Shonda Rhimes Lost Over 150 Lbs After Telling Her Doctor “I Don’t Want To Be Fat Anymore”

Writer and executive producer Shonda Rhimes's pen forever changed television history. Through her hit TV shows like Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and Bridgerton, Shonda has created diverse and hilarious universes that continue to resonate with fans across the globe.

In Shonda's real-life universe, the mother of three has made some incredible strides that would make Dr. Meredith Grey and the doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial quite happy. She took charge of her health, resulting in her losing 150 lbs. naturally.

Shonda decided not to shy away from discussing her weight loss and how her life changed after choosing to take care of herself. Here's what she's said about her journey.

Shonda first began making changes to lose weight in 2014. Her career was on the rise at the time, as she had three hit shows airing back-to-back on ABC — Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder.

While celebrating an exceptional career, Shonda decided she needed to change how she looked on the outside.

The writer revealed in her 2015 memoir, Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person, that she decided to lose weight after she couldn't put her seatbelt on during a plane ride. Shonda further discussed the difficult moment during a 2015 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

“I got on an airplane … it was a first-class seat, you know, they’re bigger, and I was like: ‘This is going to be really comfortable,’ ” the showrunner recalled, per People. “And I got in my seat, I took off my shoes, I took out my book, and I went to buckle my seatbelt – and it wouldn’t buckle. And I thought to myself, ‘Well, something is wrong with this seatbelt, it’s broken.’ And it wasn’t the seatbelt, it was me.”

Shonda also said that her daughters, Harper, Emerson, and Becket, were a more significant motivation for her weight loss. She said raising her daughters, whom she adopted alone, forced her to spring into action so she could be around to watch them grow up.

“I went to my doctor, and I said, ‘I don’t wanna be fat anymore. Help. Me,"' Shonda recalled in her memoir. "My doctor literally applauded me. Eva’s cool that way.”

While Shonda knew she wanted to make changes to her body for her health, she told People that she wasn't obsessed with having a "goal weight" established. Instead, she focused on improving her lifestyle habits and her relationship with food. She shared in her memoir that, rather than putting limits on what food she ate and didn't eat, she prioritized getting better quality sleep and drinking more water. Shonda also chose to eat whatever she wanted but was more mindful about how much she consumed.

“I could eat anything I wanted. As long as I ate a reasonable portion,” she said, adding elsewhere, "“’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.”

While Shonda has shed multiple pounds, the award-winning creative admitted her and other people's views of her body has changed. The self-described feminist has said she questioned herself for wanting to lose weight, worried that she gave in to misogynistic views about women's bodies. However, Shonda said that paying attention to her body forced her to be the opposite of what she previously believed and made her stronger, comparing herself to Wonder Woman.

"I became more aware of it. In every way," she said. "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."

As Shonda's stellar work continues, she's proof that when you feel your best, everything else falls into place!