The internet can be a brutal place for anyone, let alone someone who’s lived their entire life in front of a camera. Selena Gomez knows this better than most. Lately, if you’ve scrolled through TikTok or Twitter, you’ve probably seen the comments. People are obsessed with Selena Gomez gaining weight. They analyze her face at awards shows. They zoom in on paparazzi photos. It’s relentless.
Honestly, it’s also exhausting.
But here’s the thing: most of the "discussions" happening online are missing the actual story. They treat her body like a math equation where calories in plus calories out equals a certain dress size. For Selena, that’s never been the reality. Since her lupus diagnosis back in 2015, her weight hasn't been about "letting herself go." It's been a direct reflection of her survival.
The Lupus Factor: It’s Not Just a Number
If you don't know what lupus is, it's basically an autoimmune disease where your body decides its own healthy tissue is the enemy. It's nasty. It causes inflammation, joint pain, and organ damage. In Selena's case, it got so bad she needed a kidney transplant in 2017.
When she talks about Selena Gomez gaining weight, she’s usually talking about her medication. Specifically, the steroids and immunosuppressants used to keep her immune system from attacking her.
Taking these meds is non-negotiable for her. They keep her alive. But they also come with a laundry list of side effects that would make anyone frustrated.
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- Water Retention: One of the most common effects of lupus medication is holding onto water weight. It happens fast. One day you’re one size, and the next, your face and midsection are visibly swollen.
- "Moon Face": This is an actual medical term for the rounding of the face caused by long-term steroid use (like Prednisone).
- Metabolism Shifts: These drugs can change how your body stores fat and processes sugar.
"I tend to hold a lot of water weight, and that happens very normally," she told fans during a TikTok Live. "When I’m off of it, I tend to lose weight." It's a physiological rollercoaster she didn't ask to ride.
Why We Need to Stop the "Before and After" Obsession
We’ve been conditioned to look at a celebrity’s body as a "work in progress." If they lose weight, we cheer. If they gain it, we speculate. In early 2025, during an appearance on the On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast, Selena got incredibly real about how this affects her. She admitted that the constant commentary makes her feel "a tad bitter."
Can you blame her?
She’s out here winning awards for Emilia Pérez and starring in Only Murders in the Building, yet the headline is often her silhouette. She noted that men rarely face this level of scrutiny. A male actor can gain 30 pounds for a role or just because he’s enjoying life, and it’s "character work" or "dad bod" charm. For a woman, it's treated like a moral failing.
The Mental Health Toll of Public Shaming
There was a moment in her documentary, My Mind & Me, where you could see the weight of it all. It’s not just the physical pain of lupus or the exhaustion of a kidney transplant. It’s the "Dear..." episode on Apple TV+ where she admitted she would post photos online saying the body-shaming didn't bother her, all while crying her eyes out in her room.
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That’s the human side of the Selena Gomez gaining weight narrative.
She’s tried to be the "body positive" girl because she knows millions of young women are watching her. She wants them to feel okay in their own skin. But being that shield is heavy. She’s human. She’s 33 years old now. Her body isn’t supposed to look like it did when she was 18 on Disney Channel.
What’s Changed in 2025 and 2026?
If you’ve seen her lately, she looks happy. That’s the biggest "transformation." She’s been open about moving away from restrictive dieting. No more crash diets. No more trying to fit into a sample size that wasn't made for someone with a chronic illness.
Instead, she’s focusing on:
- Sustainable Movement: She’s reportedly big on Pilates and low-impact strength training. It helps with the joint pain from her lupus-related arthritis without burning her out.
- Mental Health Boundaries: She often deletes social media from her phone. She doesn't want to see the "doctor" TikToks analyzing her "moon face" or the mean-spirited memes.
- Prioritizing Health Over Aesthetics: She’s explicitly said she would rather be healthy and take her medicine than be thin and sick.
The Takeaway: It’s About Resilience
The story isn't about a scale. It's about a woman who has survived a life-threatening illness, a transplant, and a mental health crisis, all while the world watched and took notes. When you see headlines about Selena Gomez gaining weight, remember that those "extra pounds" are often the literal side effect of her staying alive.
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We’ve got to do better at letting people just... exist.
If you’re struggling with your own body image or a health condition that changes how you look, take a page out of Selena’s book. Your body is a vessel for your life, not just a thing to be looked at.
What you can do next:
- Audit your feed: Unfollow accounts that thrive on "body snark" or "plastic surgery reveals." They distort your perception of what real bodies look like.
- Focus on function: Instead of asking how your body looks today, ask how it feels. Are you hydrated? Did you move in a way that felt good?
- Practice the "Golden Rule" of Body Image: If you wouldn't say it to a friend who was managing a chronic illness, don't say it about a stranger on the internet—and definitely don't say it to yourself in the mirror.
Selena isn't a "model," and as she says, she never will be. She’s an actress, a singer, a CEO, and a survivor. That’s more than enough.