Oprah Winfrey Slammed After Sharing She Uses Medication To Lose Weight: ‘I Have Been Blamed & Shamed’

Critics slammed Oprah Winfrey after she revealed that she used a weight loss drug while also being a Weight Watchers ambassador. 

She previously refused to confirm whether she has used medication to lose weight, but she recently shared that it is one of the tools she has been using. 

“It was public sport to make fun of me for 25 years,” she told People. “I have been blamed and shamed, and I blamed and shamed myself.”

One specific moment she recalled was when the fashion critic Mr. Blackwell called her out and she appeared on the cover of a magazine alongside the caption, “Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy.”

Instead of being angered by this, Winfrey blamed herself, but now she says she won’t allow people to judge her anymore. 

Rumors have been rampant since her dramatically slimmed-down appearance at the Color Purple premiere earlier this week.

She shared that she does exercise regularly but found that medication has been helpful as well.

Her knee surgery in 2021 was a changing point in her life and spurred her to steadily lose weight for the past two years.

“After knee surgery, I started hiking and setting new distance goals each week,” she said. “I could eventually hike three to five miles every day and a 10-mile straight-up hike on weekends. I felt stronger, more fit and more alive than I’d felt in years.”

She currently follows a specific regimen, which includes the WeightWatchers technique of counting points, drinking one gallon of water per day and not eating past 4 p.m. 

Winfrey added that a panel conversation in July with clinicians and experts on weight loss changed her perspective on medications.

“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,” she observed. “Obesity is a disease. It’s not about willpower – it’s about the brain.”

After being able to overcome her shame, she consulted with her doctor and was prescribed medication to help her lose weight. 

She explained how the medication has been helping, sharing that before Thanksgiving, she took the prescription and gained only half a pound rather than eight, which is how much she gained last year. 

She also shared how she was able to achieve her personal goal of climbing a mountain near her house in Hawaii last Christmas.