Everything Mindy Kaling Has Said About Her Weight Loss Journey

When "The Office" first aired in March 2005, the world was introduced to Kelly Kapoor. Played by Mindy Kaling, Kelly was the type of character that many could relate to: a little bit crazy, a little pop culture-obsessed, and, of course, hopelessly (read: madly) in love with her officemate Ryan Howard, played by Kaling's IRL best friend and ex-boyfriend B.J. Novak. Both she and Novak were also writers for the show.

Although Kaling was a key player in the success of "The Office" TV series, her weight was never very far from being a punchline. In 2021, she sat down with "Good Morning, America" to recall a time when another writer suggested one of the characters mock Kelly for her weight by insisting that she should lose 15 pounds. "This is my greatest insecurity and someone just called it out," Kaling told GMA. "It's really devastating ... I had a reckoning where I'm like, 'People are scrutinizing [me], and not only are they scrutinizing [me], they're verbalizing their displeasure with how I look because I don't look a certain way."

While the joke in question never made it onto a script, the damage had been done. But that wasn't the first time nor the last time Kaling's weight would become a topic of discussion. Similar to other celebrity women, like Amy Schumer, who has opened up about her own weight loss journey, Kaling has spoken out numerous times about the work she's put in to accepting herself as she is.  

It should go without saying that high school is the worst and if there's ever an environment to create insecurities, that's definitely the place for it. In her 2011 memoir, "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?" Kaling recalls being told that she'd "be really pretty if you lost weight." In response to the comment, Kaling created what she called a "makeshift diet formula," in which she ate only half of whatever food she had on her plate and never had dessert.

"Without exercising, I lost thirty pounds in about two months," Kaling wrote in her memoir. "I remember waking up in the morning and looking down at my fingers and seeing they had shrunk overnight. Suddenly I was freezing all the time, like those skinny girls in movie theaters are always complaining about, and needed to sleep with an extra wool blanket. My face thinned out, and my belly went away... I thought [my bully] Duante would finally leave me alone, but he didn't." Although Kaling was a "pretty normal weight" for a while, as she wrote in her book, she gained 35 pounds during her first year at college.

After the weight gain in college, Kaling took to the gym to lose it again. But she also had a realization about herself and her body. As she wrote in her 2011 memoir, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), "Ultimately, the main reasons why I will be chubby for life are (1) I have virtually no hobbies except dieting. I can't speak any non-English languages, knit, ski, scrapbook, or cook. I have no pets. I don't know how to do drugs. I lost my passport three years ago when I moved into my house and never got it renewed. Video games scare me because they all seem to simulate situations I'd hate to be in, like war or stealing cars. So if I ever lost weight I would also lose my only hobby; (2) I have no discipline; I'm like if Private Benjamin had never toughened up but, in fact, got worse; (3) Guys I've dated have been into me the way I am; and (4) I'm pretty happy with the way I look, so long as I don't break a beach chair."

While Kaling didn't owe anyone then or anyone now a reason for her weight loss or gain, this was a pretty epic way to nail body acceptance and give the reader a giggle. It was by far one of the most notable ways a celebrity has clapped back at Hollywood's demand that they lose weight. Many probably read that passage of her memoir and said over and over, "Same, girl, same."

When Kaling showed up to the 2023 Oscars after losing what appeared to be about 40 pounds, social media started tossing around Ozempic rumors left and right. By then Ozempic was everywhere and even in his opening monologue Oscars 2023 host Jimmy Kimmel joked, "Everybody looks so great. When I look around this room, I can't help but wonder, 'Is Ozempic right for me?” Unlike some celebrities who have either admitted to or outright denied using Ozempic, Kaling has stayed mum on the subject.

