*Oprah Winfrey is opening up about her complicated relationship with GLP-1 weight loss medication and the lessons she learned after briefly walking away from it.
In a new PEOPLE cover story, Winfrey says she was nervous about publicly admitting she was taking the drug, describing herself as “shaking” before sharing her experience in 2023.
“I knew that admitting to being on medication was going to be a big freaking deal,” Winfrey said. “I knew I was going to get lots of push back. And I did.” At the time, she described the drugs as “a gift,” but her perspective shifted months later when she decided to stop taking them.
Winfrey says she quit the injections abruptly on her 70th birthday in January 2024. “I tried to beat the medication,” she explained, motivated by a desire to see whether she could maintain the weight loss on her own. That decision came despite an earlier realization during a July 2023 obesity panel, when she said, “I came to understand that overeating doesn’t cause obesity. Obesity causes overeating.”
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After stopping the medication, Winfrey maintained healthy eating and exercise habits, hoping the science might be wrong. “Everybody was saying if you get off the medication, you’re going to immediately put the weight back on,” she recalled. While the weight didn’t return right away, she gained 20 pounds over the following year.
That experience led to a turning point. “It’s going to be a lifetime thing,” Winfrey said, comparing GLP-1s to blood pressure medication. “I’m on high blood pressure medication, and if I go off the high blood pressure medication, my blood pressure is going to go up. The same thing is true now, I realize, with these medications. I’ve proven to myself I need it.”
She later resumed treatment and now understands her body’s tendency to return to what experts call an “Enough Point.”
Winfrey says she no longer feels shame about needing medical support. “No more shame,” she said. “Let the people say what they will.”
Her new book, “Enough: Your Health, Your Weight and What It’s Like to Be Free,” will be released Jan. 13.
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