Mindy Kaling is well aware that people are curious about her weight loss, but she doesn’t quite understand all the hype.
“I know people are really interested in my body and the changes in my body, and I think it’s flattering and sometimes it’s just a little much, so I don’t try to tune it in too much,” she previously told People.
Over the last few years, Kaling has been showing off a more toned and trim figure, and her fans have been wondering what motivated her body transformation. As it turns out, her inspiration is quite simple.
“I’ve tried really hard to let go of this idea of losing weight for vanity reasons and really trying to think of how I can be healthy,” Kaling, told People in 2022. “And for me, healthy is working out, moving my body a lot, keeping hydrated, and then not having negative connotations around working out and making me feel like if I don’t do this, then I won’t be something else.”
The 45-year-old has shifted her perspective on fitness over the years and is kinder to herself these days.
“When I was younger, I had a very specific idea of how working out needed to be. It was like 45 minutes on the treadmill, seven minute mile, it needed to be punishing, I needed to hate it,” she said.
Above all, Kaling is focused on staying healthy for her three children.
“I grew up without parents who worked out. They were trying to establish themselves in this country and they did not put a premium on their own health and working out. So, I think it’s been great to show my kids that part of my life” she previously told E! News.
Read on for more details on Kaling’s weight loss, plus her fitness and diet regimens.
She focuses on moderation
Kaling, a self-proclaimed “foodie,” told TODAY.com she’s shifted her approach to dieting over the years to focus more on moderation than deprivation.
“If there was an awards show or I was shooting something, I used to be the person that was like, ‘I have to stop eating these foods, or six weeks beforehand, I’m only going to juice,’” she said.
Nowadays, the star leaves room for her favorite foods but eats the indulgent ones sparingly.
“I’m never going be someone who can just have spinach and salmon every day,” she said. “I just am really for the first time in my life, trying moderation, and I love it.”
Kaling incorporates a wide variety of nutrients into her balanced diet.
“For me, at this point in my life, I feel like I know what I’m supposed to be eating—you know, more leafy green vegetables and keeping red meat to a minimum—and for me personally, I also try to keep dairy at a minimum,” she previously told Prevention.
Like all of us, Kaling said she is a “work in progress.”
“Sometimes I’m better at it than other times, but now I’m way more motivated (to eat healthy) because I have kids,” she said.
She typically walks 15-20 miles a week
Sometimes, the simplest workouts are the most effective. Case in point? Kaling is a huge fan of walking.
“I think that if I can get in about 15 to 20 miles of walking a week, I have mental clarity, I feel like I get better sleep at night…So for me, that’s always been key,” she recently told Prevention.
In the past. Kaling was “way more of a runner” but she appreciates the ease of walking now, especially since she doesn’t have to “shower immediately after.”
The actor likes to multitask while walking and talk on the phone when she can.
“I will go on a two-mile walk after dropping my kid off at school and call a friend from high school to catch up on the phone. It doesn’t feel like I’m working out, but I am, and I enjoy that I get to socialize too,” she previously E! News.
Kaling aims to do 15-20 miles a week, but she’s more focused on staying active than crushing any step goals.
“Sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Well, I have four different times today where I have 10 minutes so let’s just walk instead of sitting down and checking Instagram,’” she previously told TODAY.com. “So instead of it being like one chunk of exercise in the beginning of the day or none at all, I’m now just deciding that I’m going to be a more active person all the time.”
She avoids a ‘monotonous’ workout routine
Doing the same workout over and over again can be a real bore, so Kaling likes to switch up her routine.
“I refuse to let it get monotonous,” she previously told Self.
Some of her go-to workouts include walking, running, hiking, yoga, weight training, elliptical sessions and group classes.
The actor is always down for trying some different or “trendy” workouts and recalled a Pilates reformer class she once tried.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life,” she said. “It was harder than any weightlifting class.”
Kaling also likes to stream workout classes.
“I really like experimenting at home with new stuff where I can’t feel foolish in front of people,” she joked.
She doesn’t weigh herself
Kaling isn’t obsessed with the number she sees on the scale. “I don’t weigh myself,” she previously told TODAY.com.
Instead, Kaling monitors her progress in a healthier way.
“To me, the most amazing thing is that all my clothes kind of fit,” she said. “It’s so easy to get ready and that’s great. I feel happy about that.”
She prioritizes strength training
As part of her balanced fitness routine, Kaling makes time for strength training.
“I remember as a kid, always hearing ‘When you get older, you lose muscle mass. You need to start lifting,’” she told Prevention in 2024. “But so much of the focus when I was younger was ‘How do I be skinny.’”
These days, the star is “seeing first-hand just how important” lifting and strength exercises can be.
She had different approaches to weight loss after her first two pregnancies
When she gave birth to her daughter Katherine in 2017, Kaling was eager to slim down to prepare for a work project.
“After I had my daughter I had to shoot a movie like two months later, so I was very much like, ‘Just give me grilled salmon and sautéed spinach. I’m going to eat that for three months,’” she previously told Entertainment Tonight.
Fast forward to 2020, and Kaling’s didn’t “have those pressures” of getting back to work right away after the birth of her second child, a son named Spencer.
“I had my son in the first year of the pandemic in September 2020… It was this almost extended maternity leave. I wasn’t going to be on camera, the studios were shut down,” she said.
Since she wasn’t in a rush to lose her pregnancy weight the second time around, Kaling said she indulged more.
“When the world started coming back a little bit I thought, ‘This kind of eating what appears, not taking any consideration for what I’m eating is probably not the way to go,’” she said.
But Kaling set things right by focusing on small improvements.
“Honestly, I didn’t really do anything differently. I eat what I like to eat. If I do any kind of restrictive diet, it never really works for me. I just eat less of it… I wish there was something more juicy or dynamic about the way that I’ve lost a little bit of weight, but that’s the way I’ve done it,” she said.
She looks for ‘little pockets of time’ to squeeze in a workout
As any working mom knows, time for exercise is limited. Instead of beating herself up over her hectic schedule, Kaling prefers to get creative about finding time to work out.
“I try to find these little pockets of time where I can move my body. Just looking for small windows of time and making the most of those has completely changed things for me,” she previously told E! News.
She takes hydration pretty seriously
Kaling drinks plenty of water — 50 ounces before 7 a.m., to be precise — each day as part of her wellness routine.
“That’s a huge weight off my shoulders because I think hydration is so key,” she previously told Women’s Health. “Half the times I’m in a bad mood it’s because I’m not hydrated, so for me that’s super important.”
She brings a jump rope with her while she’s traveling
Squeezing in a workout on the road isn’t always easy, but Kaling told E! News she likes to travel with one item to help her work up a sweat while she’s on the go.
“Jumping rope is just about the hardest workout you could imagine, so I love that I can bring these Crossrope jump ropes with me sometimes because they’re cool and very easy to pack,” she said.
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