Oprah Winfrey ‘gained 20lbs’ during break from weight loss jabs

Oprah Winfrey regained a stone-and-a-half when she stopped taking weight loss medication last year. 

The US broadcaster, who turns 72 at the end of the month, had famously struggled with her weight for her entire life until 2023 when she began taking an undisclosed GLP-1. 

She was inspired to take the medication, which reduces appetite by working on hunger hormones and silencing ‘food noise’, after seeing a documentary which positioned obesity as a disease rather than a lifestyle failure. 

At her heaviest, she weighed 237lbs (16.9 stone/107kg) but after taking the medicine she lost around 50lbs (3.5 stone/23kg). 

However, speaking on US TV programme The Today Show yesterday, Oprah revealed that when she stopped taking the medication last year, the weight began to creep back on – and she regained nearly half. 

She said: ‘I was off of the medications all last year, and I gained 20 pounds because I wanted to test it. 

‘Because everybody was saying, “you’re going to gain the weight”…. I’m going to show them.. I’m going to hike.

‘And then I was taking it, then I got off of it, and then I gained three pounds, and I gained five pounds, and I gained 10 pounds, and before you know it, the (food) noise was back.’ 

Oprah revealed in 2023 that she started taking a GLP-1 agonist, a class of drugs that includes Ozempic, Mounjaro and Wegovy, as a ‘maintenance tool’ for her weight, along with diet and exercise changes.

While she never said which GLP-1 she used, she has credited the drug for helping her lose at least 40 pounds since starting the weekly jabs, because it calms her ‘food noise, or constant, intrusive thoughts about eating.’ 

She has also revealed that since taking a GLP-1, she has also stopped drinking alcohol, and the medication also inspired her to work out almost every day as it has given her a more positive outlook about food and her weight. 

In the new interview, which is promoting her latest book, Oprah describes food noise as ‘when you’re just standing there, looking at the refrigerator and [thinking] “what can I eat? What can I eat?”‘

She also said that during her time off of GLP-1s, she was ‘trying to eat more healthily, but still put the weight back on.’ 

The experience has made Oprah even more convinced that obesity medications are just as vital for controlling the condition as blood pressure drugs. 

She said: ‘If you’re on blood pressure medication, if you stop your blood pressure medication, your blood pressure is going to go up. The same thing is true.’ 

Oprah has shared her weight-loss journey in a new book which has been co-written with obesity expert Dr. Ania M. Jastreboff, Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It’s Like to Be Free. 

In extracts taken from the book she muses on the shame she felt at being unable to lose weight, or keep it off. 

She writes: ‘I’ve always been confident in whatever I was doing, but I was at the same time disappointed in my overweight body. 

‘Was I embarrassed by it? Yes. Was I disappointed in myself for continuing to fail? Yes, every single time. I felt it was my fault.’

She adds that her situation ‘felt doubly shameful because I have access to so much: chefs and trainers and the healthiest of foods.’ 

‘I was not healthy at 211 lbs. A lot of people tell me they can be overweight and healthy. I was not. I was pre-diabetic, and my cholesterol numbers were high.’ 

Oprah’s sharing her rapid regain experience comes just days after a major medical review advised that people taking ‘fat jabs’ will need to stay on them for life in order to reap their benefits – and keep the weight off. 

A landmark study found most users regain the weight inside two years of stopping treatment, much faster than traditional dieters.

The injections, including now-household names such as Mounjaro and Wegovy, have been hailed as a breakthrough in obesity treatment.

But a major Oxford review suggests the benefits may be short-lived once treatment ends.

In the first analysis of its kind, examining 37 studies involving more than 9,300 people, researchers found that when the jabs are stopped, weight returns rapidly – regardless of how much was lost.

On average, users gained around a pound a month after quitting, with many projected to have regained much of or all the weight lost by between 17 and 20 months.