At first glance, Amy Schumer’s weight loss isn’t the first thing that catches your eyes in her movie Trainwreck. It’s how this blonde-haired, blue-eyed appearance becomes a part of her act and it throws off people when she starts to speak. 

One of the queens of comedy, Amy Schumer was headed towards greatness after her early days in stand-up. In Last Man Standing, we all remember the tall girl with long blonde hair who wasn’t afraid to  say what she thinks where that type of comedy was not as common for women. 

On Inside Amy Schumer, the star doesn’t hold anything back with her smart and raunchy signature style of comedy. Any good comedian will open up about something really relatable, and maybe that’s why we love her stand up because it takes a lot of strength to share the things we don’t say out loud but think anyway. 

Amy Schumer’s toughness and unique perspective comes from being forced to grow up fast when her father developed multiple sclerosis when she was 12 years old. Soon after this, her parents divorced. It was during this time where the middle child of the family, Amy found a way to make her family feel better, with humour. “I was like, ‘I’ll take it from here.’ I tried to make everything okay by making everyone laugh about how horrible things were. It kept us alive.”

One anecdote was when Schumer recalled one time when her father lost control of his bowels at the airport when she was 17. She told her brother what happened and “it became a bit.” She tried to include the story in her stand-up routine but it didn’t work out coming from her mouth: “People were like, ‘Nooooo, too dark,’…. In my family no one has ever laughed that hard at anything.”

Amy Schumer Weight Loss Journey Over The Years

Amy Schumer Weight Loss History: 

Childhood:

Amy Schumer was always aware that she was a big kid. In sixth grade there was an incident when she bought an outfit at the Gap she really liked: A ribbed maroon top and tight black pants. According to Schumer, she walked into school and a boy looked at her and commented: “Whoa, Big Bertha!”

“It just robbed me,” she remembered. “It just set me back. And then, instead of crying, I would just fire back and make a joke myself. It was like training for a roast.”

Now we know where she gets her classic sense of humour from! 

1999:

Amy regained her confidence in high school when she joined the volleyball team. 

Schumer’s life and perspective changed when she went to college in 1999. During her time at Townson University, she was surrounded by thousands of other students. According to an interview with Vogue, she described her freshman year as the time when she was judged solely based on her looks again.

“I lost all my self-esteem freshman year…. I think I was maybe in the twenty-fifth percentile in hotness.”

“I’d never get hit on at bars — I was just invisible,” she recalled, echoing an experience that has also been my own. “One hundred percent of the guys I’ve dated have been because I was the aggressor. I’ve always been with guys that I was friends with — guys who knew me for a while who would then become attracted to me.”

2003:

“#tbt my very very first time on stage. 2003. Brutal. I’m proud to say I worked my ass off since that day. The story is in #thegirlwiththelowerbacktattoo” 

In 2003, she moved back to New York City shortly after graduating from Towson University in Maryland where she continued to study acting and waited tables to pay the bills. About a year later, she got up the nerve to test her comedic skills. On her 23rd birthday, she made her stand-up debut at Manhattan’s Gotham Comedy Club  in front of a crowd that included friends and her mom. About her performance she said: “It was kind of like there was nowhere to go but up!” 

The hardworking comedian said that she would get a tape of her performances, head to Best Buy and watch herself on the display TV in the store, sitting on the floor and taking notes. She constantly did gigs at New York clubs, starting with “bringers” (where you have to bring audience members for a chance to go on stage) but worked her way to bigger venues and made enough money to devote herself to comedy full time. This could be why she has such thick skin in Hollywood today. 

2007:

In 2007, Schumer appeared on Season 5 of the NBC reality show “Last Comic Standing,” where a group of comedians would battle out their jokes for $250,000 and a TV special. Amy Schumer placed in 4th place, but the national exposure she gained would change her life. 

After the show Schumer took her act on the road but still got on stage as much as possible in New York City, eventually moving up from opener to headliner.

With her wide reach her success continued to gain new opportunities that eventually led the 30-something star to Hollywood! 

2015:

Trainwreck

With her movie Trainwreck, Schumer reached new levels of stardom after she wrote and starred in it. With anything that involves a climb up, you have to expect the pressures that came along with it. 

