American Idol's Mandisa Loses Weight
Mandisa, a former contestant on American Idol, has an album coming out on March 24. She has also lost 75 pounds “without surgery” as the media always takes pains to point out. And is now talking about it in People magazine.
Following a routine of cardio workouts five days a week, a diet heavy on salads, lean meats and fiber, and counseling to work on her childhood issues, she’s dropped more than 75 lbs. “Being able to fit into clothes I couldn’t before is great,” she says. “To be able to walk into a room and not feel self-conscious, I don’t ever remember feeling this way.”
She plans to continue her new routine for life but remains realistic. “I want to be healthy, and I believe my body will get to whatever it’s supposed to be,” she says. “It could be a size 8 – but personally I like a girl with a little meat on her bones! I don’t need to look like the models on the magazine covers in order to be beautiful.”
I have mixed feelings whenever I hear about something like this: sadness that she couldn’t feel “self-confident” and “free” and unselfconscious before she lost weight; apprehension that as her weight cycles, she’s going to start on this cycle of headlines: MANDISA GAINS WEIGHT BACK! MANDISA DRAMATIC WEIGHT LOSS! MANDISA GETTING FAT! ala Carnie Wilson and ten zillion other celebrities who have been in this position; compassion for what she went through being mocked by the likes of Simon Cowell for her weight on national television; happy that she’s supposedly not dieting herself down to a stick (and that she’s using size 8 as her benchmark of skinnyness, not size 0); sadness that another fat-chick icon is not quite such a fat-chick icon anymore; not wanting her on my team anyway because didn’t she turn out to be a homophobe; feeling that it’s none of my business what size her body is.
Mandisa also linked her own weight to being sexually abused, a link that we’ve talked about before:
The Grammy-nominated Christian singer’s weight battle was borne of early trauma – she was sexually molested as a child and raped at 16. “A lot of girls turn to men to fill that void and some turn to drugs. I turned to food as my drug of choice.”
I am very happy, at least, that she’s going to therapy to work through these issues, and have nothing but sympathy for her as far as that’s concerned.
Via CDAN (who also has a picture of curvy Kelly Clarkson in that entry… Kelly! You are hot!).
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: American Idol, Celebrities, Gossip, Magazines, Media, Music, TV, Weight Loss
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I think it’s great that she is getting help to deal with the emotional trauma of the abuse but I think she’d find more happiness if she loved and accepted her body as it is, no matter the size. But, I don’t need to say that here, do I?
After reading the post linked towards the end of this one, I have to add that I’m somewhat insulted that the idea of childhood trauma and weight is so intrinsically connected. (not insulted by any of you, just the general idea) I am one of those that was abused, sexually, at a very early age, by my own father. The emotional baggage of that experience led me down a lot of wrong paths, especially concerning men and I am fat but the two are not connected and I’m so sick of people telling me that if I’d deal with the trauma I would somehow magically become thin. No. I’m fat because of physical issues and my body never liked being any smaller than a size 16/18 anyway. The weight I have in excess of that has nothing to do with emotions and everything to do with medical issues. I know for some, the link exists, I am just sick of it always being assumed.
If she’s changing her lifestyle in ways that work for her and make her feel more healthy, good for her. I wish the media would focus on that rather than on her scale weight and her dimensions.
I find it sad her story echoes so many “success” stories of people who supposedly found confidence and happiness at a lower weight. She looked so gorgeous before, and she really could have found that confidence, happiness AND health without weight loss.
Just to make it clear before I make this comment: Being someone who’s grown outside of America and not all too-familiar with what’s going on culturally, I hope I don’t bring this up wrongly. I looked at the photos and what I first saw, and didn’t understand is why her skin is so much lighter in the “after” picture. Is it a matter of lighting, or photoshop? Or is there some kind of hidden agenda behind it?
I just want her “after” dress.
Oh, and regarding the lighting… I suspect the difference is related to the blazing white shirt she’s wearing in the first shot. Expose for the shirt and the skin appears darker. The lighting and wardrobe in the second shot are better, as they’re softer and there’s less contrast overall.
I’m not saying someone didn’t boost her a few shades because they thought it looked “better” — I have no way of knowing either way — but there are some photographic reasons for the difference between the two shots.
I find it sad her story echoes so many “success” stories of people who supposedly found confidence and happiness at a lower weight.
