Oprah Winfrey’s weight loss journey has played out in the public eye for decades, including her shocking 2003 revelation that she had been losing weight with the help of an undisclosed GLP-1 medication. On the latest episode of “The Oprah Podcast,” the media mogul sat down with Dr. Ania Jastreboff, an endocrinologist and associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine, to talk all things GLP-1. During their discussion, Winfrey revealed how her impression of naturally thin people changed after she incorporated the drugs into her weight loss plan.
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“One of the things I realized the first time I took a GLP-1 was that all these years, I thought that thin people, those people had more willpower. They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip,” she said. “And then I realized the very first time I took the GLP-1 was 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.”
While some in the comments thanked Winfrey for being so candid, others criticized her for making a broad generalization about how thin people maintain their weight.
“To characterize thin people wholesale in this manner is just a lie @oprah. There are many thin people, or others who are a healthy weight but not necessarily “thin” who do in fact draw on willpower and strategic tactics to keep their weight down,” wrote one person in the comments.
Another clearly upset commenter called using weight loss drugs “the easy way out,” adding that Oprah’s statement diminishes the hard work some people have to put in to stay fit.
“Stop trying to minimize the willpower/work that people put in and the fact people make better long term choices just because you couldn’t do it and had to take the easy way by using drugs to lose weight. Do what you wanna do but don’t minimize the effort/work put in by people who maintain a healthy weight without using drugs,” wrote someone else.
Yet another commenter expressed that having a high-profile figure like Oprah touting the effects of drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic will only lead to more widespread use, which could be harmful in the long run.
“I like Oprah, but I don’t like her supporting widespread use of these drugs. They add costs to the system and are not effective long term. Only in extreme cases should this drug be used for weight loss,” wrote someone.
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