Rebel Wilson on the GLP-1 craze, her weight loss journey and 'microdosing' Ozempic

Rebel Wilson lost 80 pounds in 2020, dubbing it her “year of health.” 

The “Pitch Perfect” star was 39 going on 40, and told her doctor she wanted to pursue in-vitro fertilization and freeze her eggs. 

The doctor looked her up and down and told her, “You’re really unhealthy. You’d have a much better chance if you were healthy.” 

“It was a kick in the stomach kind of thing,” Wilson, now 45, says. “I didn’t have any serious disease. But if I kept going at the rate I was, maybe I would have.” 

Wilson was diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS, at 21 and prescribed birth control pills to manage her symptoms. Her doctors never mentioned that losing weight could help alleviate them. 

“That almost cost me two decades of health,” she says. “It made it nearly impossible with PCOS and the birth control pills to ever lose weight. My hormones were so out of whack.”

PCOS is also a leading cause of infertility in women, but some clinics won’t perform egg retrievals on patients unless they’re below a certain BMI.

And while wanting a baby was the initial inspiration, Wilson says her love life – or lack thereof – played a role. 

“I was totally single. I don’t think that was necessarily because of my size; it was because of how I felt about myself,” she shares. “And so, getting healthy weirdly correlated to me feeling better about myself, which then translated into a much better love life.” 

On Sept. 18, Wilson was announced as the chief wellness ambassador at Noom, a virtual platform for weight loss and preventative health. Wilson is the face of their new campaign for “daily microhabits,” which can include achieving a daily step goal or eating a healthy snack, as well as “microdosing” GLP-1s.

GLP-1 'microdosing' is becoming popular. Even Rebel Wilson does it

The explosion of interest in weight-loss medication from brands like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro over the past few years has transformed the medical and pharmaceutical landscape. 

Wilson says she focused solely on getting healthier in 2020. She exercised daily for over two hours and followed a high-protein diet. But looking back, she wishes she had known about GLP-1s then.

She found out about the weight loss drugs from her “celebrity OBGYN,” who said that many other actresses were on them. 

“She’d seen my transformation, and she was like, ‘It’s going to be really hard for you to keep that up,’” Wilson recalls. Her doctor said excessive exercise wasn’t realistic – just one injury could disrupt her progress. 

Wilson explored GLP-1 microdosing – going on and off low doses of the medication for periods of two months at a time. Leading up to her wedding to Ramona Agruma in September 2024, Wilson used Noom’s 10-week GLP-1 program, taking a higher dose to “drop a few pounds” for her wedding dress. 

“I felt amazing, I looked amazing,” she says. But, for now, she’s back to microdosing while “playing a funny character in a movie.”

“I don’t necessarily care about my weight right now,” she adds. 

Under the “extreme pressure and stress” of working 12 to 13 hours a day, all while being a mom to her 2-year-old daughter, Royce, Wilson says microdosing helps stabilize her weight. 

As with any prescribed medicine, weight-loss drugs should only be taken under the recommendation and supervision of a doctor. Do not microdose them unless your doctor tells you to, and follow their instructions closely.

Rebel Wilson became the ‘funny fat friend’ stereotype

Wilson's career took off after playing “Fat Amy” in “Pitch Perfect" (2012), a role for which she was contractually obligated to maintain her weight. She couldn’t gain or lose more than 10 pounds throughout the series, she revealed on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast in 2023. 

When she told her team she had decided to lose weight, they told her she would lose everything. 

“I had established myself as that ‘fat funny friend,’ and heavily made a lot of jokes about my physicality, and that worked to my advantage. That’s what made me distinctive from other actresses," she says. 

But it was a risk she was willing to take. 

“I’m not going to deliberately get a serious disease or die because of bad health,” she continues. “It is very simplistic to say being fat was the only thing that made me successful.” 

Wilson doesn't regret building her career on roles like "Fat Amy."

"When I came to Hollywood, there were, like, three plus-size actresses," she says. But now, she's done relying on filling an archetype. "I've got other things in my personality and my skill set as an actress that I can rely on."

As more celebs go on GLP-1s, is Hollywood lacking representation? 

Many celebrities have opened up about using GLP-1 drugs, from Serena Williams to Oprah Winfrey.

"I feel the sense that some people go, 'Oh, they've abandoned us. They've abandoned their representation,'" Wilson says.

She compares it to going to the movies every Friday night with your sister, and your tradition is sharing a large bucket of popcorn and chocolate; if your sister decides to lose weight and breaks the tradition, it's easy to feel deserted.

"But the sister that's getting healthier has improved her life, so how can you hate her for that? So how can anybody hate on a celebrity who's doing it just to be healthier, live longer and be a better mother?" Wilson asks.

"I do think the GLP-1s are really exciting. And do I wish I had these back in the day? Yeah, I do," she adds. "I did live two decades of being quite lonely and not feeling great about myself."

In her current movie, Wilson has several cast members who are plus-size. She feels she can uplift different body types in her work without having to physically represent the "funny fat friend."

"Any size and shape is beautiful," she says, but being the "healthiest version of yourself is better for you in the long run."