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At 76, Kathy Bates is starring in CBS' Matlock reboot. And despite recent reports of her retirement, she is charging full-speed ahead as her cut-throat character, lawyer Madeline Matlock -- a feat that Bates says was partially made possible by her significant weight loss. "It's helped me tremendously that, over the last six or seven years, I've lost 100 pounds," she recently told Variety. "I don't think I've been this slim since I was in college."

Before losing the weight, Bates noticed how carrying it around affected her work -- namely on Harry's Law in 2011. "I had to sit down every moment that I could. It was hard for me to walk," she said. "I'm ashamed I let myself get so out of shape, but now I have a tremendous amount of energy."

As Bates said, the transformation didn't happen overnight. For example, in 2019, she opened up to Extra about her accomplishment of losing 60 pounds. "I was facing diabetes -- it runs in my family -- and I really didn't want to live with that," she said at the time. She added that she was "in the best health I've been in in years " and was "so grateful," calling the journey "a miracle."

The weight loss continued from there, in part thanks to a mealtime mindfulness exercise that she learned from her niece. "After you eat for 20, 30 minutes, you experience an involuntary sigh. It's communication between stomach and brain telling you you had enough," she told Extra. "And what I discovered is if you listen to that sigh and push that plate away for just five minutes, you realize you're satisfied and you don't have to eat more."

In addition to stamina, Bates told People in 2019 that her weight loss also "really helped" her post-cancer lymphedema, a condition that causes swelling and fluid retention in limbs, per Mayo Clinic. The swelling is a common "souvenir" from undergoing lymph node surgery, she added. (Bates had ovarian cancer in 2003 and breast cancer in 2012.)

Along with mindful eating and avoiding junk food and soda, Bates told Us Weekly that the biggest change-maker for her was patience. "It took a few years," she said. "I would say you have to be really patient ... I don't like the word willpower, but I like the word determination."