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Oprah Winfrey recently opened up about her weight-loss journey and her evolving perspective on “thin people” after using a GLP-1 drug, commonly known by brands such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Speaking on The Oprah Podcast, the 70-year-old media mogul shared how the medication, which is used to manage type 2 diabetes and aid in weight loss, transformed her understanding of hunger and weight management.
"One of the things that I realized the very first time I took a GLP-1 was that all these years, I thought that thin people — those people — had more willpower,” Winfrey admitted. “They ate better foods. They were able to stick to it longer. They never had a potato chip.” However, she said the medication revealed a different reality: “They’re not even thinking about it. They’re eating when they’re hungry and stopping when they’re full.”
Winfrey’s remarks sparked mixed reactions on social media. Critics challenged her conclusions, with one commenter asserting, “Thin people also think about food all the time, but they work hard to manage their physical and mental needs in a healthy way.” Others accused her of generalizing, claiming, “Just because you are on a new bandwagon doesn’t mean that you should speak in a way that suggests your perception of reality is definitive. It is not.”
Winfrey also delved into the shame she carried about her weight and the societal stigma surrounding obesity. "Every week [I was] exploited by the tabloids," she shared. "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 acknowledged previously believing she needed to lose weight through sheer willpower to prove herself, describing the use of medications as “the easy way out.”
However, her perspective shifted after engaging with experts during a panel discussion in July 2023. “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,” she explained.
Winfrey, who has lost 50 pounds on her journey, emphasized the need to dismantle the stigma attached to weight loss interventions. “As a person who has been shamed for so many years, I am just sick of it.” She concluded by encouraging others to approach obesity as a medical condition rather than a personal failing.
