Kusha Kapila opens up about rapid weight loss journey: ‘I was diagnosed with tuberculosis…was starving…'

Mint

a day ago

Internet influencer, and actor Kusha Kapila has been making news with her drastic body transformation for quite some time. At a time when many celebrities are accused of turning to Ozempic, crash diets, and quick fixes for weight loss, Kusha Kapila broke the silence about her weight loss.
In the latest video on her YouTube channel, Kusha talked about why she lost her weight. She also revealed her childhood trauma, starving for validation, struggling with body image issues and her tuberculosis diagnosis.
'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," Kusha said, talking about viral videos of her body transformation.
She called it 'a constant out-of-body experience," and said that she felt like 'someone else was talking about my body more than I was."
Talking about being labelled an 'average girl" to becoming a 'goddess of beauty" as mentioned in Google alerts and news, she said she struggled with external validation and internal struggle. Recalling what people said, Kusha said, 'They would write things like 'Average girl turned into a goddess of beauty.''
However, this wasn't her first weight loss journey, the actor revealed.
Kusha said she first lost weight when she was 12 or 13. She shared how people called her nicknames like 'motu' in childhood, Kusha said, 'I started gaining weight when I was 10.' But, things changed for her after she lost weight. She remembered how people closely watched what she ate and drank, making her body a public spectacle.
She said that by the time she was in 10th grade, she again gained weight. Her sudden weight gain worried her mother who enrolled her in a gym which she described as an 'akhada." At the gym, she said she began strength training and running on a treadmill, losing 20-22 kgs.
"I lost about 20-22 kilos during that time," Kusha shared. While her body changed, it rooted body image issues in her mind. '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."
'You don't realise it, you just look at before-and-after makeovers and think that the attention you get is the best thing in life," she added.
With time, Kusha told herself to let it go and shifted focus on her now-signature humour and comedy. "People liked me for my jokes, my antics, my impersonations. So, my body didn't feel like something I needed to work on."
However, the issue returned to her when she was 22. "I had gained 10 kilos more, and I was in an unhealthy state with no idea about what I wanted in life," Kusha said who felt "completely clueless."
Things changed when a friend told her over text: 'Kusha, I think it's time to work on yourself." 'He said it with love," Kusha clarified.
'He was into fitness and could see I was in a bad mental space."
Kusha said she joined the gym once again. 'I was consuming only 800-900 calories a day, sometimes even less," she revealed. She opted for a calorie deficit diet.
'Because of this extreme calorie deficit, I lost weight very quickly and dramatically. I didn't gain muscle—it was just rapid weight loss."
Her unhealthy means to lose weight fetched her compliments. 'People started saying things like, 'Wow, Kusha, you look so amazing! What have you done?'" But, inside she was starving herself.
'I was starving," Kusha 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 body gave up. After suffering from an evening fever that wouldn't go away for 12 days, doctors suspected something.
'After multiple tests, they couldn't figure it out. Then one doctor suggested it might be tuberculosis." She developed abdominal tuberculosis.
'Women over 25-26 are more prone to TB. I was diagnosed because I had dropped my immunity so drastically," she admitted.
The 33-year-old actor said she decided to lose weight again but in the correct way.
'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.'"
Kusha will be next seen in the upcoming season of Maamla Legal Hai.