Lifestyle Health Celebrity Health Lena Dunham Uses a Food Diary to Stop Herself from Gaining Too Much Weight "Yes, I am body positive but I am also a young single woman working in Hollywood and I can't just pretend that weight is not a thing," Dunham says By Julie Mazziotta Julie Mazziotta Julie Mazziotta is the Senior Sports Editor at PEOPLE, covering everything from the NFL to tennis to Simone Biles and Tom Brady. She was previously an Associate Editor for the Health vertical for six years, and prior to joining PEOPLE worked at Health Magazine. When not covering professional athletes, Julie spends her time as a (very) amateur athlete, training for marathons, long bike trips and hikes. People Editorial Guidelines Published on October 1, 2019 07:01PM EDT Lena Dunham has said she is happy at her heaviest weight — but the body-positive actress also said she feels she has to keep her eating in check. The Girls writer and star, 33, said that she started keeping a food diary to stop herself from overeating. “If I write down what I eat, I’ll have to hold myself accountable and accountable people don’t gain thirty pounds in a single month,” she told Elle UK. “Yes, I am body positive but I am also a young single woman working in Hollywood and I can’t just pretend that weight is not a thing. It’s a thing.” Dunham’s weight gain came after months of struggling — with both her split from ex-boyfriend Jack Antonoff and her endometriosis pain, which required a total hysterectomy. At that point, Dunham was losing a significant amount of weight and felt unhappy. “Sadness is the only thing that’s ever made me lose weight,” she said. “Two years ago, during the last gasps of my six-year relationship, I lost weight. Not a little weight. Not the kind of weight where your bras feel kind of generous and you marvel at your subtle but oh-wow-it’s-definitely-there-now clavicle. No, it was a lot of weight.” Lena Dunham/Instagram Dunham said that her weight loss initially started because of a stomach infection, but her minimal eating habits continued as she mourned the relationship. “At the end of that relationship, the weight was falling off in double digits but, as I explained to my closest friends, I experienced none of the heady triumph of the women showing off their formerly-huge jeans in a full page add for weight-loss pills,” she said. At the same time, Dunham had formed a “dependency” to prescription drugs. Her addiction reached a point where she went to rehab, and it was there that she regained her hunger. “I had also completed in-patient treatment, known to the public as rehab for trauma and prescription drug dependency or, as I like to call it, a five-star hotel where they take away your razors,” she said. “It took a week, but as the drugs left my body and I made peace with the fact that I was here to heal, not just to cut my own bangs and weep (just kidding: you can’t cut your own bangs because they won’t give you scissors). I got real hungry, real fast. If it wasn’t nailed down, I ate it.” Dunham is now sober and working on a new project in England, where she’s fallen for their traditional meat pies. “After one bite I am in ecstasy. After the second, I miss my mom, the only person or thing that can rival this pie for comfort. After the third I shed a tear. For all the bad bites I’ve ever taken. For all the things I’ve ever hated and finished anyway and all the delicious things I haven’t allowed myself to finish. Loving this meat pie means I’m alive.” Elle UK The November issue of ELLE UK hits newsstands on Oct. 3.