Oprah Winfrey has been slammed by fans, after she confirmed to using weight loss drug to help her shed pounds while being an ambassador for Weight Watchers.
The acclaimed talk show host, 69, has been open about her weight struggles over the years, and previously shared her highest weight was ‘237lbs.’
Oprah has been working with weight loss support group WW since 2017, and previously stated drugs like Ozempic would be ‘the easy way out.’
However, on Wednesday she told People ‘I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yoing’ – though she did not name the drug that she uses, and said she was ‘done with the shaming’ after losing more than 40lbs in recent months.
This prompted a backlash from some fans, with one writing, ‘Done with the shaming but ok with lying?’
Oprah Winfrey, 69, has been slammed by fans, after she confirmed to using weight loss drug to help her shed pounds while being an ambassador for Weight Watchers; seen December 3
Oprah said she was ‘done with the shaming’ after losing more than 40lbs in recent months, though she did not name the drug that she uses; seen in 1992
‘Why did you lie?’ another commentator pointedly asked.
‘So she said she never would and she ended up doing it. funny how the world works.’
‘She said she did the old fashion way right!!’ another chimed in.
‘Will she be adding this weight loss drug to her favorite things list?’ someone asked.
‘What I don’t like about Oprah is she is clearly off them Ozempic shots yet she pushing Weight Watchers,’ one person pointed out.
‘Oprah finally admitted she’s on Ozempic like we ain’t already know. She hasn’t been this skinny since I was in elementary school,’ someone else added.
Another commentator pointed out that Oprah confirming she is using a weight loss drug might be a strategic move.
‘Oprah is a long-time Weight Watchers partner and board member. WW just rolled out “WW Clinic” where you can get prescription weight-loss meds, including Semaglutide + Ozempic.’
Others wondered about her metabolism writing, ‘I know Oprah’s metabolism is a mess. She’s been a spokesperson for every weight-loss product, except surgery, since the 80s.’
However, there were also fans who defended Oprah.
This prompted a backlash from some fans, with one writing, ‘Done with the shaming but ok with lying?’
‘Why did you lie?’ another pointedly asked
Another fan added: ‘So she said she never would and she ended up doing it. funny how the world works’
Others wondered about her metabolism writing ‘She’s been a spokesperson for every weight-loss product, except surgery, since the 80s’
‘What I don’t like about Oprah is she is clearly off them Ozempic shots yet she pushing Weight Watchers,’ one person pointed out
‘She said she did the old fashion way right!!’ someone else chimed in
‘Will she be adding this weight loss drug to her favorite things list?’ someone asked
Another commentator pointed out that Oprah confirming she is using a weight loss drug might be a strategic move
Another Tweet echoed that sentiment
Others questioned Oprah’s statement about being ‘done with shaming’ while using a weight loss drug
However, other fans defended Oprah
‘So? What’s wrong with that? Lot’s of ppl are using them to lose weight,’ a fan wrote
Opera was also branded iconic by another fan
‘Give her points for admitting it as least,’ a follower quipped
‘Kudos to Oprah for being open about using medications to help her lose weight’
‘People are angry at Oprah for utilizing weight loss assistance. Very weird thing to be so wound up over what people do with their OWN bodies. Plus folks are dying from preventable conditions, can you blame anyone for getting the help they need to try to continue living??’
‘So? What’s wrong with that? Lot’s of ppl are using them to lose weight,’ another fan wrote.
Opera was also branded iconic by another fan: ‘Oprah admitting to using weight loss injections is iconic.’
‘Give her points for admitting it as least,’ yet another follower quipped.
On Tuesday, Oprah said of weight loss drugs: ‘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 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.’
Winfrey said she is now seven pounds away from her goal weight of 160lbs but said ‘it’s not about the number.’
On Tuesday, Oprah admitted she did use weight-loss medication for her dramatic body transformation – after previously denying she would ever take Ozempic or similar drugs to lose weight (seen left last week and right in 2019)
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 with weight loss experts and clinicians – which led to her ‘biggest aha moment.’ The conversation was released online in 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 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 (pictured left December 6 and right in 2009 )
The star hosted a panel in front of a live audience in New York City as part of Oprah Daily’s The Life You Want series – where she denied she would ever take weight loss drugs
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.
Throughout her decades-long weight-loss journey, Oprah has never shied away from discussing her problems in public. Pictured in 1988
Winfrey has been fiercely honest with fans every step of the way, sharing even the most intimate details regarding her relationship with her body and ‘food addiction.’ Pictured in 1990
Asked what she’s done to achieve results last week, she told Entertainment Tonight: ‘It’s not one thing, it’s everything. I intend to keep it that way.’
Her issues with weight began in 1976, when she landed her first ‘big job’ at age 22.
The then 148-pound reporter said she struggled to come to grips with the immense pressure that was put on her, and began to pig out on things like ‘corn dogs,’ ‘chocolate chip cookies,’ and fast food from the mall food court to suppress her emotions and ‘numb her negative feelings.’
Her weight soon soared to over 200 pounds, and she began trying ‘every diet known to womankind.’
In 1988, just two years after the launched 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 messed up her ‘metabolism,’ which ultimately resulted in her gaining it all back and then-some pretty quickly.
By the early 1990s, the self-confessed yo-yo dieter was at her heaviest – 237 pounds – and feeling ‘so ashamed’ to have ‘joined the ranks of the perpetually obese’ that she said she could hardly look people in the eye.
She recalled feeling like a ‘big fat failure.’ But after connecting with a personal trainer at a spa in Colorado, he helped inspire her to turn things around.
In 1988, just two years after the launched 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 celebrated by wheeling out a wagon of fat onto the stage
For years after that, Oprah’s weight fluctuated. With the help of her new trainer, it dropped down to 160 pounds by 2006, but within two years after that, it was back up to 200 pounds.
At the time, she said a slew of health woes were to blame for the weight gain, and admitted that she was once again feeling ‘defeated’ and was just about ready to ‘give up’ and let ‘fat win.’
However, in 2015, she joined forces with the company Weight Watchers, and within a year, she said she had lost 40 pounds through the program.
But she had another set back in late 2021, with Oprah revealing in January 2022 that she was undergoing a diet ‘reset’ after consuming quite a lot during the holidays.