Momma, she’s… a smaller girl now. Maddie Baillio revealed this week that she’s lost over half her body weight!

Maddie went from complete unknown to in-demand actress after being cast in NBC‘s 2016 production of Hairspray Live! She had always “been comfortable” with her body — which was perfect for the lead role of Tracy Turnblad. But while co-starring in 2020’s Cinderella with Camila Cabello, she realized she was having some trouble physically. That’s when her fitness journey began.

She told People on Wednesday:

“There was a scene that didn’t make it in the movie, where me and the other stepsister [Charlotte Spencer] led a group of like 300 girls — fantastic dancers, slender, they had it going on — down this 50-yard pathway to the castle singing Single Ladies and dancing. I couldn’t keep up with the choreography. I kept losing my breath. We’d have to start reshooting the scene over and over for me.”

She knew if she was going to keep slaying in musicals she was going to have to “build stamina.” So she took advantage of the months she suddenly have off due to COVID shutting down movies and Broadway to get in shape. While staying back home in Texas, she says, she just started moving:

“I had so much free time, so I thought I’m just going to start walking. The sun was so good for my mental health and my physical health. I could walk for 30 minutes to an hour, and then the next week, it was a good two hours. So that’s how it began for me.”

Over time she found it was having a real effect on her body beyond having more energy:

“I stepped on the scale, and that was inspiring to see that I had control over something — that I had control over my body.”

So she took other steps — like cutting red meat from her diet, eventually going vegan. She also tried other workouts like hot yoga. Over the course of two years, she lost a whopping 150 lbs!

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The side effect of having all that extra energy? She was able to keep up with more than choreo:

“I’d go to West Hollywood, and I could dance forever throughout the night. Life became so much more fun when I had that physical stamina.”

Not only that, she’s also getting more opportunities!

“I’m inspired by the changing mentality. I wanna play my dream roles on Broadway that have nothing to do with my weight. And I definitely see it going that direction.”

So great! But the journey wasn’t without its struggles. Surprisingly, she says one of the things that bothered her most as she was losing weight was people cheering her on:

“We have to feel good about ourselves. It can’t come from outside sources. So it is a compliment when people tell me that I look good, but I refrain from commenting on people’s physical appearance because I know that when I was struggling — when I was so hyper fixated on the number on the scale, and people were telling me that I was doing good and [to] keep going — that wasn’t good for me. Because you never know who’s struggling with what, how they got to that point.”

Something worth thinking about…

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Currently she’s living in LA with her boyfriend Solomon Reynolds. She tells the mag:

“Life is good. I’m in a lovely, healthy relationship with myself and my body and my family and my partner… I’m in a much more centered, grounded place.”

She’s knew Solomon way before she was famous — it’s a really sweet story! She recounts:

“I had a big crush on my partner in high school 10 years ago.”

After a decade they met again randomly and reconnected — and he was still her dream guy! Not only is he “the most talented person I’ve ever met,” he was also good to her when others weren’t!

“I was a plus-size girl in high school as well, and he was like one of the few boys who was just so kind to me.”

Awww! She ended the interview by saying:

“I’m so happy; we’re so happy. Yeah, it’s a really love-filled time in my life.”

And we’re so happy for her! While we’ll definitely think twice about complimenting someone’s weight loss, we’re just so glad Maddie is feeling good and living her best life!

[Image via FayesVision/WENN/Maddie Baillio/Instagram/NBC/YouTube.]