If you have been watching media mogul Oprah Winfrey make the rounds here lately, you’ve probably noticed her sleek curves and disappearing waistline.
You’ve probably also heard the whispers. The talk show queen is on that stuff, as in weight-loss medication. Well, in a recent story with People magazine, Oprah reveals that weight-loss medications have indeed been a part of her latest weight-loss journey.
But Oprah, who is making the rounds to promote her upcoming “The Color Purple” musical film, insists that the weight-loss medications have been and continue to be a small part of her regimen. The soon-to-be 70-year-old put in the work.
“It’s everything,” she said, noting that the medication is a supplement, not a sole solution. “I know everybody thought I was on it, but I worked so damn hard. I know that if I’m not also working out and vigilant about all the other things, it doesn’t work for me.”
“I was actually recommending it to people long before I was on it myself,” she explained, later adding, “I had an awareness of [weight-loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way.”
According to reports, Oprah’s latest weight-loss journey was sparked after she had knee surgery in 2021. Oprah knew if she didn’t change up some things, she might not be able to move around as easily as she liked.
That was all the motivation required during rehabilitation.
“After knee surgery, I started hiking and setting new distance goals each week. I could eventually hike three to five miles every day and a 10-mile straight-up hike on weekends,” she told People. “I felt stronger, more fit and more alive than I’d felt in years.”
The progress Oprah saw served as the impetus to make changes to her diet, including intermittent fasting, consistent water intake, and counting “points” through WeightWatchers, in which she is a shareholder.
“It was a second shot for me to live a more vital and vibrant life,” she explained.
Oprah, who had considered drugs such as Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy before turning to the unspecified GLP-1 medication, came to the decision to use a medication while hosting her “The State of Weight” panel discussion in July. It was then she realized that the new class of drugs aren’t a cure, but a way to curb the biological instincts that contribute to obesity.
“I had the biggest a-ha, along with many people in that audience,” she recalled. “I realized I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control.”
Oprah doesn’t only blame herself but absorbs recriminations about her fluctuating weight, which often played out in the public eye.
“It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years,” she told People. “I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself.”
As she approaches her 70th birthday in January, what Oprah said she won’t do is continue being shamed for doing what she needs to feel her best.
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” she said. “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
As for the role the medication now plays in her maintaining her weight, she said, “I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yo-ing.”
That includes navigating the over-indulgence that often accompanies the holidays. Oprah says the medication was helpful to take prior to Thanksgiving “because I knew I was going to have two solid weeks of eating … instead of gaining eight pounds like I did last year, I gained half a pound.”
“It quiets the food noise,” she added.