For Shonda Rhimes, 54, weight loss isn't about the scale.
“For me, it’s never truly been about a number,” the "Bridgerton" creator told People in 2015. “It’s just about feeling good. I feel good and really healthy.”
In 2014, She decided to make a change when she wasn't able to buckle her seatbelt on an airplane, she shared in her 2015 memoir, "Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person."
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The "Grey's Anatomy" showrunner has also said she was motivated to lose weight for her three daughters, Harper, 22, Becket, 11, and Emerson, whom she welcomed via adoption in 2012.
A few years later, Rhimes revealed in an essay that she had lost as much as 150 pounds.
"I did not go on any specific diet or use any specific program. And I did not have any kind of weight-loss surgery," she wrote in her memoir.
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Ahead, discover the details Rhimes has shared about her weight loss journey.
When she decided to lose weight, she consulted her doctor
Rhimes’ weight loss journey began with a trip to her physician, she shared in her memoir.
“I went to my doctor and I said, ‘I don’t wanna be fat anymore. Help. Me.’ My doctor literally applauded me. Eva’s cool that way,” she wrote.
“I asked for and got a complete physical. I did this so I knew where I was starting out because I wanted to know what I was working with,” she continued. “I wanted to be able to see progress in even the smallest ways. I also did whatever my doctor told me to do.”
She explored the emotions that influenced her eating habits
Rhimes grew introspective about her eating patterns and realized she was using food as a way to cope with difficult feelings, she wrote in her memoir.
"The food created a nice topcoat. It helped to smooth down the ragged bits. Sealed off the parts of me that were broken. It filled in all the holes. Covered up the cracks," she wrote.
"Yep, I just put some food on top of any and everything that bothered me. The food just spackled right on in there," she continued. "And presto! Underneath the food, everything inside me was smooth and cold and numb. I was dead inside and that was good."
No food is ‘off-limits’
Rhimes decided early on in her weight loss journey that no food would be “off-limits,” she wrote in her memoir.
“I could eat anything I wanted. As long as I ate a reasonable portion,” she wrote.
She also said she began listening to her body and its cravings to decide what — and when — to eat.
“I’d been so used to eating simply because it was breakfast time or lunchtime or dinnertime — I’d never stopped to think about whether or not I was hungry, let alone craving anything,” she wrote.
On social media, Rhimes has posted about enjoying a wide range of foods.
“Delicious start to a delicious day,” she captioned a 2022 post showing what looks like a bowl of oats topped with berries.
“When your mama cooks Sunday dinner! #homecooking,” she captioned another Instagram post from February 2023, sharing a photo of a plate with fried chicken, greens, Brussels sprouts, blueberries and strawberries.
She also shared a video of herself making pizza in a February 2024 Instagram post.
“You guys have asked me how I stay disciplined. I don’t. I make pizza! 😂 J/k,” she wrote in the caption. “But when I needed a break, making pizzas with my oldest was a good distraction. Sometimes stepping away is a great way to tap into your creativity. So, live a little!”
She established a balanced morning routine
Rhimes starts her day with a mix of exercise, healthy eating and restful moments, she told the Wall Street Journal in 2022.
She told the publication she wakes up at 6 a.m., gets her younger daughters, Emerson and Beckett, ready for school, then enjoys a “meditative moment” of drinking coffee in bed.
After that she eats breakfast, which she says often consists of toast, tea, and a drink containing Athletic Greens nutritional powder.
Then she fits in some exercise, even if she only has a few minutes.
“I either get on the treadmill or I get on my Peloton bike and try to work out. I’ll be honest, I’m not a ‘I’m going to get in there for 45 minutes’ kind of person,” she said. “Fifteen minutes is all I’ve got most of the time. I try really hard to be good and stay on and try to do something longer. But I’ve given myself this rule that if you can do it for 15 minutes, you can call yourself proud and let it go for the rest of the day.”
She values sleep — and drinks plenty of water
As Rhimes told the Wall Street Journal in 2022, she is not one to skimp on sleep.
“I like to get as much sleep as possible, minimum eight hours of sleep,” she said. “If I could get 10 — I mean, I’ve never gotten 10 hours of sleep in my life — I would be so happy, I don’t know what I would do with myself.”
In her memoir, she also revealed she aims to drink 64 oz. of water per day.
"Which is just A LOT of water," she wrote. "But it made my skin look fantastic."
She has worked with a personal trainer
Rhimes has said she worked with personal trainer Jeanette Jenkins, who has also trained celebrities including Alicia Keys, Mindy Kaling, Octavia Spencer and Serena Williams.
The “Grey’s Anatomy” showrunner posted about one of her sessions with Jenkins back in 2013 on X.
“Excellent workout with trainer @JeanetteJenkins this morning,” Rhimes wrote. “She tells (the) best, scandalous, most hilarious stories to distract from the pain!”
Rhimes opened up about working with Jenkins in her 2015 memoir, too.
"When I was ready, I called a trainer. I’d worked with Jeanette Jenkins before. Well, mostly I’d complained and wheezed while she tried to get me to move my body," she wrote. "Now, I was ready to do what I was told. Jeanette got me doing Pilates and I loved it. I mean, who wouldn’t? It’s exercise you do lying down. For real. It’s like the universe finally decided to cut me some slack."
Jenkins opened up about being inspired by Rhimes in a 2015 interview with Vibe, when asked to name female mentors who pushed her to succeed.
“A lot of my mentors don’t even know they’re my mentors, like Shonda (Rhimes),” Jenkins said. “I stay completely professional, show up to their sessions and do my job as a trainer so I don’t ever intrude on their sessions with my personal questions.”
Her relationship with her body changed
When Rhimes first began thinking about losing weight, she says she struggled with the idea of focusing on her physical appearance.
"The feminist in me didn’t want to have the discussion with myself. I resented the need to talk about weight," she wrote in her memoir. "It felt as though I was judging myself on how I looked. It felt shallow. It felt misogynistic. It felt . . . traitorous to care. My body is just the container I carry my brain around in."
However, as she began to lose weight, she said she no longer viewed her body as "a mere container for my brain."
"I became more aware of it. In every way. How it worked, how it felt, how it moved," she wrote in her memoir. "I noticed how the muscles in my back tightened up in response to stress. I stretched more often."
She says as she lost weight, she started to feel "truly strong" and like Wonder Woman.
She received varying reactions to her weight loss
Rhimes has shared her dismay about how some people reacted to her physique after she lost about 150 pounds.
"After I lost weight, I discovered that people found me valuable," she wrote in a 2017 Shondaland newsletter. "Worthy of conversation. A person one could look at. A person one could compliment. A person one could admire."
She says this made her wonder how people viewed her before she lost weight.
"When I was fat, I wasn’t a PERSON to these people," she wrote. "Like I had been an Invisible Woman who suddenly materialized in front of them. Poof! There I am. Thin and ready for a chat."
She also opened up about how once she lost weight, some people felt comfortable telling fat jokes in her presence.
"Jokes not meant for me. But…completely for the woman I used to be 150 pounds ago," she wrote. "The woman I could be again one day. The woman I will always be inside."
"Because being thinner doesn’t make you a different person. It just makes you thinner," she added.
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