by Oprah Winfrey has taken to the airwaves again to talk about her experiences with weight loss, this time focusing on how medications like Wegovy and Zepbound can transform the lives of the obese.
During the one-hour ABC broadcast, The Oprah Special: Shame, Blame, and the Weight Loss Revolution, the media mogul highlighted how stigma shaped her struggle with weight and how medication changed not only her body size, but also her understanding of what causes obesity and what to do about it. She did not say what medication she takes, but the special highlighted newer weight loss drugs such as Wegovy and Zepbound.
“In my entire life, I never imagined that we would be talking about medication that gives hope to people like me who have struggled for years with being overweight or obese,” Winfrey said during the special, which is on available now on Hulu.
RELATED: Daily Health Survey and Special Report: Reframing Weight Loss
“So I come to this conversation in the hope that we can start to let go of the stigma and the shame and the judgment … stop shaming other people for being overweight or how they’ve chosen to losing weight and not losing weight,” Winfrey said. “And most importantly, stop embarrassing ourselves.”
Here are some takeaways from the special, including tips from Oprah and several medical experts who joined her for the weight loss conversation.
It’s time to let go of the Shame of Obesity
One message came through loud and clear: Shame solves nothing.
During the special, Winfrey recalled how she thought about herself and her body, and how weight loss medication helped her move away from those negative thoughts.
“There’s a sense of hope now, number one, and number two, you don’t blame yourself anymore,” she said of her experience with weight loss drugs. I’m smart enough to figure this out,’ and then to hear all the time, you’re fighting with your brain.”
Crash Essays Don’t Really Help In The Long Run
In the past, Oprah has said that she thought of dieting and weight loss as an exercise in willpower.
She recalled what was seen as a victory over obesity earlier in her career – the day in the late 1980s when she brought out a fat wagon on her talk show to represent her weight loss efforts “successfully wild” – because she “starved” herself for five months.
“After losing 67 pounds on a liquid diet, the next day, the next day, I started to gain back,” Winfrey said.
New Medicines Can Silence ‘Food Noise’
Some people have a name for obsessive thoughts about what they eat: food obsession. In summary, eating noise is intrusive thoughts about eating that can contribute to disordered eating.
Oprah, looking back on her previous struggles with her weight, said that food noise could be involved. Medication helped quiet that noise, she said.
“For those who think this could be the relief and the support and the freedom that you’ve been looking for all your life, bless you, because there’s room for all perspectives,” she says of people. who thinks that medication may help with silence. their own internal monologues about food.
Food Tracking Is Not Always Enough to Achieve Long-Term Weight Loss
During the special, Winfrey, who left the WW (Wight Watchers) board last month after a decade promoting the brand, said she had invited Sima Sistani, chief executive of WW International, to join her. on stage to tackle a very tough topic: why some people succeed in weight loss and others don’t. Sistani described why WW now includes weight loss medications in addition to its longstanding support for lifestyle changes.
“We are the largest clinically tested, evidence-based, scientifically supported behavior change program, but we were missing the third pin, which was biology,” Sistani said. “Someone might need medication because they have that biological basis, and what was so important to us was to provide that care and help people release the shame.”
Echoing Oprah’s message throughout the special, Sistani also acknowledged that diets alone are not enough for people to manage their weight.
“For all those people who came side by side and accepted the change of behavior, some of them walked out without success,” Sistani said. “And to those people I want to say, it’s not your fault.”
Weight Management Is Not For Everyone
Oprah was also joined by two physicians for the special, W. Scott Butsch, MD, the director of obesity medicine at the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and Amanda Velazquez, MD, the director of obesity medicine at Cedars-Sinai in . City of Angels. Both have financial ties to companies that make weight loss drugs, and have talked about how these drugs can address the biological underpinnings of obesity.
“There is a spectrum of obesity; it’s not just one disease, it’s many different subtypes of disease,” says Dr. Butsch. Without recognizing this, it is easier to believe the false idea that people with obesity have made poor choices that have failed to control their weight with good eating and exercise habits.
“This is just an expression of someone’s uneducated belief that this is a suicidal condition, as if obese people wish they were obese,” Butsch added. “That these people are weaker who have no willpower and are not able to cut it and people who are thin that have willpower and are able to cut it.”
Losing Weight Is Definitely Not About Willpower
After years of thinking that gaining weight and losing weight, Oprah now has a new perspective. Armed with that knowledge, she said she has found a new way to combat the shame and stigma that can come with being obese or taking weight loss medication to treat the condition. .
“All these years, I thought that all the people who never had to go on a diet were using their willpower and were somehow stronger than me,” Winfrey said.
“But I realize now that you weren’t even thinking about the food,” Oprah said. “It’s not that you had the will power. You weren’t even thinking about it. You weren’t obsessed about it.”