The actress and comedian later reflected on this time during her Netflix special, Amy Schumer: The Leather Special. According to an interview with People she said:”I’m what Hollywood calls, very fat…. Before I did anything, somebody like explained to me, ‘Just so you know, Amy, no pressure, but if you weigh over 140 lbs., it will hurt people’s eyes,’…. And I was like, Okay. I just bought it. I was like, ‘Okay, I’m new to town. So I lost weight.”

She also said she looked “stupid skinny,” and didn’t keep that weight off. Speaking about standing up to the pressure of Hollywood, she continued: “I got worried because it gets in your head — just everything on television and movies and magazines and the internet…. All the women are just beautiful little skeletons…. I’m like, ‘Oh, my god! Are men still going to be attracted to me?’ And that’s when I remembered… they don’t care.”

Because this was her movie and wanted the best, when she shot “Trainwreck,” Amy went on a diet, per the studio’s suggestion. To improve her public image, the actress and comedian attempted to  get an eating disorder — a journey she said lasted all of two hours, when she realized she couldn’t stand being hungry.

But when she got down to a size 4, and when the movie came out, she was “still being trolled for being heavy.” 

That’s when Amy decided, ‘Oh, cool. Well, then, I’m not gonna play this game at all,’” she said. “It’s not worth it to me to live this life where I have to be really hungry.”

“In boxing, you know how you’re scared of getting punched and then you get punched and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m OK?’” …..“I’ve been told I’m fat. I’m ugly. I’ve seen memes of me being the grossest woman in the world — me as Jabba the Hut. The fear is gone.”

Who knew that after you get trolled in life, you just come back stronger and stronger?

Live at the Apollo

In her 2015 stand-up special, “Live at the Apollo,” she joked that her arms “register as legs” in Los Angeles, and her “legs register as firewood.” At auditions, she even joked that she was asked if she was “reading for the girl getting gastric bypass.”

“I don’t know if you guys noticed, but I am what Hollywood calls ‘very fat,’” Amy Schumer stated two years later in “The Leather Special.” “They photographed me once, and this was the headline: ‘Schumer buys pastry so she can work out.’ Kind of mean, right? No, they hit the nail right on the [expletive] head. That’s what I do to work out. Before I work out, I go buy a scone, and then I slowly walk around a reservoir, and I eat it. My workouts are like a woman in hospice. Just, like, nibbling on a baked good, looking at the trees and the birds.”

2017:

In 2017, Amy Schumer weighed 160 pounds and even defended her weight! On Jimmy Kimmel Live she admitted to the late-night host that she did gain a few pounds ahead of making her Broadway debut in Steve Martin’s new play, Meteor Shower.”I had a really cool weight gain last winter,” she confessed. “Has anyone had the kind of weight gain where your coats don’t fit?” 

2018:

Amy Schumer plays Renee, a thirty something with low self-esteem who yearns to be what she describes as “undeniably pretty.” One day, during a SoulCycle class, she goes too fast and goes flying off her bike and hits her head. That’s when her wish isgranted: She looks in the mirror and sees everything she’s always dreamed of!  So she faced backlash when the message of the movie was misunderstood as “so your saying all the people who are overweight are insecure?”.  

“I don’t know that the country really has an appetite to hear the story of a white, blonde woman with a belly,” she admitted. “I get it. I personally feel woken up about inequality for women and people of color in a way I didn’t before seeing ‘Get Out’ and ‘Hamilton’ and ‘Atlanta’ — and all these police shootings and the election. I thought things had gotten better. But I had no idea. I just grew up thinking everybody was equal, and that’s not enough. I need to do something, otherwise I’m just part of the problem.”

However, Any believed that the message behind “I Feel Pretty” is important. The actress just wants women to feel “empowered to live up to their full potential” — to not be held back by the fear of being perceived as fat or ugly.

2019:

During her pregnancy Amy suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, a condition characterized by persistent nausea and vomiting, weight loss, and dehydration. Hyperemesis gravidarum

is rare but became better known after the former Kate Middleton, now known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, experienced hyperemesis gravidarum with each of her three pregnancies. Last November, Schumer was admitted to the hospital for treatment, and postponed a show in Texas as a result.

How Did Amy Schumer Lose Weight?

