Oprah Winfrey said taking weight-loss drugs, like Ozempic and Wegovy, helped her realize the truth about ‘thin people.’
Last year, the media mogul, 70, finally admitted to using an undisclosed GLP-1 — a type 2 diabetes medication that can also aid in weight loss — to shed nearly 50 pounds after decades of yo-yo dieting.
The admission came as a shock to fans as Oprah had previously denied using meds to slim down and even went as far as to slam the method as an ‘easy way out.’
But now, having nearly reached her goal weight of 160 pounds, Winfrey is sharing her experience taking a GLP-1 and what it has taught her about the thin people she knows.
She did so while discussing the function and safety of these types of drugs with Dr. Ania Jastreboff on the latest episode of her podcast.
‘One of the things that I realized the very first time I took a GLP-1 was that all these years I thought that thin people had more willpower,’ Winfrey confessed. ‘They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip.’
But once she started on a GLP-1, Winfrey realized that what she initially perceived as ‘willpower’ was actually an absence of intrusive hunger thoughts — often referred to as ‘food noise.’
Ozempic, Wegovy and other GLP-1 medications can help eradicate food noise — which often leads to overeating and weight gain — by reducing cravings and slowing down digestion.
‘And then I realized the very first time I took the GLP-1 that, they’re not even thinking about it,’ the billionaire said.
‘They’re eating when they’re hungry and they’re stopping when they’re full.’
Winfrey explained that that way of eating ‘doesn’t work’ if you struggle with obesity, which is a disease.
During her sit-down with Dr. Jastreboff, Winfrey also spoke about being ‘publicly humiliated’ for her weight over the course of her decades-long career.
‘Every week [I was] exploited by the tabloids, anytime any comedian wanted to make fun or make a joke about it, they would make a joke about it. And I accepted it because I thought I deserved it,’ she explained.
But now, Winfrey said she realizes that her size did not make her ‘less than’ others and that she did not deserve that treatment.
Despite her initial denial about using weight-loss drugs, Oprah declared she was ‘done with the shaming’ in December 2023 when she revealed that she used a GLP-1 to drop 40lbs.
She also incorporated regular exercise, such as hiking, to help her shed unwanted pounds.
Winfrey told PEOPLE: ‘I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing’ – but did not name the drug that she uses.
‘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.
‘I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself’ and added she had actively recommended the weight loss aid to other people before deciding to take it herself.
The star revealed she had taken the medication before Thanksgiving as she knew she would have ‘two solid weeks of eating’ and credits the drug for causing her to only gain half a pound rather than eight pounds, adding it ‘quiets the food noise.’
At the time, Winfrey said she was seven pounds away from her goal weight of 160 but insisted ‘it’s not about the number.’ Oprah weighed 237lbs (107.5kg) at her heaviest, she previously revealed.
She said undergoing knee surgery in 2021 kickstarted a journey for her to improve her health and live a ‘more vital and vibrant life.’
The broadcast icon said she now eats her last meal at 4pm, drinks a gallon of water a day and uses WeightWatchers principles of counting points, along with regular hikes.
She added that her fitness and health routine are integral to maintaining her weight loss saying: ‘It’s everything. 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.’
She said: ‘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.’
Winfrey said she was encouraged to use medical weight loss drugs after the taped panel conversation in July 2023 with weight loss experts and clinicians – which led to her ‘biggest aha moment.’
The conversation was released online that September and saw Winfrey staunchly denying she would ever take weight loss drugs.
She said: ‘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. Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it’s about the brain.
During the discussion, the experts insisted that obesity is a metabolic disease with some bodies ‘more predisposed to storing more fat’ – also known as adipose tissue.
Oprah candidly explained: ‘For those of us that are adipose storers, no matter how many times… You’ve all watched me diet and diet and diet and diet, it’s a recurring thing because my body always seems to want to go back to a certain weight.’
She added: ‘If I ate an apple pie at 11 o’clock at night, I would be two pounds heavier in the morning. I can’t eat after a certain time.’
The TV personality, who claimed she had ‘yoyoed her whole life,’ later said: ‘This is a world that has shamed people for being overweight forever and all of us who have lived it know that people just treat you differently. They just do.
‘And I am Oprah Winfrey and I know all that comes with that and I get treated differently if I am 200 plus pounds versus under 200 pounds…
‘There is a condescension. There is a stigma.’
Oprah said that the key was to have friends and partners around you that offered support and ‘rejoiced in your victory.’
Following a more in depth discussion of the weight-loss drugs currently available – including Ozempic and Wegovy – the media mogul said: ‘Shouldn’t we all just be more accepting of whatever body you choose to be in? That should be your choice.
‘One of the things I carried so much shame for, and even when I first started hearing about the weight-loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery and I felt, ‘I’ve got to do this on my own because if I take the drug, that’s the easy way out.’
‘There’s a part of me that feels – like I think a lot of people feel with bariatric surgery – that I’ve got to do it the hard way, I’ve got to keep climbing the mountains, I’ve got to keep suffering and I’ve got to do that because otherwise I somehow cheated myself.’
She concluded: ‘As a person who has been shamed for so many years [about my weight], I am just sick of it.’
The star said after this chat, she released her ‘own shame’ and consulted her doctor, who prescribed the weight loss medication.
Last year, she released the TV documentary An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution, which featured her hitting out at those who shame people who turn to weight-loss drugs.
