Lizzo is opening up about why following a vegan diet ultimately didn’t work for her health.
During an appearance on Big Boy’s Neighborhood on Friday (June 19), the “Bitch” singer reflected on her weight-loss journey and explained why she decided to stop eating vegan.
The conversation comes just a month after the four-time Grammy winner became the face of Chili’s baby back ribs campaign, a partnership that drew criticism from PETA since Lizzo had followed a plant-based lifestyle for nearly three years.
Speaking around the 41-minute mark of the interview, Lizzo said her vegan diet relied heavily on processed meat alternatives and other foods that she believes contributed to significant weight gain.
“I was starting to have physical aches and pains that I could only attribute to having extra weight on me,” Lizzo said. “I had gone vegan, and I had gained 50 pounds being vegan, ‘cause I was consuming a lot of fake meat. I was consuming a lot of french fries.”
She added, “It wasn’t working for me. And I looked up, and I gained 50 pounds. I didn’t really realize it.”
Lizzo said that despite having “so much stamina and energy” during rehearsals and workouts, she began experiencing pain in her lower back and knees. Even with those symptoms, she said doctors still considered her to be healthy.
For more than a year, the singer has openly shared her weight-loss journey—which she prefers to call a “weight release”—and has previously revealed that she briefly used Ozempic.
During an appearance on Trisha Paytas’ Just Trish podcast last year, Lizzo also disclosed that she was consuming between 3,000 and 5,000 calories a day while following a vegan diet.
Despite her experience, Lizzo emphasized that she still believes veganism can be a healthy lifestyle.
“I still think that veganism is a very healthy way of eating and one day I aspire to be a raw vegan,” she said. “I want to one day grow my own vegetables. I want to have my own farm. That’s the dream. But right now, what works for my body and what my body needs to have energy and to function is animal protein.”