Amy Schumer has always been aware and open about her size. If we look at the history of women, big girls in Hollywood have been rare but she has never allowed that to hold her down; in fact she turned it into her strength! As we’ve mentioned, she was told by the Hollywood execs to lose weight when she signed up for the main lead’s role in Trainwreck. The actress had to lose 3 pounds and that was no cakewalk. Let’s see how Amy Schumer lost weight: 

Diet:

A who had trained the likes of Megan Fox wasn’t really impressed by the first look of the stand-up comedian and her eating habits. So, she designed a diet plan exclusively for Amy starting with a much healthy and trimmed down breakfast routine – a smoothie – yes, that’s it and it was not followed by several light meals through the day, which to the food lover Amy is, appeared to be next to nothing. “That’s the Hollywood secret: Don’t put food in your dumb mouth.” says the funny lady.

Workout:

Amy’s trainer, Harley Pasternak, though not impressed by her at first, later went on to confess, “I’m very, very proud of her, Amy lives by the idea ‘strong in the gym, lean in life,” said the celeb trainer. “She keeps her workout with us super brief and stays active through the rest of the day.” he added. Going for a run was a major part of her workout. In fact, she let g of her private car service and walked everywhere she could which included traveling to the studio too. She has also worked with personal trainer AJ Fisher. 

Therapeutic Healing:

When Amy Schumer started going to therapy, the actress began focusing on the things she was grateful for. After seeing her dad suffer from multiple sclerosis for years, and seeing his physical limitations, it made her appreciate the use of her legs. The use of our basic body part, a leg helped the actress change her diet a bit, still “eating crap” sometimes but balancing it out with nourishing food that energizes her. And she let herself have fun: drinking, smoking pot, and relaxing.

“I just decided to believe my own hype,” she explained. “If you think of the things you would say to your friends when they’re having a bad day — why don’t you let yourself take care of yourself like that? 

I understand that that’s really scary and makes you feel really vulnerable. But, like, Obama’s ‘The Audacity of Hope,’ how about the audacity of loving yourself? Seriously, let yourself do it for 30 seconds. It’s all in our heads.” 

Amy Shumer on Body Positivity:

From a career standpoint, she spoke to InStyle during an interview: “I’m good-looking enough that I can work in the business. I get enough attention from men that I feel good. I see pictures of myself now, and I look younger than I think of myself. It hasn’t scared me yet.”

The bold comedian even takes her statements a bit further by saying:  “I’m pretty sure I’ll never get any sort of surgery, but no proclamations. Also, I cannot imagine a moment when I will need filler for my face, as if it needs to be filled. Can we unfill this? Let’s get an emptier. Yeah, I need lipo on my cheeks.”

No Retouching:

In “I Feel Pretty,” Schumer wanted to be sure she showed her body on screen the way it truly is. There’s one scene in which her character after suffering a head-bump and decides to compete in a bikini contest alongside a half dozen statuesque women who are stick thin.

“In post (production) , they asked me if I wanted to retouch anything, and I was like, ‘What? No,’” she said. “I love it. I think I look sexy and strong.”

Laughing About Weight Gain:

On Jimmy Kimmel Amy Schumer hilariously addressed the comments made about her body on the web. “We’re so blessed with the internet that people give you constant feedback on your looks,” she quipped. “[It’s] such a cool time. Thank each and every one of you for all your feedback on my face and body.”

The “Trainwreck” actress went on to reference a negative comment that actually made her hungry. “The other day, somebody tweeted about me, ‘Amy Schumer’s body looks like a bag of mashed potatoes,'” she recalled. “I was like, ‘OK, now I need mashed potatoes

So, what’s the takeaway from Amy Shumer’s weight loss journey? Firstly, put things in perspective.  

According to an interview by People Amy Schumer said:  “I feel very good in my own skin…. I feel strong. I feel healthy. I do. I feel sexy.” But what about those times when she doesn’t feel so good about herself? Schumer continued by saying, “My dad, like, has MS and is in a wheelchair and it’s, like, I’m just psyched I can f**king move…. How are you going to complain [about your imperfections?] Shut the f**k up. You’re alive. You can move. You feel good!”

Secondly, you cannot please the world. Even after Schumer lost a lot of weight for her movie Trainwreck, she STILL faced criticism.  Here is a James Baldwin quote that Amy loves: 

“In order to survive this, you have to really dig down into yourself and re-create yourself, really, according to no image which yet exists in America. You have to impose, in fact — this may sound very strange — you have to decide who you are, and force the world to deal with you, not with its idea of you.”