Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, who will be turning 72 in January and will be releasing a new book she co-wrote with obesity expert Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff, “Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It’s Like to Be Free,” is also celebrating the weight she has lost over the course of the last two and a half years. She tells People that not only has she lost weight, in part, after she started taking a GLP-1 weight loss medication (prescribed initially to diabetics, such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and Mounjaro), but she no longer imbibes in alcohol. She feels “more alive and more vibrant than I’ve ever been.”
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Oprah is no stranger to the effects of losing and regaining weight; her weight has probably bounced more times than a group of kids in a bounce house during a summer party.
She told the media outlet that she had “an epiphany” after hosting a television special on obesity. She discovered that overeating did not cause the weight issues, but it was that “obesity causes overeating,” thus changing her mindset on the condition. After coming to terms with the fact that obesity was, indeed, a disease, although she had heard of GLP-1 medications prior, she decided that she would try her hand at it. This was in 2023.
There have been many conversations among people who have used the drug, who, once they stopped taking it, the weight reappeared. These issues typically affected people who couldn’t afford the medication over the long term, as David Kim, PhD, a UChicago health economist, notes.
“We wanted to challenge the assumption that once you’re on a GLP-1RA drug, you have to keep taking it forever,” said Kim. “That’s where some of the affordability concerns are coming from: large populations are potentially eligible to take these drugs, and we can’t pay for a lifetime supply for everyone.”
But, for someone like Oprah, whose estimated net worth is $3.5 billion, cost is no issue, and she has already placed in her mind that taking the drugs will be “a lifetime thing.”
She said the medication is “a tool to help you manage the messages that are being sent to your brain about overeating.”
Oprah has admitted that she has had some digestive issues, but side effects have been at a minimum, and she advises people to start slow and gradually once they get on the medication.
The extra benefit of losing the weight while on the medication, along with daily workouts and a better eating habit, Oprah has confessed that she has not had a drink “in years.”
“I was a big fan of tequila. I literally had 17 shots one night. I haven’t had a drink in years. The fact that I no longer even have a desire for it is pretty amazing.”
She is satisfied with the weight loss and is finally pleased with the journey that took years to reach this point.
“In spite of the shaming and blaming myself, I wouldn’t take nothing for the journey. Whatever was happening needed to happen to get me to this point. And I rejoice at feeling liberated from the struggle—because I had a real public struggle. And I am healthier now.”
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