Mindy Kaling, 46, says becoming a mom changed why she wanted to lose weight

Becoming a mother changed how Mindy Kaling thinks about health and fitness. She described how public scrutiny around weight loss can be uncomfortable, while also understanding it as a consumer of pop culture. Her fitness motivation now centers on living longer for her children. She said she does not wake up focused on looking “amazing,” but instead feels healthy. She contrasted earlier vanity-driven weight goals with current goals to reduce risk of diabetes, which runs in her family. She also described building a healthier relationship with exercise by mixing workouts and accepting that a workout does not need to be punishing or sweat-soaked to be effective. She stays active through strength training and walking 15 to 20 miles weekly.

"“It's sometimes no fun when one of your favorite actors loses weight. You have an idea of what they were like when you grew attached to them, and it made them endear themselves to you,” Kaling said. “Of course, it's never a joy to be scrutinized, but also I truly understand it, as someone who consumes pop culture.”"

"“Do I wake up every day being like, 'I look amazing and I'm so gorgeous'? No, unsurprisingly, but I truly feel so healthy,” she said. “When I was younger, I would want to lose weight because of vanity reasons. Now I want to lose weight or have lost weight because I want to stave off things like diabetes. I had it on both sides of my family, and trying to avoid those kinds of things will, I think, help longevity for me, and that's my goal,” she said."

"In 2022, Kaling told People that she was trying to build a healthier relationship with exercise, after years of viewing it as something that needed to feel punishing to be effective. “I've really been mixing it up and knowing that if a workout doesn't necessarily make me soak my clothes with sweat, that it still was a good workout It does not have to be punishing,” she said."

"In 2024, she told Prevention that she stays active through strength training and walking 15 to 20 miles a week. “If I have any phone call, I just pic”"

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