Actress Lena Dunham poses at Elle Magazine annual Women in Television dinner in Los Angeles, California January 13, 2015. (Reuters)
Lena Dunham, a self-described "body positivity warrior," took to Instagram Tuesday to celebrate her figure with before-and-after photos. The "Girls" creator shared two paparazzi pictures of herself, revealing she is 24 pounds heavier than she was a year prior.
In one photo, taken in April 2017, Dunham shows off her slim figure in a short black dress and high heel ankle boots. In the other, taken more recently, Dunham is seen laughing with her 13-year-old dog, Bowie, in her arms.
"On the left: 138 pounds, complimented all day and propositioned by men and on the cover of a tabloid about diets that work," Dunham, 32, wrote in an Instagram caption. "On the right: 162 pounds, happy joyous & free, complimented only by people that matter for reasons that matter, subsisting on a steady flow of fun/healthy snacks and apps and entrees, strong from lifting dogs and spirits."
LENA DUNHAM REVEALS HER 'BIGGEST INSECURITY' IN PERSONAL VOGUE ESSAY, GETS SLAMMED BY CRITICS
Dunham admitted she occasionally looks back at the photo of her thinner self "longingly," but the star said she then has to remind herself of the pain she was feeling at that time.
"[I was] sick in the tissue and in the head and subsisting only on small amounts of sugar, tons of caffeine and a purse pharmacy," Dunham revealed. "I remember the impossible pain that brought me there and onto my proverbial knees."
Dunham addressed her dramatic weight loss in 2017, revealing to Ellen DeGeneres that sometimes in Hollywood you just "can't win."
"Suddenly, I had all these people being like, 'You're a hypocrite, I thought you were body positive. I thought you were a person who embraced bodies of all sizes,' and I'm like ‘I do, I just also understand that bodies change, we live a long time, things happen,'" Dunham told DeGeneres on her talk show in March 2017.
LENA DUNHAM SHARES ENTIRELY NUDE PHOTO OF HERSELF IN BODY-POSITIVE MESSAGE: 'LOVE IT ALL'
Months later, in June 2017, Dunham posted a nude photo of herself on Instagram, announcing that she was finally comfortable with her "pear-shaped pot of honey," referring to her stomach.
She also slammed a magazine for putting her on the cover with a headline that read, "20 Slimdown Diet Tips Stars Are Using."
"I have no tips I give no tips I don't want to be on this cover cuz it's diametrically opposed to everything I've fought my whole career for and it's not a compliment to me because it's not an achievement thanx," Dunham replied at the time.
The writer-actress has had several health issues in recent years, suffering chronic pain from endometriosis — a disorder where tissue grows outside a woman's uterus.
Dunham thought she was free of endometriosis in April 2017, but discovered she was not rid of the disease after being transported to a hospital during the Met Gala the following month.
In March 2018, Dunham explained in an issue of Vogue her decision to undergo a total hysterectomy.
"In addition to endometrial disease, an odd hump-like protrusion and a septum running down the middle, I have retrograde bleeding ... so that my stomach is full of blood. My ovary has settled in on the muscles around the sacral nerves in my back that allow us to walk. Let’s please not even talk about my uterine lining," Dunham wrote.
Dunham announced her split with longtime boyfriend Jack Antonoff in January. The two decided to call it quits in December after five and a half years together, though they've remained close friends — with Antonoff publicly voicing his support for Dunham after her procedure.
Fox News' Kathleen Joyce contributed to this report.
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