Oprah Winfrey’s Weight Loss Journey

Introduction

Oprah has struggled with her weight over the years, alternating between unhelpful diets and exercise routines. She has experienced the highs and lows of weight loss, the excitement of progress, and the sadness of plateaus, just like the majority of us.

Her path is admirable because she has been realistic and caring about health. She constantly reminds her audience that balance, not perfection, is the key to both health and weight loss.

After becoming a spokesperson and co-owner of Weight Watchers in 2015, Oprah Winfrey’s “real” weight transformation story began when she used WW to lose 42 pounds and demonstrate that, with the correct support, it is possible to lose weight while maintaining good health. Since then, she has experimented with various weight loss techniques and medications to maintain her weight loss goals.

Oprah Winfrey’s message is similar throughout all she does: people should take personal responsibility for their lives and work to make the world a better place. Winfrey grew up in Kosciusko, Mississippi, with her grandmother. Despite coming from a humble background, Winfrey went on to become a trailblazer in her field and one of the most well-known women on television.

Winfrey is a television icon, producer, and actress. She owned her production firm, making her the first Black American woman to do so. Her debut film, The Color Purple, earned her an Academy Award nomination. Once the highest-paid entertainment on television, Winfrey hosted a syndicated talk show that attracted 15 million viewers daily. There were 25 seasons of The Oprah Show.

She makes every effort to end child abuse. Being a victim herself, Winfrey is aware of the harm that abuse causes to children. She had a significant role in the National Child Protection Act’s drafting, advocacy, and passage. The Act was passed into law by President Clinton in 1994. To assist employers and anyone who engages with children in weeding out hazardous individuals, the Act creates a national registry of child abusers.

Winfrey is also a devoted philanthropist, giving the Chicago Public Schools and educational institutions like Morehouse College, Tennessee State University, and the Chicago Academy of Arts substantial support. She also contributes to initiatives to apprehend child abusers and shelters for abused women.

On January 1, 2011, Winfrey debuted her television network, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network). She is recognized for having launched the careers of Iyanla Vanzant, Nate Berkus, Dr. Oz, and Dr. Phil.

Oprah Winfrey is talking candidly about her experience losing weight.

The 70-year-old mogul celebrated his 70th birthday on August 20 by joining weatherman Al Roker on the TODAY Show. Oprah also made some open comments about hitting the milestone during her appearance.

There is a feeling that time is running out, and I am content with that realization,” she remarked. I have a strong desire to live a decent life.

She claimed that after having knee surgery in 2021, she began to live a healthy life.

According to her, I had been getting so weak that it was difficult for me to take even two steps down to get into the car. I don’t know, is it time? “If you wish to continue walking, now is the time,” he says. Do you enjoy taking walks? The time has come.

Despite being “intimidated” by the process, Oprah ultimately referred to it as “one of the greatest things I’ve ever done.”

According to her, being overweight makes the knees worse, so I felt like I had a fresh chance to live throughout my being in a way I hadn’t been able to do for years.

All of this coincides with Oprah’s recent acknowledgment that she is leading a healthier lifestyle thanks to regular exercise, a healthy diet, and weight-loss drugs. Everything you need to know about her physical well-being is right here.

Oprah’s history of losing weight

Winfrey has battled her weight for decades; in 1988, she famously lost 67 pounds by following a liquid diet, but she quickly gained the weight back after “returning to real food,” as she remembered on Oprah.com.

She claimed to have practically starved herself for five months before regaining everything in the March 18 program.

Winfrey stated at the State of Weight panel debate in 1992 that she had never weighed more than 237 pounds. She remembered being annoyed that her body always wanted to return to a particular weight regardless of what she did.

Winfrey disclosed in 2019 that before WW, she had been diagnosed with pre-diabetes. After completing the program, she shed forty-two pounds and her blood pressure and blood sugar levels returned to normal.

Her current target weight is 160 pounds, but she told People that living a more active and vibrant life is more important than weight.

