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Oprah Winfrey says she 'starved' herself for 5 months before famous wagon of fat moment


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Oprah Winfrey returned to TV on Monday night with a special focused on how weight-loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are changing the lives of people with obesity — a health journey she’s experienced herself.

Toward the end of the one-hour program, Winfrey got emotional when she recalled how she used to think of herself and her weight for most of her life, before she started taking weight loss medication and fully understood how obesity is a disease requiring treatment.

"There is now a sense of hope, No. 1, and No. 2, you no longer blame yourself," she explained. "When I tell you how many times I have blamed myself because you think, 'I'm smart enough to figure this out,' and then to hear all along, it's you fighting your brain."

She also recalled how she "starved" herself for five months before bringing out the infamous wagon of fat on her talk show in 1988.

"After losing 67 pounds on liquid diet, the next day, the very next day, I started to gain it back," Winfrey said.

But now, Winfrey said she's learned so much about the shame and stigma that come with having obesity, and how she wants to fight it.

"All these years, I thought all of the people who never had to diet were just using their willpower and they were for some reason stronger than me," she said.

"But now I realize y'all weren't even thinking about the food," she quipped. "It's not that you had the willpower. You weren't even thinking about it. You weren't obsessing about it."

The media mogul confirmed in December 2023 that she’s taking a weight-loss medication, though she didn’t specify which one.

Winfrey, who has appeared visibly slimmer in recent months, said she’s also eating a healthy diet and exercising, including hiking 3 to 5 miles a day or running.

Her new prime-time program on ABC, titled “An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution,” was recorded in front of a live audience in a studio that looked similar to the set she used for “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which ended in 2011.

“Let’s stop the shaming and blaming,” Winfrey, 70, said as she talked about the obesity epidemic with patients and doctors. “The one thing I hope people come away with is knowing that it’s a disease and it’s in the brain.”

About 42% of Americans have obesity, which can lead to heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The special examined how the anti-obesity drugs could stop the epidemic and improve the health of this population, not just change the number on the scale. But there's also concern about the drugs' side effects, cost and weight regain after people stop taking them.

Oprah's weight loss journey

Winfrey, who has been open about her own struggle with excess weight for decades, calls it "a very personal topic for me."

In 2023, the former talk show host said she once thought taking a weight-loss drug would be “the easy way out.” But she changed her mind after hosting a panel discussion with obesity physicians and realizing she has a predisposition for being overweight “that no amount of willpower is going to control,” she noted.

Like other patients taking a weight-loss drug, she found the medication quiets constant thoughts about eating, a phenomenon known as food noise.

“For the people who think that this could be the relief and support and freedom that you’ve been looking for your whole life, bless you because there’s space for all points of view,” Winfrey said during the program.

As she approached her 70th birthday, her No. 1 concern was her health, Winfrey told People in December 2023.

“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," she said.

"I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself."

How weight-loss drugs work

Ozempic and Mounjaro are Type 2 diabetes treatments that come with weight-loss as a side effect. Many people have been using them off-label for that purpose.

That led to versions of those medications — Wegovy and Zepbound — which are specifically approved for the treatment of obesity.

The drugs work by mimicking the hormones the body releases when a person eats food, as TODAY.com previously reported. People have reduced appetite, and when they do eat, they feel full sooner.

Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, targets one hormone, known as GLP-1.

Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound, targets two different hormones, GIP and GLP-1, which can lead to even greater weight loss, research shows.

Patients can expect to lose about 15% to 20% of their body weight, based on results from clinical trials funded by the pharmaceutical companies. But the treatments come with side effects, most commonly nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and stomach pain. Much more serious side effects including pancreatitis are also possible.

People self-inject the drugs once a week and have to keep taking them to maintain weight loss.

They’re expensive without insurance — more than $1,000 per month. Weight-loss drugs are not covered by Medicare and often not covered by commercial health insurance.

A. Pawlowski

A. Pawlowski is a TODAY health reporter focusing on health news and features. Previously, she was a writer, producer and editor at CNN.

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