Kusha Kapila BREAKS Silence On Drastic Weight Loss: ‘I Was Starving...'

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Kusha Kapila breaks her silence on the internet's obsession with her dramatic weight loss. Opening up about childhood trauma, starving for validation, and more.
In a world obsessed with before-and-after photos and fitness transformations, Kusha Kapila's drastic weight loss journey has become internet fodder. Social media has been awash with speculation, admiration, and even criticism. While many whispered about shortcuts like Ozempic, the popular weight loss injection, Kusha chose silence—until now. In a deeply personal, emotionally raw video on her YouTube channel, the actress and content creator has finally opened up, shattering illusions and unpacking the painful truth behind her transformation.
'For the past month, I've been seeing so many transformation reels of myself that I started feeling like I wasn't even in my body," she began, addressing the virality of her physical change. 'I had to look at myself from the outside and wonder—'Is that really me?'" Kusha described the experience as 'a constant out-of-body experience," admitting that it often felt like 'someone else was talking about my body more than I was."
From being labeled an 'average girl" to suddenly being hailed as a 'goddess of beauty" in Google alerts and Hindi news headlines, the disconnect between external validation and internal struggle grew starker. 'They would write things like 'Average girl turned into a goddess of beauty,'" she said, not without irony.
This wasn't her first weight loss journey. Kusha recounted being about 12 or 13 when she first lost weight. She recalled people monitoring what she ate and drank, often making her feel like her body was a public spectacle. 'I started gaining weight when I was 10," she revealed, 'and people made me aware of it in a very harsh way—calling me names like 'motu'."
By the time she reached 10th grade, she had gained a significant amount of weight during board exams. Her mother, worried, enrolled her in a gym that Kusha likened to an 'akhada." That was when she first began strength training and learning to run on a treadmill. 'I lost about 20-22 kilos during that time," she shared. But while her body changed, so did her psyche. 'At 15 or 16, I was becoming beautiful, but I didn't realise how deep my body image issues had gone and how long they would stay with me."
She admitted, 'You don't realize it, you just look at before-and-after makeovers and think that the attention you get is the best thing in life."
Eventually, she let go. 'Let it be," she told herself. 'I don't care." Instead of chasing validation through appearance, Kusha began cultivating her now-signature humor. 'People liked me for my jokes, my antics, my impersonations," she said, 'So, my body didn't feel like something I needed to work on."
But by the age of 22, things began to spiral. 'I had gained 10 kilos more, and I was in an unhealthy state with no idea about what I wanted in life," she said. 'I felt completely clueless."
Then one night, a friend captured her photo while they were out. At 1:30 AM, he sent it to her with a message: 'Kusha, I think it's time to work on yourself." Far from an insult, it was an act of concern. 'He said it with love," Kusha explained. 'He was into fitness and could see I was in a bad mental space."
She joined the gym again—but this time, the path was far darker. 'I was consuming only 800-900 calories a day, sometimes even less," she confessed. Her meals were plain and repetitive—roti with tomato curry prepared by her mother, for both lunch and dinner. 'Because of this extreme calorie deficit, I lost weight very quickly and dramatically. I didn't gain muscle—it was just rapid weight loss."
Despite the unhealthy routine, compliments poured in. 'People started saying things like, 'Wow, Kusha, you look so amazing! What have you done?'" But inside, she was breaking. 'I was starving," she said. 'I didn't even realise why or for whom I was losing weight. Was it for health? Or just for the validation?"
Eventually, her immune system began to fail. She developed a mysterious evening fever that wouldn't go away for 12 days. Doctors were baffled. 'After multiple tests, they couldn't figure it out. Then one doctor suggested it might be tuberculosis." The diagnosis: abdominal tuberculosis, likely caused by her weakened immunity due to extreme under-eating. 'Women over 25-26 are more prone to TB. I was diagnosed because I had dropped my immunity so drastically," she said.
Now at 33, Kusha says she's finally doing it differently. 'For the first time in my life, I felt like I wanted to lose weight for myself. I told myself—'You are by yourself now. You're responsible for everything that happens in your life. Take care of yourself, because no one else is coming.'"
First Published:
May 30, 2025, 21:31 IST