Oprah Winfrey is not immune to having her weight scrutinized publicly. But the media mogul isn’t shying away from using her platform to shed light on uncomfortable conversations.
In an exclusive clip from her “The State of Weight” panel conversation, Winfrey reveals the impact of being “shamed in the tabloids” for her weight and “the difference between mindset and willpower” when it comes to someone’s personal weight loss journey.
“The State of Weight,” part of Oprah Daily’s “The Life You Want” series, aims to help reframe and destigmatize the conversations surrounding obesity and will also explore the safety and efficacy of new weight loss drugs, such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.
“This is a world that has shamed people for being overweight forever, and all of us who have lived it know that people treat you differently, they just do,” Winfrey says in a clip of the first installment shared exclusively with USA TODAY. “And I’m Oprah Winfrey, and I know all that comes with that, but I get treated differently if I’m 200-plus pounds versus under 200 pounds.”
Winfrey will be in conversation with WeightWatchers CEO Sima Sistani, obesity specialists Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford and Dr. Melanie Jay and psychologist Dr. Rachel Goldman, to discuss obesity and weight issues affecting 2 billion adults globally.
“I don’t know that there is another public person whose weight struggles have been exploited as much as mine,” Winfrey says in the trailer for the series, which launches its next installment Wednesday (streaming on Oprah Daily’s website beginning at 4 p.m. EDT).
“One of the things that I’ve shamed myself about and was ashamed in the tabloids every week about for 25 years is not having the willpower,” she says. “There is a distinction between mindset, which we’re now hearing. … The brain tells you a certain thing about how you process food versus the willpower.”
“It hurts to see you ostracised in the way that you’ve been,” Stanford, an associate professor at Harvard, tells Winfrey. “Because this isn’t about willpower … It’s how our bodies regulate weight. Each of us is different, each of us is unique.”
More:Jimmy Kimmel joked about Ozempic at the Oscars. We need to actually talk about it.
How does Ozempic work for weight loss?
Ozempic is the brand name of semaglutide, just one of many in a drug class known as incretins.
“Semaglutide (Ozempic or Wegovy) sends signals to the appetite center in your brain to reduce hunger and increase fullness,” according to Dr. Deborah Horn, an associate professor in the Department of Surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. “This helps you feel full with smaller meals and decreases the need for snacks … Wegovy decreases what we call ‘food noise’ so that we aren’t thinking about food as much or using food to try and solve other problems.”
In June 2021, the Food and Drug Administration approved the semaglutide – under the brand name Wegovy – as a treatment for chronic obesity. Since then, interest in the drug, which requires weekly injections, has skyrocketed.
Contributing: Delaney Nothaft
Ozempic face?Don’t use the term. It’s offensive and unhelpful.
More:You’ve heard of Ozempic, but do you understand how it works?
