Addressing rumors about her newly svelte frame, Oprah Winfrey says weight-loss medication has been an effective “maintenance tool.”
Oprah Winfrey is “done with” being shamed — about her weight or her weight loss.
The media mogul has been the focus of significant buzz in recent weeks, as she has shown off a significantly slimmer physique during the press tour for “The Color Purple” musical film, which she co-produced.
“Obesity is a disease,” she added. “It’s not about willpower — it’s about the brain.”
Winfrey wasn’t only blaming herself but absorbing recriminations about her fluctuating weight, which often played out in the public eye.
“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.”
“I was on the cover of some magazine, and it said, ‘Dumpy, Frumpy and Downright Lumpy,’ ” said Winfrey, recalling an appearance on late fashion critic Mr. Blackwell’s infamous list. “I didn’t feel angry. I felt sad. I felt hurt. I swallowed the shame. I accepted that it was my fault.”
As she approaches her 70th birthday in January, what Winfrey won’t do is continue being shamed for doing what she needs to feel her best.
“The fact that there’s a medically approved prescription for managing weight and staying healthier, in my lifetime, feels like relief, like redemption, like a gift, and not something to hide behind and once again be ridiculed for,” she said. “I’m absolutely done with the shaming from other people and particularly myself.”
As for the role the medication now plays in her maintaining her weight, she said, “I now use it as I feel I need it, as a tool to manage not yo-yo-ing.”
That includes navigating the over-indulgence that often accompanies the holidays. Winfrey says the medication was helpful to take prior to Thanksgiving “because I knew I was going to have two solid weeks of eating … instead of gaining eight pounds like I did last year, I gained half a pound.”
“It quiets the food noise,” she added.
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