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Khloe Kardashian is getting real about confidence, body image, and the relentless scrutiny that comes with life in the spotlight. During a revealing conversation on her Khloe in Wonder Land podcast with fitness influencer Whitney Simmons, the 40-year-old reality star and entrepreneur shared that she actually felt “way more confident” when she was heavier.
Despite shedding pounds and embracing a more active lifestyle, Khloe said she’s faced just as much, if not more, criticism for her slimmer figure, calling out the keyboard warriors for the “gross” trolling online trolls and opening up about the emotional toll of public judgment.
“The bigger I was, I was way more confident,” Khloe shared. “I think because, like, what are you going to say about me? I know all the things you’re going to say. I would have my days that I would feel low and all of that.”
As Khloe began to focus on losing weight, she was under a new kind of pressure to get healthy and maintain an image that others expected of her.
“When I started my fitness journey and, like, becoming in shape, I felt such a need that I had to keep this up, like even if it wasn’t for me. I felt like, ‘Well, I can’t get fat again because everyone is expecting that to happen.’”
That shift, she explained, came with “a different type of attention,” one that she eventually found deeply unsettling.
The star explained, “It was also a different type of attention I was now receiving. And then once I got a little older, I was like, ‘Wait, this is gross.’ I hated that. And that’s why I was getting more attention because I looked a certain way.”
Despite embracing a healthier lifestyle, Khloe said the vitriol from online trolls never let up. Whether she was curvier or more toned, she received the “same level of abuse”, just from different directions.
“I’ve learned, no matter what, I’m never going to make people happy because I was once bigger, I was thinner, and I had the same amount of people, but from different ends.”
She also opened up about how the backlash impacted how people saw her personality, suggesting that some believed weight loss had stripped away her identity.
“When I lost weight, I was ’a traitor to the bigger community’; I’m ‘not myself’; I’m ‘not funny anymore.’ I’m ‘not all the things’ that I still am at my core."
"I just aesthetically look a little different, or a lot different, whatever you want to say.”
For Khloe, fitness became a form of therapy during a difficult chapter. The reality star, who has a seven-year-old daughter called True and a two-year-old son named Tatum with her ex-partner Tristan Thompson, traded therapy sessions for the gym and began working through her emotions by moving her body.
In an interview with Bustle magazine in December 2024, the reality TV star admitted: “My weight loss journey started because I was getting a divorce. When I was bigger, I thought I was the hottest thing in the world. I had so much more confidence. And then when I lost weight, people were like, How dare you!”
Khloe’s reflections highlight the impossible double standards women often face when it comes to body image. Her experience is a reminder that self-worth should not be measured in pounds or likes and that confidence ultimately comes from within.