Gabourey Sidibe is embracing a new, slimmer look, but hasn't lost any of the big and bold confidence that's become her signature. The Oscar-nominated actress, currently featured on Fox's Empire, recently spoke for the first time about the weight loss surgery she underwent last year to PEOPLE magazine.
“The surgery wasn’t the easy way out,” Sidibe told PEOPLE in the exclusive interview. “I wasn’t cheating by getting it done. I wouldn’t have been able to lose as much as I’ve lost without it.”
Loss is something that inspired her decision to get laproscopic bariatric surgery in May 2016, but it wasn't just about losing pounds. After she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, along with a diagnosis for her older brother Ahmed, Sidibe shared that, "I truly didn’t want to worry about all the effects that go along with diabetes. I genuinely [would] worry all the time about losing my toes.”
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Details of her weight loss journey and the struggles along the way - including experiences with bulimia, anxiety and depression - are recounted in her upcoming memoir, This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare.
In the book, Sidibe writes, "My surgeon said they’d cut my stomach in half. This would limit my hunger and capacity to eat. My brain chemistry would change and I’d want to eat healthier. I’ll take it! My lifelong relationship with food had to change."
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 29 million people living in the United States has diabetes. Over 90 percent of these individuals has type 2 diabetes which is closely associated with overweight and obesity.
In addition to lifestyle changes like diet and exercise, The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery says surgery can improve type 2 diabetes in 90 percent of patients and cause remission (a state in which all signs and symptoms of diabetes are gone) of type 2 diabetes in 78 percent of them.
"Metabolic surgery is playing a more prominent role in diabetes management because of emerging data showing that surgery can be superior to medical therapy in controlling diabetes,” says Eduardo Grunvald, MD, Program Director, UC San Diego Weight Management Program, the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at UC San Diego Health.
Less than a year after the surgery, Sidibe is still losing weight and loving life - and her body - even more. “It has taken me years to realize that what I was born with is all beautiful,” she writes in the memoir. “I did not get this surgery to be beautiful. I did it so I can walk around comfortably in heels. I want to do a cartwheel. I want not to be in pain every time I walk up a flight of stairs.”
To learn more about bariatric surgery for diabetes, watch the video below with Dr. Shaneeta Johnson of Morehouse School of Medicine.
