Oprah Winfrey admits she DID use weight-loss medication for dramatic 18kg transformation after previously DENYING she would ever take Ozempic: ‘I’m done with the shaming’

Oprah Winfrey has finally admitted she used weight loss drugs for her dramatic body transformation – after previously denying she would ever use Ozempic or similar drugs to lose weight.

The presenter, 69, who has been dogged by rumors that she used medical weight loss aids for years, said she was 'done with the shame' after losing more than 40 pounds in recent months.

The admission comes after Winfrey said during a conversation with WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani that she would not use Ozempic and similar drugs in the weight loss drug class because she viewed them as an “easy way out.”

She said People: 'I use it now because I think I need it, as an aid not to yo-yo' – but did not mention the medicine she is taking.

“The fact that there is a medically approved prescription to maintain weight and stay healthier in my lifetime feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and be ridiculed for again.

“I'm done with shaming other people and especially myself.”

The star revealed that she took the medication before Thanksgiving because she knew she would have “two solid weeks of eating,” and credits the medication with helping her gain only half a pound instead of eight pounds, and adds that it “calms the food noise.”

Winfrey said she is now seven pounds away from her goal weight of 160 pounds, but said, “It's not about the number.”

She said undergoing knee surgery in 2021 started 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 liter of water a day and uses the WeightWatchers principles of counting points, along with regular walks.

She said: 'I was aware of (weight loss) drugs but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I don't have that feeling anymore.'

Winfrey said she was encouraged to use medical weight-loss medications after July's recorded panel discussion with weight-loss experts and doctors — which led to her “biggest aha moment.” The conversation was posted online in September, and Winfrey adamantly denied ever taking weight-loss medications.

She said: 'I realized that I had been blaming myself for being overweight all these years, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower can control. Obesity is a disease. It's not about willpower, it's about brains.

During the discussion, the experts emphasized that obesity is a metabolic disease in which some bodies are “more prone to storing more fat” – also called adipose tissue.

Oprah candidly explained, “For those of us who store fat, no matter how much… You've all seen me diet and diet and diet and diet, it's a recurring thing because my body always seems to want to go back. up to a certain weight.'

She added: 'If I ate an apple pie at 11pm, I would be two pounds heavier in the morning. I can't eat after a certain time.'

The TV personality, who claimed she had 'yo-yoed her whole life', later said: “This is a world that has forever shamed people for being overweight, and all of us who have lived in it know that people just treat you differently. They just do that.

“And I'm Oprah Winfrey and I know everything that comes with it and I'm treated differently if I'm over 200 pounds versus under 200 pounds…

'There is condescension. There's a stigma.'

Oprah said the key was to have friends and partners around you who offered support and “rejoiced in your victory.”

After a more in-depth discussion about 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? That should be your choice.

'One of the things I was so ashamed of, and even when I first heard about the weight-loss drugs, I was having knee surgery at the same time and I thought, 'I have to do this on my own.' own, because if I take the medicine, that's the easy way out.”

'There is a part of me that feels – as I think a lot of people feel about bariatric surgery – that I have to do it the hard way, that I have to keep climbing the mountains, that I have to keep suffering and I have to do that, for otherwise I have deceived myself somehow.”

She concluded, “As a person who has been ashamed (about my weight) for so many years, I'm just fed up.”

The star said after this conversation that she let go of her “own shame” and consulted her doctor, who prescribed the weight-loss medication.

Her weight problems began in 1976, when she got her first “big job” at the age of 22.

The then-148-pound reporter said she struggled to come to grips with the enormous pressure placed on her, and began delving into things like “corn dogs,” “chocolate chip cookies” and fast food from the mall's food court. to suppress her emotions and “numb her negative feelings.”

Her weight soon rose to over 200 pounds, and she began trying “every diet known to woman.”

In 1988, just two years after the launch of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the TV legend revealed during an episode of her show that she had lost 67 pounds in four months thanks to an all-liquid diet.

In reality, she later revealed that she had 'starved herself' and ruined her 'metabolism', which ultimately led to her gaining it all back – kind of quite quickly.

In the early 1990s, the self-proclaimed yo-yo dieter was at her heaviest — 237 pounds — and felt “so ashamed” that she had “joined the ranks of the perpetually obese,” that she said she could barely look him in the eye.

She remembered feeling like a “fat failure.” But after connecting with a personal trainer at a Colorado spa, he helped inspire her to turn things around.

For years afterward, Oprah's weight fluctuated. With the help of her new trainer, it was down to 160 pounds by 2006, but within two years of that it was back to 200 pounds.

At the time, she said a slew of health problems were to blame for the weight gain, admitting that she was feeling “defeated” again and was on the verge of “giving up” and “letting the fat win.”

However, in 2015 she joined forces with the company Weight Watchers, and within a year she said she lost 40 pounds through the program.

But she suffered another setback in late 2021, when Oprah revealed in January 2022 that she was undergoing a diet “reset” after binging on quite a bit over the holidays.