I also have mixed feelings about Mandisa and success stories in general. After I lost a lot of weight, I did feel much more confidant in myself — my sister said it even seemed as if I were a totally different person. I felt freer to be able to do things that I hesitated to do before because: I was afraid of being harassed for my weight or called out on it; I didn’t feel as if I was worth it; and/or I allowed my weight insecurities to keep me from even trying. And, of course, there are the compliments that continue to flow copiously once you lose weight. For someone who has only been ridiculed and taunted for the way they look, like I was, being complimented comes as a great boon to self-esteem — at least, initially (it soon became a sore point with me both because I knew I was losing weight in a very unhealthy way and because I always wanted to be accepted in spite of my weight, fat or thin). And like Mandisa, being able to shop for clothes that were both fashionable, affordable and in my size was exhilarating, as was the fact that I could walk into a room and not wonder if people were staring at me and making judgments based on my weight.
Were my confidence issues related to my weight? Yes and no. Those same feelings of self-confidence didn’t disappear when I regained enough weight to be classified as fat once again (although I am not as fat as I once was). Sure, I still have body hangups, but I’ve come a long way in my own journey towards body acceptance. (I’m still frustrated with the lack of flattering clothes in my size and price range, though.)
So, I also have mixed feelings on this post. I absolutely believe that one can be confidant, gorgeous, fit and healthy, self-confident and have a healthy relationship with food and weight as a fat woman. But, in my experiences, this is difficult for so-called “average-sized” women to achieve, let alone women of size. And while I generally detest the ubiquity of weight loss “success” stories, who am I to minimize or dismiss Mandisa’s new revelations of self, especially when my experiences are so very similar to hers? It takes a very strong woman to be able to develop strong self-esteem and confidence in a culture that tells women they are never enough — now imagine that the national spotlight is on you and I’m sure the pressure is tenfold.
All I can say in regards to Mandisa is that I am glad she’s working through her emotional issues and resulting food attachments. And while I would advise her to be wary on inviting the media in to scrutinize your body, in Mandisa’s case, the media invited themselves in by simple virtue that she’s fat.
I think it’s very unfair to label her as a “homophobe.” It all got started because of the following: “This song goes out to everybody that wants to be free. Your addiction, lifestyle, or situation may be big, but God is bigger!”
Activist groups just assumed her reference to “lifestyle” meant gays and lesbians. When later asked to clarify, she was surprised and saddened that gay & lesbian groups had taken offense. She wasn’t targeting anyone, she said. “Lifestyle” actually referred to her own lifestyle of using food to heal her problems. (Not an exact quote, but you get the jist.) She also said she loved everyone – gays included. But it got lost in the shuffle and the label of “homophobe” was already attached. By the way, this was after she’d been voted off, and her intentions of pursuing a career as a Christian artist were pretty clear, so I don’t see her motivation to lie.
A major issue with showcasing weight loss stories is that the assumption is that fat people are fat because they overeat due to some type of trauma, or some other reason related to food. Being fat because the gene pool wants us to be is not a justifiable explanation in the minds of the media and society. To them, if we just get some therapy, eat more salads, and work out five days a week, all of our problems will disappear. We know that’s not true, because many thin people deal with trauma too, and we don’t tell them to stop eating.
I won’t begrudge Mandisa for losing weight. She will look great at any size. But I hope she can withstand the constant scrutiny of the image-obsessed media, and the tsk-tsking if she does happen to regain some weight back.
After reading the post linked towards the end of this one, I have to add that I’m somewhat insulted that the idea of childhood trauma and weight is so intrinsically connected.
I agree. I also wonder if fat people are more likely to assume that their eating patterns are somehow pathological than thin people, even if both in fact eat the same.
I know that I have a tendency, even as somebody who doesn’t really struggle much with body image and who doesn’t diet and who doesn’t have a long history of a strained relationship with food, to see any time I eat when not really hungry as somehow “wrong” or “bad” or pathological. Last week, I had six Triscuits with cheese slices on them before I went to bed, and started thinking, “Hmm, I shouldn’t have eaten that. I wasn’t that hungry! Was that a binge?” Yesterday, ice cream was on sale at the grocery store, so each of us got a carton of our favorite flavor. I had, mid-afternoon, a large bowl of my chocolate peanut butter, and felt bad about it all day. Not bad about the calories, or bad about being fat, but feeling like there must be something wrong with me that I’d have a big bowl of ice cream. I must be a food addict. That must have been compulsive eating.
