Kathy Bates is shedding pounds and shedding old habits.
At 76, Bates recently revealed she’s lost 100 pounds and mentioned to People on Thursday, May 8, that she’s since been reworking her wardrobe to match her newfound confidence.
When it comes to fitness, Bates keeps things simple with walking, which she considers her go-to exercise. “It’s great for me,” she said, adding that she also has a treadmill at home. Though she’s been advised to incorporate weight training, Bates joked about her struggle with using the equipment, mentioning her “stretchy thing” that she still hasn’t quite figured out.
Bates has opened up in the past about how her weight loss, which occurred gradually over the years, has drastically improved her quality of life. Reflecting on her time filming Harry’s Law with the outlet in March, Bates admitted that she had to sit between every take due to her size, something she now regrets. “I had to sit down in between every take, and it was awful. I’m ashamed to have put myself through that, to be honest,” she said. “But now that I’ve been able to get really healthy, I can move, I can breathe, I can have fun.”
Her journey to health was sparked by her 2017 type 2 diabetes diagnosis, which pushed her to take her health seriously. “[Diabetes] runs in my family, and I’d seen what my father had gone through. He had had a leg amputation. One of my sisters is dealing with it very seriously, and it terrified me. It scared me straight,” Bates explained.
Weight loss isn’t the only achievement on Bates’ impressive resume. The American Horror Story alum recently revealed that she’ll be directing an episode of Matlock, adding to her already growing list of directorial projects. “I’m very excited,” Bates shared during a panel at Deadline’s Contenders TV. In addition to her upcoming work on Matlock, Bates has previously directed episodes of Six Feet Under for HBO, as well as Everwood, Oz, Fargo, and more.
