The 71-year-old has been taking a GLP-1 (we don’t know which one) since 2023 to lose weight, and says the change in her mental and physical health has been profound. On her podcast, she says she feels “more vibrant, strong and alive” than she has in years.
However, after taking a break from the weight loss jab to "test" and see what would happen, the presenter said she was shocked by how quickly she gained weight back. "I wanted to test it because everyone was saying, ‘you’re going to gain the weight, gain the weight’. And I was like, ‘I’m going to show them I’m not going to gain the weight’,” she told Today hosts Jenna Bush Hager and Sheinelle Jones.
Despite her regular hiking habit and eating healthily, Oprah says she gained 20 pounds. “I was taking it, and then I got off it, and then I gained three pounds, and I gained five pounds, and I gained 10 pounds. And before you know it…,” she explains.
Earlier this month, data published in the British Medical Journal showed that people who come off GLP-1s can regain weight four times faster than those who only diet and exercise to lose weight and then stop.
Oprah reveals that her food noise also returned when she stopped the medication. “The noise of when you’re just standing there looking at the refrigerator and ‘What can I eat? What can I eat?’”, she explains. “I was trying to eat more healthily, but I still put the weight back on.”
The presenter and producer is now back on the GLP-1, which she compared to blood pressure medication. “If you stop your blood pressure medication, your blood pressure is going to go up. The same thing is true with weight loss medication,” she said.
Oprah has been very honest about how her weight has affected her career and mental health over the years, but she says the moment she took her first dose of a GLP-1, the food noise subsided. She thought, “What the living hell is going on here?” She had always just assumed everyone else had stronger willpower than her when it came to keeping to a healthy weight. On her podcast, she says she now feels “liberated and has a sense of freedom” that she never had before.
In an interview with the US channel CBS, she says she could cry thinking back to the “days and nights” she journaled about how being overweight was her fault and “Why can’t I conquer this thing?”
She has shared the experience in a new book, written in collaboration with Dr Ania Jastreboff from the Yale School of Medicine, called Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It’s Like To Be Free. The pair explore the issues of obesity, willpower and how everyone’s struggle with their weight is different.
It’s estimated that around 1.5 million people in the UK are on weight loss medication, with many buying drugs like Mounjaro or Wegovy privately. While the drugs can cause rapid weight loss - up to 20% in some cases - many people, like Oprah, are left shocked by the speed of their weight gain when they come off them.
Experts are calling for more support and guidance on healthy eating, physical activity, and other medical issues for those looking to stop taking drugs like Mounjaro and WeGovy.
“If a patient is effectively counselled and has implemented lifestyle changes, so they learn to eat and drink healthily, exercise effectively, and control the volume of food they consume before they come off of their medication, they should then be able to monitor their weight, and their weight should remain steady,” Dr Sindy Newman, a weight management expert, preventative medicine specialist, and founder of Diet UK, previously told woman&home.