In April 2022, almost a year before the rumors started to kick into high gear, Kaling addressed her weight loss when talking to Entertainment Tonight by saying she hadn't made any changes other than eating less. "When the world started coming back a little bit I thought, 'This kind of eating what appears, not taking any consideration for what I'm eating is probably not the way to go,'" Kaling said. "Honestly, I didn't really do anything differently. I eat what I like to eat. If I do any kind of restrictive diet, it never really works for me. I just eat less of it ... I wish there was something more juicy or dynamic about the way that I've lost a little bit of weight, but that's the way I've done it."

Part of every weight loss journey is learning to eat right. In other words, knowing that pizza and ice cream, although amazingly delicious, isn't something that should be consumed on a daily basis. That's exactly what Mindy Kaling discovered was a necessary part of her lifestyle change. "I'm never going stop being a foodie. I'm never going be someone who can just have spinach and salmon every day," Kaling told Today in May 2022. "I just am really for the first time in my life, trying moderation, and I love it."

In April 2022, Kaling told ET that after her son was born in 2020, she tried a restrictive diet but it didn't last. "I eat what I like to eat. If I do any kind of restrictive diet, it never really works for me," Kaling said. "I just eat less of it... I wish there was something more juicy or dynamic about the way that I've lost a little bit of weight, but that's the way I've done it." Although moderation has certainly worked for Kaling, according to a 2016 study published in Appetite, moderation only works when people genuinely know what moderation looks like. However, our culture tends to misinterpret what moderation is when we're left to decide.

In July 2023, Allure interviewed Kaling about her new venture as an investor and ambassador for the beauty brand Lion Pose and, of course, her weight loss came up. When asked what she would say to those who felt they lost a body acceptance ally with her weight loss, Kaling said, "It's not super exciting for me to talk about my body and how it's analyzed. So I think I'm just not going to get into it because it takes over the conversation unfortunately and people take it so personally."

A couple of months before the interview with Allure, Kaling launched her Mindy x Andie Swim Collection and told People that she'd never felt so confident in her body. She also addressed what fans had been saying about her body, disclosing to People, "I know people are really interested in my body and the changes in my body, and I think it's flattering and sometimes it's just a little much, so I don't try to tune it in too much." She continued, "The truth is that I spend so much time and energy trying to be healthy." Kaling then added that she covers 20 miles a week either running or walking, and combines that with weight training.

Part of Mindy Kaling's weight loss journey has been getting more active in order to better prioritize her health. In May 2024, Kaling talked to Prevention about her favorite ways to move her body, one of which is something most people can easily pull off: taking a walk everyday. For Kaling, walking 15 to 20 miles a week isn't just something she does for her body, but her mind, too. "I have mental clarity, I feel like I get better sleep at night... So for me, that's always been key," Kaling told Prevention.

Kaling also understands that a healthy body needs to be strong, so she does her best to include strength training as part of her daily routine. "I remember as a kid, always hearing 'When you get older, you lose muscle mass. You need to start lifting,'" Kaling told Prevention, admitting that her workouts when she was younger were more about attaining an impossible ideal and less about being healthy. However, she's finally come around to understanding that lifting and other strength-related exercises are essential in achieving healthiness.

In a since-deleted photo posted on Instagram on June 24, 2023, Kaling wrote, "My doctor told me that this year I was the healthiest I've been in years. That's a pretty damn good gift, right?" Why the photo was taken down, was never explained.

From the beginning of her career, Kaling has bucked conventional beauty standards. In an industry that puts thin, white women on a pedestal, Kaling has come out on top and, in the words of Frank Sinatra, did it her way. She's been candid about her weight when she felt like it and stayed quiet when she didn't want to partake in the discussion anymore. 

"When I was younger, I had a very specific idea of how working out needed to be," Kaling told People in May 2022. "It was like 45 minutes on the treadmill, seven-minute mile, it needed to be punishing, I needed to hate it ... And that's taken a long time to kind of shed those old ideas of working out." Kaling has evolved and grown, as people do, and should be commended for that, instead of bombarded with weight-related questions that, frankly, are none of anyone's business.