After years of being “publicly humiliated” for her body, Oprah Winfrey shared candid confessions about her weight loss journey and how her perception about “thin” people has changed.
The media mogul, 70, opened up about taking GLP-1 medication, which is generally prescribed for type-2 diabetes but has gained popularity for its weight loss effects, with brands like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro garnering significant attention.
Oprah did not specify the brand that led to her shedding pounds, but she spoke about how it helped her almost hit her goal weight of 160 pounds (72 kg).
Oprah Winfrey shared candid confessions about her weight-loss journey and her experience with GLP-1 medication
On a podcast episode, the former talk show host discussed with Dr. Ania Jastreboff and clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman about “what happens to a person’s mental health, body image and how the world treats them after losing a significant amount of weight.”
She also revealed how her perception of “thin people” changed once she started taking GLP-1 medication.
“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,” she admitted. “They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip.”
The former talk show host revealed how her perception of “thin people” changed once she started taking GLP-1 medication
“And then I realized the very first time I took the GLP-1 that, they’re not even thinking about,” she added.
After she started taking the GLP-1 medication, the What I Know For Sure author said she no longer struggled with “food noise,” described as intrusive thoughts related to hunger or cravings.
“They’re eating when they’re hungry and they’re stopping when they’re full,” she said, noting that this “doesn’t work” for people struggling with obesity or other conditions.
The former talk show host also touched upon being “publicly humiliated” for her weight after stepping into the limelight.
“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 said on the podcast.
However, she eventually realized that she was never “less than” others because of her weight and that her body never deserved to be fodder for jokes.
The author touched upon being “publicly humiliated” for her weight for decades and used to think she “deserved” it
Although she turned off the YouTube comments for her podcast episode, Oprah still faced backlash on other social media platforms for her comments about “thin people.”
“Thin people also think about food all the time, but they work hard to manage their physical and mental needs in a healthy way, and not by taking medication,” one user wrote.
“I think about it constantly but just don’t eat it,” another agreed.
Several netizens criticized her for her epiphany about slim people and their food habits
“There are many thin people, or others who are a healthy weight but not necessarily ‘thin’ who do in fact draw on willpower and strategic tactics to keep their weight down. They create an environment that unlike most of our society, is NOT obesogenic,” read a comment left by another user.
Calling her insights “just a lie,” the user added, “Just because you are on a new bandwagon doesn’t mean that you should speak in a way that suggests your perception of reality is definitive. It is not.”
“Thin people also think about food all the time, but they work hard to manage their physical and mental needs,” said one Oprah critic
On the other hand, some agreed with the producer’s comments about “food noise.”
“Food noise is real!” one said.
“I can attest the same thing happened to me,” said another. “I literally said to my husband ‘the food noise is gone.’ And a few days later I heard on the radio they said they were studying it for alcohol and drug addiction and that shook me.”
Some social media users agreed with her comments about “food noise,” saying they had similar experiences
Image credits: Oprah
According to experts, GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy can indeed lead to the reduced desire to “eat extra food.”
“These drugs copy a hormone that our bodies produce naturally that tells our brain that we are full and should stop eating,” Dr. Robert Klitzman, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Bioethics Masters Program at Columbia University, told Bored Panda via email.
“The drug reduces craving and slows down our digestion,” he said. “In short, we have less desire to eat extra food.”
Dr. Klitzman, who co-authored a paper on anti-obesity medications last year, said they can result in weight loss as well as reduce the risks for diabetes and heart disease.
“However, these medications do not work for everyone. Overall, about 50% of patients will lose about 20% of their weight,” he said.
“These drugs copy a hormone that our bodies produce naturally that tells our brain that we are full and should stop eating,” Dr. Robert Klitzman told Bored Panda
Moreover, he also noted that patients, once they start taking such medication, may have to take them their entire life.
“People who take GLP-1s will gain their weight back if they stop taking them. A problem is that these drugs therefore need to be taken for one’s entire life, to avoid such return to obesity, and they are expensive,” said the author of Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains, and Healing the Whole Person.
“The FDA has approved them for diabetes, and insurance companies do not always cover them for weight loss alone,” he added.
When asked whether there are any long-term risks associated with taking these medications, Dr. Klitzman said data is still being gathered, but nausea and diarrhea have been reported.
“Around 40% of patients have gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea and diarrhea. Longer term risks include gallbladder and kidney and other diseases,” he said. “These may be rare, but data are still being gathered.”
Oprah has been open about her health and changes in her lifestyle over the last few years
Image credits: Oprah
Oprah, who is turning 71 years old next month, previously said she didn’t want to take medication to aid her weight loss because she felt it was “the easy way out.
When she was finally able to release her “own shame about it,” she consulted her doctor and was prescribed a weight-loss medication.
“I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing,” she told People in 2023.
At the time, she also spoke about changing her lifestyle and eating habits after her 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 the outlet. “I felt stronger, more fit and more alive than I’d felt in years.”
“I eat my last meal at 4 o’clock, drink a gallon of water a day, and use the WeightWatchers principles of counting points,” she continued. “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.”
Netizens were divided in the comments section following Oprah’s latest podcast episode
