Oprah Winfrey has gone through a noticeable weight loss transformation, but in a new, informative interview, she revealed she actually gained a fairly significant amount of weight during a “test” last year.
The talk show host was a recent guest on TODAY with Jenna and Sheinelle, where she promoted her new book on obesity and the more modern ways of treating and approaching it. While opening up about her use of weight loss medication throughout her health journey, which she’s been talking about for decades, she mentioned that she gained 20 pounds last year after temporarily stopping taking it. Read more about her transformation and what she had to say below.
Women Are Swapping Their Boring Water For This Ice Pop Electrolyte Mix!
Oprah Winfrey Opens Up About Her Weight Loss & New Book On 'TODAY'
The book club icon is known for so many outstanding, one-of-a-kind, massive achievements throughout her career. However, it's no secret that in addition to her victories, the media has also put a lot of attention on her weight, and it's only heated up following her latest phase of weight loss.
Therefore, the 71-year-old is opening up more and more about how she reached a maintainable place in her life, as well as a sustainable weight loss she can continue managing. Over the last few years, she's admitted that, in addition to a healthy, non-restrictive diet and effective exercise, a GLP-1 medication has helped her keep the weight off, and eliminated "food noise," which she says has affected her for most of her life, hindering her progress.
Earlier this week, she promoted her latest project, a book on obesity, which she co-wrote with specialist Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff, titled Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like to Be Free, on The Today Show.
"Alcoholism is a disease," she told show hosts Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones. "Now we're saying the same thing about obesity. It's a chronic disease, you have to manage it, and even when you think you've gotten to your 'goal weight,' it's not the answer, because what the medications do is manage the 'set point' in your body."
Oprah Reveals She Gained 20 Pounds After 'Testing' Her Ability To Stop Using Weight Loss Medication
Many internet trolls and other users began attacking the humanitarian when she revealed she had been taking a weight loss medication, but now, she's expressing how she feels as though she would not be able to stay off it without losing all of her progress. The use of GLP-1s has some people rattled, as many health experts have warned that they're a 'long-term' drug, which Oprah seemed to agree with after "testing" her limits last year.
"I was off the medications all last year," she said. "I gained 20 pounds because I wanted to test it, because everybody was saying, 'You're gonna gain the weight.' I'm gonna go, 'I'm gonna show them I'm not gonna gain the weight.'"
As the Color Purple actress revealed she gained the weight back in gradual, five-pound stages, Bush Hager added that she gained the weight back, and the food noise "was back."
"I was trying to eat more healthily, but I still put the weight back on," Oprah recalled. "It's the same thing - if you are on blood pressure medication, a lot of people are on blood pressure medication, if you stop your blood pressure medication, your blood pressure is going to go up."
