Oprah Winfrey revealed she gained a lot of weight last year when she stopped taking her weight-loss medications.
The American broadcaster, who turns 72 at the end of the month, has struggled with her weight all her life until she started taking an undisclosed GLP-1 in 2023.
She was inspired to take the medication, which reduces appetite by working on hunger hormones and silencing the “food noise” after watching a documentary that portrayed obesity as a disease rather than a lifestyle problem.
At her heaviest she weighed 237 pounds, but after taking the drug she lost about 20 pounds.
Speaking in an American TV program Today’s showOprah revealed that when she stopped taking the medication last year, the weight started to come back and it was almost half of what she had lost.
She said, “I’ve been off meds for the past year and gained 20 pounds because I wanted to test it. Because everyone was like, ‘You’re going to gain weight…’ I’m going to show them… I’m going for a walk.”
“And then I took it, then I got off it, and then I gained three pounds, and I gained five pounds, and I gained ten pounds, and the next thing you know, the [food] The sound was back,” Oprah explained.
Oprah revealed in 2023 that she started taking a GLP-1 agonist, a class of medications that includes Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, as a “maintenance drug” for her weight, along with diet and exercise changes.
Although she never said which GLP-1 she took, she does credit the drug with helping her lose at least 40 pounds since she started the weekly injections because it calms her “food noise or constant, intrusive thoughts about food.”
She also revealed that since taking a GLP-1, she has also stopped drinking alcohol, and the medication also inspired her to exercise almost every day.
In the new interview, which promotes her latest book: Enough: your health, your weight and what it’s like to be freeOprah describes food noise as “when you just stand there and look at the refrigerator and [thinking] ‘What can I eat? What can I eat? ”
Oprah Winfrey also said that during her time off from GLP-1s, she “tried to eat healthier, but still gained the weight back.” She said, “If you are on blood pressure medication and you stop taking your blood pressure medication, your blood pressure will increase. The same is true.”
