CELESTE NTULI’S INSPIRING JOURNEY TO SELF-ACCEPTANCE

WE GROW up breathing in the idea that thinness equals health, beauty, and self-control, while fatness equals laziness, failure and shame.

- VUYILE MADWANTSI

It's so deeply ingrained that even those of us who've felt the sting of weight stigma can catch ourselves judging someone else's body before we even realise it.

If you believe the billboards, weight loss is a simple equation: eat less, move more. Drink this detox tea. Try this app.

Sign up for that boot camp. But here's the truth that most marketing won't touch: for many people, weight is far more complex than calorie maths.

Obesity isn't just about willpower.

It's a chronic, multifactorial condition influenced by genetics, environment, psychology, hormones, and even the way your body fights back against weight loss. And yes, that's a real thing.

This is called metabolic adaptation, a survival mechanism where, sensing weight loss, your body slows metabolism, raises hunger hormones, and burns fewer calories at rest. It's not sabotage, just biology. Your body thinks you're starving, not dieting.

The queen of Zulu comedy, Celeste Ntuli, has built her career on making people laugh, but behind her humour lies a deeply personal journey of learning to live at peace with her body.

We meet at the launch of Wegovy, the first once-weekly GLP-1 therapy approved in South Africa for treating obesity and overweight, where Ntuli speaks with the same openness she brings to the stage.