The former "This Is Us" star disclosed for the first time that she is taking a GLP-1 medication, a decision she says came only after years of failed diets, her father's health struggles, and careful consultation with her doctors.
Chrissy Metz, 45, told TODAY in an interview published Sunday that she resisted the idea of using a GLP-1 drug even as the medications swept through Hollywood and beyond. She watched friends try them. She heard the buzz. She held back.
Her resistance was personal, not medical. Metz said she has been dieting since age 9, cycling through group therapy stints and weight-loss programs that never stuck. Watching her father suffer obesity-related health complications finally shifted her thinking. She began asking whether the drugs could help her avoid the same path.
"I'm just not a girl who just wants to do something because some of my friends are doing it."
That line captures the tone Metz struck throughout the interview, cautious, deliberate, and aware that millions of Americans share her complicated history with weight. She said she consulted her doctors before starting the medication, and they signed off. She also announced a partnership with Ro, a telehealth company that provides GLP-1 prescriptions online.
Metz is currently performing as Angélique in the Broadway musical "& Juliet," doing eight shows a week in New York. She said the physical demands of that schedule helped her notice the medication's effects. Her stamina improved. Her inflammation dropped. Her joints felt better. Her menstrual cycle regulated. Her costumes had to be altered because her measurements changed.
She started strength training about a year ago with a personal trainer, a move that aligns with a World Health Organization recommendation that people taking GLP-1 drugs incorporate resistance exercise. Metz described the combination of medication and training as a genuine lifestyle overhaul, not a shortcut.
But she refuses to chase a number on the scale.
"I try not to focus so much [on] a number because that can be overwhelming. And I think that that becomes the new obsession."
No specific weight-loss figure appeared in the interview. Metz did not name the particular GLP-1 drug she is taking, whether semaglutide, tirzepatide, or another formulation, and the interview did not disclose her dosage or how long she has been on the medication.
GLP-1 drugs work by mimicking a hormone the body produces after eating, reducing cravings and creating a feeling of fullness. They have become the most talked-about pharmaceutical category in the country, fueling a multibillion-dollar market and a fierce cultural debate over whether the drugs represent genuine medicine or a cosmetic cheat code.
Metz landed squarely on the side of personal responsibility. She described the medication as a tool, not a solution by itself.
"It's a whole lifestyle change. It's not just, 'Oh, I'm going to take a medication because it's not the easy way out.' I think a lot of people think, 'Oh, it's a magic wand,' and no, in fact you have to be more diligent."
That framing, medication plus discipline, not medication instead of discipline, is worth hearing from a public figure whose weight has been a topic of tabloid commentary for years. Metz acknowledged the scrutiny head-on.
"No matter what I do, people are going to talk, but nobody's in my body every day. Nobody is in my life every day. Nobody's gone through the trauma I've gone through."
She did not elaborate on the specific trauma she referenced. The interview left several personal details unaddressed, including the financial terms of her partnership with Ro, whether it is a paid sponsorship, an equity arrangement, or something else entirely.
Metz credited an unnamed friend with first explaining the benefits of GLP-1 drugs to her in practical terms. That conversation, paired with her father's health history, moved her from skepticism to curiosity. She described the internal shift simply.
"Oh, maybe I can get ahead of it."
Getting ahead of it meant accepting that decades of conventional dieting had not worked. Metz was blunt about that record: group therapy, repeated attempts, no lasting results. The GLP-1 medication, combined with strength training and the physical grind of Broadway, produced changes she called remarkable.
"It's, like, unbelievable."
She also urged others to stay skeptical, not of GLP-1 drugs specifically, but of anything they put in their bodies.
"Nothing is for everybody, and I think it's important to be skeptical about anything we consume, put in our bodies, watch, listen to."
That is a reasonable position, and a refreshing one in a celebrity culture that tends to sell miracle cures first and ask questions later. Metz is not pretending the drug did nothing. She is not pretending it did everything. She is saying she did her homework, talked to her doctors, and made a choice that is already showing results on a Broadway stage eight times a week.
Adults making informed medical decisions with their own doctors, owning the results, and refusing to apologize for it, that used to be the default expectation in this country. It still should be.
