Featured Image Credit: Marla Aufmuth/Getty Images for Massachusetts Conference for Women
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Podcasts, Mental Health
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: Celebrity, Health, Podcasts, Mental Health
Oprah Winfrey has opened up about one thing she got wrong about 'thin people' after she started taking weight loss drugs.
Speaking on an episode of The Oprah Podcast last week (14 January), the former talk show host discussed the topics of obesity and weight loss medications alongside Yale University obesity medicine physician scientist, Dr. Ania Jastreboff, as well as clinical psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman.
The 70-year-old, who previously confirmed she uses medicine to help maintain her weight after shedding the pounds through a combination of diet and exercise - admitted that her opinion on 'thin people' changed after taking the medication.
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She shared on the podcast: "One of the things that I realised the very first time I took a GLP-1 was that all these years I thought that thin people, those people just had more willpower.
"They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip."
Oprah continued: "And then I realised the very first time I took the GLP-1 that, oh, they’re not even thinking about it.
"They’re only eating when they’re hungry and they’re stopping when they’re full."
Explaining that such a mindset 'doesn't work' if you have obesity, Oprah went on to discuss that obesity is a disease and shared how those with it will 'always have to live with it' even after they lose weight with the help of weight loss drugs.
"Just because you’ve lost the weight, you haven’t solved the problem of obesity," she outlined.
Oprah also admitted: "I realised 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."
Elsewhere in the podcast, she opened up about her own personal weight loss journey 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. And I accepted it because I thought I deserved it," she added.
Oprah previously opened up about her relationship with the controversial weight loss drugs – which have brand names including Ozempic and Wegovy – in a special, An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution, which aired last May on ABC.
The star spoke about how she has often been 'ridiculed' for her fluctuating weight, saying: "I have to say that I took on the shame that the world gave to me.
"For 25 years, making fun of my weight was national sport."
But now she’s standing firm when it comes to being judged for her choices, saying defiantly: "I come to this conversation with the hope that we can start releasing the stigma and the shame and the judgment, to stop shaming other people for being overweight or how they choose to lose - or not lose - weight, and most importantly, to stop shaming ourselves."