in the pounds, the point is that you have to do what feels good, not to get caught up in the numbers. She did eventually say that she lost 80 pounds in total.

How She Lost the Weight

When someone loses as much weight as Jennifer Hudson, everyone wonders how she did it. According to her Weight Watchers coach, she did it by abandoning her old dieting habits and following the Weight Watchers techniques. And obviously, it didn’t happen overnight. Incidentally she actually started gaining weight when she first started the program. According to her coach, Hudson gained weight 3-weeks into the program because she wasn’t following the guidelines. At that point she decided to give the program a chance and follow the rules for one week. She counted Weight Watchers points and ate in moderation, all while incorporating things like pizza and ice cream into her regular diet. By the end of that first week, she had lost weight, and would continue to do so over the duration of the program.

Hudson said that the real reason she couldn’t lose weight previously is because she just didn’t know the proper way to eat and credits Weight Watchers for helping her learn how to eat better. She asserts that her weight loss success isn’t because she’s a celebrity with a personal chef and trainer, but because she does the hard work necessary to lose weight, including cooking her own meals and working out. She further says that it has a lot to do with motivation and mindset. She even says how she now goes jogging at 4a.m., something she wouldn’t have really done before.

One tidbit is that Hudson’s success has encouraged 75 of her friends and family to join Weight Watchers, losing a total of 1,935 pounds. Another interesting fact is that she actually started losing weight before she became a mega-star because she wanted to appear on American Idol. But when she got the part in Dreamgirls, she was asked to actually gain 20 pounds!

Conclusion

At the end of the day, weight loss is about burning more calories than your body consumes. One quick formula to keep in mind is that one pound of fat is 3500 extra calories. Another way of saying that is that you can lose one pound per week by simply cutting back 500 calories from your diet per day (500 calories x 7 days = 3500 calories per week)

In this interview on The View, Jennifer Hudson brings her 19 month old son David onto the stage. It’s an interesting video highlighting a cute video of him dancing when his mom is singing. It also discusses her tribute to Aretha Franklin (who actually said she’d love to portray that vocal powerhouse in a movie). Of course, she discussed her dramatic weight loss, her new book, and everything that entails. She said how she made a good amount of her actual WW meetings and her personal journey.

She discusses her life as a mom with such a busy career. She says how being a mom helps take the pressure off of her demanding (and successful) career. For her, “mommy time” is mommy time. She goes on to discuss her American Idol experience and how getting dropped was one of the best things to happen to her career; leading her to get an Oscar. She says how she appreciated the criticism from the show. In fact, she was used to it because she grew up with sisters who always gave her honest feedback.

Besides her weight loss, She has a film coming out in the fall about Nelson Mandela’s life where she plays Winnie Mandela. It tracks her life from age 17, her 500 days of solitary confinement, up until he was released. Jennifer Hudson had to even lose weight to play that part also. Lastly, she discusses her new album and her transformation as an artist.