After a long time of being publicly ridiculed, shamed and scrutinized for her fluctuating weight, Oprah Winfrey mentioned she is “really excited” concerning the availability of weight-loss medicine.
The media mogul’s newest one-off TV program, An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution, aired Monday evening.
The hourlong broadcast noticed Winfrey, 70, candidly talk about weight problems and the way weight-loss medicine have offered her with “hope.” Winfrey spoke extremely of the drugs — with out mentioning particular identify manufacturers like Ozempic — and mentioned she wished to get rid of the “stigma and the shame and the judgment” round utilizing weight-loss medicine.
In entrance of a studio viewers, Winfrey mentioned she’s been berated for her weight all through most of her profession.
“I have to say that I took on the shame that the world gave to me,” Winfrey mentioned. “For 25 years, making fun of my weight was national sport.”
The speak present host recalled a 1990 cowl of the journal TV Guide that featured her picture and the accompanying headline: “Bumpy, lumpy, and downright dumpy.”
Winfrey went on to learn aloud a number of extra disparaging tabloid headlines about her weight, together with “Oprah: Fatter than ever” and “Oprah warned diet or die.”
“In an effort to combat all the shame, I starved myself for nearly five months,” Winfrey revealed. “And after losing 67 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, y’all, the very next day, I started to gain it back.”
Winfrey referred to as weight problems “a disease, not a character flaw.”
“In my lifetime, I never dreamed we would be talking about medicines that would be providing hope to people like me,” Winfrey championed.
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She mentioned the drugs, in addition to inflicting her to shed pounds, helped Winfrey “no longer blame” herself for her physique fluctuations.
“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!” Winfrey mentioned of weight reduction.
She mentioned the medicine has helped her cease “constantly thinking about what the next meal is going to be.”
Winfrey added she additionally hikes three to 5 miles (about 5 to eight kilometres) on daily basis, whereas commonly operating and consuming a heathy food regimen to take care of her slim determine.
The TV particular featured a number of interviews with medical professionals about weight-loss drugs. Patients who, like Winfrey, have utilized these medicine to fight weight problems had been interviewed as properly. Many of the customers spoke extremely of the drugs, although some customers additionally expressed important opinions.
Still, Winfrey famous weight-loss medicine will not be for everybody.
“For people who feel happy and healthy in celebrating life in a bigger body and don’t want the medications, I say: ‘Bless you,’” Oprah signed off on the hour’s finish. “And for all the people who believe diet and exercise is the best and only way to lose excess weight, bless you too if that works for you.”
An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution aired solely weeks after Winfrey introduced she is going to depart her position on the WeightWatchers board of administrators. Winfrey, who had been one of many firm’s most prevalent spokespersons, determined to not stand for board re-election after she publicly revealed she was taking an unnamed weight-loss medicine.
Winfrey donated her shares within the firm to the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
In December 2023, Winfrey advised People journal she was utilizing a weight-loss drug as a “maintenance tool” for her fluctuating weight. The disclosure got here after Winfrey’s social media followers speculated that the star could also be taking Ozempic or one other related medicine.
Winfrey mentioned she makes use of weight-loss medicine “as a tool to manage not yo-yoing.”
Due to widespread demand, the producers of a number of medicine, together with Ozempic, have skilled shortages which have continued into 2024. The shortages have affected many Canadian sufferers with Type 2 diabetes, who deal with the situation with medicine like Ozempic. Some diabetics who had been utilizing Ozempic have since been pressured to vary their drugs.
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