'My Big Fat Fabulous Life': Whitney Thore Transformation

Always fab! My Big Fat Fabulous Life star Whitney Way Thore has come so far since fans were first introduced to her on her hit TLC series in 2015. At the time, Whitney had recently gone viral for her dance video titled “A Fat Girl Dancing” — and when she made her reality TV debut, she was open about her transformation after she experienced a dramatic weight gain.

In her first year of college, Whitney gained more than 200 pounds and was later diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. The North Carolina native had been a dancer all her life, but she stopped because she felt ashamed of her weight gain. One day, she decided that she would not allow body image to stop her from doing what she loves, and she became an advocate of her body-positive No Body Shame movement.

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“Most of my adult life consisted of dramatic weight gain, a PCOS diagnosis, self-loathing & a non-stop desire to lose weight and be this girl again — until I realized how insane this was,” Whitney explained alongside a since-deleted throwback pic of herself via Instagram in 2018. “I know, because I’ve lived it, that thinness does not equal happiness and it does not equal physical or mental health.”

She continued, “The woman I am now can dance with reckless abandon. She can frolic in a bikini. She can demand love and respect that is not contingent on her dress size. The woman I am now can LIVE, knowing that I am completely deserving of every single wonderful thing this world has to offer.” For eleven seasons, Whitney has shared her self-love and body acceptance journey as well as her ups and downs, including her love life.

Keep scrolling below to see Whitney’s transformation over the years.

College-Aged Whitney

“This photo was taken on the first day of my freshman year at Appalachian State University,” Whitney captioned this throwback shot.

In another post, she opened up about what life was like for her at the time.

“If you look at this photo of me at age 18 and assume that I was healthy and happy or that I’d kill to look like this again, you’d be mistaken,” she wrote via Instagram. “The girl in this photo was supremely UNhealthy. This girl struggled with eating disorders — an endless cycle of purging and restriction motivated by the BMI that defined her 5’2″ 140-lb body as overweight, peers who mocked her for being fat, and a society that asserted that thinner was always better.”

“The woman I am now is not a before picture; she is not a person driven by weight-loss disguised as ‘self-improvement.’ The woman I am now is three things: sublimely joyful, grateful, and free.”

A Lifelong Journey

“For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with my weight. This is a photo of me from when I was in high school and was struggling with eating disorders. Over the last 21 years, I have been bulimic, gone through intense periods of calorie restriction, and been generally consumed with my food, exercise, and hating my body, Whitney captioned a photo of herself when she was younger. “I was never, however, underweight, and to most people looked like a healthy girl who could have stood to lose 10 pounds. EATING DISORDERS ARE NOT ONE SIZE FITS ALL!”

Getting Candid

“Whoo! How’s this for #tbt? The funny thing is that when I see this photo now, 13 years after my senior prom, I see a beautiful, smiling girl who would be crowned Prom Princess at the end of the night,” Whitney explained in the caption of this shot. “But what I was was an insecure girl who threw up her dinner in the restaurant bathroom because she thought her dress was too tight. I sometimes wonder how my life would have been different had I learned to love myself earlier — but then I think about my life now and remind myself that everything is right on time.”

2019

Whitney loves to share her progress in the gym with her fans. In 2019, she revealed how she was able to build up to be able to do an advanced exercise move.

“Nothing impressive about this video except for the fact that I was 1,000% convinced I couldn’t do this. When @dragonqueen11 showed me, I knew I couldn’t — I struggle every day with modified burpees, much less ones that have you flat on the ground and then pressing 50lbs overhead… but I tried it, and it was slow and far from perfect but it was…easy. 😂,” Whitney captioned a video of her completing the workout at the time. “Two lessons: 1) STOP underestimating yourself. 2) But keep underestimating yourself if you don’t @dragonqueen11 to make you do devil presses. 😂.”

2023

Fans noticed Whitney was losing weight via her Instagram posts in the summer of 2023, especially in a July post where she wore a pink crop top and fitted black pants.. She addressed the topic on September 5, saying it was from the heartache over losing her mom, Barbara “Babs” Thore, in December 2022.
“I think it’s obvious that I have lost some weight and that is true,” Whitney told Entertainment Tonight, adding, “And people say, like, ‘Is it surgery?’ and I’m like, ‘No, it’s grief, but thanks.'”
The reality star went on to add, “I see a lot of chatter online and people have asked me, ‘Have you had weight loss surgery?’ or something like that. No, I haven’t,” Whitney continued. “On the show, I’ll talk about my weight more, but in my personal life, I don’t really find it necessary to talk about how much I weigh. It’s just not something that I care to focus on and talk about.”