Winfrey stated that her health was her top priority as she neared her 70th birthday, adding that she doesn’t live in fear of dying but rather with the knowledge that it may happen at any time.

“Recognize what a complete miracle it is that that heart is still beating after 70 years,” she continued.

How do medications for weight loss work?

As previously reported by TODAY.com, Ozempic, and similar medications function by simulating the hormones the body releases when a person consumes meals. People feel fuller soon after eating because their hunger has decreased.

The active component of Ozempic and Segovia, semifluid, targets the hormone GLP-1. According to research, tripeptide, the active component of Monaro and Ze bound, targets two distinct hormones, GIP and GLP-1, which can result in even more weight loss.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Segovia and Ze bound for use in treating obesity and its associated comorbidities. Monaro and Ozempic have been authorized to treat Type 2 diabetes.

Constipation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain are the most frequent adverse effects. To maintain weight loss, people must continue taking the medications, which they self-inject once a week.

According to Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterology and obesity medicine specialist who operates a weight-loss clinic in Cary, North Carolina, patients can anticipate losing 15% to 20% of their body weight.

He points out that using a weight-loss drug is by no means the simple solution.

Your diet still has to be improved. You must continue to be active. To get the outcomes shown in the clinical research, you have to be rather consistent over time, McGowan tells TODAY.com.

These new meds are revolutionary because they work, and it’s amazing to help someone who has battled to reduce weight for years, decades, or even their entire adult life.

How did Oprah get in shape?

Oprah’s current weight loss was sparked by her knee surgery in 2021.

I began hiking and establishing weekly distance targets after [my] knee surgery. Oprah told PEOPLE that she could someday hike anywhere from three to five miles each day and a 10-kilometer straight-up hike on the weekends. For the first time in years, I felt more alive, fit, and strong.

In an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! On March 14, she stated that after having knee surgery, she felt pressured to reduce weight and get in shape, even though she had been hearing about the meds the entire time. She had to prove that she could do it on her own.

The producer of Color Purple added The cycle of losing weight and then getting it again has been a constant for me. After hearing the doctor’s words, I realized that you will always put it back on; it’s like trying to hold your breath underwater and not come up. You will always get back up.

Oprah was able to accomplish a personal goal by working toward her fitness.

Goals. I would look out the window every morning and say, “The the LORD, someday I want to go hiking up that mountain,” according to her Magazine cover story. I did it over Christmas last year. It was a sense of atonement.

Oprah told PEOPLE in December that she was almost at her target weight of 160 pounds, but she made it clear that her journey was about who resides a more vibrant life rather than a certain number.

Does Oprah take medicine to lose weight?

The multihyphenate hosted the State of Weight discussion on Oprah Daily in September 2023. She disclosed at the time that she had no interest in using medicine to lose weight.

Isn’t it time for us all to be more accepting of the bodies we choose? “You should choose that,” she added. I was having knee surgery at the time I first learned about weight loss medications, so I thought, “I’ve got to do this on my own.” Because that’s the simple solution if I take the medicine.

However, Oprah Winfrey revealed to PEOPLE in December how her views on weight loss drugs have evolved.

Without mentioning the exact prescription the woman uses, Oprah told the outlet, “I now use [weight control medication] as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yo-ing.” In my lifetime, the availability of medically prescribed medication for weight management and health maintenance feels like a gift, a reprieve, and a relief rather than a thing to hide underneath and face mockery for. I’m over being embarrassed by others, especially by myself.

According to the publication, Oprah revealed that she started taking the medication before Thanksgiving because she knew she would be eating a lot for two weeks straight. She gained half a pound instead of eight pounds as she did in 2022, but she stressed that weight loss medication hasn’t been a panacea for controlling her weight. I put in a ton of effort, even though I know everyone believed I was on it.

Choosing a shedding pounds medication quieted Oprah’s ‘food noise.

During the primetime program, experts stated that new drugs like Ozempic or Segovia can suppress food sounds” and help individuals lose weight. Food noise refers to continual and consistent emotions about food, to the length of feeling as if [subjects’] lives centered around food, according to a study published in the scholarly journal Nutrients.