Of course, my (not fat) husband routinely has meal-sized snacks before bed, and thinks nothing of it. He ate more ice cream than I did yesterday and didn’t give it a second thought. I’m certainly not denying that fat people can have problems with compulsive or binge eating, because they can, but I also think that fat people who are NOT compulsive or binge eaters by any medical definition but instead people who occasionally eat when they aren’t hungry or occasionally eat to the point where they are uncomfortably full (as pretty much everybody I know sometimes does, regardless of weight) may feel, because of the message we get that all fat people MUST eat compulsively and MUST binge, assume they do, and assume they have some sort of pathological relationship with food.
I just have instinctively bad reactions to people comparing food to drugs.
Byrneout-
As a regular reader of Manolo for the Big Girl (manolobig.com) I recognize the “after” dress as the Monif C Convertible Dress, available at MonifC.com. I can’t believe I know this!
I really hate the “you were abused/molested as a child, no wonder you are fat” line of reasoning.
Yes, I was abused/molested as a child. No, that is NOT why I was fat. Okay, physically it has something to do with it because the parents starved me and so I have a very slow metabolism, but my weight has nothing to do with what may or may not have happened to me as a child (besides the starving thing).
Really though, it’s something I’ve heard most of my adult life as I’ve gone through therapy. Even the therapist I have now, who is really good in most things (or I wouldn’t keep him as a therapist) has said a couple of times, “and as you recover, you’ll most likely see your weight drop.” Yeah, I set him straight on that.
The wierd thing about this fat = sexually abused analogy for me, as a psych grad, is that there IS a correlation between weight and disordered eating and childhood sexual abuse, but not the one they seem to think there is. I can’t remember the exact percentages (would vary from one study to another anyway), but there’s a very strong correlation between childhood sexual abuse and anorexia. As of the 90s, when I was at college, there was no observed link between childhood sexual abuse and being fat. So it’s really wierd to see this stated as if it was known fact and yet rarely see it mentioned in media coverage of anorexia. Huh?
I wish there was a way to make sure that only journalists with some kind of academic background in science covered science stories.
In response to CassandraSays, my understanding is that there’s higher prevalence in general of eating disorders (anorexia and binge eating) in people who were sexually abused.
I think some of why they’re “suddenly” finding a relationship between abuse and “obesity” is that anorexia and bulimia seem to not be such hot topics right now while obesity is.
(Or based on public opinion, the good eating disorders where the person loses weight vs. the bad eating disorder where the person gains weight.)
good for Mandisa to lose weight ;)
good for Mandisa to lose weight ;)
Way to go, Mandisa! Keep up the good work! You will gain more fans by being leaner figurewise.
To be honest, I think she looks great both ways!!! But her weight loss only makes me respect her more. Just like when Season 2’s Kimberley Locke lost weight, because I’d rather that she’s healthy than not well. But I never looked at her as fat!! Kimberley was nowhere near as big as Mandisa was. Point blank, both ladies look great with or without the extra cushion!!
Oh, to repeat, I liked Kimberley Locke better with the extra pounds, but if she’s happy, so am I.
I think it is a mistake to glamorize plus-sized lifestyle since it has been proven that people who are overweight usually die early unless they undergo strict diet regimen. Just look at John Candy, Chris Farley, Nell Carter, etc., these folks died early because of whatever the diseases or illnesses obesity has contributed to the human bodies. I don’t know why some people would think being obese is a cool thing?!!! It really doesn’t do anyone any good for being such!
WAY TO GO for the weight loss. It is hard work and I know you are feeling good!!!!
I think its TERRIBLE that you have to be a size 0 to have a career in the music business. Or to say “NOW I”M HAPPY” now that your a size 8. You can’t be happy at a size 18???
I think we give way to much power to what everyone else is doing. Why does it matter, will her weight loss or gain change my life? What would happen in our country if for 1 week everyone minded their own business? Doing what’s best for ourselves and not imposing our views or opinions on anyone. Taking a very close look at our own challenges, and doing whatever it takes to face them and improve. I for one am very proud of Mandisa and I pray that she will be the woman she wants to be inside and out.