Oprah Winfrey is sharing new details on her weight loss in recent years, including the kind of weight loss drug she took.
In a recent episode of “The Oprah Podcast”, she said that she took a GLP-1 agonist, which is a specific type of weight-loss medication. Some brand name GLP-1s include Ozempic and Trulicity — though Winfrey hasn’t revealed a specific brand.
“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 just had more willpower, they ate better foods, they were able to stick to it longer, they never had a potato chip, and then I realized the very first time I took the GLP-1 that, ‘Oh, they’re not even thinking about it. They’re only eating when they’re hungry, and they’re stopping when they’re full,” she said on the podcast.
The media mogul’s weight loss first caught the public’s attention when she walked the red carpet at the premiere for the remake of “The Color Purple” in December 2023.
The same month, she confirmed to People magazine that she was taking a weight loss drug, though she didn’t share which type at the time.
Winfrey told the outlet that she once though taking a weight-loss drug would be “the easy way out.”
But she later realized “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.”
What weight-loss drug did Oprah take?
Winfrey said on an episode of “The Oprah Podcast” that she took a “GLP-1,” formally known as a GLP-1 agonist, a class of weight loss medications. It works by mimicking the hormone GLP-1, which the body releases after eating, helping people feel full and slowing stomach emptying.
She first confirmed that she is taking a weight-loss drug in an interview with People published in December 2023, but did not confirm which medication she was taking. Many have speculated it’s Ozempic, a brand name GLP-1 agonist that’s been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes. Weight loss is a famous side effect.
“I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing,” she told People at the time. “It quiets the food noise.”
But the decision to try a weight loss drug was not an easy one for her.
“There’s a part of me that feels … I’ve got to do it the hard way. I’ve got to keep climbing the mountains. I’ve got to keep suffering. I’ve got to do that because otherwise I somehow cheated myself,” Winfrey said in September 2023 during a panel on Oprah Daily, called “The State of Weight.”
It was after that discussion that she changed her mind about using a weight-loss drug, Winfrey told People, calling it her “biggest aha” moment: “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.”
Frustration with her weight has “occupied five decades of space” in her brain, she noted.
She shared a similar sentiment in a March 2024 interview on CNN’s “King Charles.”
“I couldn’t work out anymore. I can’t climb any faster or run any faster. I was down to eating one meal a day. There’s nothing else I can do,” Oprah recalled of deciding to get some extra help with managing her weight.
“When I tell you how many times I have blamed myself because you think, ‘I’m smart enough to figure this out,’ and then to hear all along, it’s you fighting your brain,” she added. “The one thing I hope people come away with is knowing that (obesity is) a disease and it’s in the brain.”
How did Oprah lose weight?
Winfrey has lost her latest weight using a weight-loss drug and with a healthy diet and exercising. She told People the weight-loss medication is just part of her regimen for maintaining a healthy weight.
“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.
The talk show host added that she eats her last meal at 4 p.m., drinks a gallon of water a day and uses the WeightWatchers principles of counting points.
She’s also been hiking 3 to 5 miles every day and doing a 10-mile hike on weekends, noting that she’s been feeling “stronger, more fit and more alive” than she’s felt in years.
When asked about her transformation at the “The Color Purple” event, Winfrey didn’t even mention a weight-loss drug.
“It’s not one thing, it’s everything,” she told Entertainment Tonight. “I intend to keep it that way. … I was on that treadmill today.”
Studies show that weight-loss drugs need to be part of a holistic approach, with some of the strongest results in patients who are also eating a healthy diet and exercising.
Oprah’s weight loss history
Winfrey has struggled with her weight for decades, famously losing 67 pounds with a liquid diet in 1988 then regaining the weight as soon as she “returned to real food,” she recalled on Oprah.com.
In the March 18 special, she said that she essentially “starved” herself for five months before gaining it all back.
In 1992, Winfrey reached 237 pounds, the most she ever weighed, she said during the “The State of Weight” panel discussion. She recalled feeling frustrated that no matter what she did, her body always wanted to go back to a certain weight.
In 2019, Winfrey revealed she was diagnosed with pre-diabetes before doing WW. She then lost 42 pounds with the program, getting her blood sugar and blood pressure back into normal ranges.
Her goal weight now is 160 pounds, though she told People it’s “not about the number” but about living “a more vital and vibrant life.”
As she approached her 70th birthday, her No. 1 concern was her health, Winfrey said, noting she doesn’t live with a fear of death, but with “a conscious acknowledgment that it’s possible at any time.”
“(I) recognize what an absolute miracle it is that 70 years on, that heart’s still pumping,” she added.
How do weight-loss drugs work?
Ozempic and similar drugs work by mimicking the hormones the body releases when a person eats food, as TODAY.com previously reported. People have reduced appetite, and when they do eat, they feel full sooner.
Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, targets one hormone, known as GLP-1. Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound, targets two different hormones, GIP and GLP-1, which can lead to even greater weight loss, research shows.
Wegovy and Zepbound are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people with obesity or those who have complications from being overweight. Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved to treat Type 2 diabetes.
The most common side effects include nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and constipation. People self-inject the drugs once a week and have to keep taking them to maintain weight loss.
Patients can expect to lose 15% to 20% of their body weight, says Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist and obesity medicine specialist who runs a weight-loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina.
Using a weight-loss medication is “in no way the easy way out,” he notes.
“You still have to improve your nutrition. You still have to stay active. You really have to stay quite consistent over time to achieve the results that are seen in the clinical studies,” McGowan tells TODAY.com.
“The reason these new medications are such game changers is they really are effective, and it’s quite remarkable to help someone who’s tried oftentimes for years, decades, maybe their entire adult life, to lose weight.”
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