Oprah Winfrey has opened up about obesity and why she shied away from using Ozempic during her own weight-loss journey.
The 69 year old presented a panel in front of a live audience in New York City as part of Oprah Daily’s The Life You Want series.
She was joined by obesity specialists Fatima Cody Stanford and Melanie Jay, as well as Weight Watchers CEO Sima Sistani and psychologist Rachel Goldman.
The group sought to “reimagine the obesity and weight crisis,” as Oprah argued: “I don’t know if there is another public figure whose weight struggles have been exploited as often as mine.”
The 69-year-old hosted a panel before a live audience in New York City as part of Oprah Daily’s The Life You Want series
During the discussion, which was shared online on Wednesday, the experts highlighted 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.
Throughout her decades-long weight-loss journey, Oprah has never shied away from discussing her problems in public. Pictured in 1988 (left) and 1992 (right)
She was joined by obesity specialists Fatima Cody Stanford and Melanie Jay, as well as Weight Watchers CEO Sima Sistani and psychologist Rachel Goldman
‘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.”
Throughout her decades-long weight-loss journey, Oprah has never shied away from discussing her problems in public.
In fact, she’s been very honest with fans every step of the way, even sharing the most intimate details about her relationship with her body and “food addiction.”
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 fact, she’s been very honest with fans every step of the way, even sharing the most intimate details about her relationship with her body and “food addiction.” Pictured in 1990
In 1988, just two years after the launch of The Oprah Winfrey Show, the TV legend revealed during an episode that she had lost 67 pounds in four months thanks to an all-liquid diet — and it was celebrated by bringing a fat float onto the stage to drive up.
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.