Oprah Winfrey, 70, tears up as she reveals the moment that completely changed her weight loss journey

Oprah Winfrey has opened about her emotional weight loss journey and the one moment that completely changed her perspective – wiping away a tear as she admitted she’s used medication to maintain a trimmer figure.

The talk show host, 70, appeared on Jamie Kern Lima’s podcast, where she tearfully detailed the battle she’s been having with her body for most of her life, and the moment she realized it was beyond her control. 

‘I was like whoa it’s not even my fault – all these years, all those diets, all those times I tried, I came back and I tried again and I lost it. I’m climbing up the mountain I’m suffering, I’m starving,’ she described, wiping away a tear.

‘I’m not my fault,’ Oprah, who has previously admitted to using weight loss drugs, simply said. ‘That was the moment and that was 2023.’

Oprah has never shied away from sharing her weight loss journey publicly, recalling the moment her perspective completely changed when a doctor told her obesity was a disease – and her struggle to lose weight wasn’t her fault or lack of willpower.

‘I’ve done hundreds of shows about weight loss and had I can’t even tell you how many conversations about it but still carry my own shame,’ she admitted.

‘I had a big revelation on that State of Weight on Oprah Daily [in 2023] when [I had] one doctor after another doctor saying obesity is a disease – and I was like “I didn’t get that memo.”‘

She said learning to reframe weight gain as a disease, not loss of willpower, changed everything.

‘What I understood from the State of Weight [discussion] that I had not understood for the past 48 years of battling my weight, is that there’s something in the brain that allows people – like myself – to metabolize fat differently than other people,’ she explained.

‘No matter what I do I’m always going to go back to the set point that my brain thinks it needs to hold the weight.’

She detailed the extremes she went to an effort to lose the weight – citing her infamous segment in 1988 where she paraded around a cart full 67 pounds fat – admitting she didn’t eat so much of a ‘morsel’ of food for five months using Optifast and the weight crept back on after.

‘Three days [after the show] I was five pounds heavier and a week later I was 10 pounds heavier,’ she recalled.

The talk show host, 70, (left) appeared on Jamie Kern Lima’s (right) podcast where she tearfully detailed the battle she’s been having with her body for most of her life, and the moment she realized it was beyond her control

The 70-year-old (seen December 2023) is set to plug the weight loss drug in an upcoming special, An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution, which aired in March

Oprah – who has credited her dramatic transformation to the drug – said: ‘The number one thing I hope people come away with is knowing that [obesity] is a disease, and it’s in the brain’

Only two and a half weeks later, Oprah said she had gained over 10 pounds, and was so embarrassed she didn’t even attend holiday parties out of fear of being seen.

‘I wouldn’t go because I thought I was too fat to go,’ she bluntly recalled.

‘I’d gone from 145 [pounds] on the day of the show and I think I was 157 in the course of like a week and a half or two – and the shame started again,’ the author anguished.

She also candidly revealed another heartbreaking moment, where she landed on the bottom of a worst dressed list in TV Guide, also on the cover with a headline reading: ‘Bumpy, lumpy and downright dumpy.’

‘I was so proud of myself because I’d won the Bob Hope Award and they took the picture from that and it was “bumpy, lumpy and downright dumpy” and it was on the cover of all the magazines,’ she recalled.

Devastatingly, Oprah admitted she got used to people using her weight as a punchline.

‘I accepted that this thing that people have labeled me with: being fat, being overweight, being unable to control my willpower, not having any willpower,’ Oprah recalled.

The author revealed another heartbreaking moment, where she landed on the bottom of a worst dressed list in TV Guide, also on the cover with a headline reading: ”Bumpy, lumpy and downright dumpy’ (pictured) 

The talk show host famously showcased her weight loss in a segment in 1988 where she paraded around a wagon full 67 pounds fat 

‘For 25 years, every single week in one form or another there was a tabloid story or some exploitation of my weight – making fun of my weight was national sport for 25 years,’ she continued morosely.

‘Comedians did it. The best comedians did it, the highest comedians did it – people with their shows did it. It was just accepted that you could make fun of me and my weight.’

When she turned 70 however, Oprah made the decision to not to carry the burden of everyone making fun of her weight with her into the next decade.

She also spoke of the enormous pressure put upon her to not use weight loss drugs before and to prove that she lose weight through diet and exercise. 

‘I was judgmental [about people using weight loss drugs] because I have been so judged,’ the TV mogul admitted.

Oprah admitted she uses medication now to maintain her weight, but won’t disclose which one. She added using medication to aid her weight loss has made her feel ‘liberated.’ 

‘The bottom line is we don’t know what that what the medications do in the long term – but we do know what obesity does in the long term,’ she pointed out.

She continued: ‘Yes, so the damage to your body versus taking the risk of “I’m going to control the weight [and] manage the weight to the best of my ability.”

‘If I had to not use it I wouldn’t, but I feel a sense of liberation about it. I feel a sense of relief in knowing that feeling that I felt when I was sitting there, [eight] pounds heavier than I was a month before knowing that I don’t know what I’m going to do because I cannot hike any higher, I cannot run any faster,’ she pointed out.

Speaking in An Oprah Special: Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution, the 70-year-old fought back tears as she revealed how the drugs had meant she was no longer ‘constantly thinking about what the next meal is going to be’. 

Throughout her decades-long weight-loss journey, Oprah has never shied away from discussing her problems in public. Pictured in 1988 (left) and 1992 (right) 

Along with messages of support online, some viewers slammed Oprah, accusing her of ‘promoting big pharma and pushing Ozempic’ as well as criticizing her for taking the drugs after spending nine years promoting Weight Watchers.

The show was released days after Oprah quit her Weight Watchers board role, citing a potential ‘conflict of interest’ with the show, which heavily featured weight loss drug brands.

The talk show host weighed 237lbs (107.5kg) at her heaviest, she has previously revealed. 

She said undergoing knee surgery in 2021 kickstarted a journey for her to improve her health and live a ‘more vital and vibrant life.’ 

The broadcast icon said she now eats her last meal at 4pm, drinks a gallon of water a day and uses the Weight Watchers principles of counting points, along with regular hikes.

She added that her fitness and health routine are integral to maintaining her weight loss saying: ‘It’s everything. I know everybody thought I was on it, but I worked so damn hard. I know that if I’m not also working out and vigilant about all the other things, it doesn’t work for me.’

She said: ‘I had an awareness of [weight-loss] medications, but felt I had to prove I had the willpower to do it. I now no longer feel that way.’

In the documentary, Oprah will also interview people who have used popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, as well as professionals with experience in the field.