Sasha Pieterse had a significant weight gain of about 70 pounds which was extremely stressful for her as that put her on the receiving end of endless body-shaming comments. The fact that Alison DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars could not understand how that weight gain came to be didn’t help. Sasha Pieterse was later diagnosed with PCOS and since then, she has been very vocal about this issue.
Sasha Pieterse is a South African-born American actress, singer, and songwriter who is most recognized for her role as Alison DiLaurentis in the Freeform series Pretty Little Liars and its spin-off Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.
After the success of Pretty Little Liars, she was cast to play the supporting role of Amy Loubalu in the 2011 Disney Channel film Geek Charming. In 2013, she starred in the teen comedy film G.B.F.. She also participated in the 25th season of Dancing with the Stars and finished in 10th place in 2017.
During her time in Dancing with the Stars, she made some revelations about her struggles with her weight gain which was caused by PCOS. She has been very open about the issues that arise with PCOS since she was diagnosed. Here are all the details about Sasha Pieterse’s weight gain of about 70 pounds in just two years and the weight loss that followed in the coming years!
Previously, we touched on the weight gain efforts of Puff Daddy and Raquel Leviss.
Sasha Pieterse’s Weight Gain: Alison DiLaurentis from Pretty Little Liars Gained Weight Because of PCOS; The Actress Has Had Weight Loss Since Then; Check Out Her Before and After Pictures!
Sasha Pieterse (@sashapieterse) struggled very much with her body and physicality about three years ago during the time she had a weight gain of over 70 pounds (32 kgs) in two years.
The time when Sasha Pieterse had the weight gain was something she was never going to forget. She was always going to remember what went down when she got bigger as she was bullied for being fat. There was media speculation over her health and all the people were going, why did Alison DiLaurentis get fat in Pretty Little Liars? Why did she gain so much weight? Overall, she had a very miserable time after she gained weight.
That stayed with Sasha Pieterse for quite some time. Even much later after the incident of bullying, when she was participating in the US version of Dancing with the Stars, she broke down over her weight gain in her rehearsal video. That week, she was dancing along to the tunes of the uplifting self-love song Most Girls by Hailee Steinfeld, which seemed to be a bit of a trigger for her. She said,
I love the song because it really resonates with me about what I’ve been through, and what I’m still going through. I gained 70-ish pounds over two years and it was really, really hurtful the way people reacted. They were saying stuff like, ‘She’s pregnant.’ ‘You’re fat.’ They were angry, they were mad that I look like this. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through.
Sasha Pieterse had a hard time not just because of how people reacted to her weight gain but also because that whole thing was puzzling to her. Why did she gain so much weight? She could not, for the life of her, figure out just why she was getting bigger and gaining so much weight when she had not been doing anything different. All she knew was that she was having irregular periods, weight gain, and it was becoming impossible for her to lose weight, all of which seemed somewhat normal sometimes depending on people’s lifestyle, but she had not made any changes to her lifestyle.
Sasha Pieterse had no idea what was going on and she had no way of solving it. So, she went to the doctor to get their opinion on those symptoms and it was then that she was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), which is a hormone imbalance that around 10% of women have. The weight gain she was baffled by and that was causing her immense stress was all because of PCOS.
Sasha Pieterse had been struggling with her body and weight gain all because she had PCOS, a hormone imbalance that can cause irregular and/or long periods, as well as excess male hormones that can cause increased facial and body hair, severe acne, and hair loss. Since this discovery, since she could finally explain her weight gain, it was like a burden was lifted off her shoulders. She said,
Finally I knew why this was happening to me. I feel like I’ve always been a happy person, and I’ve been so blessed with an amazing family and friends. But I don’t know, I went through a hard time, so feeling like me again, it means the world honestly.
The Pretty Little Liars cast definitely was relieved after the reason behind her weight gain was known even though she was aware of how PCOS was a big issue that can lead to ovarian cancer and breast cancer and thyroid issues that could be avoided. She realized that more than half of the women had it, but most of them didn’t even know of it. So, she started being more vocal and open about her condition in the hopes that she could help women deal with it.
Sasha Pieterse wanted women to be more focused on self-love as they go through what PCOS puts their bodies through. She hoped that nobody would have to go through the time that she went through when she was body-shamed for her weight gain when she was already struggling with her body.
Things have changed for her since then because Sasha Pieterse lost a lot of weight in the following years. She shed a lot of what she had gained when she was on Dancing with the Stars, most likely because those dance rehearsals 24/7 burnt some serious calories. In the footage of the show, she said that it was not an easy road, but being able to focus on getting herself healthy again and the fact that she was seeing results now and getting better is all she could ask for.
Even though Sasha Pieterse was eliminated very early in the fourth week, one good thing to come out of Dancing with the Stars was the reversal of her PCOS-caused weight gain. In just a few weeks that she started kicking up heels with partner Gleb Savchenko on the show, she had a massive weight loss. She revealed,
We’re halfway through the competition and I’ve lost 37 lbs. It really is magical.
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