- Adele is a British superstar who has 15 Grammy awards to her name
- After filing for divorce from the father of her son in 2019, Adele underwent a huge lifestyle change, which helped her slim down
- There have been mixed opinions about her drastic body transformation, with many critics claiming she dropped the weight in an unhealthy manner
- Adele has been transparent about her weight loss, and her former trainer even came to her defense when the criticism was at a high point
- Adele said the backlash hurt her, but asserted that she did not lose weight for anyone but herself
It’s a good time to be Adele! After going through a divorce from Simon Konecki in 2019 — although she’s said the breakup happened quite a while before that — the singer has gotten to a solid place, both personally and professionally. She started dating Rich Paul in 2021 and she released her fourth studio album, 30, on Nov. 19, 2021. She’s also embarking on a highly anticipated Las Vegas residency beginning in Nov. 2022 and running through March 2023 after her original set of dates were postponed. When she announced her album 30, Adele admitted that the time she spent putting the piece of work together was the “most turbulent” period of her life.
However, during that time, Adele put her energy into focusing on herself and her nine-year-old son, Angelo. After changing her lifestyle, Adele was able to shed 100 pounds, and she looks incredible! More importantly than that, though, the singer seems to be her happiest and most confident self. In a sit down with Oprah Winfrey that was part of her Adele One Night Only CBS special on Nov. 14th 2021, the superstar admitted that she’s always been “body positive,” even when she was heavier, and that her weight loss was much more about dealing with her anxiety than actually losing weight. “I had terrifying attacks after my marriage,” she said. “I was paralyzed by them. I didn’t have control of my body.”
Adele has been open about how her mental health was affected after news of the end of her marriage went public. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she admitted to “an intense few weeks of bed-bound anxiety” during that time. It was this devastating anxiety that pushed Adele to work on her physical strength. “I thought, if I could transform my strength and my body like this, surely I can do it to my emotions and my brain and inner well-being,” she admitted. “That was what drove me.”
How Much Weight Did Adele Lose?
Although Adele has never confirmed herself that she lost 100 pounds, a fan got the scoop straight from the singer at the beginning of 2020. It all happened when Adele was on a New Year’s vacation in Anguilla with friends, including Harry Styles. Fans who were at the same resort asked for photos with the British singer, and the images quickly went viral on Twitter. The public was shocked to see how different Adele looked, and the buzz about how much weight she lost began immediately.
One of the fans who got to spend time with Adele in Anguilla was a 19-year-old college student named Lexi Larson. She opened up to People about running into Adele at a restaurant and getting the chance to chat with her. “She said she lost something like 100 pounds,” Lexi revealed. “And that it’s such a crazy, positive experience. She seemed so happy, and she looked amazing. She seemed really confident.”
Before the New Year’s trip, Adele first had fans buzzing about her weight loss with some appearances at the end of 2019. She attended Drake’s birthday party that October, and was photographed looking slimmer in a black dress. That Halloween, she dressed as Captain Hook, and her thinner figure was evident in photos from her night out, as well.
How Did Adele Lose Weight?
Going through a divorce was obviously an incredibly difficult time for Adele, but she credits the breakup with helping her become invested in fitness. Now, she works out two or three times a day. Adele opened up to Vogue in a rare interview about her weight loss in Oct. 2021. She introduced her trainer, Gregg Miele, to the readers and said that she has “probably spent more time with [him] in the last three years than anyone else.”
Adele’s fitness journey largely began in 2018 when she silently split from Simon (although the public did not find out about the breakup until 2019). This was in the midst of what Adele called her “Year of Anxiety,” during which the gym was crucial for her, she said. “It became my time,” she told Vogue. “I realized that when I was working out, I didn’t have any anxiety. It was never about losing weight. I thought, ‘If I can make my body physically strong, and I can feel and see that, then maybe one day I can make my emotions and my mind physically strong.”
When Adele first got started in the gym, she worked solely on her lower back and stomach. Now, she’s a beast with the equipment. In fact, Adele’s Vogue interviewer got to spend time with her while she worked out, and recounted how hard she worked. At one point, the 33-year-old was “going to town on the elliptical,” and by the end of the workout, she’d “proceeded through every weight machine.”
