Oprah Winfrey opens up about gaining 20lbs after coming off weight loss drug
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic
US talk show icon Oprah Winfrey is finally coming clean about her experience after temporarily quitting GLP-1 injections last year.
A horde of famous faces have admitted to using so-called ‘skinny jabs’ for various reasons, whether it be to lose weight, kickstart a healthy lifestyle, or just feel better about the skin they are in.
Vanessa Williams said she used Mounjaro to combat menopausal weight gain, while comedian Rosie O’Donnell admitted she was using them to control diabetes, with her surprise weight-loss being a by-product.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams specifically used GLP-1 medications to lose over 31 pounds, and another celebrity who isn’t afraid to admit they’ve been using licensed drugs to tackle obesity is Winfrey, 71.
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Thanks to a combination of the drugs, ‘hiking every day and resistance training’, the star has reduced her weight to 155lbs (70.3kg).
She claimed in a new interview with CBS News’ Jane Pauley that she is now sitting at the same weight she was at when marathon training over three decades ago.
“So, I was 40 and feeling really good, but to be able to be 71 and feel that I am in the best shape of my life feels better than it did when I was 40,” she gushed.
Last year, Winfrey took a break from using an undisclosed GLP-1 injection.
In conversation with The Today Show, she alleged that she ‘gained 20 pounds’ during this medicinal hiatus.
“Everybody was saying, ‘You're going to gain the weight’.... I'm going to show them.. I'm going to hike,” she confessed.
“And then I was taking it, then I got off of it, and then I gained three pounds, and I gained five pounds, and I gained ten pounds, and before you know it, the [food] noise was back.”
Food noise refers to the ‘persistent, intrusive thoughts about food that are disruptive to daily life and make healthy behaviours difficult’, according to Weight Watchers.
Many people using the meds have claimed that the jabs helped to silence relentless food noise.
The Academy Award nominee said that she’d find herself standing in front of her fridge during her drug reprieve, thinking: "What can I eat?"
Even though she tried to ‘eat more healthily’ during the break, she ‘still put the weight back on’.
Winfrey’s year-long abstinence convinced her that GLP-1s are as vital to her life as blood pressure drugs are to others.
“If you're on blood pressure medication, if you stop your blood pressure medication, your blood pressure is going to go up. The same thing is true,” she explained
In her interview with CBS, The Color Purple star added that she had ‘no regrets’ about using the medications, and that she wouldn’t ‘change’ her past weight struggles.
“I think the struggle with the weight actually helped me be more relatable and relate more to other people who were in their own struggles. But I'm glad now to be in a position where I feel the healthiest and strongest I have ever been.”
If you’re thinking of exploring weight-loss medication, it’s worth discussing with your local health practitioner.
Professor Ewan Maule, clinical director of medicines, North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said that this is because they ‘aren’t safe for everyone’.
“[The drugs] can be dangerous if mixed with other medicines or existing health issues,” he continued. “Worryingly, some people are getting these treatments from places that don’t do proper medical checks.”