With the rise of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, a slew of celebrities have come forward and admitted to taking them in a bid to slim down.
One such A-lister is Oprah Winfrey, who recently revealed that her opinion on “thin people” has dramatically changed since beginning her weight loss journey.
The talk-show legend sat down with Dr Ania Jastreboff on her podcast
“One of the things that I realized the very first time I took a [weight loss drug] was that all these years, I thought that thin people had more willpower,” Oprah admitted. “They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip.”
“And then I realized the very first time I took the [weight loss drug] that, they’re not even thinking about it,“ she continued. “They’re eating when they’re hungry, and they’re stopping when they’re full.“
The 70-year-old lost almost 50 pounds on her weight loss journey and found that her body image drastically changed since the height of her fame.
“Every week [I was] exploited by the tabloids, anytime any comedian wanted to make fun or make a joke about it, they would make a joke about it,“ she said of her time in the spotlight. “And I accepted it because I thought I deserved it.“
Oprah revealed that she eventually recognized that she was beautiful no matter her size, and that she shouldn’t feel “less than“ for not reaching her goal weight.
Previously, the media mogul was nervous to admit that she had used weight loss drugs due to the shame associated with it.
© WireImage“One of the things I carried so much shame for, and even when I first started hearing about the weight loss drugs, at the same time I was going through knee surgery, and I felt I’ve got to do this on my own because if I take the drug, that’s the easy way out,“ she said at an Oprah Daily panel.
“There’s a part of me that feels — like I think a lot of people feel with bariatric surgery — that I’ve got to do it the hard way, I’ve got to keep climbing the mountains, I’ve got to keep suffering, and I’ve got to do that because otherwise I somehow cheated myself.”
© GettyShe decided to do away with the shame and speak to her doctors about using weight loss drugs to help reach her goal weight.
“As a person who has been shamed for so many years [about my weight], I am just sick of it,“ she added.
© GettyThe billionaire concluded that she couldn’t lose weight from sheer willpower alone. “I had an awareness of [weight loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it,” she told People.
“I realized I’d been blaming myself all these years for being overweight, and I have a predisposition that no amount of willpower is going to control. Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower — it’s about the brain.”
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