Oprah gave an example of how using a weight-loss medicine helped silence her food noise. I’m not always thinking about what the following meal is going gonna be, she remarked. I can eat half a baguette and be fine just desire less of your bagel.

How much weight did Oprah lose?

Oprah has publicly had trouble with her weight for decades. In 1988, she lost sixty-seven pounds through a liquid diet, famously showing off a wagon about the fat she had lost. But she quickly regained the one that powers the weight as soon as she got home to real food, she told Oprah. In 1992, for instance, Winfrey reached 237 pounds—the most her method ever had—she said during The above State regarding Weight. She yo-yo dieted for years before uncovering weight impairment medication, she told People.

Is Oprah an Ozempic user?

As of yet, the media mogul has not disclosed the specific weight-loss prescription she is using.

Oprah also made it readily apparent that every individual’s weight loss journey is different. Whatever your preference is for your biology and your weight and physical well-being, it should be yours to own and not to be harassed about it any longer, she said. I’m just sick of it, and I hope this conversation begins the un-shaming of it.

As she’s gotten older, Oprah has also said that she’s learned to let go of the guilt she’s felt about her body over the years. “I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself,” she said, adding that she had been blaming herself for being overweight for 25 years. She said to the publication, I’ve been blaming myself for being overweight for years, and I have a vulnerability which nothing in the way of power can control. “I had a general awareness of [weight loss] medications, nonetheless felt I had to prove I had the stubbornness to do it.”

In her weight loss special, Oprah revealed that she hikes three to five miles a day and engages in weight resistance training, demonstrating that she is an avid exerciser in addition to using weight loss medication.

She told The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 that she works out at home as soon as she wakes up. You may extend your stride length and arm movement with my amazing Octane elliptical, which is similar to an aerobic mover, she explained. I’ll walk on the treadmill for thirty minutes and do the rectangle for twenty. I start at the Level 3 gravitate setting and then every minute I add to the gravitate until I get to 12 or 15 and then I do sit-ups.” Oprah said that she frequently cools down after raising her heart rate with ten to twenty minutes of walking or sitting meditation.

In her special, she discussed weight loss drugs.

Oprah discussed weight loss drugs and the debate around them in her March 18 ABC special, An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution.

It is a very personal topic for me and for the hundreds of millions of people impacted around the world who have struggled with weight and obesity for years, Oprah said in a statement before the special airing. She also discussed her weight loss journey and her experience taking weight loss medication. Her goal for the special was to eradicate the stigma, shame, and judgment surrounding weight while educating viewers about prescription weight-loss medications, who they are meant for, and what their side effects look like.

FAQs

Reference

• Winfrey, Oprah | Women of the Hall. (n.d.). https://www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/oprah-winfrey/
• Oprah Winfrey tells Al Roker one thing she would do over in her life. (2025, January 28). [Video]. TODAY.com. https://www.today.com/health/diet-fitness/oprah-winfrey-weight-loss-drug-rcna128714
• Miller, K. (2024c, August 28). Oprah Winfrey, 70, shares how medication, diet, and exercise helped her lose weight. Women’s Health. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/a46074689/oprah-winfrey-weight-loss/
• Laviemd. (2025, January 31). How Oprah Winfrey Lost Weight with Semaglutide Injections. LA ViE MD. https://laviemd.us/oprah-winfreys-semaglutide-experience-a-guide-for-aspiring-users/#:~:text=While%20Semaglutide’s%20claim%20to%20fame,to%20better%20emotional%20well%2Dbeing.
• Oprah’s weight gain and loss through the years. (n.d.). Ajc. https://www.ajc.com/entertainment/television/photos-oprah-weight-through-the-years/MywJK3oWH9lwnIi0dYg4JO/#:~:text=In%20November%201988%2C%20she%20showed,%2C%22%20Oprah%20Winfrey%20later%20recalled.