In a subsequent interview with British Vogue, Adele admitted to getting “quite addicted” to working out while dealing with her anxiety. “I work out two or three times a day,” she revealed. “I do my weights in the morning, then I normally hike or I box in the afternoon, and then I go and do my cardio at night.” Obviously, this regiment is not extremely practical for the average person, which Adele acknowledged. “I was basically unemployed when I was doing it,” she explained. “It’s not doable for a lot of people.”
In a 2021 interview with Oprah, Adele even referred to herself as an “athlete” due to how hard she can go in the gym. When she was at her strongest, she was able to deadlift 170 pounds, and said she’s also a “very good boxer” with a “left hook that could kill you.”
Being able to put so many hours into working out allowed Adele the unique opportunity of not having to watch what she ate as much as the average dieter, too. “I haven’t done any diet,” she told British Vogue. She confirmed that she never tried the Sirtfood diet, despite some reports claiming otherwise. “Ain’t done that,” she said. “No intermittent fasting. Nothing. If anything, I eat more than I used to because I work out so hard.”
It’s also worth mentioning that while Adele’s body transformation was most noticeable following her divorce and over the coronavirus pandemic, her former trainer Pete Geracimo revealed the “Rolling in the Deep” hit maker began losing weight as early as 2016 in response to negative comments about her weight loss. “As Adele’s former London-based personal trainer, it’s disheartening to read negative commentary and fat-phobic accusations questioning the genuineness of her amazing weight loss,” he wrote on Instagram in May 2020. “In my personal experience of working with her through many highs and lows, she always marched to the beat of her own drum on her own terms.”
“When Adele and I started our journey together, it was never about getting super skinny,” he continued. “It was about getting her healthy. Especially post pregnancy and post surgery. When 25 dropped and the tour announced, we had to get ready for a 13 month gruelling schedule. In that time, she warmed to training and made better food choices. As a result, she lost considerable weight and people took notice. Her body transformation was splashed across every media outlet. The attention it generated was mind-blowing.”
How Does Adele Feel About Her Transformation?
After news of Adele’s weight loss transformation first went public after that vacation in Jan. 2020, the singer managed to stay out of the public eye for the next several months. It wasn’t until her birthday in May that fans were reminded of her svelte new figure. Adele posted a photo on Instagram of herself wearing a little black dress in honor of her birthday, and the response was overwhelming.
Since Adele is rarely seen out in public, her weight loss became a topic of discussion on the rare occasions that she was photographed in the months that followed. The response was mixed — while many people raved over how great Adele looked, others were concerned that she had succumbed to Hollywood’s standards of what a woman should look like. “I understand why it’s a shock,” Adele told Vogue. “I understand why some women, especially, were hurt. Visually, I represented a lot of women. But I’m still the same person.”
In fact, Adele was actually hurt by a lot of the conversations that were being had about her figure. “The most brutal conversations were being had by other women about my body,” she explained. “I was very f—king disappointed with that. That hurt my feelings.”
In her chat with British Vogue, she also made it clear that she didn’t just drop the weight overnight in an unhealthy way. “I think one of the reasons people lost the plot because, actually, it was over a two-year period,” she revealed. “People are shocked because I didn’t share my ‘journey’. They’re used to people documenting everything on Instagram and most people in my position would get a big deal with a diet brand. I couldn’t give a flying f—k. I did it for myself, not for anyone else. So why would I ever share it? I don’t find it fascinating. It’s my body.”
Despite the harsh negativity, Adele made a light-hearted joke about her weight loss transformation during her opening monologue on Saturday Night Live in Oct. 2020. “I know I look really, really different since you last saw me,” she smiled. “But actually, because of all the Covid restrictions…I had to travel light and I could only bring half of me, and this is the half I chose.”
But in her interview with Oprah, she got real about others feelings about her weight loss. “I was body positive [before losing weight] and I’m body positive now,” she said. “It’s not my job to validate how people feel about their bodies. I feel bad that is’ made anyone feel horrible about themselves, but that’s not my job. I’m trying to sort my own life out.”